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Suffering: It's all about motivation
By Adam Mills, M.S.Ed., CTS Senior Coach
Jun 15, 2006, 17:21
At its
core, the difference between finishing first and finishing at all comes down to
who’s got a better handle on suffering. Coaches use a variety of different names
for this condition--“will to win,” “giving your all,” “staying focused”--but all
of them connect back to an athlete’s ability to endure more pain and fear than
their competition. If you’ve ever competed, you know this feeling all too well.
Your heart is pounding through your chest. Your lungs feel as if they are on
fire from deep within. Your field of vision narrows down to the painted stripe
of the finish line which you push for with every fiber in your being.
But even
if you’re a well-conditioned athlete, you may wonder why is it that you’re never
able to stay with the last break or stay in the mix for the final sprint. And
you may be asking yourself, “What drives these other guys to perform superhuman
feats in the face of the same utter exhaustion that I’m dealing with? And how
can I tap into it?”
The simple answer comes
down to an individual’s motivation to
succeed. When properly motivated, even an average athlete is capable of an
extraordinary performance. So why do elite athletes enjoy more of those
mind-boggling successes? These riders seem to turn corners faster, accelerate
quicker, ride through the gutter if necessary, and always have a knack for being
in the winning breakaway. Well, to start, elite athletes are usually trying to
make a career of their sport, and a good result means they’ll earn money for
food and rent. Now stop and think about what that means: How much would you lay
on the line if winning meant you could eat dinner that night?
Factors of
Motivation
If you
want to get scientific on the subject of motivation and how it overrides
suffering, it boils down to three elements: personal background, the environment
around you, and the situation at hand (race, club ride, or some other
challenge).
Personal
Factors
Motivation starts with
self-confidence, which begins with an athlete’s internal dialogue. Research
shows that elite athletes maintain a positive outlook longer under adverse
conditions, while amateurs start thinking negatively sooner and with more
frequency. It’s imperative that your internal dialogue stay positive no matter
what the situation.
Another personal factor is a
quality training plan designed to optimally prepare you for competition. If you
train properly, you’ll know you’re
physically prepared to perform at the highest level. The morale boost from that
knowledge will form a reservoir of mental toughness that you can draw on to
motivate you to continue.
Let
me tell you about a good friend of mine from Kansas who raced in the 2006 Amgen Tour of California. As a
professional bike racer from the Midwest
preparing for a multi-day stage race, he could’ve freaked out about competing
against some of the best riders in the world. But by turning inward and
concentrating on his fitness, skills, and experience, he realization that this
race was not about what the other riders were going to do to him, but what he
was going to do in the race. This faith allowed him to race to his fullest
potential.
Environmental
Factors
The
next time your teeth are chattering during a ride through the cold rains of
spring remember this: Research has shown that environmental stress, primarily
the weather, which affects everyone around you, tends to impact your brain
before it starts actually messing with your body’s physical condition.
When that first raindrop hits your
face, do you think about how much the rest of this ride is going to suck, or do
you realize that a bone-chilling downpour is the perfect opportunity to throw
down the hammer and put the hurt on the pack? How you react determines how much
suffering you’re willing to endure.
Situational
Factors
For
the specific sport of cycling, this refers to your capacity to handle various
tactical situations as they appear. By the sheer volume of their competitive
experience, elite athletes posses a greater base of knowledge they can draw from
to help them overcome a tactical move that may look to you like a recipe for a
sufferfest. They’ve learned that holding on to the last breakaway won’t kill
them. By adding to your bank of experience, you too will learn the same
knowledge.
The Feedback Loop
Throw all these factors
together and you’ve got the formula for enduring when others crack. The cool
thing about motivation is that, if it stays strong, it creates a positive
feedback loop which turns motivation into resolve and makes the pain and
suffering easier to tolerate.
A perfect example of
this feedback loop occurred with Jed Schneider from the University of Kansas, who was riding to a second place in the
2001 Collegiate National
Road Race Championship in Colorado Springs. He rode
the final lap of the course within eyesight of the eventual first place
finisher. Thanks to the positive feedback from sticking close to the man ahead,
Jed was continuously motivated to ride at his absolute best—and suffer
mightily—to try and close the gap. A podium finish was his reward.
Adam Mills is a Senior
Coach with Carmichael Training Systems, Inc. (CTS) and an experienced competitor
in national-level road, mountain, and cyclocross races. To find out what CTS can
do for you, visit www.trainright.com.
