03/20/2022
Training Mindset
(Part 1 of a three part series: Training, Racing, and Coaching)
You'll achieve your best results by training both your body and mind. To do this you need to create a positive mindset to all aspects of your training, racing, and your coaching support. Without the three, it's like removing a leg of a three-legged stool. The next few blogs will be a series talking about the mindset of each. Time to get started and talk about the training mindset.
During the training cycle you're going to have bad runs, days when you don't feel like running, and just ups and downs. This is normal. The keys are to acknowledge that things will happen and to have a plan for getting through it. The right mindset is setting a positive tone for your training and helps you come away with the feeling that you can accomplish anything.
When runners have a bad run or a string of them, they tend to dwell on it. Runners will focus on all the things that went wrong during the run or runs. Instead, shift the focus and frame of mind. Know going into training that when you hit a rough patch you're going to look for the positive things that came out of the run and focus on them. What went right? What did you learn from it? Answer those two questions, keep those answers in the forefront of your mind and forget about the rest.
Set a goal and commit to it. We all have goals in life. Generally, the difference between reaching them or not is in our commitment to doing what needs to be done. Running is no different. You have to put in the work. That means on days that you may not be feeling like running, you still have to have the mindset to go out and get the work done. Make it the priority; schedule it in your day. Stay positive about the goal and your progress. I've seen runners do exceptional things because they consistently do the training and have the right mindset.
I have a runner who has a goal and she works hard each week to make progress towards it. The goal is definitely something she can do. It is a long-range goal, 12 -24 months in the making. It's a big goal so it's critical that she has the right mindset to stay the course. To stay focused on it we measure progress in smaller increments. She has seen her times get increasingly better for each race she runs. Recently she ran a race and had a BHAG for it. She fell short of her BHAG but crushed her previous time. When I saw her, she was all smiles and running strong. She told me she loved the race and was super excited about her results and progress. MINDSET!!!
Training for a big race or just trying to improve your performance the important thing is to keep the positive mindset. Understanding that there will be ups and downs during the training cycle and you have to focus on the ups. You will have many more of the positive experiences and use those to build your positive mindset. These will create self-confidence and that will carryover into your racing performance.
Per4manceRunning.com
