ConfessionI have a confession. I panic when I am training sometimes. It is a bit taboo for athletes, even amateurs like myself, to admit to weakness in their mental toughness. For some reason it is no big deal to talk about any issue below the neck, like a muscle strain or lack of flexibility. For some reason mental health and strength, or lack thereof, seems like a touchy subject. But I want to be an open book to you all. As you know I want to try new things, research different strategies, and share ideas. So I will just go ahead and admit now that my mental game is weak. I say this because I panic in situations that I shouldn’t. It usually happens when I am doing intense endurance training. With cycling and running it happens more often in the heat, I usually do ok in cool conditions. I always keep a close eye on my heart rate when training, and in hot conditions the heart is working overtime in an effort to cool the body and keep up with the exercise demands. Sometimes in extreme heat I will look down at my watch or computer and see that my heart rate is higher than normal and notice it is not coming down. I start to get nervous and a bit panicky. Sometimes the nervousness and panicky feeling go away after a few seconds and sometimes it gets so bad I have to stop the activity for a bit. It’s easy enough with cycling and running to just pull off to the side of the road. I wait for the heart rate to come back down and then usually head home carefully and try to stay calm. With swimming I get the panic feelings pretty much each time I get in the water, regardless if it is in the pool or open water. It certainly is intensified in the open water though. I have only been swimming since I entered my first triathlon in 2013 when I was 35 years old. Prior to that I couldn’t properly swim 1 lap in the pool! With temperatures beginning to rise lately it will mean getting more swims in as well as more heat training on rides and runs. This translates to a lot of opportunity to work on my mental game! This got me thinking about how important the role of the mind is with training and race performance. It seems no matter where you sit on the performance anxiety spectrum, mental strength tactics should be in your toolbox to help perform your best in all situations, even those beyond sport and training.The mental component of fitness training and sport performance has been studied for many years in the field of sport psychology. According to a 2016 article in the Journal of Change Management by Jamie Barker, sport psychology looks at the relationship between the brain and sport performance, inclusive of optimizing performance, and mental health of athletes, teams, coaches, and organizations.40 years of research in the industry has shown that there are many effective psychological strategies that can be used to improve individual or team performance. Interestingly, research also suggests that there are similarities between professional athletes and business employees working in an ever changing and high demand environment. This makes sense to me as I think about a few stressful work situations I have been in. Having strategies to help with calming and mental strength would have been helpful. As such, think of working on your mental game as a smart time investment, since it can help you be stronger in sport, training, work, and life situations.After doing a bit of research I have identified 3 tactics that studies have shown to help flex your me...