After a week of not training from being sick, I’m finally back at it with Trainer Road. Three sets of 3x3min intervals at 115% FTP: there’s nothing like a tough VO2max repeats spin to get your bike training week started!

It’s tough to get started again after a period of no training. It’s synonymous to the feeling you get before you jump into cold water, or when you hear your alarm at 4:30am.

“The body achieves what the mind believes.”

This is the quote on the medal holder my sister made me. As an endurance athlete, I’ve developed appreciation for motivational quotes.

Having gone through years of training with different coaches and athletes, I’ve learned the importance of training your mind with your body. I’ve come to believe that you need to prime your body to do the work that it needs to. This is exactly what I do before a training or race day. Having a “gold medal mentality” gets me in the right mind frame and stay in “the zone”.

The gold medal mentality is what I call the mindset that we should always strive to do our best and push through the burn especially during the toughest of times. It’s the mental state that will allow our bodies to accomplish things that we didn’t know were possible.

Sport is 90 percent mental and 10 percent physical. It is, if not more, important to condition the mind than it is to train the body.

How do you stay in “the zone” during your training?