This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Never was I happier to read Runner's World magazine than when I picked up the March 2010 issue. On the cover is America's top distance runner, Kara Goucher.
Inside, she talks about her mentaldemons, her struggles with confidence and how she overcame the negativity in her head.
Two sentences in the article's introduction forced me to read the entire piece: "When she toes the line in a 10-K, the runners around her wonder if she'll set an American record. Inside her head, though, she's wondering if she can finish without walking."
Really? Kara Goucher? Goucher was the third woman overall at last year's Boston Marathon -- an amazing finish that placed her only nine seconds behind the women's winner. In 2009, she was ranked the top American female distance runner. In 2009, I won my age group at the Prattville City Fest 5K. We're, like, the same!
And along with thousands of others, and of all levels -- hers, mine, yours and that of your neighbor -- we relate in more ways than we think. Literally.
We fight mental battles somewhere during our run, whether it is during recreational running or jogging, training, or in a race. Personally, my
battles start before a race even begins.
I have a lot of confidence in my training capabilities, but zero in race performance. It has always been that way. From my junior high school cross-country days to when I started running again almost five years ago. I always wonder, at what point, my mind will just take over. At what point will I just stop. I have no idea why this is. Jim Moncier, a licensed psychologist specializing in sport psychology at UAB Huntsville, recommends that people first understand their motivation "in doing what they're doing," whether it is to compete in an Iron Man, or to run around the block twice without stopping.
Setting short-term goals for long-range goals, he said, helps break things down mentally -- and goals are less overwhelming.Get to the first mile. The second. Third.
"If you set goals and have progress, that helps with the motivation," Moncier said, adding that confidence is a multi-level "factorial" kind of thing. A lot of times it breaks down into what you tell yourself. Moncier focuses a lot on self-talk, with athletes tracking their thoughts. The worst thing athletes can tell themselves, he said, is that they "can't" do it.
His response -- if you continue thinking that, then you're absolutely right. The goal, he said, is to replace that kind of thinking.
"If someone comes in and says they can't perform in a race, I'll say, 'How do you know?' You're basically predicting the future," Moncier said. "So, let's stop that and counter it. If you have this notion you're not going to be able to do something, look for ways that counter the thought. Usually it is an issue of replacing fear with fact. "When you come to your limit, or that point where things might start to unravel mentally, and you're able to start recognizing that you're setting yourself up to fail, you can start the self-talk to encourage yourself."
Using "instructive comments" can help, too -- telling yourself to slow your pace down at the beginning ora run or to say "bang" inside your head when you need to pick up the pace. "It is a word, or a couple of words or short phrases, that encapsulates a bunch of things," he said. "The more beginning runners or walkers ... if they are still struggling at certain points, that's where they will apply it -- like remembering the hill and to slow down before it. This is a great way to take that training in practice."
Planning ahead also increases your flexible thinking, even for people just getting into training, allowing you to imagine yourself doing what you want to do -- whether it is walking or running.
"And they'll rehearse their race plan, and how they would handle adversity," Moncier said.
"I say a lot: The body follows the mind."
