3 Meditation Techniques That Changed My Cycling Performance

Before getting to the heart of the matter, let me share my personal story with you: how I first discovered meditation and its impact on my performance.

At the beginning of my cycling career, I had the same reaction as you when anyone mentioned meditation. No way! It's boring, it's not for me! Using meditation as a mental performance tool wasn't yet very popular, but it was a tool suggested to me to reduce my stress and anxiety levels. I was suffering increasingly from insomnia; I could go weeks without ever getting a whole night's sleep.

Then one day, while I was confiding in a friend about my insomnia, she went down to the basement and returned with a book: 10% Happier by Dan Harris. Meditation, no, but reading a book, yes. So I accepted her offer and began reading the book that had finally convinced me to try meditation. It wasn't about pedalling faster, but ​​better understanding what was happening in my head couldn't hurt.

The first meditation app I downloaded was Headspace. This app taught me the basics of meditation. At first, I couldn't do the exercise; it was so dull I'd fall asleep. (At least I slept!) So, for three months, I played the meditation exercises like sleep music without understanding the exercises' goal. Until one day, I had "practiced" enough to unlock the next level (luckily, there wasn't an exam!): a meditation package for sport. Wow, interesting!

Everything fell into place. I don't remember the order, but thanks to this sports package, I understood the different techniques and began to apply them in my everyday life. A few days later, I performed a 20-minute blind test (without seeing the numbers from my power meter). In the absence of data, I found myself in my head. But for the first time, I had some basic techniques, and my 20-minute test became a meditation practice: staying in the moment, listening to my mind and body, breathing.

This test was a turning point in my career. Not only did I beat my personal best (average power over 20 minutes) by 18% (yes, by 18%!), but it was also "how" it happened that was different. The link between meditation techniques and their impact on my performance couldn't be clearer!

Okay, now that you're convinced of the power of meditation, let's get to the point!

Technic #1

Use your breath as your anchor

Breathing is slightly important in a sporting event (joke). No oxygen, no power. Yet, we pay little attention to how we breathe. Worse, in stressful situations, our breathing often becomes compressed, preventing us from extracting the maximum amount of oxygen. Am I breathing fully? Is my breath stuck in my chest, or is it deep, reaching into my abdomen?

This meditation exercise consists of observing, following, feeling, and hearing your breathing. When you realize you've lost track, you return to where you left off, like an anchor to which you can always return. You let go of distractions and return to your anchor of focus: breathing.

You won't learn to breathe properly on a bike, pedalling at full speed. You'll master it by doing nothing but sitting silently on a mat, doing just that for a few minutes every day.

Once you can do it for several minutes, applying it to a real-life situation, like a time trial becomes interesting.

It's not about meditating for the sake of meditating; it's about practicing a technique so that you can apply it on the bike.

Technic #2

Labelling thoughts and feelings

Two main categories of things can go through our heads: thoughts and sensations or feelings.

A thought could be what we'll eat for dinner, something we must remember to do, a conversation we remember, etc.

A sensation could be a point of tension in the neck, the temperature, an emotion, etc.

In this meditation exercise, we still use breathing as an anchor, but we try to label what goes through our heads, as if we wanted to name or categorize them, without making any judgments. The best way to visualize the exercise is to imagine that we are sitting in front of the highway and trying to name what is passing by: car, truck, etc.

This exercise will allow you to increase your level of awareness. By playing the game of watching who's going by on the highway (practicing the exercise), we eventually develop the ability to hear what is being said in our heads in everyday life. Then, it's easier to differentiate between relevant and useless thoughts.

For the expert level, we add a third category: judgment.

Is it a thought (the sky is blue today) or a judgment (wow, the sky is beautiful today)? I invite you to try this exercise in your next meditation!

Technic #3

Body scan

This technique involves scanning our attention from head to toe, very slowly, to notice all the small sensations. So, while sitting, with my eyes closed, I pay attention to my hair, forehead, ears, etc., all the way down to my feet. I'm putting my body under the scanner!

The body is constantly talking to us. This exercise allows us to practice listening to it. Once again, it's about practicing the technique in a controlled environment to develop the skill of listening to our body.

Let's take the exercise a little further. When you notice a sensation of pain or discomfort, try to observe it more closely. Where exactly does it hurt, where does it start and end, how does it ache, ache, or burn? By paying full attention to the pain, we often realize that our perception of pain diminishes. It's as if the pain sensors that scream to inform our brain of discomfort can finally stop screaming when we pay full attention to them. It's a super interesting phenomenon that I've been able to experience several times on the bike. Paying attention to the pain rather than trying to suppress it, accepting it rather than resisting it, is the key.

Obviously, I don't do a "body scan" in the middle of an interval on the bike. However, after years of practicing this technique, I can now very accurately recognize the sensations of discomfort (pain) in my body. I can easily observe them evolve in step with the power I put on the pedals. There is no more accurate tool for measuring my effort than what I feel! I no longer need a power meter to identify my exertion zone.

In conclusion

Meditation is the practice of techniques to improve your awareness. It's a practice you can always return to. The benefits are found in life, work, cycling, and everything!

Does meditation make you 10% happier, as Dan Harris claims in his book? As he so aptly explains, it's not so much the practice of meditation that makes you happier, but I believe that the results, following medium-term practice, can improve your quality of life (and your cycling performance!). For several years now, I haven't felt anxious about going to sleep! That alone must be worth 10%!

How to start a meditation practice?

I recommend using an app like Headspace or Balance to learn the basics. Having a guide to guide you through the process makes all the difference! These apps are also structured to help you progress in a sequence that will help you make progress.

They usually offer a free trial period or an introductory course. However, I think you have to persevere a little longer than the free trial period before seeing tangible results. But the effort is worth it, in my opinion. Give it a try! And let me know how it goes :)