Mind for Mountains: Somatosensory Climbing Mindset

Key Concepts:

Self-focused application, growth opportunity outlook, climbing mindset, outer world perception versus inner world experience, patience learned through bodily sensations.

Reader’s Note:

Allow 10-15mins reading time for this content rich article with multiple stories.

Elevator Pitch

A marvellous example of how you can apply yourself from inside the body and mind outwards to master new valuable skills, like climbing mountains faster. Crowe takes us on the ride of our lives and eloquently describes a new way to work through your body to direct your mind, and vice versa.

As I see a mountain roadway approaching, I physically look at the bitumen strip turning upwards, but only as a cue to switch on my 'somatosensory mindset'. This is my name to describe a process for becoming internally focused on how my physical body is experiencing the world around me. From this point onwards I am withdrawing from the external cycling experience and tuning in to my body's sensations. It's my body's own mind-space, and if I ensure that the physical climbing exertions originate from there, then I will always excel.

The start of a road climb is often a moment that stuns cyclists; the fear of failing against gravity, or of being dropped on a group ride, or of weaknesses being revealed in the body - breathing strain, muscles blowing up, heart-rate soaring. Handling the increasing muscle load of tackling gravity and moving your body-weight up it requires a whole realm of physical fitness attributes to engage in unison. It's very challenging for an untrained physiology to adapt to the higher workload against gravity, that’s just the beginning of the difficulties lying ahead: sustaining the climbing speed, choose effective gear changes and cadence, coordinate your body parts smoothly and efficiently under the strain, note sensations in the body and adjust, manage thoughts and feelings that arise. It seems like an avalanche of problems - and that is exactly what it is like inside your body when you cycle up a climb. It's no surprise then that I always recommend that all riders on mountain training sessions 'start steady and finish faster' in the second half of the climb.

Depending on how skilled you are at when to exert and when to wait, the mountain climbing experience can potentially be a euphoric experience, or it can be a minefield of explosive disappointments that quickly cascade down on confidence and leave you feeling sheer incompetence at the task. So how do I empower a developing rider as the climb approaches? 

Freeze, right there! The next moments could reveal true wisdom for your cycling ability!

REAL LIFE RIDER BECOMES WISER

As I rode along beside Katja Gordon (say ‘Cart-jar’) on Day 2 of the GIANT STEPS 2019 annual autism-school fundraiser bike-ride in Noosa, she told me she needed to work on her climbing skills. She found she was always struggling with the group pace on the hills and ‘losing the wheel’ (i.e. dropping off the back of the bunch).

Note that I have been in the role of featured VIP Olympic cyclist on the Giant Steps Bike Ride tours for the last 15 years providing rider encouragement, cycling training and bike-handling tips, bunch-cycling skills and etiquette, and also 'mindfitness' advice. This is my word for being able to generate the ideal mindset for tackling whatever type of difficult situation you find yourself in - such as climbing mountains, getting ‘there’ faster, maintaining composure under physical strain, or making good decisions under psychological strain. In other words, cycling very effectively!

As Katja’s question was prompted by a looming climb just ahead of us, we both looked at its winding gradient disappearing up into the trees. I used that moment on-the-spot to ask her what was going on inside her head.

It is a very common thing for people, when they struggle with a skill, to default to 'outward-focused thinking' and become overly concerned about the whole situation surrounding the task itself. Katja indeed spoke of her bike speed, the other riders and what they were doing, the size of the hill, her uncertainty of which gear to select, and so on. Basically everything she saw in her 'outside world' was escalating the climbing challenge to an impossibility and flustering her focus from feelings of intimidation her mind was creating.

I wanted her to slow everything down, hold the concerned thoughts to one side for a moment, leave the outside-world predicament and go inside herself, turn her mind inwards to the internal world of her body and its sensations. This is such a common mechanism for many mastery practices (e.g. meditation, tai chi, relaxation, elite sport training etc) because while you are in the body, you are in this moment - the body is now and tuning in to its sensations will force you to become conscious in the moment again. In this moment is where all the good true, most useful information is, because it stops you remembering the past, worrying about the future and just becoming fixated on your thoughts. Be one with your body and start with now and then ride your bike.

Following the 7 steps listed below, Katja was able to refocus internally and do some productive 'somatosensory mindset training'. This is a way to access a more composed mindset, to re-set your attention to your body as opposed to everything else around you or in your concerned thoughts. what you're focused on and then which thoughts to apply toward executing the climbing task more effectively. The difference was, in Katja's mind she now directed her movements from her internal environment onto the external world task. We both immediately saw real-time benefits in Katja’s improved pedal-stroke technique and smoother circular power delivery – and her position in the group went forwards rather than off the back! She said she felt more relaxed and had a more powerful exertion. I watched as she actively minimised her loss of contact with the other riders as we rode up the climb. Katja was more in control, and seemingly instantly became more competent at climbing.

7 STEPS TO SOMATOSENSORY AWARENESS IN CYCLING

1. Slow down your situation like your velocity (yes, even let others ride away and focus inwardly for now)

2. Withdraw from the outside scene (stop being concerned with thoughts about the external, tune in to preparing your own body for the task)

3. Reset thinking to internal body-focused sensations and goals (aim to climb the hill efficiently using the whole body’s involvement)

4. Sense your body parts (sense how your body feels and notice which body parts are engaging, or not; be aware of breathing and muscles)

5. Assert control over exertions (breathe more deeply, apply whole circular pedal-stroke muscle exertions, note movement inefficiencies)

6. Practice good technique (revise your skill from your body’s perspective to the task, e.g. create circular power and more stable posture)

7. Maintain 'somatosensory-awareness' (direct movement from an internal body focus to a coordinated exertion of more external force)

Katja, suddenly much more comfortable on the bike and hanging on at the back of the group with her new-found ‘somatosensory climbing mindset’ switched to ‘ON’.

Katja literally discovered a new way of setting herself up well for physical work against the gradient strain of the hill-climbs, by pausing and focusing on her posture, then breathing and then her circular pedal-strokes. Finally, lastly the external world adjustments were focused on, such as her gearing choices and positioning behind the next bike rider. When all of this was in flow, then she focused on making the harder muscle exertions into a full-bodied effort. It was amazing to watch, but before my eyes Katja had transformed herself up to a whole new level of competence, within minutes.

Essentially, Katja just refocused on herself (her body) first, then made very aware, conscious, somatosensory, wise decisions about how to exert her body to climb the hill faster. She got control of her body, and deliberately orchestrated movements to get more power out of it. First, focus on mastering your attention, your mind, and then go ride your bike.

I saw a rather clarifying scene that exemplifies this message in the film Braveheart, when a father tells his son (who would turn out to be the great warrior Willem Wallace played by Mel Gibson) how best to learn to fight. Upon insisting to his son that he is not ready to go into battle and help in the fight, he tells him...

"first, learn to use this (tapping on the boy’s head). And then, I'll teach you how to use this (holding up his sword)".   

REFOCUS TO THE 3 C'S :: CONTROL > COMPETENCE > CONFIDENCE

I’ve noticed that once a somatosensory mindset style of internally-focused application of self is utilised throughout the execution of a skill, a person can experience a greater sense of control over the task. With only a brief rehearsal of the skill using this approach, an improvement in competence can be observed, and the person will justifiably feel more confidence as a result. Before long, Katja will be having visualisations in her sleep of passing all of her friends on the next mountain ride! Note that I will refer in more depth to the study of 'flow-state mindsets' in sport in a future article as they are partly characterised by greater body-awareness in high-performance experiences.

So then, in aiming to master a skill, I am advocating here that if you gain greater control of what's going on inside your own body, this will directly lead you to what is truly going on in your mind, and you will see the thoughts you're having and become conscious of why you're having them! With this added objectivity, even momentarily reflecting on the reasons you are making all of the little decisions you're making - now there can be more discerning, maybe adjusting, and a better execution of the correct muscle exertions, in the right order, with clear intention. No wonder she went faster.

Incredibly, doing this well is actually an acquired skill for 'how to learn new skills'. You refocus internally, pause and sense what is happening, then act. I do think you'll tackle challenges more effectively in the outside world in this way. And I am now aware that this is also the way that I learned how to ride fast on a bicycle, from C Grade local club level to Olympic Games within 3 years.

So happy to see our Olympic team mechanic in the back seat of the support car holding my other glove that he picked up on the roadway during the snowy Hessen tour in West Germany, April 1992

A Cycling Race Analogy

It was late summer 1991 in the Snowy Mountains Festival Race in New South Wales, Australia - one of the last national Olympic selection events to qualify for the 'Barcelona 1992 Games Cycling Squad'. The peloton had climbed to Thredbo ski resort and now faced the 30km climb up to Charlotte's Pass summit on Mount Kosciuszko as the final peak of the day before a long descent back to Jindabyne for the finish. I had become one of the 'dropped riders' trailing behind a select group of a dozen leaders. Getting podium points was important for any Australian cyclist vying for one of the 2-year A.I.S. scholarships that would groom riders for Olympic representation. 

WITHDRAW FROM THE OUTSIDE SCENE

The front breakaway group was really just made up of the stronger guys left riding together after the rest of the field had been stripped away by attrition - overly excited climbing tempo and flurries of attacks down the descents. In fact, I had been one of the riders aggravating the pack's demolition but now paid the price of having lower energy and sensed my own physiology shutting down after feeling 'flat' for the last 20 km. I knew it would take me at least 40 minutes to 'remobilise' my muscles to climb at a high pace again after the low heart-rates in the valley. I also poorly timed my own feeding frenzy on snacks from my jersey pockets and inadvertently distracted my metabolism, effectively pulling too much blood from my legs to my stomach between the mountain summits.

RESET THINKING TO INTERNAL

Getting my engine to lift was now the bigger challenge, even as a priority over re-joining the leaders. I was almost 2 minutes back and only just had visual contact to them on the lapping roads flanking the mountain-side. It would have to be a very hard chase once it started up, an extremely intense high-speed climbing workout. I fortunately had a great sense of my body from very early in my cycling career, perhaps from trying many sports at high school before discovering the pedalling movement. I’d also won two big mountain races up the 20 km ascent of Mount Buller in the year before, so I knew how my body could ideally feel in getting ready to perform well under pressure.

I started a deeper breathing pattern to prepare my body for the task. But I recall not being able to articulate what I did back then in post-race interviews, the transition that was about to happen inside my body, I just seemed to know that I needed to wait, and breathe, and induce it to come. It was having patience and sensing the needs of the body that fostered the release of my big power. The secret talent of knowing 'how' to turn on a high-level physical output and retrieve the explosive fitness that I knew was stored inside the body from all of the hard training done. I had to wait before exerting too hard, and just hold the gap to the leaders until then. Just wait...

Well, I guess I was courageous enough to do that.

Patience and guile are shrewd skills that a road racer needs to develop. To win elite alpine climbing competitions, you must be ruthless with other riders, and save your own engine. You win by wearing down your opponents; physically, psychologically and even emotionally: threatening to set too high a climbing speed, or making surging changes in speed frequently, spotting weaknesses appearing in others’ cycling styles or postures and then suddenly attacking. You might directly tell other riders how they appeared to be fading. More covert strategies might involve the subtle breaking of a group's tempo by just gradually raising the pace up to an uncomfortable speed, or waiting inconspicuously at the back of a group until you see others settling into the leader's pace - and then launching past them all in a full-speed attack from the rear, looking back at them all to see the reactions! All the time knowing that you are near your own physical limit but acting as if it's not hurting you (we called it playing 'poker face'). The cruel message you aim to give out is, 'I am flying and you are dying'. These are very 'mental' racing tactics, to erode any competitive threats, and thoughts of these strategies might’ve been arising in the minds of racers at the front now as they neared the final 15 km of climbing. But I waited, and breathed deeply, and rode just to keep them in view.

SENSE YOUR BODY PARTS

By now, I might’ve been expected by race officials to abandon, because to 'just catch up' would be seemingly impossible. Once the gap to a ‘dropped rider’ gets to 2 minutes, it’s like they are left for dead, or gone for good as 'pack debris', discarded by the higher calibre race leaders and event officials as well. But immersed in my somatosensory mindset, I was not a victim of the situation yet. I had not given up mentally on my chance to catch them, it was just a physical 'quiet phase' as my system re-sorted fuels and blood-flow. I was waiting for the body to give me a full dashboard of 'good-to-go' green lights. 

Rival team-cars were officially waved past me by the red race commissar vehicle, and they all eagerly sped across to support their own riders in the break. An attending Channel 9 Wide World of Sports TV van pulled up alongside and wanted an interview - how awkward?! I was totally focused on my own mission, like in a trance, and hardly noticed the interviewer's microphone as he stretched himself right out of the van window to get in my face. He called on me to answer why I didn't just ‘call it a day and get in a team car now!?’ The break was reported over the CB radio as 1 min 50 secs ahead up the climb.

"…it's not over, I'm still here!" I insisted with a nervous smirk. I think I was telling myself this at the time in the belief that my superbly muscle-bound engine would miraculously switch back on and catapult me across the gap at any moment. I just kept focused on my deep breathing and higher revs and tried not to overload the system. The TV guy was just an unwanted distraction; I was trying to discern the body’s readiness to go, as soon as it was able. I knew this was the more important challenge: to win the race against the self, not the one trying to beat others. My challenge was to develop an attuned sense for when it was right to wait, and when it would be good to go. If I got this right, then I could come back into their road race – I figured it was just a matter of time.

Nowadays I can appreciate much more that you do need to understand sports physiology and trained athlete capabilities to know this was actually possible. An alternative method is to have good knowledge of your body's internal reactions to high resistance, endurance training, performance pressure and what brings your body up to a peak, or through a ‘blackspot’ (temporarily fading body performance).

You have to recognise that how and when you eat during large endurance events could change your engine capacity for a time, which could be critical while racing. So a bit much ‘gobbling’ in the valley between two big climbs could slow the metabolism enough to ruin your climbing tempo for a while and get you dropped from a competitive group pace on the next ascent. It was definitely over-ambitious to think I could fix a gap of 2 minutes on the last hour of climbing for the day. Ironically, a winning strategy in road racing is often to wait, not to go. Cycling was teaching me this skill of patience through my body.

I’d had a thing with the ‘patience’ attribute in cycling ever since getting dropped by the front bunch 3 years earlier in my first state road title. I just kept riding solo to the end so I could say that I’d finished. Only then did I find out that most of the peloton had withdrawn, including several riders from the break, leaving me 9th overall. I subsequently scored a selection to represent Victoria later that year in the National Championships and won a medal. And so I've always kept the saying close to heart: “it's not over until the finish line flashes under”. Always just stay in the race until it’s completely done.

ASSERT CONTROL OVER EXERTIONS

Official rules of the Snowy Mountains Festival Race were that any rider holding onto or slipstreaming behind a car was an instant nullification for the Olympic selection opportunity, so as the TV van pulled closer and the film crew taunted me to just grab hold of a mirror I became annoyed and shooed them away. This brought great amusement and chiacking but what would happen next put it into the final cut of the weekend Channel 9 news broadcast.

If you tune into your breathing for 60 seconds while you are struggling on a climb, any climb at any time, just doing that alone can change the sensations in your body and the power coming from your legs. Using higher revs (or lower gears) and keeping on lifting the tempo in your body's movement can also activate more of your existing cycling form and enliven the way you are riding. Add a dose of patience, some stretching movements, sipping water, relaxing as much as possible while holding the tempo, and building your anticipation to explode with an exertion to close down a big gap, and you may just precipitate a personal best performance. And that's precisely what did happen.

Charlotte’s Pass summit with a warmer kind of happy smile – one of the utter relief and pleasure of stopping riding after completing 3 x 30km climbing ascents to the top of Mount Kosciuszko, all seated and using the big chain-ring.

PRACTICE GOOD TECHNIQUE

With my body's chemistry settling back down into hard-work mode, the muscle oxygen saturation levels rose up again and my visualised return to form could be manifested as a corresponding physical action. When it happened, it felt like someone turned the head-wind off. The gradient of that Kosciuszko mountain road suddenly seemed flat. Either way there was a clear sensation of more access to power, and my legs could take on much higher resistance. I revved up to high twenties on the speedo and switched to the big chain-ring (which normally wouldn’t come into use again until the descent for higher speeds). Before I’d fully settled at my new tempo, I was upon the race leaders, now just seconds away.

I used a race tactic taught to me by my amusingly irreverent Melbourne-based bike-shop sponsor in the 90’s (i.e. Stuart Cook of Gran Prix Cycles). I just changed lanes and sped right past that lead group at high velocity, hoping to intimidate them into not even contemplating a pursuit. This ‘psychological attack’ was seen by Tasmanian champion, Grant Rice, who quickly leapt into action and joined me. We rode straight off the front of the race that day to a clear win by minutes and both gained selection into the Barcelona Olympic Cycling Squad (there was a controversial sprint to the finish line, but that's an entirely different story of racing strategy lessons for another post).

MAINTAIN SOMATOSENSORY AWARENESS

Switch on your ‘somatosensory mindset’ to learn new physical skills, use an internal focus for gaining control and then work outwards. Being patient while tuning in to the body to then reset the mind is a tactic, like remembering not to resign too early at a task, because even thinking about doing that starts a whole cascade of reactions in your physical body that can begin to shut down your supreme muscle exertions - it’s not over until it’s actually over!

There are lots of insights to be gleaned from such stories. But the take-home all-round most useful tip from this article is for those who want to excel. It is that you can use your body to tune yourself in to what's going on inside, the biofeedback or 'noise' of the moment-to-moment internal sensations of your body. This ‘body talk’ is like a channel of intelligent information that helps us with smarter decision-making, enrichening our understanding of the synergistic functions of the body and mind. The system works a lot better when it's harmonious.

I believe that somatosensory awareness opens a kind of gateway that allows us to access new capabilities like challenging our lack of skill at a complex task, gain better control over our body and mind in difficult situations, or just creating a new lofty goal through envisaging our success at something new – using some very basic sensations in our body. We might realise a path that wasn’t seemingly there before and change an outcome that once appeared unattainable. The old adage to ‘face your fears’ or not have a fear failing suddenly beckons the next adventure to pop up, and for some people it’s the first time they can see this through a different outlook. Perhaps, stored right there within you, inside your own body, is the framework for a whole new way to excel.

Rob Crowe O.A.M. is a writer, speaker, Olympian and director of the specialised Ridewiser Mind-fitness ergo cycling program in Melbourne, designed for individuals and groups building a more robust ‘bullet-proofed’ mental health resilience through physical cycling fitness training in.