Mental pr3eperation for a meeting./road riding

[FROSTY:Me]

Doug and i have been trying to work out why it takes me so long to get up to pace on the track on a raceday.
Theres the clear--Oh ya just an old bugger theory
For certain Ineed to improve my overall fitness
One thing Im trying is not riding a road bike to work the week before a meeting.
we're thinking I'm mentally conditioning myself to ride in a restrained way and that my mind is having problems adjusting to reacting at higher speeds
Any other ideas ??

[Motoracer]

You have to figure out what drives you to push hard. Before each race, like a day or 2 or even a week prior to a race meet, do that and lock it in your memory till it's race day. Then you'll be sweet.

Ideally we really should be going nuts in practice on the day prior, ride at 110% of our ability, crash a bike or 2, then tone ourselves down to perform at a constant and reliable 95% of our ability for the race day. Sadly we can't do it like they do in MotoGP so it does take a bit of time to get up to speed during racing...

[Yarg]

Try visualising a fast start / or fast first laps. kenny roberts did similar stuff a fews ago on corners / situations he was having difficulty with & it worked for him. Cut his laps down.

[Motu]

I'm not a competitive person (yeah,right) and if someone is pushing hard on my rear wheel I'm liable to think ''oh,he's in a hurry'',and pull over to let him through.I have to turn my easygoing nature around and get mean - so I would listen to heavy metal music (Deep Purple's Highway Star was a favorite) on the morning of a race day as I packed my gear.I found it helped,I need to be angry,to have a mission.That's why I like trials so much,the only person to compete against is myself.

[surfchick]

Doug and i have been trying to work out why it takes me so long to get up to pace on the track on a raceday.
Theres the clear--Oh ya just an old bugger theory
For certain Ineed to improve my overall fitness
One thing Im trying is not riding a road bike to work the week before a meeting.
we're thinking I'm mentally conditioning myself to ride in a restrained way and that my mind is having problems adjusting to reacting at higher speeds
Any other ideas ??

Hey frosty this might help out-for competition surfing there's a key thing you need to know so you can perform at peak in a short time frame on demand no matter what the condititions-and to get the best of what ever physical condition you are in. you need to identify what "mind-state" you perform best at. (this is a coaching technique taught by NZ's top free diver ANTS @ SNZ).

Think back to the fastest time you put in on a track. identify whether it was in a race or on the test day. The thing you need to remember is how "amped" you were. Each athlete hits peak focus at a different place on the "amp" scale. some people consistently perform best when they are maxing out with agression- and part of their mental preperation is getting pumped to compete. these people can use heavy music, warm up in groups etc. others need to key-down, to focus quietly, use mental visualisation- and their warm-ups often need to be somewhere quiet away from the noise of the contest site. I always perform best at the lower-mid range of the "amp" scale- which means i tend to like to get away from the distractions and really mentally focus.

after identifying the "mind-state" you were in when you put in consistently fast times on any track, you should aim to re-create this mental space EACH TIME you compete. make your lead in routines consistent- reducing the variables that might affect your performance...from memory watching you guys prepare at puke the other day it's almost total chaos-but certainly this wouldn't help alot of competitors/riders FOCUS. i was thinkin i don't know how you guys do it!! but bloody awesome it was to watch. good to meet you the other day by the way

[White trash]

Listen to Rage aginst the machine on the way to the track and give yourself a couple of good, hard slaps across the face when you arrive.

Works for me.

Seems to freak the competition out a little too.

[surfchick]

Listen to Rage aginst the machine on the way to the track and give yourself a couple of good, hard slaps across the face when you arrive.

Works for me.

Seems to freak the competition out a little too.

haha you'd probably be a good surfer... on the bigger days...

[John]

sacrifice a few babies to your god of choice, pop a few wheelies - kill a few sets of tires, that would do it for me. Dont know about you..

I always used music before a rugby game, either music that you DONT like or something incredibly loud and distorted.. always did the trick, even though it ment a few red cards lol.

[Pwalo]

Do a Barry Sheene mate. Drink, smoke smelly french cigarettes, and shag everything in sight. Even if you don't win you don't care.

Seriously though the points made in the previous posts are all pretty good (not too sure about my fellow Wellingtonian). If you were a professional rider you could practice, practice, practice. But you're not, so you can't, so just relax and take it easy.

Actually it seems as if Mr Sheene may have been right all along.

[FROSTY:Me]

Thanks surfchic--sounds like me and you--or whoever it is running these training courses need to talk--A lot.
You have to a fair degree hit it on the head for me .
i seem to thrive on chaos -but Everything I have been lead to believe indicates i shouldn't -I should be calm and totally relaxed.
The interesting thing for me is that generally when I feel like Im totally flying-really hauling in a good lap time -totally outa control--I do shit lap times.
When I feel like Im cruising thinking well ahead-thinking about where to pass the guy in front --then I seem to lay down fast laps.
Its sort of contrary to my nature so perhaps I have to find a way to harness my personality and make it all work.

[Coldkiwi]

Frosty - the answer is pure and simple. Practice more!

Wake up later in the morning and ride your bike in as fast as you can to get there on time (you DO have a boss that'd get angry don't ya?)

[riffer]

Well mate you're gonna get some good practice tonight since it's 20 to nine now and you have to be at the airport at nine to fly down here...

Have you left your computer on, or am I gonna be standing at the airport feeling like a spare prick at a wedding

As for calmer riding being faster, I reckon that's the trick. The more you charge the more likely it is that you are actually accellerating and decellerating in excess.

When you are calmer you tend to carry more speed into the corner and get on the power faster. At least that's what the books say...

I'd settle for losing that "Oh shit I'm going too fast into this corner" feeling I get occasionally... especially as I've never actually lowsided going around a corner from leaning it over too far.

Good luck with the lap times buddy. See you at 10.00

[surfchick]

Thanks surfchic--sounds like me and you--or whoever it is running these training courses need to talk--A lot.
You have to a fair degree hit it on the head for me .
i seem to thrive on chaos -but Everything I have been lead to believe indicates i shouldn't -I should be calm and totally relaxed.
The interesting thing for me is that generally when I feel like Im totally flying-really hauling in a good lap time -totally outa control--I do shit lap times.
When I feel like Im cruising thinking well ahead-thinking about where to pass the guy in front --then I seem to lay down fast laps.
Its sort of contrary to my nature so perhaps I have to find a way to harness my personality and make it all work.

The graph Ants sketched out was one of the most usefull things i'd come across- i just wish i'd been aware of it 2 years prior when i was competing in europe. in contests where people's ability is close it's mental discipline that's will seperate those who progress- and a bit a luck. it really needs drawing on paper.

i couldn't quite pick up from your reply whether you recorded your fastest laps when you were "mentally pumped" or in a cooler/calmer state. if you're around at the spanner evening I'll catch you for a chat. from the last part of what you wrote it sounds like you perform better when you're focused on strategy-"heady" ... gaad it'd be easier to do dis' in person!!

[Hoon]

Yeah I found that mental prep plays a big part in my performance on the day. It starts the day before - I try to get as much done then as possible and make sure I don't put off any little jobs til later like "putting the battery in when I get to the track" and stuff like that. Keeps my mind clear to concentrate on the task ahead instead of stressing over or possibly forgetting trivial stuff.

The night before I'll read my track notes, Keith Code books and write out a list of goals I want to achieve on race day, not just stuff like 1:09s lap times but also "sort turn 3 line", "enter turn 1 at 12Krpm", "keep throttle wide open on turn 10" etc. This keeps me focused during the day on making improvements instead of getting lax and having it in written form is handier to look at instead of coming off the track shagged out trying recall some mental list.

The morning of the race I'll try to walk the track with my notes and I'll study them more when I get back to the pits.

And last but not least, just before I go out on track I'll crank up my mp3 walkman which I load up with all my fav thrash songs to get me amping and pumped up before I jump on the bike!!

Everyone is different though and by no means am I claiming this is the only way. I see heaps of guys who just roll out of their van, piss around all day then promptly kick my arse. This is just what works for me.

[Motu]

I knew a speedway rider who was the opposite - in those days they raced every sat night at the Springs and then sunday at Kihikihi.During the week the bike would be stripped and various parts worked on,but he would never put it together.He put it in the van in bits and built it at the track,he said it kept him occupied and steadied his nerves.

I'm at my best as cold hard and calculating on the bike...in the pits the air is I don't give a damn,nothing special is happening....