This question seems so simple, yet the power behind the practice of it is wildly impactful.

When you find yourself in the thick of a tough training session or in the back half of a tough race, what is going through your mind? Thoughts about your ability to suffer and persevere or thoughts about your desire to quit and coast it in?

Are you conscious and deliberate with what you’re thinking?

If you’re like me and most people I coach, our brains immediately go to the negative…to thoughts like:

“I’m not strong enough”

“I can’t do this”

or my personal favorite…

“Just quit, it’ll be over with so quickly”

And the reason thoughts like this show up in those exact moments is because that’s what our brains were evolved to do! Keep us in comfort and out of danger. And news flash: your brain thinks a tough bike interval set or racing a IM 70.3 is very dangerous and that you might die if you experience discomfort for long enough.

What we have to train our brains to know is this: we are conscious of the discomfort (physical and mental) and we’re choosing it on purpose. Because that’s how we progress as athletes. It takes deliberate practice, in training and racing.

Training your brain starts with answering these questions:

What do you want to achieve? Why?

How do you need to feel in order to achieve this?

What do you need to believe in order to achieve this?

Whatever your answers are to the above questions become the narrative you tell yourself on the regular. No fluff, no added drama. Just conscious, deliberate and to the point. Our brains needs this direction. If you let it wander off on it’s own, it’s like a child loose in a candy shop.

You must talk to yourself more than you listen to yourself.

You must be intentional.

Practice this at your next tough training session and notice any difference in how you show up and/or complete the session.