Training & Nutrition - Mental Prep.

Phyisical fitness is extremely impotrant to leading a healthy lifestyle. Sometimes we concentrate so hard on getting our bodies in shape that we forget about our minds.

Just wondering if any of you have some sort of mental excercise that you use to get you prepped for a ride... to help you get that extra few killometers (or miles).

Rise Against. Loud.

I follow Bob Anderson's Stretching routine with eyes closed, while doing deep beathing exercise: 4 heartbeats inhale, 7 hb hold, 8 hb exhale; repeated until I'm all stretched out. Tip of tongue touching the front teeth. I picked this technique up in yoga and it's a great mental and physical bridge to a hard training ride.

I follow Bob Anderson's Stretching routine with eyes closed, while doing deep beathing exercise: 4 heartbeats inhale, 7 hb hold, 8 hb exhale; repeated until I'm all stretched out. Tip of tongue touching the front teeth. I picked this technique up in yoga and it's a great mental and physical bridge to a hard training ride.

You can do this while riding and your HR should drop at least 3-4 beats. Keep your eyes open though. I don't hold breath, but breath conciously ( with awareness).

I find the anger leads to a crappy ride. One would think that the opposite would be true, but not for me.

I went on a trail ride the other day in a bad mood. Uncomfortable clothing (new shorts), tons of horses on the singletrack, and slow bikers who wouldn't yield on the singletrack just exacerbated the problem. Ended up going home after just 6.5 miles.

Yea, the other day the same thing happened to me... I got 20k out and was so fed up I came back the road.