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“Poetry, music, forests, oceans, solitude- they were what developed enormous spiritual strength. I came to realize that spirit, as much or more than physical conditioning, had to be stored up before a race.” Herb Elliott, Olympic champion and world record holder in the mile.
The mental aspects of training are of great importance and can be trained for in the same fashion that you prepare to run longer distances. First let’s start with some inspiring stories of how folks “pull it off” with mental power.
One runner told the story of her third race of the Pikes Peak half Marathon. She was in a downward spiral of pain and suffering as the altitude took its toll and her legs began to cramp – she found herself talking herself out of the run and having an “I just can’t do this” discussion. That’s when she passed a spectator on the trail who shouted “you look great! You’re in 8th place!” suddenly she not only looked great she felt great and was able to push herself harder than she thought. She went on to run a 3:08 finishing in 6th place and that moment when she was encouraged by a fan was the last time she really thought about it hurting badly. Pretty amazing considering that this is a race of 13.3 miles with 7,815 feet of vertical gain. She recounts her race day, “it was not the pain I recall the most vividly but I remember my capacity to endure it.”
Many folks have heard of the famous hill in Boston called Heartbreak Hill. This gained the moniker during a great duel between John A. Kelly and Ellison “Tarzan” Brown in 1936. John Kelly was the defending champion and was good at hills but Tarzan was in the lead and John put in his best effort to reel in his opponent atop the last hill before headed into town. Kelly came around Tarzan and tapped him on the shoulder at the top of this last hill. This so incensed Tarzan that he doubled down and despite fatigue he dropped John Kelly on the downhill and John never had the energy to come back – Loosing there “broke John Kelly’s heart”, said the press. The mental energy to win can be found by happenstance but it is better to do the planning ahead of time.
Getting used to some difficulty and some challenge is part of any good training program. In a culture today that too commonly will concede that we can medicate, avoid, or otherwise ignore life’s difficulties’ - running by its very nature gently pushes aside these themes. Sweat and toil is part of any good day – whether you are running or not, but especially when running. The best part of that is we get better at it and the rewards – while hard won are palpable. Dena Kastor says, “Runners are never comfortable, slightly before our body adapts to a 5:30 mile, we are running a 5:26” and needless to say that is hardly comfortable. But as we train to run faster by pushing the envelope a bit we can also achieve more mental toughness by some of the same methods.
In race day preparations I ask folks to use all five senses to create a mental image or daydream about how the finish of their race will look. Use sight, sounds, touch, taste and smell to create images of how it will go well and what it will be like, and feel like, to you in those final moments of accomplishment. If you practice this daily or as you finish each run, you will be conditioning the same nerve fibers that you use to communicate with your body daily and on race day. Because you are using the same nerve pathways – research has shown that your body may not be able to discern the difference over time. You are pre-loading a positive outcome on your hard drive and may gain some teleoanticipation of a positive outcome.
This will only be one part of a larger picture though – our sport is a thinking sport and the landscape is vast. So while I give you great anecdotes about individual perception and tools to teleoanticipate your big day, we’ll look at a few other ideas about how to prepare to do your best work – the stuff you will have trained five months to do.
Think of Perceived effort (PE) as your check engine light. How many of us have driven to the gas station even though the light was on? Depends on what it was that instigated the light, right?! Your brain and its central governor are using the distance, fuel level, fitness level, heat index and course information all at once in a complicated algorithm to determine how it should “make you feel” and this response is adapted by four primary factors.
Fitness Level Training influence Pain Threshold Mental focus (how you move through adversity)
Fitness level: Your understanding of your fitness level and taking care of yourself during the run does two things. It gives you the confidence to know you have the chops to succeed at the challenge and it keeps you free of distractions to do what you set out to achieve. While your PE is governed by the brains algorithm you can give it additional cues about how well off you are “I have run at this pace already and felt fine” or “I am on target for what I have trained for already” are good mental notes. Do some runs 5, and 3 weeks before your race as time trails for your pacing strategy and see how you do. A phenomenon that trainers call teleoanticipation suggests that your brain can recall the previous performance and gauge efforts by that prior intensity benchmark. So if you are fit and you teach the body something about going fast - it will remember that fast was OK. Set yourself up well by making sure that you are not dehydrated, that you have a steady stream of clean carbohydrates (30grams/hour after the first hour of running) and that you stop to stretch as needed. Staying fueled, hydrated and relaxed will remove mental distraction that can otherwise compromise you and it has been shown that it may blunt pain perception in athletes.
Training influence: Your track work, speed work and hills are not easy workouts and that should be reassuring come race day - as the course is rarely a cakewalk. Training hard allows you to push back your PE scores for a given task and adds to the “aches and pains” database about what is survivable. When your brain learns how to approach the limit on something and keep going - it remembers that, and you can find it a useful tool on race day. We are crippled by what we fear and so getting out on the course, and in small doses running things that are more difficult than the course, you not only train your body but you train your mind to overcome these challenges. Folks who were measured during track workouts over a 12 week study were found to be running faster than their physical adaptations should have allowed. They were not developing faster physically than a typical runner but they were also developing mentally and the body learns to push and what amount of push feels OK.
Pain Threshold: You may recall the example that “when the hot water begins to burn you in the shower is a fixed capacity for each individual but how you feel about it when it does start to burn is a learned response.” This seems to be agreed upon but it is also a fine line as to whether the pain threshold can be moved for those who find their meter set very low. One trainer talks about the benefit of a “pain community” otherwise known as a running club, triathlon club or climbing club. All of these peer groups are able to encourage, support and consequently push each other further than many individuals willingly go. To have camaraderie is a good way to embrace that something is in fact difficult and thus sweeter because it is tough to attain. Spending time with higher pain threshold individuals can show you what is really possible for yourself as well. Yet this trainer argues that folks actually learn to embrace pain as well and take some pleasure in it as a release.
Elite runners comment that there seems to be some separation in the competition by what suffering a person can process as a steady state and that this can be a learned skill. Peak performers often hit a “sweet spot” where it does not hurt more and more but rather it becomes uncomfortable, they move past it, and then spend the time in the exhilaration of a great performance which transcends the discomfort. One coach restated “I relaxed, stayed focused, I stayed calm”.
Mental focus (how you move through adversity) So most of you already know if you are a person who perseveres and will endure - you need to take that confidence to bed with you on race night. But more than that there are several additional thoughts to take forward in gearing up for race day and you’ll sort through what works for you.
Remember that on race day we cannot control the weather, the traffic, the competition – a lot of things are left to chance. A winning attitude recognizes we must control the things that we can. Your thoughts, emotions, training form, pacing strategy, fueling schedule… This is what you can control and the best news is that this is what matters the most.
Pre-visualize as much as you can in the weeks leading up to the race. The old saying that you can always imagine far worse things than can actually happen is a resource if you let it be. Take a mental list of concerns and then work out ways to eliminate them. Imagine pain too – if you have an idea of what hurts and how badly – and what you’ll do about it – then you are all set when it arrives somewhere in the last few miles, because it will.
Break the race or goal up into smaller pieces because the brain’s PE score will always allow a bigger effort before the endpoint. Remember that supercomputer of a brain and all of its algorithm data – distance being a chief element - so if you have several endpoints with goals for each – you can rally multiple times. Studies have shown that the greater the effort required – the smaller segments we have to break the goal down into (this is intuitive for most adults).
Always use positive dialogue tactics to change the channel on a dark discussion with yourself and remember in your visualizing that there will be folks in town that are cheering you on and telling you “you look great!” You can buddy up during the race by pacing with a total stranger, meeting a new friend or running with a trusted member of your “pain community”. Misery loves company and if you can’t talk nicely to yourself maybe they can.
List your strengths/list your reasons to run/repeat your mantra/list the payoffs/people watch/count all the pairs of Nikes - whatever works – sometimes I sing (yeah, I know…)
Kara Goucher is a world class runner who has represented America in the Olympics and yet has had her own continued bouts with self confidence. Her work at the Oregon Training Center has included extensive sessions with sports psychologist Darren Treasure. They have worked together to develop key words or mantras for Kara based upon her values and motivators. The bury these key words into very difficult workouts and then employ them to encourage Kara to seek out more of herself, push past the central governor, and run what she is capable of running. By testing these countless times before her race they are then able to get results with these key words on the big day. They also work on key concepts that affect the esteem of the runner over the training period.
You can easily come up with an empowering statement that you read yourself daily in the shower or before bed. Repetition will actually ingrain this in your system and may cause you to believe that you can and should reach your race goals.
Worst case scenario you give up your time goal and your B and C goals to …Just get to the next phone pole, or just get off the pavement or just keep going…
Just like speed work or downhill running - think about all of the things that you CAN relax while running. Your forehead muscles need not be tight, you can smile, you can loosen your hands and arms – maybe you can relax your legs or loosen your stride. When push comes to run – save the energy that you can, efficient form will carry everything. That includes worry – clear your mind and go with the thoughts that work. When the going gets truly tough it is the process and the rhythm of how you do things and do them well – that will carry the day. Why do firefighters and police and soldiers train and train and train? So that you can fall back on process and what you do well in the heat of trouble - go with what you know and stay in the process - not the overwhelming thought of the end or what bothers you.
Steve “Pre” Prefontaine was possibly the best American man to ever run. He developed a desire to run from an early age and despite obstacles (one leg shorter than the other) he went on to break records in every competitive distance from 2,000 – 10,000 meters. No American has done this since. Yet Pre had down days too and after a loss in Munich he thought about quitting the sport. His coach said simply “If you’re gonna run, be at the track and I’ll give you the workouts; or if you’re gonna stop running then do that. You decide. I can’t coach desire.” Needless to say Pre came back; he possibly had more desire than anyone once he looked inside himself.
Yet another great Pre story speaks of his mental ability to embrace difficulty. He was famous for telling his opponents “today is a good day to die” and threatening, “I’ll take you to some places that you really don’t want to go”, suggesting that to follow him at the race pace would be a trip into physical difficulty for the opponent. He was all about, all out, on race day and that “race day magic” will carry you as well if you have adequately prepared in advance.
Here are a few more strategies from the professionals:
Gloria Balague (sports psychologist, University of Illinois) says, “Athletes sometimes think anxiety has a protective value, that it motivates them to avert disaster, but you want to prepare for adversity well in advance. Identify your worries and train to overcome them.”
Jeff Troesch (mental trainer) says, “My goal for every athlete is to help them get one day better every day. I look for ways to get the athletes into the now, to strive for day-to-day victories” Which is great advice, because if I rated every race by what my “A goal” was – I would have stopped racing long ago, some of them don’t go well and they are still really great days (beats the office, hands down)
More on mental attitude from someone who make the big bucks to consult and coach…
www.yourperformingedge.com JoAnn Dahlkoetter PHD
Epilogue: I seek to be honest about my bias in class and I’ll tell you that this aspect of sport is very intriguing to me. It offers possibilities and explains some of the great depth in human potential we have seen in sport and history. It offers tools for athletes to get the most out of their hard won training, and it offers even greater challenges and rewards to us as athletes. But “self-help” as a subject in this country is both popular and reviled by different groups. There are folks who may read this post and feel as though they are being asked to repeat the phrase “I am good enough, I am smart enough, and dog-gone-it people like me” and that this idea will not get them anywhere (I thought that skit was so great) or they may be skeptical of the power of the mind to improve performance. To that skeptic, I offer fuel for a healthy debate from the emerging field of psychoneuroimmunology.
Psychoneuroimmunology is a “new field” based on the science that the nervous system and the immune system are interconnected. This discipline has discovered a number of ways that the two systems actually have two way communications with each other and direct impacts on both systems. Closely controlled studies have also shown that “a person’s aggressive determination to conquer a disease can increase one’s lifespan” (p619 Alcamo’s Fundamentals of Microbiology, 2007) The same studies have shown that behavioral therapies can amplify the body’s response to disease and speed the immune systems response.
This field has also generated interesting research in 2003 that Tai Chi boosts shingles immunity in the elderly. In a 60 person study over 15 weeks the study group did have reduced levels of stress related to their Tai Chi program and were measured as having 50% higher immune memory functions against Shingles. The group did not see improvement in physical movement with this low impact form of exercise and the researchers concluded that the anti-stress elements of the activity gave seniors the significant boost in immunity. You can read more about the tip of this iceberg here; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoneuroimmunology
