Psychology of endurance sports - adaptation
Every athlete goes into an event with a strategy. That’s their ideal sequence of actions that will lead them to the finish line. Most of the time, there will be something in their way that will put that plan in jeopardy on force the athlete to change it altogether.
Many athletes struggle with these situations and it’s always the ones that can quickly change their strategy that come out on top.
Today, we will discuss adaptation and how it can help you make the most out of a tricky situation.
Adaptation
Some strategies are simple as “I’ll start out slow, manage my nutrition and build up from there” while others can be quite complex “I have to stay in the lead group for the first part and then I can start the attack”.
In one of those scenarios, the athlete seems to have full control over the situation while in the other, they have to think about their opponents as well. What they have in common is that they are still in the realm of controllable situations. The time when it gets tricky is when uncontrollable situations arise.
The weather can take a turn for the worse, you can have an equipment malfunction, cramps and digestion problems can slow and athlete down. In all of those cases, it’s how they react that will make a difference.
Endurance sport is as much a mind sport as it a physical one. Athletes have to sustain a certain level of stress for a prolonged period of time and if things get bad, only the athlete can fix it.
“...I put Ironman in that category of the mind sports because you have to control yourself for eight hours - you can’t go flat out the whole time. It’s basically a thinking man’s sport.”
Endurance sport in a nutshell is a constant sequence of compromises where the athlete is always looking for the best solution for a given situation. Sometimes it’s best to hold back while other times attacking and going fast is key.
If the athlete has trained well, they should tap into their confidence and trust that they are able to overcome every situation.
A, B, C…
Every race starts with plan ‘A’. It’s the happy path that leads to the most straightforward way to the finish line. There are a few contingency plans for some smaller situations but it’s nothing that should make an athlete think twice.
If a bigger situation comes up and plan ‘A’ no longer works, it’s time for plan ‘B’.
Now the athlete has to spend more energy in resolving a problem than before which can affect their performance but once the situation has been overcome they can still move back to plan ‘A’.
A situation for plan ‘B’ to kick in might be a mechanical problem where an athlete has to stop and fix it. Now they are behind the group they were part of just before and once they fix the problem, they have to push harder to catch up. It can be tricky and they will burn a few more matches than planned but once they are back with the group, they can try settling into a rhythm and recover as much as possible and work on their plan ‘A’ again.
“You know that you’re opening Pandora’s Box on race day, so you need to always be comfortable with a changing dynamic situation.”
Adaptation comes down to controlling everything that an athlete can control, maintaining a positive attitude, and then simply grinding it out when the time comes.
Of course, bad days can, and will, happen. it’s these moments where the athlete has to make calculated decisions to turn a bad day into an acceptable one. If they can do that, they will know that they are the ones controlling their mind and body and at this moment the sky becomes the limit.
