Hello and welcome to the next video. In this video we're going to talk about, we're going to continue on with self-talk. So we're dealing with the mental skills here, right? In the first video I talked to you about was self-talk and was about becoming aware of what we're saying in our brains, as we're running biking and swimming.

So either before the workout, during the workout and after the workout.  What are we saying as we are training? I want you to think about that and just become aware of what we're doing. Did you do that? And if you have not done that well, that's okay. Do you know why? Because you're going to be continue to do more workouts and more workouts and more workouts.

And there's always a chance to listen to what's going on in your brain.  What's the mind chatter that you're saying?  What are the things you are saying? Are they mostly negative, mostly positive, or what's going on up there? I know what is going up there is my puppy.  He is making some noise. But we're going to continue on and let the dog bark.

It is what it is. All right. So let's go into the power point presentation.  As I mentioned earlier, the first step for self-talk is becoming aware of your thoughts. So what are, what are you saying? So here is a picture of me in an Ironman and I framed it in a black frame. And so I'm kinda like in a negative state right here.

And I'm thinking I am so slow. Why am I doing this? This sucks. Blahblahblahblahblah even look at the expression on my face. I think ARGH, I'm not enjoying the race. Now watch this go to the next page. What happens when you change your thought from let's go back to, I am so slow. I suck.

Why am I doing this? Blah, blah, blah, blah, to this. You know what? I am fast, steady effort, steady pace, steady pace, focus on having a good time. And what I did there is I framed it in a white frame and you can see, it just looks better right here. I'm like,

ARGH, here. Ooh, right? And it's can be that simple, when you're training and racing. If you find yourself in this position here where you have a lot of negative thoughts, you need to stop those negative thoughts and change them to something positive. Go, Ooh, you know what? I am fast. I deserve to be here, steady effort,

enjoy the ride, look around, et cetera, et cetera, that will really change your state of what you are doing. And it makes the race or the workout that much better. Now I want you to take your negative thoughts and change or reframe them into positive or self-serving thoughts. And that's what I did in this one.  I went from I'm so slow to here I am fast and I am steady.

Okay. So that's where I did.  I took the negative thought and changed it or reframed it into a positive one self-serving thoughts. You may need to convince yourself of the rationality of some of your negative statements. For example, when I raced in Hawaii quite a few years ago, I was actually quite nervous about racing on Saturday. I was asking myself,

Todd, why are you so nervous about this? And I said, I think I'm afraid of the bike because I don't want to be cold. If it rains.  You see in the summertime before an Ironman in Whistler I almost froze on the bike, it was so cold. It was in the pouring rain and single digits. It was so, so cold.

And I really, really hated it. I had to dig so deep to get through that bike. Many people DNF that day, but I didn't. And I really didn't enjoy that bike grid. So I think when I thought about this, I go, this is going to happen to me in Hawaii too. If it rains and be cold, those same feelings came up.

But then I realized, Hey, look, Todd, you are in Hawaii. So yes, it may rain. It may rain on race day, but you know what? You're in Hawaii. You will not be cold. I promise you will not be as cold as Whistler, single digits. It will not be. And then, you know what?

Once I realized that my thoughts were irrational. I was golden. I'm like, yeah, bring it on. If it's a windy on race day, if it's raining, I'm okay. I'm okay. I can deal with that.  Let's move on to the exercise that I want you to do. So the following exercise will help you to change or reframe your negative statements into positive ones.

What I want you to do is I want you to create some examples of the negative self-talk that you customarily use and then change them into positive ones. So you've, you've already done this during your training, right? So you paid attention to your thoughts. What's going on up there. What are your negative thoughts, especially? What are your negative thoughts you're doing here is an example.

What I would like you to do is to create a small table with two columns and multiple rows. And on one side you can put negative thought. And then the other side you can put positive thought and just go through all the list of negative thoughts that you have. And then you're going to change that into a positive thought. You may have done an exercise like this before,

but maybe you've never done it for exercise or triathlon or training. Here's an example. Number one, I don't deserve to be at this race. The positive thought is, you know what? I've trained. Well, I'm ready. And I deserve to be here. Now. I want you to go through your list of negative thoughts that you've, you've been aware of when you're training, before training and after training,

What are the negative thoughts and change it from negative to positive. I promise you, this is a game changer. Yes. Getting our bodies physically ready to race is very important in triathlon.  100% it is. But when we have weaknesses up here, it can really take the strongest athlete and allow them not to perform as well as they could.  I've seen many races before where I go into a race where I'm not as fit as someone else,

but yet I can beat them because they are not as mentally tough as I am. And if it does rain and they had that thought, Oh my gosh I am going to be cold, that will slow them down. Or if there's swimming in the ocean and they see a giant Manta Ray beneath them like 20 feet, they might go, ARGH, they might freak out and that's going to slow them down so we can be tough up top.

That's going to make us a stronger Athlete.  Take your time, go through these exercises and write down all your  negative thoughts and change them over to positive thoughts. That's your exercise for this week? And I will see you in the next video.  :)