Words of Wisdom from Lisa Bentley
Oct. 9, 2007 -- Yesterday as we wound down our Ironman Camp, Lisa Bentley was gracious enough to speak to the group. One of the great things about Lisa is her candour in sharing her experiences and emotions about her racing career. While it’s easy to put accomplished athletes on a pedestal and figure they must be super human to achieve what they do, it is refreshing to hear about some of the struggles and mental barriers she goes through on race day, just like everyone else.
Lisa is a dynamic speaker and I have been fortunate enough to coach her for nine years and eleven Ironman wins. As she spoke, she reflected on many of the topics we have worked on over the years. One was the idea of self talk. That is the conversation you have with yourself out there on race day.
I often will use the analogy that if, as your coach, I said to you during the race, “boy you look sluggish and heavy out there, you are really not having a good day, and besides, you are never good in the heat,” you probably would be looking for a new coach pretty darn quick! Yet it is easy to have those kinds of conversations with yourself when you under a lot of physical stress and fatigue. Your mental preparation needs to include thinking about how you will “coach” yourself throughout the day. Or, as Lisa put it, when you are racing, you need to be able to cheer for yourself and be your own biggest fan.
I met with one of my pro athletes today, Linsey Corbin from Montana, to discuss the race this weekend. We discussed a concept that seems simple yet is often hard to grasp on race day - the idea that you can race with low mental stress and be in a place of calm and happiness even while the body is under a lot of physical stress. It’s pretty easy at a big race to worry about how you will do, who else is racing, what the conditions will be, or how hard it will be, etc. There are a lot of variables you can’t control. One thing you can always control is how you decide to react to whatever stimuli has been thrown your way. It’s easy to have a good day when the body feels good, but when I think about Mark Allen and Michellie Jones, champions who won many races over a lot of years, my guess is they didn’t always feel great out there. However, they kept themselves in the game by maximizing what they could do at any given moment and not becoming mired in worry.
So, I am going to hypothesize that the champions on the weekend will be the athletes who can combine great physical days with doing a world class job of managing their self talk. They will constantly look for reasons (other than just physical) that they might be successful on race day.
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LifeSport coach Lance Watson is in Kona as the Official Coach of Ironman. He has coached 16 Ironman wins. To learn more about LifeSport or to start on a great coaching journey, contact Coach@LifeSport.ca, or visit www.LifeSport.ca