What is Mental Skills Training for Runners?
These last few weeks the RV blogs have focused on mental skills and mental skills training. I’ve been writing about the psychology of running since before RV started often sharing hacks from The Chimp Paradox (hence our mascot being a chimp) to trying to persuade you to run “naked” (without your watch!) and often encouraging you to stop comparing yourself to others. I’ve shared research and stories on how you CAN teach an old dog new tricks, tried to convince you that age is not a limiter, and that our brain is a muscle that can be strengthened just like any other muscle.
But sometimes it all seems a bit hard, more things to think about and change and changing behaviour is hard; we know that.
Here’s my question; how much time and effort do you put into the physical side of your running? because you are determined to improve, to get faster, stronger, fitter.
I know you give it your all because I see you…… I see you increasing your mileage, running 3 or 4 times a week and I watch how much discomfort you go through when you head out of the door in the freezing temperatures/pouring rain to run lap after lap around a concrete car park.
I look at your Strava data and notice your splits, your photos and know that it isn’t easy setting your alarm for 6am at the weekend, when the rest of the family are sound asleep and all you want to do is have a morning pottering around in your dressing gown; you might struggle to get dressed, to put cold, tight clothes on, knowing there’s a high probability that you’ll be cold and wet again very soon.
Nevertheless, you get out there because you know that your weekend long run is an integral part of your training, another essential session to build your slow twitch muscles, to build endurance, efficient running economy, and a strong aerobic engine. And besides you opted for Saturday night Shepherd’s Pie due to carb loading rather than the delicious take away that the rest of the family had; that sacrifice must be worth something.
I See You
Without exception, this takes time and effort, and I see you, I see how hard you work….
Yet how much time and effort do you dedicate to strengthen your mind, your thought processes, your mental game? What even is your mental game?
Mental skills, mental fitness, mental game….” the application of psychological theory and methods to the understanding and enhancement of athletic performance”
If you’ve ever experienced things like race anxiety, sudden lack of confidence in your ability mid race or choked under the pressure of a race/training run, or even, unconsciously self-sabotages runs (avoiding training sessions/hard sessions wearing the wrong kit, drinking the night before, eating McDonalds for breakfast, not eating breakfast etc).
All our thoughts lead to emotions which lead to feelings which lead to behaviour. If any thoughts/actions have prevented you from getting out of the front door or entering an event that you’d really like to do, then you’ve experienced first-hand how powerful our minds can be.
A deficit in mental skills training can quickly become a barrier to harnessing all your physical potential that you have so diligently trained for. Often, if your mind is tied up with negative or unproductive thoughts, it becomes difficult for your body to perform in the way you have worked so hard for; so, doesn’t it make sense to spend an equal amount of time preparing the mental skills side of running as well.
Mental skills training and belief systems
Our brain is locked away in a completely silent and dark chamber, we can’t see it, we can’t feel it, yet we know it’s there, it’s responsible for thousands of thoughts, actions, and subsequent behaviours thousands of times a day. The only way the brain can get any information about what’s going on in the outside world or within our body is through our senses, touch, vision, hearing, smell, taste, pain etc. Our brain must try and make sense out of all that information, it must construct realities which have been shaped by past experiences, past interpretations, and the context to which we experienced that moment in; we look for stuff that fits in with these thoughts which can be the backbone of our belief system.
Research imagery shows how our “belief systems” are adaptable, images show that everything, including our beliefs are physiological, so just like you can impact your physiology through physical training, you can change your beliefs, they are adaptable, and they don’t have to hold you back.
However, you need to find some mental skills training that works for you, this again might take time, but it’s worth the investment, just like going to a hard training session, it’s difficult at first but with practice, doing it gets less painful.
Do you have an ANT infestation in your head?
Dr Daniel G Amen
AUTOMATIC NEGATIVE THOUGHTS – ANTs are negative thoughts cause your brain to immediately release chemicals that affect every cell in your body, making you feel bad. The opposite is true, positive, happy, hopeful thoughts release chemicals that make you feel good.
Just because you have a thought has nothing to do with whether it is true. Thoughts lie. They lie a lot, and it is your uninvestigated or unquestioned thoughts that steal your happiness. If you do not question or correct your erroneous thoughts, you believe them, and you act as if they are 100% true.
How to be an ANT EATER
1. Start BY writING down 100 of your automatic negative thoughts (ANTs). The act of writing down the ANTs helps to get the invaders out of your head, most people stop when they reach 30 ANTs!
2. Identify the ANT species. There are 9 types of ANTs and I’ve written down some examples in relation to running….
All-or-Nothing ANTs: Thinking that things are either all good or all bad –
For example - That training run or race was awful, that’s going in the f**k it bucket, I didn’t learn ANYTHING from that run.
Less-Than ANTs: Comparing and seeing yourself as less than others –
For example - I’m not as fast as………I’m not as thin as……I’m not as strong as……. I can’t run as far as…….
Just-the-Bad ANTs: Seeing only the bad in a situation –
For example - that marshal said something offensive that ruined my race……I was holding everyone up……. I was at the back……
Guilt-Beating ANTs: Thinking in words like should, must, ought, or have to –
For example - I have to get a pb…. I must beat last years’ time…. I should be faster/thinner by now……. I have to beat……. I ought to be thinner.
Labelling ANTs: Attaching a negative label to yourself or someone else
For example – I’m not a runner………. I’m not a very good runner………I’m slow……. I’m holding everyone up………they’re not going to achieve………
Fortune-Telling ANTs: Predicting the worst possible outcome for a situation with little or no evidence for it.
For example – there’s no point me entering this race as I won’t be as fast as last year……..I’m not going to enter this race as I won’t get a pb……….I won’t go to interval training as I’ll be last……….I won’t go to a group session as I’ll hold anyone up…..I won’t go to a group session because I’ll be left behind
Mind-Reading ANTs: Believing you know what other people are thinking even though they haven’t told you –
For example - They don’t think I’m a runner because I don’t enter races………They think I’m too old for strength training………. That group don’t like me because they stopped talking when they saw me…………They think I’ve put on weight…………. They don’t think I belong at a race….
If-Only and I’ll-Be-Happy-When ANTs: Arguing with the past and longing for the future
For example – If I was thinner, I would be able to run faster…. I’ll enter that race when I’m faster….…. I’ll enter that race when I’m the same pace as I was last year……...If only I was fitter, I could go to group…. If only I was fitter, I could join the beginner’s course…. If only I could run 5km I could go to return to running….
Blaming ANTs: Blaming someone else for your problems –
For example - I was told I wasn’t sporty by a PE teacher so I’m not going to try…. I wasn’t encouraged by my teachers to do well……If “they” hadn’t said I looked like a Russian Shot Putter I would be a faster runner by now….
3. Ask yourself if the thought is true. Are you 100% sure it’s true?
4. Ask yourself how you feel when you have the thought. Then ask how you would feel without the thought.
5. Make ANT-killing a daily habit. Killing the ANTs takes practice, just like training for a race; you can’t just do it once and think you’ve mastered your thinking patterns, make it a daily practice, you will feel freer, less anxious about your running and less trapped in the past.