How to Avoid a Pre-Race Crisis of Confidence-Coach Roundtable | KoopCast Episode 172
Episode overview:
CTS coaches Jason Koop, Andy-Jones Wilkins, Adam Ferdinandson and Ryne Anderson discuss how to avoid a pre race crisis of confidence.
Episode highlights:
(8:30) Viewing training holistically: highlighting the totality of training to build athlete confidence, recency bias
(33:40) Readjusting race goals: setting expectations, creating process-oriented goals, timing the discussion on preparedness
(51:13) Difficulty is nonlinear: athletes transitioning from 50k to 50 miles, you might feel better at mile 70 than mile 50, using training camps to improve confidence in volume jumps
Our conversation:
(0:00) Introduction: normal athlete pre-race concerns, building confidence and self-efficacy
(1:59) AJW on confidence: setup, trust, incorporating tune-up races, examples
(5:30) Undertraining versus overtraining: being slightly undertrained is better, athlete tendencies to want more preparation time, Ryne’s example of reminding athletes of previous strong workouts
(8:30) Viewing training holistically: highlighting the totality of training to build athlete confidence, recency bias
(10:00) Uncertainty in race preparation: examples, changes in race course, working with uncertainty, experience with uncomfortability helps adaptability, training is never perfect
(13:08) Example of a non-obsessive athlete: positive attitude and being unplugged from media can help adaptability and confidence, Koop’s 3-day weather checking rule
(14:55) Using negative experiences to build confidence: being prepared for challenge, deriving confidence from overcoming poor training, repeated DNFs example
(17:55) Conversations about failure: ultramarathons are hard, employing a lighthearted or objective perspective, finding the root of the problem, post-race reflection
(22:36) Post-race reflections: waiting a few days to perform race reflection, example of chasing qualifiers, recognizing partial successes, using time as a buffer for emotional swings, banter
(26:15) Dealing with athlete failure: being practical and honest with athletes, identifying one tactical and one emotional takeaway, mitigating future mistakes, nutrition example
(30:14) Athletes with poor training: example scenarios, be realistic, curious about what you can do, and flexible
(33:40) Readjusting race goals: setting expectations, creating process-oriented goals, timing the discussion on preparedness
(36:33) Parallel to advising students who cram: honest expectations, readjusting goals, making the best of what you have, examples for ultrarunning
(38:50) Focus on what you can control: pick something specific to change tactically that you can focus on to improve self-efficacy
(40:49) SkiMo athletes: high training volume but poor running specificity in the spring, example of jogging descents, managing lack of confidence from absent specificity
(45:05) Tackling longer distances: embracing the unknown
(46:28) Psycho-biological model of fatigue: the perceived exertion endpoint interaction, predicting what efforts are sustainable, ultramarathoners suck at extrapolating effort, increasing self-efficacy by recognizing this limitation
(51:13) Difficulty is nonlinear: athletes transitioning from 50k to 50 miles, you might feel better at mile 70 than mile 50, using training camps to improve confidence in volume jumps
(54:09) Training camps for building confidence: Western States example, using training partners for accountability, benefits of solo training camps for confidence
(58:17) Wrap-up: everybody wants more time to train, have confidence
(59:02) Outro: giving thanks, share the podcast, Research Essentials for Ultrarunning
Additional resources:
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