Podcasts and pain game all part of Philip Doyle's Paris ‘bubble’ with Team Ireland rowers
Philip Doyle adopts something of a philosophical mindset to the brutal hard yards behind his pursuit of Paris progress.
The Banbridge rower arrives at the Olympic Games - global sport’s biggest showpiece stage – with an ambition to centre focus on his “small bubble”.
Lining out in the men’s double sculls alongside Daire Lynch, Doyle will draw confidence from Paris preparations including a number of medals.
For Doyle, key could be the ability to “internalise the focus” and “minimise the outside noise”.
"We're staying in a hotel this time...the Olympic Village was a big distraction in Tokyo,” said 31-year-old Doyle ahead of his second Olympic Games with Team Ireland. "It's about minimising interactions you wouldn't normally have...quieten that outside noise, keep the sleep schedule on time and try to maximise the recovery between races as much as possible.
"Having been through the process before it's interesting how relaxed I've been feeling about it all.
"It's about trying to internalise the focus...right to the end it'll just be us and then we're creating that bubble within ourselves.
"You fiercely defend your own small bubble then you allow the others to interact but you have to just be ruthless.
"We talk about mental clarity to be able to adapt and change during the race...the boat that's able to adapt to weakness throughout the race is the one that's going to come out on top.
"That's all come through experience."
He added: "There are guys maybe 10 or 15 seconds faster than us on the rowing machine but we beat them on the course on the day because we're able to maximise what we have.
"We're able to get 99 per cent out of our 100 and they're only able to get maybe 92.
"That couple of per cent extra we're able to get with the mental clarity means we're able to beat those guys with the bigger engines or physical presence.
"We know the work-rate without our boat is very high...always.
"So we're just trying to maximise the technical aspect.
"But pushing your body harder is actually easier than making your mind think and change a small position of your wrist.
"The mental fatigue is harder to put yourself through than the physical fatigue."
Doyle enters the Paris challenge “exceptionally realistic".
"Myself and Darragh have had five hit-outs on the international stage and four medals from those five, with one a fourth,” he said. "My aim is to be in that A final with six boats going for three medals.
"If we can get to that race then it's anyone's race that day but I'd like to back us that if we did get there that would mean we're in a good mental and physical place to perform.
"A medal isn't off the table but we have to get to that race first."
Doyle draws on his medical training to help with the sport’s intensity.
"When you're in those high-pressure situations in hospital you have to make split-second decisions with all the chaos around you,” said Doyle. "You have to be able to figure things out quickly and enact your next steps.
"So when you're in the boat and maybe the balance isn't great or something not right and your body is being pushed to the limit, so on that red line, then the mind can make panic decisions.
"We talk about being able to relax the mind and make changes that allow for better performance.
"It's something I've definitely got better at over the last few years through internal experiences within rowing and then being to bring in the external to help.
"If you do a week of nightshifts and making that last decision it's mental fatigue or the physical fatigue we feel at the height of training…you've got to be able to get up and get on with it.
"One of the hardest things about doing an endurance sport is being able to push when it hurts, push when you don't want to.
"Both (worlds) blend into each other so you've just got to pick out the right parts to carry across."
Dealing with the downtime between races inside the Olympic Games environment offers a challenge of a different sort.
"If you get too amped up it can have a negative impact,” he said. "You use your own personal experience but you'd be foolish not to take in people around you and we work with a sports psychologist.
"I would read books on that area but maybe only a chapter here or there and you need something at times to bring you back down, so I've an eclectic mix.
"You try to find like-minded people on the team to relax and take the pressure off.
"You would very much concentrate on what to do with that downtime...some do paint-by-numbers, or a good book series or podcast series."
His partnership with Lynch also serves as cause for confidence in pursuit of “squeezing every last drop out of the body”.
"We complement each other,” said Doyle. "He's very consistent and reliable and I know I'm going to get his best every day and I try to give him mine.
"So knowing that keeps the pressure on the two of us to really perform over and over and over again and we're just trying to find our differences and smooth those out to get the most out of the technical side.”