Obstacle Mud Runner - issue 6

obstaclemudrunner.co.uk ForEliteAtheletes toFunRunners 8 Bypassing the drama to OCRWC success Picture the scene – It’s autumn 2016, the leaves are turning, the sun still shines occasionally and the mud is becoming that little bit stickier as the rains soften up the areas that weren’t boggy. You’ve completed a few OCRs, you have the ‘kisses’, scrapes and medals to prove it and one October weekend you see posts on social media about the awesome time the worlds’ best, your friends and your teammates are having in the Blue Mountains, Canada at the OCR World Championships (OCRWC). You decide there and then you’re going to be there in 2017, and begin planning your route to get there – Which events are qualifiers? Am I capable of qualifying? How will I need to train to make it? Can I convince the other half to make it a family trip ‘that we’ll all enjoy’? Sounds like a familiar train of thought, right? With the 2017 OCRWCs just around the corner, that moment you’ve been training for is within sight, and with it comes a growing sense of nervousness, excitement, anxiety and tension that ultimately could lead to you limiting your own ability to perform to the level you are capable of. Uncertainty from the unknown Those feelings, the ones that sometimes keep you up at night and almost certainly do the night before a race, are often rooted in the uncertainty brought on by the unknown. As children, the unknown never fazed us. We would happily climb any tower, traverse ropes over muddy holes and generally take on any adventure laid before us with an unbound enthusiasm. As we grow, our conscious takes in the information from the world around us, programming the sights, sounds and emotions we experience into our subconscious. Current neuroscience suggests these programmes can be stored as autobiographical memories (one highly memorable experience like the time you lost your favourite toy) or episodic memories (repeated experiences like the process for tying your shoe laces). As adults, our brains seek to find comfort in these memories, moving towards repeating the memories we enjoy, both episodic and autobiographical, and avoiding repeat of the ones that can cause us psychological, physical or emotional distress. The challenge the unknown brings is that our brains rapidly start to sift through our memories trying to find comfort in what lies ahead, seeking out what we know. But this instantly gets skewed because we feel there is uncertainty in the experience because we know it is new. This cycle of known > unknown > certainty > uncertainty keeps repeating until the start line, escalating and building in perceived tension until the start gun fires. If not worked with appropriately, this tension can limit your ability to perform as well as your training has prepared you for. What follows are a few simple things to put into practice to help minimise that tension in the build up to the race, and use the butterflies you will get positively to achieve more. Control the controllable Within the cycle, there are two controllables (known, certainty) and two uncontrollable (unknown, uncertainty) and you always have a choice as to which you dedicate your conscious thoughts towards. By choosing to concentrate on the controllables, and repeatedly doing this in the build up to the race, you will give yourself less time to consider the uncontrollables and feel the negative effects of them. Now, you might be thinking ‘there’s so much stuff I don’t know when I get there; the course map, the obstacles, the registration tent, the supermarket with the meals I need, my hotel room’ and yes they initially they may be unknowns. RACE : OCRWC are you prepared? Graham Roberts Performance Coach and Behavioural Change Consultant at Ispire Motivational Coaching Ltd, gives us an insight into a world. I think most of us can relate. motivational coaching The challenge the unknown brings is that our brains rapidly start to sift through our memories trying to find comfort in what lies ahead Photo: Joshua Earle Photo: Tim Swaan