I know I’ve switched to writing only every other week. What can I say: I’m an accountant and this is audit/ tax season. I’m sorry and I hope you can all forgive me!
Recently, I’ve been struggling with coming up with new, interesting subjects for blog posts. If you have any suggestions/ requests – please let me know!
I already tried crowd-sourcing subjects on twitter and I got one answer: focusing during long cardio sessions. I have to admit that it never crossed my mind to write about it, but it’s such an obvious subject! Endurance athletes have to perform the same task for extended periods of time and it’s only natural that your concentration will waver. I know that indoor bike trainer is a killer for me – how can you keep pedaling hard when you’re not getting anywhere???
Should I stay focused?
My old go-to is zoning out. It sort of works on a treadmill – you set a speed and then just maintain enough focus not to fall off or run into the control panel. It’s not that simple on a bike trainer, while swimming or during outdoor workouts. Even following a pacer may not keep you going at the right speed.
In experiments, though, athletes who maintain focus in endurance training (or races) do better than those who are ‘zoned out’. Duh… You do much better work when you are paying attention to what you are doing! Although it is harder when you are alone on a country road…
More on the issue of importance of your brain in cycling can be find here – in case you want to explore the whole issue. Right now, let’s stick to the focus in endurance training when you’re talking about those long workouts.
Ways to maintain focus in endurance training
Practice staying focused
Think of your focus as another muscle you need to train. Try being super focused for a couple of minutes at a time and over many rides, you will get better at it. Kids usually can’t sit for a long time, but as they get older and practice it in school, they learn to manage (well, most of them and most of the time). It’s the same for your lengthy cardio sessions – you can train yourself to get better.
Repeat a mantra
I think I have mentioned before that on runs, I sometimes repeat ‘just keep running… just keep mommy-ing…’ kind of like Dory in ‘Finding Nemo’. Not exactly state-of-the-art, but it works, especially when I’m hitting the wall. My brain may not be capable of a more complex thought by then!
Split ride mentally into smaller parts
You know the whole ‘just to that tree’ thing? I think that runners are more adept at this than cyclists (and it’s not great for swimming). It’s less overwhelming and gives you something to focus on.
Throw in some intervals
This is a trick I have discovered not that long ago (sadly, it took me a while to figure it out on my own) that my indoor rides when I do intervals feel a lot shorter and less (mentally) exhausting than just ‘flat’ rides. Anything that breaks up the monotony is your friend!
Find company
Not always easy, but running/riding with others helps you with not drifting off. If you start slowing down, you will notice your companion riding away from you and will snap back into it. I think that’s why Zwift and the likes are so popular: it gives you both variety and other riders help motivate you to keep going.
Fuel properly
One of the reasons for losing focus during a long workout may be hitting the wall. To prevent it, make you to fuel right (see this post for advice on that). Being thirsty or hungry makes it a lot harder to pedal/ run/ swim hard. Your lack of focus is your body alerting you to a growing problem!
Entertainment?
This one covers a lot… If you’re on a treadmill, having some sort of distraction is helpful. Machine makes sure you keep your pace and everything else is boredom. So music, movie, whatever keeps your mind occupied will work. Personally, I have a thing for movies/ shows with a lot of fight scenes (you can judge if you want, but I don’t care – it works for me).
Sadly, that doesn’t work as well on a stationary bike. The moment your mind wanders away, you slow down. So you do need to find something entertaining, but not so much so that you won’t watch your pace. I would recommend music with a strong beat, so you can match your pedaling to the music.
When you are outside, entertainment may just come to you. Admiring views, people-watching, making sure you don’t veer off into a ditch… Plenty of things to think about! This actually makes trail running a strong choice: your activity demands enough attention that you are more likely to stay focused.
Focus on some aspect of your training
So this is a trick I tend to use while swimming, especially in open water, where entertainment is scarce at best: focus on something specific in your movement. My go-to is counting my breaths and focusing on doing them right every third arm stroke. It both calms me and gives me rhythm. I was told that some of the pro runners can hear their heart rate and synchronize it with their step. You won’t be catching me doing it, but the point is: they are focused on some part of their activity.
Treadmills: cover the console
When you are on a ‘dreadmill’, you can easily set a speed, incline and time/ distance you want to go and just plow away. It gets harder to keep going if you keep seeing how slowly the time is moving forward. If you have a hard time resisting looking all the time (and for some of us, like me, those numbers are so close to eye level that they are hard to ignore), cover them with a towel or something.
There is some irony to the above paragraph, since when I work out on an indoor bike, I have to look at some sort of stats at all times. It’s either console or my Garmin app showing my heart rate. Otherwise I just kind of slow down and go easy… So yeah, test both and see what works better for you.
So what’s the secret to focus in endurance training? Well, it’s mostly finding what works for you and understanding that different days and workouts may call for different solutions. But one thing is for sure: go out there, work on it and enjoy!