Being negative towards yourself

Maybe I’m alone on this but sometimes when my training it’s gets tough, I start to get really negative towards myself. It always pushes me to push through and finish the intended session.

How can I be nicer to myself?

I believe this stems from mental fatigue (the brain tells your body it’s fatigued before it actually
It is).

What you need to tell yourself is by not listening to what your brain wants at that time, you are building mental resilience to discomfort and pain and that resilience can be used in all aspects of life so it’s not just a seemingly arbitrary thing about finishing the workout. It has much more wider benefits and Remus if yourself of that alone I feel should help push through those moments. You then start to develop a more can-do approach I.e I know I can do this because I did this when I thought I couldn’t etc etc

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My boss points out that I love self deprivation but I do it mostly out of humor, I figure if I chop myself down, I take the satisfaction away from someone else haha.

I’m the opposite…I think I’m great…somebodies got to! :laughing: and I’m short of volunteers

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Listen to @ambermalika on the podcasts and realize it doesn’t get you anywhere. Ask yourself ‘what if I can’.

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Some interesting points in this article.

Personally, I think people need to stop beating themselves up about beating themselves up. There’s nothing wrong with you if you’re not a fluffy bunny of optimism 24-7

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This thread reminds me of what a total loser I am, and what a crappy cyclist I have become.

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Well ill try to tell my self that i can achieve success rather then telling myself to shut up legs your weak.

„ Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t–you’re right.”

― Henry Ford

The mind is a powerful thing. Chosing to be positive during a hard workout is something else than the relentless cult of positivety. It‘s the only thing that allows you to push back your limits and grow.

Tell yourself repeatedly that you are „bad at over-unders and besides, the pain is too much to bear“ during Leconte, and you‘ll never finish Leconte :blush:

When I am on that razor’s edge where my brain is throwing „sound and logical“ reasons (=excuses) for me to bail out every second, negative self-talk is all it takes for me to break. Sadly, every time I break it gets easier to break again later, but luckily everytime I persist it gets easier to endure.

I swear at myself when in the throws of a tough interval!

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I wasn’t endorsing negative self-talk. Merely, there isn’t just one way for the human mind to deal with stress. I just found the article interesting.

Personally I’ve been successful with both the “you got this” and the “suck it up you weenie” approach to achieving my goals.

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My mind set is always I will complete this work out. I know I can do it. I might even say easy intervals half way through. But when your turning the screws on the painful part of the interval or the last 60 sec of a bridge attempt where your eyes are watering I will tell myself I am weak and I am better then this or to HTFU, this is my negative self talk, and I don’t know what to replace or how to replace this with more positivity.

Like quite a few responders here I’m in two minds.

Indoors on a workout, I can put myself in a mindset where I know Chad has designed these workouts to doable (not easy though) so I can be quite positive about making sure I complete an interval. It’s also a very controlled environment so I can see a stopwatch counting down and I know exactly how long I have to endure if I look.

Outdoors I really struggle to work hard. I don’t race but I like to go on long exploring rides. I always seem to want to save a bit extra extra to get home, so even on a hill that I know well, I find it difficult to fully commit to that effort.
Perhaps it’s also due to me not having a powermeter, but maybe due to me doing very few maximal efforts indoors? so it’s dificult to judge how hard to go outdoors?

Anyhow. I think having a short mantra I can repeat to myself can help. You got this. Happy halfway. etc. That way I’m talking over the negative voice.

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