8 Ways to Stop Negative Thoughts in Your Next Triathlon

The thing that keeps you from your peak performance probably isn't the latest super-bike, skinsuit or recovery potion. More likely, it's your mental self-talk. "A large percentage of anyone's personal record (PR) is psychological," says Lucy Smith, coach for LifeSport Coaching.

"Sometimes, your brain tries to hijack you from performing your best," says Smith, who's also a 19-time Canadian champion and internationally ranked athlete in triathlon, duathlon and distance running. That's when negative self-talk surfaces and starts to snowball. Soon you're slowing down and wondering whether you should quit.

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Fortunately, you can learn to stop the negative chatter and outperform yourself. "You have to basically will yourself to create this mindset that your belief that you can do something becomes stronger than the doubt that you won't," she says. Sound impossible? Not if you follow these strategies for getting out of your own way.

Recognize Your Trap

"Negative self-talk often comes from a distorted view of reality," says Riley Nickols, New York City-based sport psychology consultant and coach at MindBodyEndurance.com. It's useful to be aware of what's going on in your mind. See if you're falling into any of these performance-busting negative thinking patterns:

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• All-or-Nothing Thinking: You don't think you succeeded unless you were perfect. As in, "I didn't PR, so the race was a waste of my time." Or "I didn't hit my splits so I failed."
• Overgeneralizing: You jump to a conclusion based on no evidence. Example: You had one tough climb, so you proclaim yourself "a terrible climber."
• Catastrophizing: Overestimating the likelihood that bad things are going to happen. For instance, "my swim was bad, so my bike and run will be bad, too."

Quiet Your Inner Critic

When your inner critic starts talking to you, Smith says, "don't engage with it." Tell the voice it's unhelpful, and then let it go away. "Some people can visualize the delete button on their computer or the trash icon," she says. "You have to make a split second decision about whether you're going to listen to the voice or not. Hitting 'delete' is the fastest way to get around listening."

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It's not deleting? Nickols says that "Some people find it helpful to envision a big red stop sign in their minds. This image can halt the 'negative-thought snowball' that can quickly develop and it allows you to redirect your self-talk to be more facilitative toward performance."

Replace a Negative Thought With Something Else

That means substituting "this hill is destroying me," with something more like "this is challenging, but I've climbed hills like this before and am capable of successfully ascending this one," Nickols says.

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Get out of the Judgment Habit

"Try not to make negative self-talk worse by judging it or judging yourself. Accept that it's there instead of wishing it were going away or criticizing yourself for thinking negative thoughts," Smith says. It's not good or bad, it's just what's happening. Acknowledge it and move on.

Think Along a Continuum

If you have to take stock of how a race stacks up against others, think about it on a continuum. "Evaluating your race performance as being only a success or a failure leaves you little or no room for anything in between," Nickols says. "Instead, your race performance likely falls a little more to one end or another on a continuum. Assessing your efforts in this way can provide greater flexibility and a more accurate representation of your race performance."

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Embrace Discomfort

A lot of negative thoughts come up for people when they're getting out of their comfort zones. "Some people love being uncomfortable and others want to stop right away," Smith says. "Elite athletes have programmed their minds and bodies to deal with that discomfort and not let it get them down. Try to get away from associating hurt with being a bad thing. It's a sensation—you don't even have to call it discomfort."

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Try Actions Instead of Affirmations

Telling yourself you're a great athlete and that you can win is one way to keep your mind occupied. But, when negative self-talk starts, Smith prefers actions to affirmations. "The action has to be specific and has to be something you have complete control over." That might mean reminding yourself to focus on your breath or on relaxing your shoulders.

Expect it to Happen

'The most ironic way to chase away negative self-talk is to expect it to happen. It's likely you're going to experience it at some point, and knowing that it's going to come up normalizes it, allowing you to prepare and practice how you will respond to it,' Nickols says. Instead of fighting it, notice it, diffuse it, and move on to a whole new performance level.

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