Beast mode. My coach (Lynda) trains her athletes to ultimately reach “beast mode” at the right time in the season. Beast mode is when your mind and body are ready to race; when you have power that is hard to harness and so much stoke that your excitement to race is overflowing. You want to race, you need to race. You have so much energy and flow that racing is just natural and fun. When you are racing in beast mode you fight for the best line every lap, you get faster on every lap. Your brain is so focused on the task at hand that all it thinks while racing is go, go, faster, faster, win, win WIN! I was SO there in the early season. It is such an amazing feeling to be there. I had so much power in my legs at a few races that I had to harness it and make sure to distribute it evenly (all 3 race at Bonelli Park, both races at Whiskey 50, both races in Vail, short track in Montana)”. I love beast mode. I’m stoked to do my core workouts, to stretch, to take my vitamins, to visualize the races and all of the other little details that add up to make a racer a great racer.
Then unexpected events happen, life happens. Then you aren’t in beast mode and racing is a chore and discouraging. Now that coach Lynda and I have a few months of perspective and a view of my season as a whole and my racing career over the past 3.5 years we know what happened. Exactly what happened. There is one overlying issue then many other factors that added fuel to the fire and it’s what makes a season disintegrate much faster than anyone could have guessed.
Here is the good news; we know how to fix all of the factors that contributed to me losing my beast mode. We have a plan that I’m so incredibly stoked about that I’m already excited for next year. We know how to get me ready to start racing spring of 2014 feeling good and keep feeling great all year.
How can this post help you? Well, your issues and life factors will be different. It is invaluable to have a coach that you trust, that you can share everything with and that you can stick with for years so that together you learn about YOU as an athlete. Of course I think Lynda is the best. She is the best coach for ME. She might be the best for you too! She’s been working with me since the fall of 2010 so she has a full knowledge of my racing and training history. These things take time and you need a very bright and perceptive coach to get you through it all.
My goal was to finish the ProXCT in the top 5 for 2013. I placed 3rd, exceeding my expectations! Rad! What’s up next for me? Nothing for a few weeks. No racing for a bit. Now I get to rest and recovery and decompress. I’m sad to say I won’t be racing Park City Point to Point this year. It’s been the frosting on my XC cake for the past 3 years but it doesn’t fit into my bigger plans and my preparation for 2014. I’ll be there to heckle all of my friends still!
Then unexpected events happen, life happens. Then you aren’t in beast mode and racing is a chore and discouraging. Now that coach Lynda and I have a few months of perspective and a view of my season as a whole and my racing career over the past 3.5 years we know what happened. Exactly what happened. There is one overlying issue then many other factors that added fuel to the fire and it’s what makes a season disintegrate much faster than anyone could have guessed.
Here is the good news; we know how to fix all of the factors that contributed to me losing my beast mode. We have a plan that I’m so incredibly stoked about that I’m already excited for next year. We know how to get me ready to start racing spring of 2014 feeling good and keep feeling great all year.
How can this post help you? Well, your issues and life factors will be different. It is invaluable to have a coach that you trust, that you can share everything with and that you can stick with for years so that together you learn about YOU as an athlete. Of course I think Lynda is the best. She is the best coach for ME. She might be the best for you too! She’s been working with me since the fall of 2010 so she has a full knowledge of my racing and training history. These things take time and you need a very bright and perceptive coach to get you through it all.
My goal was to finish the ProXCT in the top 5 for 2013. I placed 3rd, exceeding my expectations! Rad! What’s up next for me? Nothing for a few weeks. No racing for a bit. Now I get to rest and recovery and decompress. I’m sad to say I won’t be racing Park City Point to Point this year. It’s been the frosting on my XC cake for the past 3 years but it doesn’t fit into my bigger plans and my preparation for 2014. I’ll be there to heckle all of my friends still!