How to Break the Mental Barriers Preventing Your Running Success

This guest post was written by Allie Burdick

How many times have you been out running, feeling strong, and confident, when for one reason or another, those negative voices start to creep into your mind.

The mental aspect of running is important, we know that, but just what is a mental barrier and how can we break mental barriers to success to run our best.

Running may be 90% mental, but once you have that mind block, it can be hard to overcome the emotional barriers associated with them. Today, we are going to share some mindset training tips with you to help you get over your mental block, and get back to running strong, so your mind can keep going as long as your body can.

My personal experience with potential racing disaster came on the morning of May 15, 2016 when, I was literally shaking, as I prepared for my first Olympic distance triathlon.

I chose the Columbia, Maryland race for it’s historically warm, early-season conditions and challenging course.

The reason I was shaking as I left transition that morning was not because of nerves but because the air temperature was and unseasonable 45 degrees and the water, a chilly 61.

If I survived the swim, I had 30+ mph winds to look forward to on the bike course and similar wind resistance on the run.

In order to face that race, I had to mentally and physically push through each and every barrier. It was incredibly hard but I finished strong and with an age-group placing.

What I learned from that experience was that I needed to be better prepared for every challenge that may occur on race day.

Although I kept my head in the game, I was completely unprepared for the conditions and would have preferred a little more mental training in that area.

How to Build Mental Toughness for Running

Athletes spend a tremendous amount of time planning and executing physical workouts but, often neglect or spend a disproportionate amount of time on mental training.

Ultra endurance runner Samantha Gash, a firm believer in using mental training techniques, was recently quoted as saying “I think that I can do anything. If I really want to do it – – I think that is the caveat.”

This is coming from a woman who ran nonstop for 379 km (235 miles) across the Simpson Desert in Australia:

“ If I really want to do something, I believe in my capacity to achieve it.”

The belief is the key.

What the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve.

By race day, you have conceived and worked toward your goal.

When you line up at the start, you need to believe in yourself and your abilities, to achieve ultimate success.

There is a wealth of information and tools available to sharpen your mind and train your brain to help streamline the efficiency of the mind/body connection.

However, just like Scott Welle said on our podcast episode about the mental aspect of training, in the same way you have to train your body for a race, you need to condition your mind to be mentally successful.

Visualization for runners

Visualization is an excellent tool for athletes. 

However, by design it does not allow for any other outcome than absolute perfection. Of course that is why so many runners use it and, very effectively.

Consider this though:

If visualization is the only mental training tool you are using, what will happen when everything does not go as planned?

What if the weather is awful?

What if I don’t have the right fuel?

What if I hit the wall?

Playing the “what if” game, prior to race day, can be helpful but only if you provide a solution to every possible fear.

By doing so, you mitigate your fears until every instance of uncertainty has a certain outcome.

When you take the guessing out of the game, and replace them with realistic solutions, you are left only with confidence and determination to build visualization perfection

What if there is bad weather on race day?

Everyone has to deal with the same conditions.

I will set realistic goals I know I am capable of and focus on what I can control.

What if I don’t have the right fuel to avoid bonking in my race?

Bring back ups, ask friends to have some on hand and, practice using different and more readily available fuel (like dried fruit or jelly beans) in training.

What if I hit the wall?

It will hurt but I have been in pain many times before in training.

I will focus on taking it one step at a time, use my mantras and, focus on my goal to push me to the finish.

And make sure you take a read of our article about bonking vs. cramping vs. fatigue to make sure you are preparing for the right situation.

Podcasts for mental distraction to prevent mind block

Running long provides the perfect opportunity to flood your mind with inspiring and mental strengthening podcasts.

In order to flex your mental muscle when you need it most on race day, you need to practice mantras and techniques during training.

RunnersConnect Run to the Top Podcast with Tina Muir is amazing for running in general and always has elite runner guests like Nick Symmonds, Molly Huddle and Stephanie Bruce.

The hostess (Muir) is an elite herself and runs for the Saucony Hurricanes.

As for mental toughness, we have that topic well covered:

Scott Welle on How to Make Sure You Condition Your Mind the Way You Condition Your Body. Welle has given motivational talks all over the world.

He also loves the Rocky movies. ‘Nuff said.

Dr Stan Beecham on Why You Need to Believe You Are Good Enough. This sport psychologist has plenty of advice for runners to change your thinking in those moments of doubt.

Margaret Webb, Doug Kurtis, and 85 year old Ed Whitlock– getting it done in the over 40 league, for when you need some master’s level inspiration!

Sarah Russell on Motivation: Doctors told her she would never eat (or run again), but she defied all odds, and did it….with a colostomy bag. From Never Eating Again to Racing the Himalayan 100 Mile!

Perry Newburn on How to Distract Your Mind When It Tells You to Quit. He’s qualified since Newburn battled a 16 year heroin addiction, and running helped get him out of it. Now he completes enormous physical challenges, like running around New Zealand or running across the US for charity.

Practice your mental toughness

If you don’t practice, it won’t work.

You cannot suddenly use a mantra you do not fully believe in.

Trying to come up with a pep talk to yourself without practicing it is like trying to hold an 8:00 minute mile pace when all you have ever run is 9:30 – – it’s not happening.

During practice come up with a mantra that works for you.

Now:

Be careful to use positive words like “stronger with every step” instead of something like “can’t stop, won’t stop.”

Although when put together, the second mantra is positive, it has been proven that your brain does not consume the sentence as a whole but will perceive “can’t” and “won’t” as the negative words they are.

In fact, Andrew Newberg, M.D. and Mark Robert Walman, the authors of the book Words Can Change Your Brain wrote “a single word has the power to influence the expression of genes that regulate physical and emotional stress.”

If a single word has that much power, choose yours carefully.

Have a Short Memory and Never Give Up

A lot can happen over the course of the race and, usually, it’s never as good or as bad as it seems.

If something unplanned or outright bad happens, try to forget it and just move on.

The key is to never give up, no matter how hopeless a situation seems. You can reframe your goals but never give up on them.

You never know what can happen to you, or the runners you are competing with during the course of a race.

It can seem like there is no way you will achieve your goal, until you do.

In one of the greatest 10,000m races in Olympic history, Haile Gebrselassie won gold in 2012 in Sydney by a fingertip, defending his Olympic title from Atlanta.

With a few meters to go, Gebrselassie powered to the finish line surpassing Paul Tergat in the last seconds of the race, winning by just 0.09 seconds.

Your mind has the power to change the outcome of a race.

It’s your mind that tells your body what to do and, if you have trained properly, when your mind believes in the ability of your body, your body will respond.

If that’s not enough to convince you, watch Gebrselassie’s win at the 2012 Olympics, and seven other unbelievable comebacks.

Be Ok With the Outcome

It seems unfair that months of hard training come down to one day of racing.

Anything can happen on that day, no matter how mentally and physically prepared you are. The best way to make it successful is to be ok with whatever the outcome is.

A lot of runners use A, B and C goals as a way of being able to re-focus, should the worst happen.

The A goal would be perfection and a PR or podium finish, a B goal is what you could be happy with given unforeseen circumstances and the C goal should always be just to finish.

Having the courage to start and then finish the race, no matter what, always makes you a winner.

Believe it.

Allie is a freelance writer, athlete and mom, but not in that order. Her work has appeared in Runner’s World, Women’s Running and ESPNW. On her blog – VITA Train for Life she chronicles her life as a runner and triathlete and hopes her successes and failures help to motivate and inspire others, even the over 40 crowd she somehow found herself in! The rest of her time is spent raising her twin boys with her husband in the northeast where they live life as an adventure!
You can find Allie on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram