The Mental State of a Triathlete - Part 1

No matter what distance triathlon an athlete calls their own, there is obviously the physical aspect of the sport but even more importantly there is the mental side. Without an athlete being mentally trained (or mentally prepared) the physical preparation/training etc. is difficult to 'get right' to enable the athlete to achieve their goals. In fact one doesn't go without the other, they go hand in hand.

There is then a number of aspects that mental preparedness is important:

• Training
• Racing
• Recovery
• Diet

These 4 are what I believe are the most critical in a triathlete achieving their goals and these 4 areas are quite important to each other. If an athlete is ill disciplined in one it will affect one or more of the others. This leads to another trait that influences an athletes level of mental preparedness and that is there level of discipline. Without a high level of self discipline the mental preparedness of an athlete will have areas of deficiency.

All this also has a number of other influences that makes it easier or harder for an athlete to be mentally prepared.

• Family
• Work
• Goals
• Natural ability
• Injuries (susceptibility to)
• Support structure (coaching etc.)
  
• Time (relates to a number of the influences above)
  

Each week I plan to open these ideas up a little further, from an athletes point of view and pose some practical ideas on achieving a balance in achieving mental preparedness for a triathlete.