“It’s all in your head.”
We’ve all heard this tired cliche a thousand times before. It’s as infuriating as the heavy
breather or foot stomper you can’t seem to shake off at the local 5k.
But the truth is, we’ve all gotten nervous before a race. Or thought about how other
runners are just better (or fitter, or prettier, or have cooler shoes, etc.). Maybe you’ve
given up in a workout or race and cannot figure out why it happened.
Tiresome as it may be, the fact is, is that running and progress (or lack thereof, sadly)
largely is in our heads.
This is where psychology comes in.
As athletes, each of us is different and has unique goals, experiences, and stories;
however, some common obstacles arise. And they don’t discriminate between the elites
and the “I run for fun” crowd. Trust me, I’ve seen it all. Confidence is something that has
got to be built and maintained to continue to improve, and it’s as elusive as a unicorn to
many of us.
In order to harness that unicorn, we must first identify the type of garbage in our heads.
If we do that, we can get to work on it and stop the self-sabotage and perform more
consistently.
Starting out, let’s examine the most common issues runners face and see if they
describe you from time to time. Personally, these are things I’ve dealt with in my running
as well (even sports psychologists need sports psychology). See, we’re all in this
together!
- Recall the ‘I can’t do this’, ‘I’m not ready’, and ‘This will be bad’ moments in your running or life in general. Imagine if you killed just one or two of these thoughts during a race, or just simply accepted them as just, well, thoughts. If more positive or even neutral is happening, performance likely will go up (Basset et al, 2022).
- Difficulty dealing with discomfort. That’s a lot of ‘D’s. But anyhow, “pain is weakness leaving your body” is just a meme caption unless you are willing to put yourself in the hurt locker (in a progressive and safe way, of course!). As much as runners love to run, so many of us frame discomfort as negative instead of normal.
- Unfair comparisons to others. OMG, where do I begin? Learn to run in your own lane just a little more, and watch your running improve. Practicing self-awareness in the face of external static of images, times, and better shoes does nothing for us. Being aware of this before getting to the start line and doubling down on your own goals helps.
- Rigid Goals. No PR = no success. False!
Does anyone feel me on this? Just like stretching and eating right (most of the time
anyway), taking the time to pull weeds and put the mental trash on the curb takes our
running to another, better place.
We’re going to dive into this more in the coming months, but know that oftentimes, it
really is just in your head. But there is hope!
Thanks for reading, and feel free to reach out with questions, comments, and healthy
debate.
References:
Bassett, F., Kelly, L., Hohl, R., Kausahl, N. (2022).Type of self- talk matters: Its effects
on perceived exertion, cardiorespiratory, and cortisol responses during an iso- metabolic
endurance exercise. Psychophysiology, 59, 1-14.
