In high school, my track coach could always be found on the sidelines screaming “Get out of your comfort zone!!”
He was telling us that progress does not happen when you’re comfortable. You’ll never set a personal best running comfortably.
And it takes mental toughness to get comfortable being uncomfortable.
There’s no way around it: racing hurts, training can sometimes be boring, and it takes a lot of time, effort, sweat, and maybe even tears to get faster and break through a performance plateau.
Strategies that can help include:
- Comparing yourself to others (strategically – not for every run!)
- Building self-confidence in your abilities
- Embracing beneficial anxiety – but managing unreasonable fears
The real question is: How do we build these skills so that we can tap into our most powerful muscle (our brain) to run faster?
Even though we spend the vast majority of our time focusing on our physical skills, what about our mental skills?
If the reason we give up in races is because of our self-limiting beliefs and inner voice, how do we get stronger?
The good news is that you don’t need to wait for Neuralink to train your brain.
We can do it every day while running.
Becoming a Brave Athlete
I invited Simon Marshall, PhD and his wife Lesley Patterson to talk about these practical strategies on the SR podcast.
Their new book The Brave Athlete is a handbook for the athlete’s brain, showing you how to:
- Resist the urge to quit
- Embrace difficulty
- Respond positively to setbacks
- Build confidence and self-belief
- Cope better with stress and anxiety
This husband and wife team is quite the duo. Simon is former professor of family and preventive medicine at the University of San Diego and a professor of sport and exercise psychology at San Diego State University.
Currently, he’s the performance psychologist for BMC Racing – a World Tour professional cycling team.
His wife Lesley Patterson is a dominant triathlete, having won three world off-road triathlon champions and an Ironman Triathlon. A professional mountain biker, she’s also a former national champion in cross country.
And I think all of us get how important our brain is to our running.
How many times have you been halfway through a long run and dreaded every step?
How many races have you wished in hindsight that you had sucked it up and ran harder instead of settling?
It’s happened to me more times than I can count. And it happens to world-class athletes (like Lesley, which we talk about) all the time, too.
This podcast will show you how to turn your brain into an asset, rather than a liability.
Subscribe to the Strength Running Podcast in iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.
Resources & Links From the Show:
- The Brave Athlete: Calm the F*ck Down and Rise to the Occasion
- Episode 10 with Dr. Justin Ross (master your mental training)
- Running mantras that help you get tough when racing hurts
- The Ultra Mindset by Travis Macy
My question for you: what mindset strategies do you use for mental toughness? Leave your comment below:
