I have noticed over the years, the closer I get to the finish line the dumber I get.  One year at Leadville I was putting down a fast time.  I raced into the transition and couldn’t find my team.  Granted, there were about a million spectators… still my friends were right in front of me yelling to grab the bottles and go.  Here’s the formula for Race IQ and how to raise it.

Let’s say your IQ is 120.

Your Race IQ = MinutesToGo Divided By Your IQ

If your race is a week out, that would mean your Race IQ is 84. Why is that?  Because you’re running out of time.

Two weeks before a race, you’re a genius with a Race IQ of 168.  You’ve got lot of time to break and fix stuff, travel, make upgrades etc.

3 days out = a Race IQ of 36.  A good chance of forgetting something is looming.

Race day = RIQ of 13

3 minutes from the finish you have an RIQ of 1.5… and so does everybody around you.

So pay attention, this is when bad things can happen.

The antidote is getting into a state of flow.

FLOW = Confidence X Prepration X Visualization X Heart Rate X Panic X Pleasure X Smiling

If you’re confident in your skills and you’ve practiced something similar to these last 3 minutes and you’ve visualized a good outcome and your heart rate isn’t a million and you’re calm and actually having fun and smiling your RIQ can be 120 or more.  When you’re in flow everything slows down.

Most of us, myself included, spend too little time on the formula for FLOW.  If things aren’t flowing, you might consider slowing down.