16 Week Face of America Training Plan & Guide | Page 16

 Fluids and bottled water for race site (don’t assume they’ll have it).  Self-Talk Self-Talk is also commonly associated with Cue Words, Negative Thought Stopping, and Positive Affirmations. Positive Affirmations are positive words used to affirm or reaffirm the truth concerning your performance readiness, and stop negative thoughts. Certainly, Self-Talk can be negative and quite prevalent; however, here we’re going to focus more so on the positive aspects, and how Self-Talk can be an effective tool in aiding performance. SelfTalk is an important part of our lives – as we do it all the time and in various situations. The important thing to remember is that Self-Talk can be guided, beneficial, healthy, and performance enhancing – just as much as it can be negatively debilitating. In line with Cue Words and Negative Thought Stopping, below are some suggestions for incorporating SelfTalk into your teaching points for your athletes:     Teach your athletes to be more conscious of their Self-Talk, to use techniques to stop negative thoughts, and to regain control, motivation, and energy through positive Self-Talk and thinking. If you want your athletes to “bring it down a notch”, suggest cue words to aide calming such as “breathe,” “relax,” “steady,” “calm,” “loose,” etc. If you want your athletes to get psyched up or “take it up a notch,” suggest cue words that might motivate, inspire, or take action such as “you’re ready,” “attack,” “go for it,” “that’s it,” “commit,” “you’ve got ‘em!”, “strike now,” etc. Utilized positively, Cue Words can be powerfully effective in combating negative thoughts and a drifting Attentional Focus. Whether athlete or coach, always try to be positive, or find positive learning aspects of situations. By being positive, you/your athletes will learn to be more positive, which will carry over into training, competing, as well as elsewhere in daily life. Ultimately, this will lead towards more stability, effectiveness, happiness, and optimal performances. 16 Other Considerations – Equipment Preparations    Tires. Check tires (especially) during the last days leading up to race day, and if you see any significant cuts, deep embedded debris such as thin metal shards – that you cannot remove, dry rotting or splitting along the tire wall, replace them with new tires. Chain. If your chain is loose and unnecessarily worn due to excessive stretch from “cross chaining” (big chainring up front and largest cog in the rear or the small chainring up front and the smallest cog in the rear), replace it. If your chain is in good condition, then just ensure you’ve cleaned it well and lightly lubed it. Also, while cleaning the chain, make sure there’s no buildup of clumps of chain lube and road dirt and debris. Drivetrain. Specifically look at the chain and chainrings (up front), and the cog