Sports Pysch 101: Focus
Continuing with our Sports Psych 101 series, this article explores the role of focus as it relates to cycling.
What is focus?
Focus is the ability to direct one’s attention to a specific area, tuning out other distractions and noise.
For this discussion, it’s helpful to differentiate between in-the-moment focus (on the bike) and one’s broader focus on training, recovery, and racing (off the bike).
Much of an athlete’s on-the-bike focus is second-nature, helping to avoid traffic or to keep their eyes on the trail. Lapses in focus at this time-scale typically have immediate & visible consequences: Get distracted, ride off the trail, hit a tree, have a bummer ride.
How well a cyclist focuses their efforts off-the-bike impacts on the quality and progression of their fitness. Sleep, nutrition, goal-setting and consistency in training are all areas worthy of your intentional focus. A lapse of focus in this context may not be as visible as the scratches and bumps from an off-the-trail detour, but will certainly have a negative impact on your performance.
Busy schedules, distractions, and fatigue (mental and physical) erode our ability to focus on being an athlete. Life gets hectic, workouts get missed, and good recovery practices slip for all of us from time to time — it’s a perpetual battle.
But, let me be clear: Focusing on the specifics of your training and goals will make you faster, period.
Top-Down Tips to Level-Up Your Focus
Set good goals: Use the SMART goal-setting process to bring clarity to your training. Know where you’re starting from, where you want to go, and get clear on the individual steps that will get you there.
Prepare in advance: create routines and systems to make life easier, removing friction and chances for procrastination. Have a team planning session to book housing and register for races at the start of the season, rather than scrambling to do so at the last minute. Do your meal-prep, laundry and bike maintenance over the weekend when you have more time, so you can focus on your workout when riding.
Get familiar with the details of your ride: check the weather, learn the terrain and turns of your local group ride, know exactly where and when you’ll do intervals. Armed with that kind of knowledge, you can concentrate on real-time details and nail your workout.
Match your riding partners to your goals: group rides can be great for socializing and hard riding, but they’re not the place to be doing structured intervals or skill work. Riding solo can make it easier to focus on your workouts, leading to higher quality training and consistent progress towards your goals.
Protect your bandwidth: get comfortable saying “no” and turning down the non-stop noise of modern life. Your focus is a finite resource, and is always in demand – be mindful of that as you balance training and recovering with other priorities.
Give these tips a shot, and see what changes as you give a little more focus to your training, recovering, and preparation!