6 Mental Toughness Quotes We Use To Trick Our Brain

I'm just going to focus a second time and I'm going to keep doing a second at a time until my body fails or I get to the end. And I really love that one. This podcast is brought to you by Trivalo Coaching, where we help triathletes and cyclists like you train smarter to race faster. I'm your host, Jordan Donnelly, and on my left is former Australian Ironman champion and head coach of Trivalo Coaching, Jarrett Donnelly. When you get to a race, when you step on the start line, how nervous do you feel? Are you someone that feels a high amount of anxiety? Are you someone that manages to keep it under control? In our experience, no matter what level athlete you are, everyone gets to the start line and feels some sort of nervousness, fear, anticipation of the hurt that's going to come or more. This is where it's vital that you practice owning your mindset. So today we're going to be talking about the top mental toughness strategies that we use now before we get into the episode. In many of our podcasts we emphasize the significance of proper nutrition for peak performance during races and training rides. Meet SIS or Science in Sport, a brand we endorse and personally use ourselves. SIS offers an array of energy products like gels, bars, hydration, carbs and protein solutions, all aimed at optimizing athlete performance and recovery. Their products also undergo rigorous band substance testing, assuring athletes of their safety and quality. Our top pick is the new Beta Rate Fuel range, which has been an absolute game changer for us and our athletes. Why do we love it? It's an ideal one to 0.8 maltodextrin to fructose ratio. It's 40 grams of carbs per gel, almost double most of the market, and sachets with 80 grams of carbs in each of them, meaning fewer bottles to carry while getting more fuel in. For being a listener of the podcast for the next four weeks, we are giving you access to 15% off their range of products. All you need to do is go to Science in Sport retail page@scienceinsport.com and use the code Trivelopodcast SIS when you check out now that's capital SIS and we'll put that link and the Trivalo code in the description. This episode is also brought to you by our proud sponsor, Giant Australia for all your bike training and racing needs. Ride Life. Ride Giant dad. Welcome to the episode. Let's go with our starting segment. What are you grateful for?

Thanks, Jord. Mine's very brief. This week I'M so happy to see the end of winter in the Southern hemisphere in sunny Victoria Melbourne, while the rest of Europe is just basking in glorious temperatures. We've just been very quietly trying to survive the winter and spring is here and I love spring and I can't wait for summer, so. So I'm very grateful that we've got through winter and we've made the most of all the things that have come our way and not come our way in terms of we had a period there with no heating in our house for three weeks. That was an interesting period. So, yeah, it's been a bit of a battle getting through winter, but quite happy to see the end of it, to be quite frank.

Yeah, I like what you said there about it's a real simple gratitude. And mine's very simple this week as well. It's just I found myself being really grateful for the iPhone this week. I just think it's an absolutely brilliant device and so grateful for it. And on that note, I kind of wanted to touch on why we actually do the gratitude gratitude segment. It's kind of a funny thing to include at the start of a podcast. And we really originally, really brought it in because we're really passionate about athletes, mental health and triathletes, endurance athletes. We're a special breed and we put a lot of pressure on ourselves and can sometimes it can be all consuming. You know, the dedication to a race, the dedication to training and the mental health of an athlete is actually really important. And you are constantly preaching that if it's not going well, if it's not going right, if you're not enjoying it, then stop. You know, the sport, training, racing isn't everything. And that's a funny thing for us to say because it's. It's our jobs, it's our livelihood, and it's our business. But the mental health of an athlete is really important and we understand how gratitude can really impact that. And so that's why we do include it at the start of an episode. Even though we kind of drag it on a bit sometimes, sometimes it's just okay to have a really simple gratitude. Like I'm grateful for water, or I'm grateful to have food on the table, or sometimes it's something more meaningful, which we talked about in the podcast. But this came. It's ironic that I said, let's do a short gratitude. And now I'm going right into a. A big speech about it. But. But I do want to make this point because I think Mo at the World Champs. Over the weekend she had an interesting post race interview where she spoke about the fact that her mental health had kind of been suffering because she's the reigning Olympic and world 800 med champion. There was so much speculation around the world champs whether she was even going to Budapest or not. Her coach, Bobby Cursor, is quite renowned for making some funny decisions, for being quite discreet, for not giving much information away. And she said in the post race interview she actually had to delete social media because she wasn't coping with the amount of talk and speculation around her training and her racing. And like she didn't fly into Budapest until very late. She hasn't raced all season and it kind of showed a little bit in the final where maybe a lack of racecraft and practice impacted her tactics and she came third, which for her is probably a disappointing result again, given she's the reigning Olympic and world champion. But I just thought her point was very interesting in two parts. One, because the mental health of athletes is really important whether you're a professional or not. Again, it was a reminder for me for why we focus on this and why we do this segment. And yeah, I don't think we'll go into it too much more, but she did make a point about how she didn't like the social commentary. And I found that a bit contrasting because as an athlete, you know, it's an entertainment sport. As much as athletes want to do it for the love when they're professional, to get paid by brands and endorsement deals, the entertainment, the crowd side of it comes, comes as part of it. And the fans, the talk around it, the speculation, the. The podcasts that come out of it, the TV shows that come out of it, it's all kind of part of the journey. And so by no means does she have to respond to anyone or does she need to comment on anyone on social media. She owes us nothing. But I think, I guess we want to make the point that we love commenting on athletes and what they're doing for us, it's from a place of love, of the sport and it's never judging the person or judging an athlete just solely on their ability and what they do on the track.

And look, just bring it back to the idea that we've had right from day one and we're into episode number 186, I think, is to always try to think about a perspective from where we are. And gratitude really makes you stop and think about, well, what am I? Even when you and I say what are we grateful for today we have to think about what things are going okay or not going okay in our lives. And that's what the gratitude is. It's to make you stop and think and get perspective of how lucky you are, or if things aren't going so well, there's still something that is still going well in your life to inspire you enough to keep going and do a better job. And I think if you just stop and think. And I know there's people coming up to me talking about the podcast and saying they love the gratitude segment. It makes them think about what. What's happening in their lives at that current time and, and really forces them to be grateful for the. The good things that are happening.

Yeah, totally agree. And it kind of ties in well with the podcast topic today, which is mental toughness. Before we get into that, what's caught our attention, we do want to just quickly touch on the end of the world champs last week, and we kind of were asking the question, what's Jakob Inger Pritzen going to do in the 5k after losing the 1500? And turns out he really was sick. You know, there was no doubt about that. He really could not perform up to his normal standard. And he ran a brilliant race, running to what his body could do, which we were kind of asking that question about the 1500. If he was sick, why did he lead from the front? You know, and he. And he definitely changed his tactic and got that right in the 5K. And he just hung on for the whole race and then did everything he could in that last lap. And boy, that was a gutsy win. And the commentator, I think, put it perfectly, said that's one of his best wins he's ever had, given the circumstances.

Yeah. And it really brought home, I think we talked in our previous podcast about lowering your expectations and racing to how you feel. And boy, this was a great example of someone who only did just enough to win and not. In his interview, post race interview, he said, I tried to protect myself for 4,999 meters so that I was only in front for one meter. And that's exactly what happened. The Spanish, the unlucky Spanish guy probably thought he had it with a meter to go. So, you know, really brilliantly executed race once again. And, and coming back from adversity, the disappointment for to have to lose the 1500 meters two years in a row and then come back out and you're still not 100% and actually take the victory. And he's been asked about, you know, what do you prefer the 1500 or the 5K. He said, I just want to win the 1500. I am better suited to the 5K and I've proved that time and time again. But my desire is to prove that I can do it as a 1500 meter runner and I'm not going to stop until I achieve that. And I just love that attitude of openly saying that that's what my goal is. I haven't achieved it and I'm going to do everything I can to come back again and do it again. And for us mere mortal age groupers, I think that's, that's really good advice from someone who's a, you know, at the top of their game in the world and probably one of the, the most outstanding runners from, for years who hasn't been successful. And, and you know, people think that everybody's successful all the time. Well, they're not. And you only have to look at the world Triathlon championships in Finland to prove that in the male race that, you know, if you have an off day, some unknown is going to win. And, and that's exactly what happened. And, and I love that because, you know, you go into every event, there's no script that says this is what's going to happen. You know, in the women's race, I suppose Tyler Nib was expected to win and Matthews was expected to be close there as well and it proved that that was the result. But certainly the men's race was tipped upside down and, and I just love that because that's, that's what gives everybody an opportunity and chance to. That's what racing, competition is about, isn't it?

Yeah, absolutely. And talk about being flexible and adap, not just adapting your race plan but adapting your lead up. You know, Jakob kind of mentioned that rather than doing his normal pre race routine in the days leading up where he'd go for some recovery jobs, you'd go for some real short light speed work. He basically spent three days in bed just trying to do everything he could to recover. You know, that is, that is a totally different race preparation for a world championship race. And he had to just accept that with his fate, do it, do what was necessary and turn up on race day giving his best shot. And a lot of people would turn up going, how am I going to win this race when I've just spent three days in bed recovering? You know, it's completely thrown his routine out of whack. But yeah, again, huge credit to his mental. Tough to do that, to be out of his routine to Be out of what he would normally like to do and still win.

Well, most people would use that as this is the reason why I don't think I'm going to go well instead. He didn't do that. He just did the best he could on the day and it wasn't good enough. It was nearly good enough but you know, in the end he nearly got passed by the whole field. If it had gone another three or four meters in the 1500 he would have, you know, been eighth place instead of just hanging on for second.

Yeah, for the world has started. We won't talk about that too much but it's been a pretty hectic start. It's been four stages. I think stage five is today when we're recording this and boy there's been some drama in the first four stages. You know, started with the teams time trial where it was just horrific conditions. It was absolute pelting thunderstorms. Teams have fallen down everywhere. Team Jaco, the entire eight riders came down in a crash like it was just like on ice skates. Every stage has had some sort of drama with course outline. Bad, bad kind of race planning from the race organizers. The first hilltop finish on stage three, the media were just so close to the finish line. Remco Evnopole just ran straight into him and almost cracked his head open. It's been pretty wild start and the riders aren't happy about it. But I just kind of the only point I wanted to make was it's pretty exciting race. It's got a great lineup. We've got the team number Visma absolutely stacked. Remco Evan Paul who hasn't actually raced being a guard yet. Garrett Thomas is in there. What are your predictions for who's going to win this race? Because it's a very exciting field to start.

Yeah, look the welter is always a ripper I reckon because the unpredictable happens the whole time and Remco's kind of been very outspoken for rider safety. The Teamstone trial ended up riding in the dark. The weather is, is out of the organizers control. That's, that's, that's nothing they can do about it. But the, the course selection for a team time trial with that many turns, we're not actually getting to see who the best team time trial team is because they're not getting to ride, you know, on long straight stretches of road where they can actually show their craft. The technicalities and plus the weather make it a completely unpredictable outcome depending on when you started and how bad the rain was when your Time to race was. And because there's so many teams, there's such a wide range of time between each team starting and it got different conditions. So it's a kind of, you know, having the darkness that was ridiculous. I mean it's bad enough to race, you know, in the rain, but then to brace in the rain when it's dark, you can't, you can't literally see. It's. It's not a fair and equal event, I don't think. And, and then, you know, Remco taking the victory which was fantastic on that hill clock finish and then running straight into the, the media pack and landing and cutting his head. You know, just so many things that are avoidable, that are ruining the race almost. So hopefully that's the end of that and we can get on with a race that has oh so many options that can happen. And look, Remco is looking fantastic, isn't he? But you know, as we know, it's a long time between now and three weeks time. And look, I just think Jumbo Visma have got so many cards to play. I just can't see them not winning this. It'll be a pretty good effort for, for Remco to, to knock, knock them off, I reckon. You know, one man against a full team. It's like this is, this is going to take some mental toughness, I can guarantee it. You know, so far he's stood up already. So let's see how we go.

One of my predictions is that Yumbo could potentially use Sepkus to their advantage because Remco has to watch Roglich and Vingard and Sebkus is just as good as them. And if he's not doing all the work on the front, you know, if he can conserve himself a little bit more, he has a chance to go off the front and Remco can't chase him every time. So he could be a little bit of a wild card just to, just to see what he does because he keeps being the domestic and he keeps coming 10 top 10 in these grand tours as a domestic doing all the work. So that'll be interesting and a lot of.

Yeah, really good point on him because on that hilltop finish he actually attacked a bunch and got away and then he got dragged back in. So that was, that was them already doing that tactic. Yeah, you're spot on.

Yeah. And I mean I just want to make a point of the team's time trial. Not many people have probably had the experience of doing a team title trial, but I would say it is the most heart in mouth type of riding you can do when you, you are riding that fast on a TT bike in the TT bars position where you're not touching the brakes and you have to be an inch from the person's wheel behind you because if you're the further back you are, the more chance you are getting dropped and the speed that those guys are riding add in the wet element to it. It's the only time on the bike where I feel like the adrenaline is so high, not just from the race, but from the fear of crashing. I just can't even imagine what they were going through in that race. And yeah, it was really quite wild. Moving on to the actual topic and we want to look at some mental toughness strategies that we use to really help ourselves and help our athletes. And it has to be said that again, most endurance athletes don't have a problem with mental toughness. In fact, I'd say most of the time it's the other way around, that we're too stubborn and end up making stupid decisions that probably aren't good for us. But regardless, we want to talk about some things that can really help when the going gets tough. And the first one you wrote down I couldn't agree with more. It's probably one of my favorite things and something that Jakob actually proved he had to go through in race one. And that's control what you can control and let go of things that you can't control.

People think mental toughness is the opposite to that. I think there's two camps here. People think to be mentally tough. No matter what's happening to you, you just have to keep going the same way, with the same effort, with the same intensity. And I don't think that's what mental toughness really stands for. Mental toughness is being vulnerable enough to change your mind and make better decisions. That's someone who's mentally tough with not worrying about what some other people might say about the decision they made. To take a different tack. Instead of the usual full bore, let's just go as hard as we can until we break. And so controlling the controllables means you have to actually think outside the square, as if there is roadblocks put in front of you such as illness or an injury, or someone knocks you in the 800 and you lose 5 meters from the position you were in. And you know, woe is me could be the attitude where if you control a controllable, okay, I'm now in a worse position, how can I rectify that and move myself into a better position. That's the mentally tough athlete that we're talking about. The one who can be put in a, a situation or a position, not what they want. And then being able to be tough enough to think their way around the roadblock that's being put in front of them. And I think that's the measure of really mentally tough person who can control the controllables and things that are distracting them from that is to rid that from their mind and just concentrate on the things that they can do about the situation they find themselves in.

Such a great starting point. And I really love that we're reversing the definition a little bit. We're not trying to be. Yeah, we say the word mental toughness, but it's not being tough for the sake of being tough. You know, it's. It's being, yeah. Brave enough to, to make the right decision for yourself. Brave enough to either when, when it, when it's really hurting to push through or brave it. Brave enough to know what if it's hurting and it's unhealthy to, to let go and make that decision. Number two is that you will learn more from your failures than your successes. And you can't actually grow without mistakes. That's a really, really big one. We've spoken about this with age groupers, but we expect perfection of ourselves when pro athletes can't even achieve perfection.

It takes some mental toughness to actually admit that you made a mistake in the first place. You know, again, the vulnerability that I talked about in point number one, again, if you can, the more honest you are with your performances, the better you're going to be. And it takes some sort of mental fortitude to learn and listen and see and watch the mistakes that you've made so that you can actually not do them again and get a better outcome and learn from the things that you did poorly, such as preparation the night before, the nutrition you had on the race day, the intensity you rode at or ran out or swam at, the execution method you used, the numbers that you were trying to race your plan around. They're all things that you should be analyzing and therefore finding out whether you did them well or poorly. And even if you did get the outcome that you wanted, search for things that you could do better looking at the mistakes you made. You have to be some sort of really strong willed person to be vulnerable enough to say, hey, yeah, put my hand up. I didn't do that so well. I should be able to do better from that. From next time so that you actually do learn from the things that you're, that you're doing not so well. And in my opinion, that's another sign of someone who's really mentally tough, is able to self analyze in a critical way that's going to be helpful to making an improvement.

Yeah, again, couldn't agree more. The next strategy is something that's actually probably more a specific strategy in the race and it's something that we love to talk about and it's shifting your focus to everything away from the fatigue. So when it's really hurting, when you're really in that deep dark zone in the middle or normally a 3/4 of the race, the finish line is not quite close enough that you can get that second wind. That's when it's most important to be on top of your mindset and your mental strategy. And you have the onus on you and you have the responsibility to shift your focus there to not. How much this is hurting. God, this is hurting. How long have I got to go? This is so painful. I need to slow down to something else. And sometimes there's the notion of athletes feeling bored in a race or letting that fatigue overcome them and we really want to shift their focus to other processes.

Yeah, we always talk about being in the moment and that's a thing that's quite difficult to do because as you get fatigue, your mind wanders away from the main process target that you actually should be focusing on. And it takes some sort of concentration to get that mindset back to where it should be. And if you can do that, it's actually going to help you perform better. So letting your mind wander and just drift off because you're tired. And in endurance sports that is something that happens a lot. As you get tired, you lose focus and your mind wanders and all of a sudden you might find yourself looking out. If you're on a bike ride out in the bike race out in the countryside, you actually are looking at the farm animals on the, on the properties. Instead of concentrating on your cadence power and your heart rate and the things that are actually going to help you get through the pain period or the fatigue that you are actually feeling, the longer the event goes, the better athlete who has more mental concentration and we can call that toughness if you like, they will get a better outcome because they are consistently concentrating on the things that are going to enable them to get through the hard patches in the race. And we look at strategies such as what pace am I doing? What's the Wind doing? Am I on a hill? Is there a gradient? What's my pedaling technique? What's my running technique form, like, what's my swim stroke doing? Am I holding good form? These are things that you can consistently ask yourself that will distract you from the actual pain and fatigue that continues to grow every minute of the entire event. And I think if you can do that, that is someone who has got really good mental toughness.

Yeah, it's so key. And the more you focus on that, it actually becomes impossible to focus on the fatigue because there's so many things that you try to process at once. And actually, when we have athletes all the time say that when they're focusing on that and they're not letting their mind wander, the race just flies by. And, yeah, you can keep asking yourself these questions. Am I relaxed? How's my breathing? Am I breathing shallow? Can I relax my breathing? Can I relax my body and my form here? What's my lap pace currently? What's my current pace or current power? My lap power versus my lap power? What part of the segment am I on? Do I need to. When's the next segment finishing second starting? Like, what K am I up to or what? What part of the course am I in? Is there a turn coming up? All these things. How fast am I going into the turn? Am I concentrating coming out of the turn? Yeah, if you really wanted to, you could focus on a lot of things outside of the actual fatigue.

We get so many people, Jordan, who have come to our program, and we give them all of that information you just blurted out there, which is quite detailed. And they. The. The number one thing that I get them after they're finished, they say to me is, I can't believe how fast the race went. Because for the first time in my entire triathlon career or marathon career, I was concentrating on things that were important. And the majority of other times I'm concentrating on how much further is it? How can I last any more than where's the finish line? And for the first time in their life, they're not thinking about that. They're thinking about things that are going to enable them to get to the finish line rather than worrying about where the finish line is.

I can tell you that I've stood on the start line myself many times and just said, oh, here comes 30 minutes of pain in a certain race, or here comes an hour of pain. And when you get into that, it's a real bad thought to have. Whereas what you'll find is exactly what you're saying if you're in a cycling race or something, there's so much going on, you just can't believe how you look down and it's the 10 minute mark and then you're focusing on what you're positioning, attacks are happening, you're focusing on your power, you're controlling yourself and suddenly you look down, it's 30 minutes and you just can't believe where 20 minutes have gone. And that's a better mindset to have rather than thinking of, oh, I can't believe the pain that's about to come in this race. The next one is take control just before we finish.

Sorry, George, just before we finish that one. One of our buddies who's been on the podcast actually really experienced ex pro, he often said that you should be as mentally fatigued as you are physically fatigued after a race. And if you aren't, it means you actually haven't concentrated. And that is what mental toughness is. It's actually a mental thing that you have to concentrate on. The strategies that we've talked about, and I often say that now because of what he told me when I was just starting my writing career 30 years ago, was that I should be just the same fatigue factor physically as mentally. And I just found that a really strange thing to say. How could you be so tired mentally from a physical example race? And once you understand that concept, then, and you execute that strategies of thinking of about the things we talked about, their pace, form particular stages of the, of the course you're on. And if you're thinking like that, you know you will be quite fatigued mentally at the end of the race.

And the beauty is it's a skill so you can practice it, which is, which is awesome because the more you practice it, the better you get at it. The next one is. And you wrote this down, I really like it. It's take control of your own destiny and don't leave it in the hands of others. So what does that mean to.

There's a couple of ways to look at it. I often say to guys who are in maybe a criterium race or a road race, what's your goal today? Are you going to be a spectator or you're going to be a participant? And people say, what do you mean by that? So are you going to have an impact on the race? Are you going to follow? So as a follower, you're leaving the result in the hands of other people. As a player, a participant, you're taking control of your own destiny and, and not Leaving in the hands of others. And if they, if they decide the race is going to take an easier section and you just go along with that instead of going, no, I don't want it to be easy now, I want it to be hard because that's the strategy I need to do because I can't sprint and I need it to be hard the whole race so that when they get to the sprint, the sprinters are so tired that I've got a chance in the sprint if that comes to that. So that's an example of not leaving it to others and taking control of your own destiny. And I just think that another example that I'm trying to get across is if you see someone else pass you in a marathon or a half marathon or whatever running race you're in, or cycling time trial that you're in, do you immediately try to pick up the pace and match theirs? And there's a whole lot of questions you have to ask. Where am I in the section of the race? Is it early, is it late? Which will decide whether you do do that choice of following someone else's destiny or pacing. And this is a question that can only be answered at the time of the event. So there are times when you need to do that because that's what racing is. You need to focus on the people who are actually passing you and you're near the end and you need not to let them get away from you. So you have to lift your pace to match that so that you can actually win or early in the race if they do that, that you have the control to say that that pace is unsustainable and good luck to them if they can keep that up. Because if I follow that so early in the race, I, I'll end up blowing up myself and I'll get a worse result. So understanding when to take control of your own destiny and when to actually race the race is really mentally tough and takes a lot of self control. And it sounds an easy thing to do. Oh, I'll just follow my own pathway here. But sometimes you actually need to race the race as well. And I'm forever telling athletes just before their event, we've got a great race plan in place, but don't forget it's a race. We don't want you to be restricted or dictated to by the plan we've put in place. The plan is there to guide you at the start of the event, to prevent you from making catastrophic mistakes that could end up you walking at the end. So we want you to use the plan as a guide and then race the race so that you can actually improve on your previous performances.

The next strategy is one for when it's. And this is one of my favourite strategies. It's for when it's the absolute toughest part of the race, for when you are really hurting the most. And it's called the one second rule. And I got it from our man David Goggins. But it's. For me, I find this is most useful when, when you're really in a world of pain and it's when you've got, you know, when the race is. Yeah. Three quarters of the way through, you're still not near the finish, you're really hurting. Or even as you're getting close to the finish, you start to have bad thoughts about, can I hold this? The fatigue's too much. That strategy of kind of focusing on the processes start to go out the window because the lactic is so, so high that you can't even think straight or you think all you're feeling is the pain. And when you think of the task is so big that, oh, I've still got 2k left to run. I've still got 5k left to run. It can be overwhelming. And you can go, of course I need to slow down, it's just too far. But the one second rule is breaking it down to okay, I don't know how long I can hold this for. It seems unsustainable, it seems really hard and I'm actually, it's hurting so much. I don't know if I can last the finish like this, but can I do one more second? Yes, I can. And each time it's just tricking yourself, can I do one more second? And it's just really breaking it down to a second at a time. And I don't care what happens 100 meters, I don't care what happens in 500 meters or a K. I'm just going to focus a second time and I'm going to keep doing a second at a time until my body fails or I get to the end. And I really love that one.

Especially if you're in a situation. I can use the example of some really key points in a road race on a bike where you might be climbing up a hill that's four minutes 50 long and you've probably got three minutes in you that will be able to keep up with the group. And then. And from that point on, it's a matter of how mentally tough are you to try and keep that going. And of course, your physiology will probably prevent you from being able to stay with people who are riding at a better level than you, than you're possibly able to do. But some people mentally can turn themselves inside out. In the key moments of some races, that's not near the end, but a key moment on a hill like that, when you've got a downhill and some flat where the race will slow down again. But if you've been gapped on that key moment, you're out of the race. And so these are key moments where you have to be mentally tough to do whatever it takes to stay with that group or that bunch so that you have one more second left. When the next key moment comes, do that again. And that gets. You get a lot of confidence from that and the next point where when the going gets tough, the tough get going. That's the same thing. They're both the same points of one more second. Now the race is hard. Am I going to be able to stand up and be counted when it does matter? And they're key moments in every race, whether you're a swimmer, whether you're a rider, or whether you're a runner or a triathlete, there are key moments in every race where you're going to be questioned about your ability to stand up when it counts. And if you've got the mental toughness to push through, then you're going to get that feeling a lot more in your career because you've done it previously. And the more times you actually don't grasp that opportunity and you almost give in, you'll be more likely to do that more often than to push through the pain. And my advice is to practice pushing yourself beyond. And I know your brother Liam is an example. That's the opposite to that. And he sometimes pushes way beyond where I would like him to push. So much so that he actually. It gets so dizzy and passes out. And, you know, that is. That is not what we're saying here. We don't want it to be. No matter what's happening, you will just keep pushing. That's sometimes a little bit scary decision rather than being mentally tough. So we're talking about, you know, it's a fun activity here, and it's not meant to be you, you know, running through a brick wall and not worrying about the consequences. We do have to look after our health and safety, but we're trying to motivate people to get the best out of themselves without going too far.

Yeah. And we had a great anecdote on the podcast earlier in the year when we had Australian cyclist Kel o' Brien on and he spoke about one of the spring classics races, one of his early ones in his career, he was in a break with the likes of Matthew Vanderboel and some very other world class riders. And he's very new on the World Tour and he was coming up the top of a climb and he just was struggling to hang on and he kept saying to himself, this example of just, almost there, just one more pedal, one more pedal. And he said every pedal stroke felt like the last one he could do. But he, he kept saying to himself, just get there. And they crested the climb and that was the break that stayed away for the rest of the race. And if you had given up that 10 meters earlier or five minutes before the top, he would have missed the break and that was race over for him. And that's just a classic example. You did mention the next point, which is when the going gets tough, the tough gets going. Is there any more you want to add to that? Because that is a very more traditional kind of mental toughness point where you go when the race is hardest, who's going to stand up? Everyone looks around, who are the tough nuts that are really going to make it hurt here? Yeah.

And if you know your opposition, you'll know that they're going to be doing it when it, when it counts. And the people who are traditionally getting the outcome at the end of the race, they're the ones you want to be watching and try to emulate what they're doing and, you know, get used to that feeling. Because if it was easy, everybody would be winning because there's going to be points where it's not going to be easy. And that's the time when you need to be, stand up and be counted. So, you know, that's enough about that topic. And look, as I said, the only other thing is to not take that to the extreme.

We said we have six points in the podcast topic and headline, but we're going to do a few bonus ones. And the next one is the will to prepare has to be greater than the will to win.

Yeah, it's an interesting one and it takes a little bit of thought, doesn't it, to what is actually being said here. And if you're so determined to make sure that you're winning and whether that's finishing on top of the podium or winning as an improvement, you have to be willing to do the work. That takes some mental toughness to. When the alarm goes off at 4:30 and your actual job, you know, everyday job during the week starts at seven and you have to be off your training bike or running shoes by 6:15, which means you have to get up ridiculous hour to get the session in. That's mental toughness. That's a willingness to do the work. So you will get the end result of an improved performance on race day or the ultimate winning your age group or whatever that may be. But you know, you have to be willing to do that preparation ahead of the glory of that finishing moment, which is only a moment where you've been. You get that satisfaction of achieving the goal that you set out to and the preparation part is going to allow that finishing part to come to fruition. And that's the mental toughness is doing the day in, day out hard work and we all love to talk about doing events and what I'm going to do. It's the person who wakes up each day and actually gets out there and does it. They're the tough ones. They're the ones who are actually doing, doing the hard yards and they're the ones who will be faced, be able to achieve the, the, the roadblocks that are facing them on a daily basis at each race. And that's the thing that, that I think is, is the key to it. And if you've got that wheel to prepare properly, you'll have a, you know, an even better ability on the day where, where it matters to, to perform the way you want to.

This last one, it is kind of, you know, we've, we've spoken about both sides of mental toughness here, which I've spoken about the fact that you kind of want to get to race day and you want to do all these things you said you want to be in control of your destiny. You want to control what you can control. When the going gets tough, you want to be one of the toughest. You know, you kind of want to be a bit of an animal and, and have that confidence in yourself that you know that you can be the one to push through and get the best outcome because that's what you're going to be most proud of. Um, and, but the opposite side of that spectrum is not being silly and not being stupid and we're not promoting doing anything dangerous. This last quote is a bit of a mix of both and we think it's really important that you have the ability to do both. You have the ability to have a bit of a psycho mindset where you're willing to do whatever it takes to get the result you want. But we also have seen examples where that's not the best case scenario. But this classic quote of if you can't fly, then run. And if you can't run, then walk. If you can't walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, just keep moving forward. So what does that mean for you?

Yeah, and I have images of, you know, the early Ironman races with people literally crawling to the finish line and how much attention that performance gained ahead of people, you know, getting across the finish line in really good condition. And that the person who got to the crawling stage was so mentally tough as compared to the person who got to the finish line in good shape but fatigued. So, you know, there is a point where you are pushing your body way past where it should be and it's actually dangerous and detrimental to your health and wellbeing. And that's what this quote is kind of saying is okay. And I don't think that's true. I think if you've prepared well and you've executed well and your body starts to fail you, you need to listen to that. And that's a mentally tough person as well who's not willing to go beyond the limits. And I've been in that situation and ended up in an ambulance and I don't recommend that to anybody. And you know, there was got to a point where I didn't realize what I was doing and that's a very scary and dangerous position to be in. And luckily my brother was at that particular race and was kind of making decisions for me. But as you know, as it turns out, I still continued on to the race and got to the finish line and then ended up in the ambulance. But I don't remember any, anything about the last probably 20 minutes of the event and I don't recommend that. And I've never let myself get to that position since that day. And so, you know, being mentally tough is one thing, but that's, that's going too far and you know, just keep on moving forward. Well, that's actually what I was trying to do that day was just no matter what, I was going to get to the finish line. And you can be so single minded and motivated that there's nothing going to stop you even if you can't even know what you're doing. So it's a very interesting one and one that I'm, you know, haven't experienced it myself. I'm not a. I don't think it was a very wise thing that I did And I don't know how much it affected me in the period afterwards.

Oh, I'll put this to you. Yeah, I'll put this to you, because you're the one that put this quote in there. So what? But back in the early days of Ironman, I would guess that because sports science was so new, because the event was so new, I would say that point you made about being well prepared and executing well, those factors probably weren't nearly as strong for a lot of the athletes. And so that occurrence of crawling to the finish line, I would guess or assume that would happen more because you didn't know how to train properly. It was still a lot of guessing back then. It was still a lot of trial and error. And so the body just might not have been adequately prepared. People were training just as hard. No doubt about that. But just not training as smart is what I'm thinking may have been the case, because you just don't see that at the top level anymore. You don't, or you rarely see these athletes pushing their body that far. I think the most recent example might have been the Brownlee brothers, where the twin brother really literally had to carry him across the line because he pushed himself that far. But you see athletes are so adequately prepared for these race conditions that it comes down to a matter of more the mental toughness side, where it's how much can they hang on to the pace, how much can they just keep moving forward when it's tough? So I feel like it's coming from a bit more of a healthier angle now because their bodies are well prepared. But there's other things you can't control, like Kona weather conditions, like the weather could just throw everything out. And we've seen Christian Blumenfeld just his body's not coping with the conditions or the requirements of the event, and his body is just cramping. So that's my thoughts on kind of where that safety thing comes in. And it's not as prevalent anymore. So I don't know what you think about that.

Yeah, I kind of agree to a certain extent. I still feel that most people without the data were still prepared as well as they could possibly be. And I think there's a decision you have to make is what I'm trying to say. There is a point where enough is enough and it's detrimental to continue. And I think the preparedness is similar, except we didn't have as much information back then as we do now. But I think there's no denying it. Each athlete was training Just as hard as they are now, and they were just as prepared. And I think the examples of people going way beyond it is still minimal. But it's the extreme cases that we all focus on when people do start to falter. And, you know, we've seen a fair few Olympic game marathoners coming into the stadium where they're disorientated and they're, you know, it's just been. That's been quite recent where people have, you know, made that last lap around the Olympic stadium with the whole crowd just willing them to get to the finish line. You know, it's very admirable that they're. They're able to get to the finish line. But to do whatever you can to keep moving forward sometimes has its limits, is what I'm trying to say. And I think I'm really a believer of, you know, if you are not informal one day and you have to lower your expectations, then if you can't fly, then run. That's what we're trying to say that, you know, pick your battle sort of thing. And if you're struggling to run, you know, then walk. And what we're saying here is reduce your intensity. We're not actually physically saying, you know, you can fly, then you can run, then you can walk, then you can crawl. That's just a saying that it's you trying to measure your effort and, you know, just to do everything you can to get to that finish line in as good a shape as you possibly can. And the mental tough part is, is you being able to measure that effort so you do get to the finish line in better shape than the crawling example. And I think people interpret this the wrong way. I think we should be thinking of it as the mentally tougher person is the one who actually slows down and measures their effort better than the person who is just throwing caution to the wind and just at a bullet, a gate like we didn't talk about in the first examples. And I think that's what I'm trying to get across here.

Yeah, you're definitely right. I definitely agree with that. And there are still examples of this happening. And one of the more recent ones I can think of as well is the New York Marathon this year, where one of the Brazilian athletes who was A really good runner, 204pb, I think, ended up collapsing at the 30k mark. But again, I would say this was very much due to maybe not mental toughness, but he went out the half marathon and he. He almost ran world record half marathon pace. So his execution was so off so that he was pushing himself as hard as he could in the back half, but he just got to 30k and couldn't go anymore. He was, he was a minute ahead of the rest of the field, which is just insane for New York Standard. And I hope I made that point clear when I was, when I was talking about the classified men athletes in the 90s, for example, is that it's definitely not a matter of not training hard enough. You know, everyone was training just as hard as I do now, but the training, sports science wasn't there. You know, it's, it's developed so much in 30 years that that is the key difference. It's definitely not a matter of willpower, effort. I think it was just people were as prepared as they could be with the knowledge they had, but you lacked data, you lacked power. You know, you just, you just cannot possibly expect to prepare the same and execute the same without those things that we have now. So. Any final thoughts on that and the topic itself?

No. I think it's a really good one to discuss because it gets this big macho wrap that, you know, how tough are you for doing that particular performance in that amazing endurance race? And as a society, I feel like we're just trying to extend the boundaries of what the limits are to the human capabilities. And for me, sometimes I'm asking, why would we do that? Why would we go that far to prove our mental toughness or to prove our ability to sustain an effort? I think a lot of the extreme sports that are out there now are absolutely fantastic for those who have the drive and the ability to do that. It's just something that I think has a limit. And I would be shot down in flames with most of the people who think we have no limits and we can, we can do some extreme things, like 100 Ironmans in a row. You know, I would question the reasons as to why that was something that, that you want to do. And the people who are doing that have absolutely good reasons for it. And I'm not questioning that, but I'm questioning whether that's something I would want to do and, and to prove my mental toughness. And maybe it's not what they're doing it for, that's just one aspect of it, to see how much they can sustain their body as an endurance athlete. So it has. This topic has a lot to offer, and I want to make the point that mental toughness to finish is just not about the person who perseveres the longest. There are so many other important ways of measuring how tough your mental fortitude is rather than a physical, a physical exertion.

Yeah, that's a great way to finish. And I do love the example of these kind of extreme challenges that people are doing that. Yeah, the 100 Iron Man's 100 days or people. Ned Brockman running across Australia. You know, the David Goggins example, I like his point of he's kind of saying, you don't have to be as crazy as me, but he's trying to do crazy things to show you what's possible from the human body. And he does it dangerously. His body has been broken. You know, Ned Brockman couldn't walk for a month or two after those challenges. I don't know how his body is now. I think he's back doing marathons. But, you know, you'd be surprised at the long term effects that, you know, David Goggins went through a period recently where he actually couldn't run. He could barely walk probably for a year or two because he's pushed his body that far. So this is a dangerous aspect of what you're talking about. But it's good to think about to say, well, is my body capable of maybe more than I'm. I'm thinking, am I living myself with my potential beliefs around my own mindset and what I'm capable of? And these people are good examples of that. You can push your body far, but then we bring it back to also what you're saying and you don't want to be doing anything dangerous. So, yeah, a bit of a very measured approach from us, which is very typical of us. We tend to be quite conservative on this podcast, but I think that's for good reason. And yeah, we started the topic with some mental toughness quotes to trick ourselves, but it's not always about that. And it's really understanding and having this balanced approach. And I'm glad that we have that kind of strategy. So, anything else from you?

No, I think you've summarised it really well. And for all those people who are being challenged in their next events, the challenge will be more severe if you execute poorly. So my advice is the person who's mentally tough to have the patience and the strategies to execute better will be able to. Will be able to handle whatever's thrown at them better than the person who doesn't have the planning to actually get the outcome thereafter. And so mental toughness can be measured that way as well. And I think that's, you know, it's very hard when people are passing you at the start of an event to be mentally tough, to not follow. That's another example of what we're saying. So for those athletes who have listened to this podcast and are thinking about one aspect of mental toughness, think about the others that we've talked about here so that you can still be very satisfied with your performance and your strength of mind when you have to make decisions that are going to give you a better outcome.

Perfect. And none of this will matter if you don't have your nutrition right. If you don't have your nutrition right, you will not be able to perform no matter how mentally tough you are. So again, 15% off all SIS products@scienceandsport.com the link will be in the description as well as the code. Travelopodcast SIS for the next four weeks only. Thanks very much for listening to this episode and we'll see you on the next one.