Mental Toughness

I went for my usual Sunday morning skate at Hamilton Beaches yesterday and we had a surpringly large group of skater showed up considering that there was another road skate trip happening at the same time. As soon as we were ready to skate, the guys all took off quickly. I considered skating with KN, JS, BY, ML, and MJC but quickly changed my mind...those guys would pick up the speed soon enough to drop me quickly. Instead, I opted to skate my warm up with RA and CS at a moderate pace and I got to chat with CS for a bit. I always feel that our Sunday morning skate at Hamilton Beaches shouldn't be only about serious training (that's what regular TISC practice is for)...catching up on the latest happening with friends is one of the reasons it is so much fun.

Before we reached the end of the trail, I turned around and skated back with ML at a slightly quicker pace. I was ready for lap two. While I was waiting for the pack to start, there was this huge friendly dog next to me and I started playing with the dog. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that the guys left without me! I sprinted to catch up with the pack only to discovered that the pack consisted of KN, JS, BY, and DD. Ooops, the pace was going to be fast this time. I hung in for as long as I could and somehow managed to stay with the pack for 4km at around 28-29km/hr. I was on my own but I knew that ML, DD, and MJC should not be far behind. I decided to skate a steady pace and tried to apply what I learned from last Sunday's dryland drills to skating. After the turn-around point, I finally saw ML and DD about 400m behind me. I decided to work just a little harder to make it hard for them to catch me. In the back of my mind, I was pretty sure they would catch up soon enough. Not too long after, I saw MJC skating by and he yelled out "slow down! I'll catch up with you". Had he not said anything, I would probably slow down and pack up with at least ML and DD. But, since he told me to slow down, I was determine to get back to the starting point without being caught by any one of them. It was tough skating into the wind by myself and I thought to myself more than once to just stop this silly game. Somehow, I managed to push myself to the end without being caught. I had a lot fun, despite in a rather painful way.

When I related this story to EG, he said that it was good practice to train for mental toughness. He said that a skater needs to be mentally tough in order to push the body to perform in races. When the body is hurting, it is the mind that decides not to give up and force the body to keep skating. However, it is not enough to be tough during races. Like everything else, this mental toughness comes from training. During practice, when your legs are hurting, you need to push them to hurt some more. You're training to push your body's threshold as much as the unfaltering resolve to hang in there.

I didn't quite understand EG's words at the time. Isn't bragging rights and the drive to win enough motivation to make a person mentally tough? I thought about this a bit more today and it's slowly starting to take on more meaning. When I get dropped from a pack, is it because I have pushed myself to skate as fast as possible yet still not fast enough? Or is it because I fail to close the gap a few times so I leave the pack to skate at an easier pace? Do I empty the tank and leave everything on the track or do I conserve some energy "just in case"? I typically leave the track gasping for breathe after race. How often do I do that in practice?

I have much to work on, both physically and mentally.