MASTERSMISSION

Scoreboard stunner: I know I can go faster!

A winning training routine can translate into podium performances


By Howard Cole

How many times have we said this to ourselves and heard others say the same as we gaze at the scoreboard after our run? We mutter, “I know I can ski better. In training I’m so much faster.” “Oh did I blow that turn or section! I came over the transition and I don’t know where my head was. I had a brain blip.” We underperform. and there are reasons for this.

This is the result of one or a combination of the following three: lack of neurological and motor activation; a weak course inspection and battle plan; and, most of all, an issue of training. It is the approach to training that I want to focus on.

It’s gate training day and we are excited. We arrive a little late or we stay too long enjoying a coffee and a conversation with a friend. We go out to the course and it's already set. We haven’t inspected it and haven't spent the time to do an adequate warm-up and become activated. Our coach cajoles us to warm up and inspect. He or she then says take your time, go easy on the first few runs, 60 to 70 percent, and get the feel of the course, and then open up on your fourth to sixth runs. Our first run is really an inspection run. We never really learn the course and construct a battle plan. I think you know where I’m going.

I cannot over emphasize, we get good at what we practice. Our brains are quite literal and do exactly what our minds instruct them to do and practice. On race day we have only one shot at a course and we have to do everything we can to go at it 100 percent and be very clear where we are going. What is the rhythm? The line? Where are the transitions, trouble spots and places to turn on the gas? If we don’t have a really clear picture of the course in our minds and where we are going, we hesitate and can even be fearful, and we put on the brakes.

So here is a strategy for training. Come to training on time to complete a good activation routine and inspection. We must ignore our coach’s advice and pretend the first two runs are our race runs. We are trying to simulate race day each time we train. This practice will lay down the neurological networks that we will rely on come race day. As I have written previously, all thought, feeling and behavior is the product of the activity of our neurological networks in our brain. If the network isn’t there, then behavior won’t happen. There will be no magical transformation — I repeat, there will be no magical transformation of our skiing on race day — because the neurological network just isn’t there.

How do we lay down a new neurological network? We must deliberately practice a new behavior over three to six weeks until we can do it automatically, or, said another way, it becomes a habit. Within this is the importance of routine. We practice a sequence, which alerts our brains of what is coming next. A good activation routine initiates the sequence. We then inspect and construct an effective battle plan. Our brain becomes focused and adrenaline starts to flow so we can perform at 100 percent as we enter the start gate.

After our first two simulated race runs, we can turn to working on whatever we wish, be it how to attack a hairpin or a flush or move the apex of our turn up the hill in a corridor so we don’t got late in the course.

Another weakness in training that I often see is that in no point in a session of training does an athlete pull out the stops and really go for it. I call it “messing with adrenaline,” and “pushing the envelope” and taking risks to see what we have inside ourselves. Adrenaline is a powerful hormone. It can give us amazing strength and overwhelm pain and fear. This is very useful when facing a challenging and scary course. We need to learn how to turn on adrenaline, call it up and how to modulate it. Too much adrenaline causes anxiety and dissociation and we lose awareness of what we are doing. Too much anxiety makes us tense and we lose our suppleness and flexibility. I’m often teased for being an animal in training, and recently I was called a man on a mission. What I’m doing is messing with adrenaline.

Pushing the envelope is what the winners are able to do on race day. They dig a little deeper and find that tighter line and win by two-tenths of a second. Again this is not a magical transformation on race day, but an athlete who, in his training, has rehearsed digging a little deeper. Remember, we get good at what we practice. So in training, take some risks, experiment with a tighter line, hammer the flush that looks intimidating, and get some good acceleration into the next corridor. Worst that can happen is you blow out. You find what you are capable of and record it for race day.

How to activate is a complex subject and it varies tremendously from person to person, and I will not deal with it here. However, whatever your routine, I believe at some point it is very useful to go full blast, visualizing and simulating the rhythm of the course you have finished inspecting. You are trying to fire up the neuron networks that you have laid down in training.

A good inspection is part of the routine that alerts our brain of what is coming next. I  talked how to inspect in a March/April 2009 SRC article. It is a key part of the sequence that helps our brain be 100 percent ready in the start gate. On this I am emphatic. It must be practiced in training.

In summary, how we train is how we will race. Train at 75 percent and you will go at  75 percent in the race course and be disappointed. We are creatures of habit. What we practice we execute on race day. There will be no magical transformations. So in training be disciplined, work out a routine that involves going at 100 percent on the first two runs, practice it so it becomes a habit, and on race day you won’t end up with race day blues.  S-Magazine
 

Howard Cole is an accomplished Toronto-based masters racer and freelance writer. A father of three who runs his own child and adolescent psychiatry practice, Cole has been on the Canadian Masters Ski Team for the past seven years. He is a past winner of the Champion of Champions at Canadian Nationals, which uses computer analysis to track a winner across all age groups.