Your imagination is extremely powerful and we have all heard the saying about ‘mind over matter’. There are plenty of famous stories about superhuman feats of strength when mind certainly overrides the body and allows you to do something people never dreamed was physically possible. During races your mind will think a million and one different thoughts, some positive and some not so positive!
One way of coping with a race is to harness these positive thoughts and you can create these during your training, and then harvest them on race day. It’s not as crazy as it sounds. The important thing is to ‘Just Imagine’. Here is an example. When you are on a long run and you enter into a nice relaxed state and feel good about your run, Just Imagine finishing a race feeling this good. If its the London Marathon you are training for, Just Imagine turning the final corner, passing Buckingham Palace and heading up the Mall with the crowd screaming in your ears, and think to yourself, ‘I want to feel this good at the end’ and say it to yourself over and over again. Whilst you are doing this, think of a piece favourite music and associate it with this feeling. Then recall a happy memory – maybe from your childhood and do the same; associate it with this good feeling. Then whenever the going gets tough either in your training or in the race you can reach for this bag of happy thoughts and sounds.
Whenever I am going through a bit of a tough patch in a long run or doing some interval training, I often think of my Mom who died 4 years ago. She would come and watch me play football when I was younger and followed me and my brother everywhere, driving miles and miles. And whenever I need that extra surge of speed or effort I think of her on the touchline, shouting my name and giving me encouragement. It never fails.
Believe me, after running 20 miles her voice that is in my head really does feel like it is coming from the roadside. Find your own positive associations to draw on and they will prove invaluable come race day.
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