dig deep | Work hard | believe harder
dig deep | work hard | believe harder
mental training
mental training
“Instant results are awesome…..Hard work that takes awhile is also awesome. Stay with yourself long enough to get the result you want. Instant results are easy. Quitting is easy. Neither will ever make you proud.”
-Brooke Castillo
Thinking new thoughts.
It all starts in your mind—the running, the eating, the strength training, and even the attention to things like prehab and recovery. Your thoughts about all of the elements of training will be what drive you to get out of bed, make a healthy dinner, or rearrange your schedule to get your strength training in. With adequate attention to managing your mind, your thoughts will enhance your success in each of those areas.
The first step is becoming aware of your automatic thoughts or beliefs about yourself. “I like to cook fresh foods,” is a thought that serves you and will bring you closer to your goals. “I just have a sweet tooth,” is a thought that can stand as an obstacle. Both are just thoughts. Neither one is undeniably true or false. You get to choose which thoughts will bring you closer to your goals. Think of thoughts as seeds that blow into your mind. You only have to water and nourish the thoughts that you like. You choose what power and meaning to assign to each thought, and that choice determines how the thought affects your training.
It sounds simple, but finding new thoughts can be tricky. Your brain doesn’t want to change. The brain is a highly efficient machine, creating shortcuts to automate frequently used neurological pathways. Your brain wants to keep thinking the same thoughts. The thoughts that you’ve always thought have kept you safe. However, in order to achieve new things we have to think new thoughts.
Thought work in running can produce amazing results. Just like we train our bodies to be able to cover the miles, we have to train our brains to cover those same miles. It is possible to turn your thoughts around. If you start to feel fatigue in a workout, you have a choice. You can allow panic to set in, thinking thoughts like, “I shouldn’t feel this tired,” OR you can choose to let the panicked thoughts go and find more productive thoughts like, “I must be getting stronger.”
During a recent marathon I experienced the power of thought work. At mile 21 I was starting to feel tired, and discouragement was taking hold in my mind. I was thinking thoughts like, “I can’t wait for this to be over.” Sherrie and I had run most of the race together. She turned to me and said, “I feel amazing.” I told myself that I was going to act and think as if I felt as good as Sherrie. I deliberately started thinking thoughts like, “I’ve got this,” and “What a gift it is to be this strong.” Things started to turn around. My legs felt lighter and my lungs stopped burning. I started feeding the thoughts that made me feel strong. I held on to cross the finish line with a new personal best, clocking some of my fastest miles in that final stretch. I want to make an important clarification here: It’s more than just saying the words. I was able to believe those words because I had honed the skill of feeding positive thoughts about my fitness through months of hard training.
Commitment and motivation are not magical switches that we wait around for someone to flip. They are not outside of us. They lie within our power. It is up to us to create commitment and motivation. We flip those switches with the thoughts that we choose to believe and to nurture. As we train our legs and lungs, we also deliberately train our minds. This is what sets The Marathon Mind apart from other programs: Along with your workouts, we give you the tools to develop these mental skills.
As you chase your goals you can practice the thoughts that serve you, that get you out of bed, that help you make healthy food choices, or that help you push through the miles when your body feels tired. Your brain is the most important part of your training because it drives all the other parts. This will carry over into other areas of your life. It is about unleashing the power of our minds, and this is what makes us passionate about sharing these tools with you. Dig deep. Work hard. Train harder.
Additional examples of how the power of our thoughts can affect our running are found in the following stories:
Kate and Her Running Friends
Sydney and the Ladder Workout
Find a thought that works for you
I coached Kate for four years. As a sophomore she showed great potential. She finished the season by breaking school records in both the 3200m and the 1600m, placing fifth in both at the state meet. She went through ups and downs, struggling with confidence. Her junior year was full of challenges and lots of tears. She spent a lot of time overthinking her races and workouts and frequently found herself falling apart in the last part of the race. During track season she suffered a stress fracture in her hip. She ended the year on a high note, however, qualifying for state in the 3200m.
The biggest struggle that Kate faced was in her own mind. She struggled to find the confidence to allow her fitness and talent to translate to consistent results in her races. She would panic when she got passed in a race, and then the negative self-talk would start. We had worked a lot on positive mental thinking without achieving the mental breakthrough we sought.
Early on in her senior year, she found a thought that worked for her as she raced. She was competing in an invitational with many other schools. As she looked around at her competitors, she realized that these were the girls that she had been competing against for all of high school. The thought that came to her and brought her strength was, “I’m just running with my friends. We’re just friends out for a run and we’re pushing each other.” She felt lighter, excited to be running and ready to push herself. Other athletes might need to think things like, “I’m going to kill the competition,” but for Kate running with her friends was what motivated her.
It taught me that there is not a one-size-fits-all thought or mantra that’s going to work for everyone. The mantra has to fit the athlete and the occasion. That is what makes awareness of your thoughts so important—you have to tune in to what your brain is telling you in order to figure out a way to work with your brain and make your brain go to work for you.
Acknowledge the thought and decide what you want to do with it…
Sydney was a senior and the team captain. She had worked hard for three years and started her senior year off really well. She was one of the team leaders in workouts and races. Her attitude was positive and contagious. Midway through the season, Sydney was starting to get passed by the teammates that she could previously beat. I could tell that this was weighing on her in the middle of our final speed workout before the region championship meet. I pulled her aside and asked her what was going on. She was hesitant to verbalize what was bothering her. She said that her legs had been feeling like lead and that she was feeling run down. I asked her if she was bothered by the fact that she was getting passed. She sheepishly admitted that she was. Once it was out there I could tell that she felt lighter. I told her that she needed to acknowledge the thought and then decide what she wanted to do with it. Did she want to stay in the mud of discouragement, or did she want to change the thought and lighten her load? I told her that she had to make that choice. I knew that she was fit. I believed that she was ready to run fast. She had to find another thought to replace the despair she felt when she was getting passed. She finished the workout, lighter and faster, keeping pace with the front of the pack. Finding a more positive thought gave her the change that she needed to finish the workout at her fitness level rather than being weighed down by the thoughts that she was losing fitness. But the first step was acknowledging and verbalizing the thought.
Thinking new thoughts.
It all starts in your mind—the running, the eating, the strength training, and even the attention to things like prehab and recovery. Your thoughts about all of the elements of training will be what drive you to get out of bed, make a healthy dinner, or rearrange your schedule to get your strength training in. With adequate attention to managing your mind, your thoughts will enhance your success in each of those areas.
The first step is becoming aware of your automatic thoughts or beliefs about yourself. “I like to cook fresh foods,” is a thought that serves you and will bring you closer to your goals. “I just have a sweet tooth,” is a thought that can stand as an obstacle. Both are just thoughts. Neither one is undeniably true or false. You get to choose which thoughts will bring you closer to your goals. Think of thoughts as seeds that blow into your mind. You only have to water and nourish the thoughts that you like. You choose what power and meaning to assign to each thought, and that choice determines how the thought affects your training.
It sounds simple, but finding new thoughts can be tricky. Your brain doesn’t want to change. The brain is a highly efficient machine, creating shortcuts to automate frequently used neurological pathways. Your brain wants to keep thinking the same thoughts. The thoughts that you’ve always thought have kept you safe. However, in order to achieve new things we have to think new thoughts.
Thought work in running can produce amazing results. Just like we train our bodies to be able to cover the miles, we have to train our brains to cover those same miles. It is possible to turn your thoughts around. If you start to feel fatigue in a workout, you have a choice. You can allow panic to set in, thinking thoughts like, “I shouldn’t feel this tired,” OR you can choose to let the panicked thoughts go and find more productive thoughts like, “I must be getting stronger.”
During a recent marathon I experienced the power of thought work. At mile 21 I was starting to feel tired, and discouragement was taking hold in my mind. I was thinking thoughts like, “I can’t wait for this to be over.” Sherrie and I had run most of the race together. She turned to me and said, “I feel amazing.” I told myself that I was going to act and think as if I felt as good as Sherrie. I deliberately started thinking thoughts like, “I’ve got this,” and “What a gift it is to be this strong.” Things started to turn around. My legs felt lighter and my lungs stopped burning. I started feeding the thoughts that made me feel strong. I held on to cross the finish line with a new personal best, clocking some of my fastest miles in that final stretch. I want to make an important clarification here: It’s more than just saying the words. I was able to believe those words because I had honed the skill of feeding positive thoughts about my fitness through months of hard training.
Commitment and motivation are not magical switches that we wait around for someone to flip. They are not outside of us. They lie within our power. It is up to us to create commitment and motivation. We flip those switches with the thoughts that we choose to believe and to nurture. As we train our legs and lungs, we also deliberately train our minds. This is what sets The Marathon Mind apart from other programs: Along with your workouts, we give you the tools to develop these mental skills.
As you chase your goals you can practice the thoughts that serve you, that get you out of bed, that help you make healthy food choices, or that help you push through the miles when your body feels tired. Your brain is the most important part of your training because it drives all the other parts. This will carry over into other areas of your life. It is about unleashing the power of our minds, and this is what makes us passionate about sharing these tools with you. Dig deep. Work hard. Train harder.
Additional examples of how the power of our thoughts can affect our running are found in the following stories:
Kate and Her Running Friends
Sydney and the Ladder Workout
Find a thought that works for you
I coached Kate for four years. As a sophomore she showed great potential. She finished the season by breaking school records in both the 3200m and the 1600m, placing fifth in both at the state meet. She went through ups and downs, struggling with confidence. Her junior year was full of challenges and lots of tears. She spent a lot of time overthinking her races and workouts and frequently found herself falling apart in the last part of the race. During track season she suffered a stress fracture in her hip. She ended the year on a high note, however, qualifying for state in the 3200m.
The biggest struggle that Kate faced was in her own mind. She struggled to find the confidence to allow her fitness and talent to translate to consistent results in her races. She would panic when she got passed in a race, and then the negative self-talk would start. We had worked a lot on positive mental thinking without achieving the mental breakthrough we sought.
Early on in her senior year, she found a thought that worked for her as she raced. She was competing in an invitational with many other schools. As she looked around at her competitors, she realized that these were the girls that she had been competing against for all of high school. The thought that came to her and brought her strength was, “I’m just running with my friends. We’re just friends out for a run and we’re pushing each other.” She felt lighter, excited to be running and ready to push herself. Other athletes might need to think things like, “I’m going to kill the competition,” but for Kate running with her friends was what motivated her.
It taught me that there is not a one-size-fits-all thought or mantra that’s going to work for everyone. The mantra has to fit the athlete and the occasion. That is what makes awareness of your thoughts so important—you have to tune in to what your brain is telling you in order to figure out a way to work with your brain and make your brain go to work for you.
Acknowledge the thought and decide what you want to do with it…
Sydney was a senior and the team captain. She had worked hard for three years and started her senior year off really well. She was one of the team leaders in workouts and races. Her attitude was positive and contagious. Midway through the season, Sydney was starting to get passed by the teammates that she could previously beat. I could tell that this was weighing on her in the middle of our final speed workout before the region championship meet. I pulled her aside and asked her what was going on. She was hesitant to verbalize what was bothering her. She said that her legs had been feeling like lead and that she was feeling run down. I asked her if she was bothered by the fact that she was getting passed. She sheepishly admitted that she was. Once it was out there I could tell that she felt lighter. I told her that she needed to acknowledge the thought and then decide what she wanted to do with it. Did she want to stay in the mud of discouragement, or did she want to change the thought and lighten her load? I told her that she had to make that choice. I knew that she was fit. I believed that she was ready to run fast. She had to find another thought to replace the despair she felt when she was getting passed. She finished the workout, lighter and faster, keeping pace with the front of the pack. Finding a more positive thought gave her the change that she needed to finish the workout at her fitness level rather than being weighed down by the thoughts that she was losing fitness. But the first step was acknowledging and verbalizing the thought.