The difference one good session has on the mental game is huge.
In all honesty I was not feeling the bike at all the last few weeks. Every session I did on it I just blamed the hot sticky weather for my subpar power and feeling rubbish. Well I knew the bike this week was the session I failed to complete last week and had in my head it’s a make or break session and I was determined to make it!
Well in short I did, I bloody smashed it! I did my most recent FTP test a couple of weeks ago and my all-time best 20 min power was 260 Watts way back in November. The latest test a couple of weeks ago I managed 232 Watts and thought I was going to die. Well this training session is outlined below. It’s a toughie, especially when at the end of the 5 minutes it seems like an eternity to get the erg mode on the trainer to reduce the resistance, In reality it’s 10 seconds or so, haha. But it’s enough! Then back to it for 5 minutes. Great session, tough session and one I do enjoy, when on form!
Back to the 20 min power from last time of 232 Watts well this week on the session I managed a 20 min max power of 225 Watts and that’s with the recoveries and part of the warm up in. So I’m really happy with this. Which brings back to the title of this blog, the mental game. I don’t know if it’s just me or if others reading this can relate but having one session after a run off, I feel mediocre. This one really lifted the spirits and brings your head back in the game. They always say it’s the bigger picture we need to look at but one session like this can really swing things in our favor and really put our heads in the game for the rest of the week and beyond. Let’s hope it continues for the the rest of the week and beyond!
– Mike Catton
Check out last weeks article here:
All his previous articles are stored here
http://www.coachray.nz/category/client-stories/mikes-middle-distance-magic/