Training the Competitor Within: Mental Training for Endurance Athletes

When racing an endurance event like a triathlon, duathlon, bicycling race, marathon or adventure race, you need to have the fitness to cover the distance, but being fit isn’t enough to get you to the finish line. As much as they are a physical test, endurance sports are a mental challenge as well, as you may experience discomfort, obstacles, disappointment, loneliness and even darkness during your training and racing.

As you strive to improve your performance, strong mental skills like visualization, concentration and maintaining a positive attitude become even more critical for success. In fact, when the physical, technical and mental readiness of Olympic athletes was assessed, only mental readiness significantly predicted performance.

In essence, endurance sports are a personal challenge for your “competitor within.”

Congratulations for taking on this challenge!

The chapters in this eBook (.pdf format) are organized to follow your year from pre-season to competition to post season. Of course, it’s never too late to introduce any of the skills and exercises presented here into your training regime at any point of time.

Now all you need to supply is the motivation and the desire to look closely within yourself.