I recently listened to a Velonews FastTalk podcast about the ‘problems with training zones’, and why many of the world’s leading exercise physiologists and coaches still disagree on what is portrayed to be a fairly exact science. The podcast’s guests – some of the masters of power-based training data, including Dr. Andy Coggan – dove into the physiology behind training zones, and what each zone actually means for the athlete. They discuss terms such as “VO2 Max”, “functional threshold power”, and “carbohydrate substrate utilization”. While this podcast episode was excellent, I think it flies straight over the head of most athletes and some coaches, when it comes to interpreting this data and applying it to themselves.
One of my key takeaways from the episode was this: Every athlete is different.
It sounds obvious, but it’s easy to forget. When uploading files and plugging in power numbers to software such as TrainingPeaks, it’s easy to see how one athlete differs from another – Steve rode at 280 W for an hour. Chris rode at 250 W for an hour. Therefore, Steve is stronger. But that doesn’t take into consideration everything else that is crucial to both training and racing performance.
As a coach, I practice understanding my athletes’ lives, not just their power output. What was their heart rate during the effort? What was their RPE? Did they use caffeine for this workout? Was this workout indoors or outdoors, and how might that affect their performance? – These are just a number of factors that I use to “analyze” my athletes’ training and racing data. (I dislike the term ‘analyze’ because it makes us all sound like robots).
Every athlete is unique – as the (slightly modified) saying goes: One man’s strength is another man’s weakness.
When it comes to racing, some results are obvious. A pure climber is unlikely to beat a track sprinter in a flat, 4-corner crit that comes down to a field sprint. But when the tables turn, that same track sprinter has no chance against a pure climber on a mountaintop finish.
But some strengths are less obvious; emotions, for example.
Self-talk is different for everyone. It is the practice of having an internal conversation with yourself, be it during a hard workout or race, a stressful event, or in everyday life. Positive self-talk is generally regarded as best-practice for athletes: I can do this. I’ve practiced this for hours in the gym; the hard work is about to pay off. I am strong, I am fast, and I can win this race. But positive self-talk doesn’t work for everyone.
While negative self-talk is almost always bad (I can’t do this. There’s no way, it’s impossible. I’m too tired, too weak. And no one wants me on their team because I suck), emotional self-talk can take on many different forms, and work for a lot of different people.
Anger (in the imagined voice of a drill sergeant): What are you doing maggot?! Are you just gonna let them ride away from you like that?? Do you want to quit? Is that what you want to do?! Are you gonna go crying home to your mommy, or are you gonna get up off the floor and show me what your made of!
Fear of Failure: I’ve put so much work into this. My friends and family have too. They’ve helped me out in so many ways, so many times. I can’t give up now; they believe in me, but first, I need to believe in myself.
Happiness (I’ll be honest, this one doesn’t work for me. But for people who like ‘good vibes’ and ‘just chillin’, this might be for you): I’m so grateful to be here right now. My legs hurt, but that’s not really suffering. Look at the beautiful flowers, hear the birds chirping. It’s just all so beautiful man…I don’t even feel the pain because I’m so distracted by Mother Nature’s beauty.
(Bonus) Monetary Needs: Well, I don’t have enough money to buy gas for the drive home, so I really need to win this race… And if I want something to eat, I should probably win that prime too.
Through our own self-talk, we can discover and develop strategies that work best for us. When the going gets tough, what are you saying to yourself? I you angry, happy, grateful, or something else entirely? Are you so ‘in the zone’ that your mind has gone blank?
Athletes are individuals, and self-talk works differently for everyone. In the end, I think it’s important to understand the power that self-talk has, not only to our performance, but to our psychological well-being.