Hi everybody! I’m back from my wedding weekend but am still catching up, so here’s one more guest post from the great NatalieSweet. I’ll be back on Thursday! TALK SOON!
How To Run Lots of Miles (and then some) By Building Your Confidence and Mental Toughness
Hi, I’m NatalieSweet and I have a passion for all things running, digital and hilarious. I am the feet behind SweetsFeet, a blog dedicated to my journey in running while sometimes trying to espouse tips and advice from my experiences. You can follow me on Twitter as @nataliejsweet, as well as friend me up on Daily Mile.
Obviously running is a physical activity and we all train our bodies for it, but too easily we forget the toughness that it takes to reach our goals. You need to be a tough runner..grrrr
Ok, well clearly I am not that tough physically. I am not going to hurt anyone with my boney arms, unless I jab them with them my boney elbows but I digress. Although physically I may not be the toughest, I try to be mentally tough. Mental toughness can get you through those bad runs, those last 6 miles and even just out the door. To me the foundation of mental toughness is your self confidence. If you are confident than you believe that you can accept whatever outcome or situation that may arise and you will find a way to conquer it.
Building up your confidence is not an easy task, and as you know runners can be very critical of themselves and their abilities, so I put together some tips I use to build my confidence and mental toughness.
- Set Short and Long Term Goals that are realistic – the short term goals are one of easiest ways to start building your confidence as long as they are realistic. Achieving these mini goals will start building your mind set to think that you can accomplish whatever goals you have and make attaining the Long Term goals easier.
- Follow a Routine and Plan – people feel more comfortable when they are in a routine. So set up your plan/training schedule and watch as you cross off your runs. That mental image of all the days you’ve run and all the miles you have covered is always a great image to boost confidence and fall back on when things feel tough. Plus the prepared feeling will give you confidence on race day.
- Be Realistic, You will have Bad Days –No one is exempt from having bad days, bad training runs and even bad races. Learn to acknowledge these and move on. Discouraging runs do not define you or your race. Know you will have them and plan how to overcome them during or if you have how to erase the memory of them after.
- Recognize Self Doubt and Focus on Positive Thinking– We are all our own worst critics, but catching this negative thoughts and self doubt early and reinforcing positive thoughts is hard and important. Practice controlling the voices in your head with positive self talk. Whether it is simply reminding yourself of how hard you have been training, how strong you have become and how miles you have run or repeating a positive running mantralike “Pain is temporary Proud is Forever,” Screw it, Run through it’; ‘Think strong, be strong, finish strong.’
- Visualization – Imagine how achieving your goals will feel and take yourself through the mental process of picturing what you will do the accomplish them. This technique really sounds cheesy, but if you actually do it, you will be amazed at the positive thinking and confidence it will create.
- Hard and Fun Workouts– Both these workouts give your confidence a boost in different ways. The hard workouts can really show you the exhilaration of pushing your limits and the reward of knowing you completed a hard workout. The Fun workouts spice things up and make you remember why you love running; these workouts always leave you feeling on top of the world. My favourite is my variation of Farklet training; I pick spots and run all out to it then jog then find another spot and go my fastest. It reminds me of being a kid again and brings the play aspect to my workout.
- Finish Strong– try to finish all your workouts strong! Leaving it all on the table and pushing yourself will leave you feeling satisfied and confident.
- And most all Believe in You…you can do whatever you want as long as you want it badly. Hard work and perseverance will make you successful and that’s all you really need.
What do you do to build your confidence? What is your running mantra? What keeps you through those tough miles and workouts?
awesome advice!! off to check out your blog now 🙂
Thanks. I hope you like 🙂
I loved this guest post! Confidence is the thing I need to work on the most
Thanks Shannon! Confidence is key. If you need any advice or tips please feel free to reach out to me
Im trying to quality for Boston. During a run sometimes I even talk to myself out loud and say “great job” “you’re awesome” “keep going looking good” “almost there” . It’s like my brain is encouraging my body. You’ll look crazy but I feel like it works. Sometimes I think “stay straight, doing great!” on long straight aways. So much of distance running is mental. I think yoga helps with mental clarity, focus, and breath control.
Haha..I do the same thing Amanda! You always look crazy but it works! Agree with you on Yoga! I am a big fan of Hot Yoga. What type do you practice?
Great post, mental toughness is indeed very important. I’m with you on visualization for sure, I think this really helps. During tough runs I think of the feeling that I’m going to get at the finish line, and this helps me during tough days on the road.
One thing though – if you get injured and can’t run, you need to stop visualizing yourself at the finish line of your race, because it can only make you go crazy. I got injured in late March or early April, and it took me a while before I could mentally forget about and be okay with not being able to do the races that I planned in 2011. I’ve realized that the mental part of injuries is the worst part, because your mind is ready to go but your body isn’t. I’ve found yoga to be one of the best ways to deal with an injury, it relieves stress really well, and has a lot of good stretches and strengthening aspects to it.
Great point Nelly about injuries, being injured is extremely tough mentally. Glad Yoga helped you, and it is extremely helpful, both Amanda and I agree!
PS-great blog!
Hi,
I have looked at your site and I am really impressed with its entire structure and content quality. Also, you are maintaining it very well. Currently, I am looking for the possibilities of sharing my content in this kind of blogs (as guest blog post) with my website link.
Please let me know your opinion on my request.
Thank you,
Dora