Mental Training

The mental side of running is probably more important than the physical side. We spend a lot of time talking about the difficulty of our training. Most of the time, those conversations are centered around the physical act of running. If we spent an equal amount of time focused on the mental side of running, we’d probably all be better runners! Not just on the performance side of things, but also for the benefits to our well-being. Having the ability to control your mind and how it operates has many implications in all areas of life.

The physical benefits of running are obvious, but the mental benefits are not so obvious. That’s why we concentrate so intently on the physical. The great thing is that they are linked. When you accomplish a goal that requires all your physical abilities, it has a positive impact on your mind. We see it all the time in 5K Challenge classes. People’s lives arechanged because they accomplished a tough goal. Maybe you’re one of those people! But this is the thing to remember, reaching that goal of a 5K finish line can be replicated. Not to reach another 5K finish line, but to cross an entirely different finish line. Maybe a marathon?

Roger Bannister was the first to run the mile in under four minutes. He was also a medical student while he was training to break the 4-minute mile and he did a lot of studying on the effects on the body. For example: He studied the effects of oxygen enriched breathing. He would run on a treadmill at room oxygen level, which is about 21%. Then he ran at “enriched” levels of oxygen. He loaded up on over 60% oxygen and sure enough, more oxygen meant running better. He was able to run twice as long to exhaustion.

So, did Roger Bannister use this knowledge to break 4-minutes? Yes and no. The oxygen question was an important question to answer, for sure, but the idea of running to exhaustion was even more important. It would take him 9 to 18 minutes to get to the point of exhaustion. Don’t you think the mental side of running to exhaustion was super beneficial to him? When he went out to run as hard as he could for 4 minutes, it seemed much easier to him!

If you’ve ever perused Tim Noakes book Lore of Running, you may have noticed that he includes some mental approaches of successful runners. What he learned in his research isthat mental approaches must be used in training to be effective in racing. That means we should take the mental approach seriously every workout. But we often look at training as less important than the big payoff of race day. But that’s where we build bad habits.

Basketball players do dribbling drills – why? They know how to dribble. They’re looking for an “auto-response” when they need it. When the game is on the line, they don’t want to concentrate on dribbling. They want their bodies to automatically perform. It’s no different when we run.

We should set training and racing goals and focus on those as we run. It will help us focus the mental side. If we go back to Roger Bannister, he set a goal that was driven by failure to some degree. He had finished 4th in the Olympics in 1952. People said it was because of his training. He was convinced they were wrong, and he wanted to prove it. So, the way he would do that was by training his body and his mind to run 60 second laps around the track. He did that relentlessly because he knew if he could get his body and mind used to it, he could do it.

So, why would that work? It is thought that he pushed back the limitations his mind put on him, actually recruiting more muscle because his brain was okay with it. Our bodies recruit less and less muscle when our brain is worried. So, he set a goal to run under 4 minutes because he knew it could be done. His mind bought in completely

But here is, perhaps, the most interesting mental part. John Landy had tried many times to break four minutes with no success. He came close. He ran under 4:03 six times! He was going to give up on it believing it could not be done, like the critics had said. Then Bannister broke four and you know what happened? Landy did it 6 weeks later and then went on to set more records.

Both were driven by a goal. One who had set the goal in defiance of “reality” that running a four minute mile couldn’t be achieved, while the other set his goal because of false “reality.” Ultimately, the more successful one, the one we remember, was the one who believed “outside” of expectation.

We often limit ourselves, just like John Landy did. We believe things are impossible, and therefore, they are! What we have seen through Run for God is proof that if people can catch a glimpse of the possibilities, many more things are possible!

So how do we do it? This may be the number one thing we need to get a handle on when it comes to running: Dr. Tim Noakes calls it “Arousal Control.” So many people are controlled by their emotions, whether the emotion shows itself through anxiousness, worry about yourself or others, thinking something is going to go wrong, or even just being able to calm yourself. It is very important to be able to control our emotions rather than letting the emotions control us.

We all know people who can think really clearly under pressure, and we probably know someone who struggles with it. We know that losing control of our emotions is not good for our mental well-being, but we fail to realize that it is connected physiologically too. What we think and do causes the brain to build neural pathways that cause fight or flight responses. There is no question that the way we think about running is connected to our physical outcomes.

That means that what we think can be detrimental to our running, but it also means we can change those pathways if they are causing problems. But it requires very intentional work. We need to think about these things in practice. We should put ourselves into “race situations” to practice our emotional responses. It is hard to do, but it can be done. We must find the things that make it easy to calm the arousal in our brain. For Bannister, it was going over to a friend’s house prior to the sub four minute attempt. For others it might be reading a book, going for a walk, or listening to music. The things that could be effective are nearly endless!

We need to think about what I can control and tell our inner selves there’s nothing we can do about the other things. Focus on the execution of what we are doing rather than the emotions attached to it.

Visualization is a great tool for mental training too. When we visualize, our brains are tricked into thinking the same way we do when we perform the task. As difficult as it may be to believe, research shows that our brains go through the same emotions as the real thing. It is always easier to deal with emotions the second time around, right? Visualization gets your brain to a point that it thinks it has already been through that situation before.

Mark Allen was the best triathlete in the world for a while in the late 80s and early 90s. But he had difficulty with the World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. The circumstances of that race are tough with the heat, humidity and course elevation changes. It may be in Hawaii, but it is brutal. Allen had to realize that it didn’t matter what the circumstances were, he needed to embrace anything that may come.

He realized that if he thought of all the positive things (crossing the finish line, exploring yourself and your limits, the fact he is in Hawaii, etc.) it could all fall into place. So that’s what he did. Once he got his mind under control, he won five in a row!

And he carried that success to an even deeper mental toughness. He took a year off and came back. After a bad swim and bike, he found himself 13 minutes behind the leader. He realized he could go one of two ways in his thinking. It was either “There’s no way I can catch him” or “The only way I can catch him is if I give it all I have.” The truth was he didn’t know if he could or could not, but he knew going as hard as he could was his only chance. And what a great story it would be if he could catch him. Ultimately, he chose the more positive thought, and won the race.

Another mental necessity is that you have to allow for unexpected things to happen. And you can’t let yourself get derailed because something got in the way. You have to know they will come, react calmly, and do what you can to mitigate them. Again, focus on what you can control, learn from each setback, and be stronger next time.

Another important mental goal is to be ready for an appropriate level of effort. If it is a race and you want to give it all you have, you should be ready for that effort. If you simply want to finish a marathon, you should be ready for that effort. I don’t know how many times I have asked an athlete what the plan is for the race, and they answer with “I’m going to try…”Simply put, that’s someone who is not ready to give it everything they have.

The brain will allow you to do more, if you will tell it do more. But if you’re making excuses up front, or you have no real plan, you open yourself up for mental failure. You have todecide how you’re going to perform mentally beforehand, or you will take the path of least resistance – aka the easier road.

In summary, practice the mental game every day. Even when you go for a short easy run, you can still work on mental strength. When you don’t feel like running, but you do, you build a good neural pathway, and make yourself stronger the next time you have the thought of skipping the workout. When you surprise yourself with a faster than expected tempo run, you build a positive neural pathway. Same thing for choosing to eat well, losing weight, or even getting your job done at work. Build good neural pathways and they will multiply.

Getting in daily time with God works the same way. The more you do, the more you want to do. Creating good physical and mental habits builds neural pathways that are productive and good for you. Just remember, it works both ways. Stay on the positive mental road and stay away from the negative. Your brain will crave more!