You devote your time and energy to prepare for your big event. You’ve completed all the miles, tapered correctly and have brought yourself to the last few days before the race. At this point the “hay is in the barn,” meaning you can’t do anything else in your physical preparation to make you any faster on race day. However, there are mental preparations which can be a great help to you. You need to begin this type of training more than a few days before your event, but even a quick mental pep talk in the final hours can have a profound effect on your race. This is the psychological preparation for different environmental conditions.

We often have very little control over the environment, but we have complete control over our minds and how we devote our mental energy. Different circumstances combined with changing environmental conditions can introduce anxiety and self-defeating thoughts into an athlete’s mind. Negative thoughts, such as “It’s going to be too hot and humid,” or “race day is going to be really windy and I don’t do well in those conditions,” do nothing but adversely affect your confidence and consequently diminish your athletic performance. It’s okay and natural to be nervous. It’s nearly impossible to eliminate all anxieties, but mental preparation and addressing those items within your control can greatly mitigate potentially negative mental effects. As you’ll see below, we have addressed several strategies for approaching a positive attitude that will help you learn to race the day you are given.

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BE WILLING TO ADJUST YOU EXPECTATIONS
This is by far the hardest and yet most important item we have to control. Athletes get so focused on personal best times, fast courses, fast conditions and qualifying for future events, which makes it easy to let any outside factor derail their confidence. If your perspective is too narrow-minded and rigid, then you might be setting yourself up for failure. You have to be ready to adjust your expectations for any given day. Several years ago, I showed up to a national championship race with defined time goals in my head for a run split. When I previewed the run course, I found it to be the hilliest run I had ever seen. I immediately felt defeat two days before the start gun because I knew I wouldn‘t be able to hit my aggressive time goals on those big hills. I drove the course a couple times, examining each hill, and mentally adjusted my run plan and expectations. I had to let go of my time goals because of the terrain. Instead of focusing on paces and splits, I focused on how I would run. This was completely under my control, rather than my paces. I ended up having one of my best runs to date, not my fastest, but the best. I gapped the competition on the run to win while many athletes complained about how the course was too hilly. Let go of rigid narrow-minded objectives; feel the freedom to adjust your expectations for the environmental conditions.

RESEARCH AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE BEFORE THE EVENT
There’s a reason governments spend billions of dollars on intelligence gathering, processing and reporting. Information about the future and being able to predict potential problems gives you time to prepare accordingly. There’s no reason you can’t take this approach towards your big events. Researching weather, course terrain, past times and competition can drastically reduce the number of surprises you may encounter on race day. Nothing you do will ever give you 100 percent certainty or eliminate unforeseen events, but the more information you have means the more you can adjust your plans and be prepared for the realities you might encounter on race day. The internet gives us access to a great deal of information. Conducting a little research (a minuscule fraction of time compared to your physical training) can set you up to avoid mental defeat from unforeseeables.

TRAIN IN ALL CONDITIONS
I’m not suggesting that you take your bike out in the next hurricane or hail storm, but a little training in cruddy weather will give you more confidence. Realistically, not many races take place in ideal conditions. Don’t be afraid to do a run in the rain or push your bike into a stiff headwind. While it may not be as fun as training in other conditions, you won’t be as intimidated if the 10-day weather report predicts your big day will be less than perfect.

PACK FOR ALL RACE TRAIN IN ALL CONDITIONS
Once you have an idea of all the potential environmental conditions make sure you take consideration while packing. It’s easier to throw an extra wind vest or arm warmers in your bag than it is to be in a panic on a cold race day morning. Take the time to think through all possible conditions. This can be as simple as throwing in an extra baggie of salt pills. They’re almost nothing in the scheme of your race preparation, but they could save your day from cramps if you have a random hot day.

WATER CONDITIONS
No maritime society has ever boasted the ability to control the seas. Just as the Greeks prayed to Poseidon and the Romans to Neptune for good fortune on the water, you can’t control conditions of the swim. In triathlons, the water may be murky, cold, choppy or perfectly calm. You have no ability to change the marine environment. What you can do is prepare mentally for the variety of conditions you may encounter in the open water. If you expect 100 feet underwater visibility, an 81 degree swimming pool or a perfect Barton Springs morning every time you step up to the starting line, you’ll certainly be intimidated when you encounter something very different. Mentally prepare yourself for these inevitabilities. Think through a choppy or congested swim in the days and months before your event. Coach yourself with calm thoughts about keeping your composure even when getting battered by a wave or another swimmer’s stroke. When it comes to the water, you have to learn to go with the flow — pun intended.

ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS AFFECT EVERYONE
When Mother Nature frowns on you, it’s quite easy to think that the world at that moment is just so horrible. Indeed, pushing into a head wind on the bike is tough. Remember that it’s tough for everyone. This sounds simple, but in the midst of events, tunnel vision is bound to creep in on each of us. Hills, poor road surface, blistering heat and stiff winds can make all of us feel very alone and we each start to feel sorry for ourselves (even if you don’t want to admit it). Here’s the trick: Don’t let it! The environment affects everyone. That hill is just as tall for those ahead or behind you. Everyone in that race is experiencing the same feelings, so let go of frustration you have with the environment. Focusing on the negatives will not help your performance in any way.

REMEMBER TO SEE THE FOREST FOR THE TREES
This idea is very much related to the first strategy of being able to adjust your expectations. You will be in a much better mental state before, during and after your race if you can keep a broad perspective. This can be as simple as knowing that even if you didn’t run your fastest time on that day, it has no bearing on who you are as an athlete or person. It helps you to focus on the process rather than intermediate results. Race times and paces are just numbers, they don’t tell the whole story about your experiences, your journey or your day on a given race course. This sounds so simple, but it can be so difficult. I had a friend who raced a half Ironman event and did not hit her goal time. She had a personal best time, but it wasn’t near what she knew she could achieve. While she was moping around the finish line, another friend stopped her and said, “Yeah, it must be really horrible to go faster than you have ever gone before!” We tend to get so constrained by the details that we find it hard to keep perspective on the whole. This isn’t remedied by a single exercise, but rather by an entire mental shift. If each of us changes our perception, trivial items such as tough weather conditions begin to matter less and less. You can let go of those factors and truly learn to race the day you are given.