Speaking of smiles, did you see Marie Helene Premont smile as she crossed the finish line winning silver and the Olympics (yay Canada!). I could only imagine how good that must have felt. that was such a brutal race course!

In Sport Psych for Cyclists, i really like the animal affirmations:
I personally like I AM A MOUNTAIN LIONESS grrrrrrr

Women who run with wolves is a MUST read for all women. It is heavy, and as my friend who gave it to me said, you must savor it like good ice cream. But there are many many good lessons in there. Most of all it reminds us about the strong female spirit.

I find mental training so interesting. I am hardest on myself, and my hard on myself thoughts are only self defeating. stuff like i am not going fast enough and the like.

So some tips: thought stopping, when you find yourself start down that negative path, just say to yourself, stop and turn the phrase around. this takes A LOT of practice, but does work.

Post ride/race sit down and think about what your thoughts were, what bugged you. (this is actually a neat exercise i did with my coach). then turn them to a positive. example: i did a race (100 km long mtb) in the rain. i HATED the rain. i got myself so frustrated. so, solutions: it was mid summer - so the rain kept everything a nice temperature, and there weren't as many bugs out, and really, EVERYONE else is riding in the rain too (although it DOES feel like the cloud is hovering above my helmet haha) so the bike issues/trail slippiness is just as bad as everyone else. This seems so simple, but next time i went in the rain, i laughed and laughed at how slippy everything was. and then i started training in the rain. and now the rain doesn't seem so bad.

ok, a little wordy, just thought i would share...

Han