The Comfort Zone

First, there may be a part two to this. It came me yesterday as a personal reflection, whilst I was trying to do a brisk test of my ability. In essence, I think people agree that when you test yourself, you should give your all and sometimes bit more. However, I couldn't do it, which was apparent from the numbers and my action right after the effort. If you've given it all, you just don't carry on with the cool down.

I got back to my flat and had a coffee, which, in other words, means that I had a moment of reflection. The reasons behind my lack of ability in the art of suffering are apparent: no intense session due to various reasons and my aims of developing the ultimate endurance. The former reason is consequence of stuff that I've had no real control of, so I'm just having to deal with them. Yet, the latter one is increasingly interesting to me.

You build your base endurance and pile in good mileage, that is all good to a point. In my case, I mainly target races over set distance at maximal sustainable speed as in time trials. The word sustainable carries a lot of weight – as in many card games, early winnings become serious losses at the end. That means to say that overkilling a performance from the start is not optimal strategy and hence people talk about pacing strategies, negative splits, strong finished and so on.

It leaves us with a educated estimate of our pace, power or any other measure of our sustainable performance over the distance. What does one then do? Answer is monitor. Monitoring is psychological process where you interpret the existing data, feelings and markers. By monitoring you keep the performance together. It isn't bad thing by any means. Although, it can lead to situations, where one doesn't know actually the absolute limits and can practically never empty the tanks. Emptying the tanks, on the other hand, are decisive in racing. Continuous monitoring also creates a honed alarm system within the athlete. The athlete may become too aware of what is going on and thus, keeps receiving signals, interpreting them and stays on the comfort zone. Notably, comfort zone here means the maximal sustainable effort, not as in riding or running in comforting pace.

So, the alarms start to become more and more honed and accurate. They start ringing and raising questions even if there is no real need to. Athlete keeps making adjustments to keep in the desired zone. And ultimately finishes the races thinking: ”Actually, I had plenty left – maybe I should have given it more and next time surely I will.” Then comes the next time and the very same happens. To me, at least.

The monitoring develops very easily when you train alone a lot. Then you have time to interpret everything. It also develops when you get caught on numbers too much. It happens naturally, if you are that kind of person. It happens after some destructive experiences that you haven't analyzed well enough. This all applies to me. Now, I'm in the process of verifying my thoughts by reading. And yes, there will decisively be part two on how I'm to overcome my issue of monitoring overkills.

Train hard and trust your instincts.

Anton

The next big step

I've been bit cryptic of what's come for me and that is because it has been relatively unclear to me just as well.

Now though.

I have been admitted as a PhD candidate at the University of Birmingham from Fall 2016.

My PhD will be in the School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences. I will study and research the psychosocial factors in the use of banned substances. I am really appreciative of my opportunity to work with Dr. Ian Boardley. Dr. Boardley is internationally recognized for his work in the area. More accurately; what influences the decisions to dope, how does the attitude towards using doping products evolve during an athletic career and where are the crucial points in time, if one is to fall to use banned substances

This is something special for me. I am happy and ever enthusiastic to tell you about it. On personal level, it is huge. It is a big step towards what I aim to become one day. And maybe it is time to shed light on my dream in academia and sport.

One day my aim is to be perhaps the fastest doctor in the world.

It is easy to enjoy your coffee more, when you where you are heading.

Coaching, mentoring, training, developing the mind in Finland

At the beginning, I want to mention that the following views expressed are my own personal take of the topic.

The social media marketing is booming, blogging is booming, and the world wide web is a rather free playing field. What I mean to say is that it is perfectly acceptable (and bothering easy) to market and publish all kinds of stuff in today’s web-society. I'm keen follower of some social media channels and Internet portals related to my field – grossly or specifically.

I can happily state that the businesses for improving health and fitness are developing well and good. Many people want their share of it. However, this trend obviously has its pitfalls – in my honest at least. People today are not only looking for improved physique, but also the psychological side is receiving more and more interest. Hand in hand with this growth, I've seen more and more mental coaching services appearing with the most varying names and concepts.

Personally, I see this growth in interest as great thing. But then, the growing market of various fairly commercial 'mind coaching solutions' is certainly confusing. Having browsed some of the market offerings in Finland, I'm in many places still to understand the fundamental approaches and roots. In other words, what does the customer actually get? Is it just inventive slogans and mental cookbook recipes without any, or very weak, base in research and science? Another thing is the various certifications and accreditations on offer. So what, if you buy a few course days and an impressive diploma – is the certification a proof of some sort of expertise? Is the underlying competence really sufficient to work with real people? Are the end customers in good hands?

The field of coaching somebody’s mind is very sensitive. I did my MSc in Performance Psychology, and I've had the honour to study and work under the supervision of some of the leading professionals in the field. If I learnt something it was the ethics of dealing with minds of other people. Now I feel there are too many half-hearted operators trying to address the psychological sides of life endeavours – work, exercise, fitness, health behaviour, etc. I fear that people in good faith will ultimately suffer for their honest efforts to improve.

A major change.

This blog has been silent for a reason, I believe. For how long the reason has actually existed, I refuse to answer. I've come to a conclusion during this period. Yet I am not able shed light all across the whole conclusion, but partially I can elaborate on what is driving the change. The original purpose was to talk about my journey solely from athletic perspective, and the new purpose is to talk about my journey from a wider professional perspective.

What's more is that I can now safely skip the rest of my race of the late season and following medical saga (which is long and ongoing even without the slightest exaggeration). All I'll say is that the latter part of the season was actually pretty good, considering what was actually going on. It is all good know though – I am fit and healthy. Well, the fitness is a bit of question mark after such a long break from training.

Ok, back to the point then. What point? The point of perspective – the new journey. The new journey brings new challenges, the new challenges bring excitement. It keeps me going. Ok, I lost the point again.

The main content will be from my views on my profession in the field of performance psychology. Performance psychology is my passion and profession. It is a study of performance from psychological point of view. What are the components of performance? How can one be the best he or she can? The questions are endless and answers are complex, which makes it even more intriguing field of study.

In essence, I'll make efforts to write about stuff that is going on in the field and of course, my own views and opinions of certain matters I feel strongly about. And yes, please toss me ideas and ask questions – I'd honored and glad to write about them.

There is a certain driving force for this change and I am know waiting for an email to officially confirm it. The other reason is that it is actually quite dull to try and make time trialling sound like an eventful and dearly entertaining encounter. At its best it is freakishly controlled steady effort over a predescribed distance. At worst, you are sluggish or out of control or there maybe a blow of wind making things extreme. That was bit of an exaggeration, but see the point – I kind of ran out of adjectives.

In short, I'm on the verge of something exciting – a whole new journey and goals.