Visualize your best race

Visualizing your upcoming race, or even individual training sessions is an extremely important part of improving your personal performance. A lot of people make this part of their race week routine, but if you can make it part of your daily routine you’ll reap the rewards.

We tend to visualize at two distinct times: 1) During a training session, 2) In a quiet place with our eyes closed. For the former, imagining yourself in your race situation, or performing like a world class athlete can help you improve the overall quality of your training session and kick the effort level up a notch as needed. The most important thing is to keep the mental imagery positive – run strong up the hill just like you will in the race, ride the next lonely 10k like your are passing your competitors on the bike, do those repetitive laps like you are swimming strong within a group of 2000 people. Pretend you are your Ironman idol.

2) Before bed or early in the morning can be good times to practice static mental imagery. You can run over the focus of your days workouts, imagine making the split times you’ve set, having brilliant run form or going smoothly through a race transition. The key with this type of imagery is to engage as many senses as possible and to see images crisply in the first person (don’t just watch yourself doing the activities). Imagine the feel of the water, the sound of you race wheels, the smell of the wind rushing past your face. It takes practice to focus clearly for an extended period of time and this practice can help you keep your focus on race day. Be sure to run through scenarios other than perfect race, but imagine yourself dealing well with adversity and turning negative thoughts around. E.x. my legs ache but this doesn’t mean I suck and need to slow down it means I am performing well and my body is letting me know that I am pushing myself as hard as I need to to reach my goal.