Mental Strength and Running and Why it is such a big deal

Last July I ran a 1:52 half marathon and it felt hard, but good. I finished a mere thee minutes off of a PR, but for a training run, I was happy with it. 10 months later, I ran a 1:44 half marathon, on a slight injury and with harsh conditions. 8 minute PR, 10 months between.

When I thought about just what I did differently a couple things jumped out at me…

1. I ran numerous 10 mile runs, making sure my body was ready and comfortable with the distance

2. I added in one to two speed workouts a week (if I wanted to run faster, I needed to train my body how)

3. I practiced affirmations and visualization. I visualized me rubbing a strong race, wrote down a race strategy and had an exact plan on how I was going to approach race day (instead of showing up and just doing it).

The thing I wanted to talk about with you all today was mindset and visualization. Because the more I think about mindset, the more excited I get!

Looking back, until my most recent half marathon, I never went into a race with a plan and a clear picture of exactly how I wanted the race to happen. While I was training for my half marathon in may, I started learning more about the importance about visualization and mentally preparing for the hard work a race brings with it. I realized that I really had never gone into a race ready and eager to feel pain. But the more I learned from elites and listened to sports psychologists, the more I realized that the magic happens in not only the physical preparation, but mental preparation. I learned that I lacked a lot of mental strength and I wanted to change that.

So, I started writing down mantras and affirmations. I started visualizing my perfect race. I saw the time on the clock (I pictured 1:45 and 1:40) I pictured how it would feel to cross the finish line and who would be there. I saw my splits and stayed consistently running strong each mile. I felt my legs burn and my lungs feel like fire. I felt the exhaustion and urged myself on and in my mind, every time, I crossed the finish line, achieving a PR and with a smile on my face. And so when my lungs started burning and my body felt fatigued – it was familiar. I had been there before. I knew how to handle it and overcome the adversity. So, I ran in a familiar sense of calm, eager for what lay ahead and clinched my PR at 1:44.

And when I took note of these drastic changes in my racing, I realized just how important the appropriate mindset it and just how impactful visualization really is. As I continue to come back from this injury, I am reminding myself at just how impactful and important mindset is. And so I’m visualizing a healthy and strong return, an epic comeback, and strong future races – eager to test out the power of mindset again.

A few practical ways to start.

1. Think about what is the exact result you want from your race.

2. Picture the exact time on the clock, feelings you’ll have once you cross the finish line, and any other details you can think of. Think about the race, “experience,” it and every emotion/adversity/or high point you can think of and figure out how to handle it.

3. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. The greatest change comes when we are ready and eager to feel pain and see it not as a red flag or reason to stop BUT information telling our brains that it is working. We ARE getting stronger. Pain, is good.

Embrace the discomfort. Visualize where you want to be. And go into race day with a plan to succeed. And I guarantee, you’ll run better than if you had not.