THE MENTAL GAME OF RUNNING
Visualization: think strong, finish strong Physical training is only part of the success equation. For athletes, seeing is believing, and that means visualizing positive outcomes. By Joanne Richard
T
he mind rules; experts recognize that it can be your greatest ally, or your worst enemy, and negative thinking can stand in the way of your personal best and sabotage your performance. “Visualizing and seeing yourself be successful is such an important aspect of individual people having great run performances,” says Barrie Shepley, coowner of personalbest.ca. “But while most runners are out on the track, trails and treadmills four to five times a week trying to make their body faster, very few even spend five minutes a day preparing their most important organ—their mind—to go faster.” According to Shepley, a former Olympic coach, mindset is the biggest difference between athletes who have great runs one weekend and average runs a few weeks later. “The old adage if
you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re probably right, is so important when it comes to the power of the mind and achieving successful athletic performances.”
HAVE A STRONG RACE PLAN
Mental performance consultant Alayne Hing agrees that believing it can be key to achieving it. “We take care of our bodies with nutrition, hydration, physical and even tactical training, but oftentimes we don’t prepare our minds. Anxiety, unexpected challenges, and not having a race plan can overwhelm a runner and result in a poor race outcome.” Controlling our thoughts is as important as controlling our physical movements. “A strong race plan, complete with many possible scenarios— blisters, poor weather, falling behind, number of competitors, cramps,
chafing, course layout, unexpected hills, etc.— can prepare you to deal with these challenges effectively, without panic, and move on smoothly without having them impact your overall race,” says Hing, who is with the Canadian Sport Institute in Calgary and also runs Elite Edge, a performance company.
WORK IT INTO YOUR DAILY TRAINING
Professional athlete Lionel Sanders employs visualization in his daily training. “The mind is the most underrated aspect of training. A great deal of my training is mind training. I think it is the most important aspect to athletic success.” The 26-year-old Hamilton triathlete says that without a positive mindset, the race can be lost before you even start, especially if intimidated by competitors. “This is where I put visualization to use. Before I go into a
race, I will have already won the race many times in my own head. That way, when I get there, I feel that all I need to do is what I have already done hundreds of times in practice.” Sanders visualizes success throughout every run, swim and biking practice. He trains 28-35 hours per week on average, which includes running about 150K, swimming 25K and biking 450K for a total of 625K over his training week. Visualizing the finish line helped Sanders come up with the fastest run split in the Half Ironman Triathlon in Syracuse on June 21 by nearly 10 minutes over past champions. “He ran 1:09 for his 21K split off the bike—after 90K of biking and 2K of swimming. Most people, fresh from running a half marathon, go about 1 hour and 30 minutes to 1 hour and 50 minutes. So 1:09 off the bike is ridiculously fast,” says Shepley, who trains Sanders physically and mentally, and has coached hundreds of people to national championship titles, as well as Pan American Games and World Championship medals.
ACKNOWLEDGE THE DARK PLACE
For Sanders, thinking strong means finishing strong. When negative thoughts creep in, he replaces them with positive thoughts, such as, “yes, you can do this, just relax. In a race situation, I know these negative thoughts are sure to come, so before the race I like to think of a mantra that I will tell myself to stay as strong as possible.” Failing to acknowledge that “the dark place” is sure to come, says Sanders, is a key mistake racers make. “If you are pushing your limits, you will most certainly encounter negative states of mind, as your body does not like to transcend its current limitations. Knowing this, you need to have a meaningful mantra in place to regain composure over yourself in the moment.” It has to be meaningful, stresses Sanders, otherwise it will be easily tossed aside when “the dark place” overcomes runners with negative thoughts. Meaningful mantras allow athletes to push through barriers into places, both mental and
MEANINGFUL MANTRA:
Sky above me. Earth below me. Fire within me. ALANA BONNER, QUEBEC For more running meaningful mantras from iRunNation, and to share yours, visit iRun.ca.
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