“But I Just Want A Rest!”

By: Kirsten van Heerden // Clinical & Sports Psychologist

How to regroup and refocus after a big race.

So the Cape Epic is over and you wake up the next morning and enjoy the feeling of being tired and sore and knowing that it was a job well done – you finished one of the toughest cycling races!  Now how do you go about gathering your everyday life back together again and get through those exhausting cadence classes or long hours in the saddle on training rides once again?

I owe a lot in this article to Terry Orlick  - an internationally renowned Canadian Sports Psychologist – as he has researched and written about ‘winning after winning’. He and his team were interested in what happened to those athletes that did very well, for example winning Olympic gold, after the event had taken place; in other words what happened to them over the next few months and years after this major event. They found three groups of people:

1. Those that continued to perform well
2. Those that dropped away for a time and then got back to performing well
3. Those that dropped away and did not ever perform well again.

What do you think is the difference between the groups? Well here is what they found: The main differences in the group were Goal Setting and Focus. As we know these two mental skills are linked and not called foundational mental skills for nothing!

The group that continued to perform well immediately after the event sat down and reevaluated their goals, setting new ones as needed. This helped them to create a plan of action that gave them a reason to get up and go training again. Their goals were focused on the process and controllable factors - they got back to basics.

This leads on to Focus. Those athletes that dropped away for a while and either came back or didn’t return to the same level again, all started to focus on the outcomes of the next event and the expectations of others regarding their performance. As you should know by now, this type of thinking derails performance by making us nervous and increasing pressure. The athletes that continued to perform well remained focused on what they needed to do in order to compete well at the next event. Importantly these athletes also thought about why they were continuing with their sport, and they all came to the same conclusion – they loved it! It is this love of your sport that creates the intrinsic motivation to continue when things get tough or we feel disheartened after a poor performance or just need that something extra to keep us going.

What does this mean for all of you though?  When you prepare for a big event it is almost like living in a ‘mountain biker bubble’ for a few months before the event - we can become consumed with the event. We have, I am sure, all had that somewhat anti-climatic feeling the next day after a major race – we come back to reality with a bump.

Some would have performed well during the Cape Epic and others might be disappointed with their performance (although I think they all deserve a medal for competing and completing the race!); regardless of how you have done, after a big event it is really it is important to recognise that you need to regroup and refocus in order to keep performing well through out the rest of the year:

1. Think about why you ride and what you love about it. Remind yourself of these things every day.
2. Spend time evaluating your race and preparation plans from before and making the adjustments needed for the next few months. You don’t have to radically change things, but use the race as a source of great information regarding the effectiveness of your training and preparation. Know why you did or didn’t do well and this will help guide your training and race goals.
3. It is crucial to reset goals to help get you out of bed and onto the bike in these cold winter mornings. Do this as soon as you can! Or, if you have set goals for the rest of the year already, take them out, look over them and get excited again by the challenges you have set yourself. 

As Eleanor Roosevelt said – “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams”.  Use this time after the Cape Epic to dream big again and seek out the challenges you so love in mountain biking.

Kirsten Van Heerden // BSc [Hons] MA Clinical Psychology
Clinical & Sport Psychology
Practice no. 0264830
T: 031 303 3874/5 • E: kirsten.vanheerden@gmail.com