Use Your Mind to Achieve Performance Goals

It’s natural to focus on physical training when preparing for a race or getting back in shape. But in the fight for perfect form, many athletes forget to spend time on mental training, too.

This article from Trail Runner magazine is all about training your mind to help you get the results you want. While it’s geared toward trail runners, these same principles can be applied to any sport… and even life in general. Give yourself an edge by training your brain along with your body.

The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste
Use your head to improve trail-race performances
By Kevin Ludlum

While teaching a workshop about mental training for trail running peak performance, I asked the students a loaded question, “How much of our sport is mental?”

“Oh! It’s 70 percent … no, 80 percent … wait, 90 percent,” they replied enthusiastically.

“So that means the physical aspect of trail running is only 10 percent to 30 percent?” I asked.

“Yes!” the students replied without hesitation.

“Then what does it mean to ‘train’?”

They glanced at one other and declared, “We RUN!”

Trail runners spend hours conditioning their bodies but usually neglect to train their minds. Mental training develops the psychological skills necessary for continuous improvement, motivation and high performance through positive self-talk, goal setting, imagery and race strategies.

Talk to Yourself

Conscious thought, or “self-talk,” guides our actions. When this inner chatter becomes negative, your focus can drift toward potentially negative outcomes such as injury, failure, disappointment, shame, etc. “If you do not control your thoughts then your competitors will have an edge on you and run you into the ground,” warns Tim Parr, 2004 National Trail Running Champion for North America and the Caribbean.

Condition yourself to respond to a single word or a short phrase (or mantra) such as “go”, “push” or “power” when you are lagging and need to speed up. Words like “relax”, “flow” or “calm” trigger a relaxing response. The words you choose should elicit the response that is appropriate for the situation, i.e. don’t pick “aggro” for a situation that requires you to relax.

Condition yourself to respond to your chosen mantras first in a quiet room where you can relax and focus. In your mind, create a specific race scenario in which you wish to perform well. Take 10 deep breaths, in through your nose and out your mouth, repeating the mantra each time you exhale, while imaging your body responding appropriately to the words. Through practice, this exercise will manifest the desired physical response.

Set Goals

Goal setting is probably a trail runner’s most useful mental-training skill for improving performance and staying motivated. Goals are tangible, quantifiable objectives or, “I will …” statements.

S.M.A.R.T. goals are Specific, Measurable, Action Oriented, Realistic and Timely (see sidebar). On route to achieving a S.M.A.R.T. goal, you should have process goals, performance goals and outcome goals.

Outcome goals are something concrete to work toward, such as a race result. Performance goals focus only on your individual accomplishments, not those relative to competitors, such as increasing weekly mileage targets or setting a personal record for a particular distance. Process goals are what you have to accomplish in order to achieve the performance goals. For example, to improve your lactate threshold, which involves teaching your muscles to use oxygen more efficiently, from a rate of 88 to 90 percent of your VO2max (the amount of oxygen your body can use), then your process goal will be to perform tempo runs at your goal intensity of 90 percent at least once a week.

Refocus Plans

Imagery, as a component of sports mental training, allows athletes to create a mental situation so real their bodies believe it is actually happening. “I use imagery to plan my races, says Parr. “I plan to do well, maintain a pace, push through pain or go faster.”

Imagine the course with all your senses–what it looks like, how the air smells, the temperature on your skin, the sun’s brightness, firmness of the ground, sounds from a loudspeaker, people around you. Plan your ideal race in your mind, then “run” through your ideal race over and over until it is a fixed mental blueprint.

Since races often don’t unfold as planned, you need to anticipate obstacles or less-than-ideal conditions such as rain, mud, hot sun, bonking, tripping, getting cut off by another runner or going off course. Establish a reaction plan using imagery to get you back on track to your ideal race scenario.

“I have an image of what I will do in any given circumstance, say, I have a bad day and have stomach pains,” says Parr.

“When it gets tough, I remind myself that the rough or really painful periods are only a tiny fraction of my time on earth or even of the race and I know I can push through it,” says Hardrock 100-mile ultramarathon finisher Jake Jones.

Know what positive words to say to yourself when you feel lousy or fatigued in order to stay fully focused and moving well.

Control Anxiety

Anxiety is distressed psychological state accompanied by physical reactions such as muscle tension, fatigue and uncoordination. In other words, your body reacts to what your mind is focused on. As with refocusing strategies, mental training can replace anxiety with relaxation, thereby freeing your mind and body perform optimally. Learn to recognize when you are slipping into a state of anxiety and employ conditioning words or phrases that adjust your mental state to a more positive one. As soon as you release distracting, fearful thoughts, your body will react similarly, releasing energy-draining tension from your muscles and giving you more energy.

Mental training is as important as physical training, so begin by setting aside 15 minutes a few days a week to control your breathing, quiet the mental chatter and notice your level of anxiety or relaxation. Every day will be different, but the first step is to get to know yourself. Eventually, your regular mental training sessions will be as rewarding and satisfying as the physical ones.

Achieve Your Potential with S.M.A.R.T. Goals

S – Be SPECIFIC with your goals. Don’t just say, “I want to run faster.” Say, “I will drop a minute off my best time.”

M– Ensure each goal is MEASUREABLE so you can quantify your progress.

A– Your goals should cause you to ACT, and create a step-by-step plan for achieving the goal.

R– Know your limits and set REALISTIC goals. Challenge yourself but don’t choose a goal that you know is unattainable given your starting fitness level and time frame.

T– Every goal should be TIMELY, meaning set a specific date for when you will complete the goal.

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