Are You Mentally Prepared?

You've trained hard, you feel fit and you’re ready for your race …. but race day comes and things don’t go as planned!

Maybe you fell off the wet monkey bars and had to do burpees, then you missed your spear and simply could not get yourself mentally back into the race!

What happened? Did you prepare mentally?

Most athletes don’t realize just how important the mental aspect of sport is, they prepare physically but not mentally. Often, they think they are mentally strong, but did you actually train for the race mentally?

Did you rehearse in your mind what you would do and how you would react if you missed an obstacle, if your legs felt flat, and/or had to do burpees?

Before I fell in love with obstacle racing, I was a professional triathlete for 10 years. I specialized in the Ironman (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run).

The Ironman event takes many hours to complete and you have to stay mentally strong throughout for somewhere between 8-17 hours (17 hours is the time cut off).

After doing 37 Ironmans and thousands of hours training the mental game was something I had lots of practice with.

When someone would ask what my strength was, the swim the bike or the run I would respond “the mental aspect”

I found that many athletes were intrigued with my answer. So much so that I decided to write a book on the mental and emotional side of sport. Although written from a triathlon perspective, my book TriathleteEQ has allowed me the unique opportunity to teach and share these mental strategies and lessons with coaches and athletes from a vast array of sports.

These principles work for any sport and for LIFE.

Believe in yourself!!

How you perform is greatly impacted by what you think and feel.

Do you talk to yourself like a positive coach, or a negative critic on a regular basis?

Preparing yourself mentally, and feeding yourself with positivity is the key to success in racing and in life.

I find that people are motivated to train but they lack the belief in their own abilities. Having a well-versed Coach who can blend, training, nutrition, mental strategies and racing together into a winning plan can be a great asset.

I love getting the opportunity to help my athletes achieve success and reach their athletic goals. Maybe it’s time you take the next step. If you’re interested in joining our OCR Team (sponsored by VJ shoes) send me a message through IG at Athlete_Heather_Gollnick or visit heathergollnick.us

Train hard, train your mind and I’ll see you at the races!!

-Heather Gollnick @Athlete_Heather_Gollnick