Guest post by IMJ Coaching's Scott Jones

Today's superb guest post is by Scott Jones, coach at Boulder-based IMJ Coaching. Scott's also a 2010 Ironman Canada age group champion:

"What you believe about yourself, it all comes true!"
-John Mellencamp

The above quote from Mellencamp has come true for me more times in my life than I would want to admit. It especially applies in triathlon. What you believe about yourself as an athlete will absolutely come true.

Ask yourself: Is my self talk in my brain positive or negative? If you are continuing to cloud your brain with negative thoughts, you will experience that in your training and racing. If you are doing the opposite, you will experience that as well.

I have struggled with my running throughout my triathlon journey. In training I used to think negative thoughts about my running because my basic belief was that I was a poor runner. Coming off the bike, I used to think, "Here they come to get me because I can't run." It usually came true!

My coach brought this to my attention and told me to knock it off. He gave examples in my training and racing where I was actually dramatically improving, and in my last two Ironmans my running has been the highlight of my race. I had a 6-minute PR in Kona this year on the run and I was eating people up out on the Queen K even late in the day.

I am convinced that what we say to ourselves with our inner voice is exactly what we will get, both in our racing and in our real lives. Make sure that your thoughts are positive and that your conversations with yourself reflect that. There is no better place to put this in action than in our daily training.

In our sport, as in our lives, we always want to find our best selves. Make sure your mental focus reflects that.

Train with joy or not at all!

Scott "Jonser" Jones

Teresa Rider and Scott Jones of IMJ Coaching