The psychology of running: how your own consciousness prevents you from achieving your best results

IN book “How bad do you want this? The Psychology of Mind over Body,” sports journalist Mat Fitzgerald tells the story of Kenyan runner Sammy Wanjiru’s incredible victory.

In 2010, a man competed at the Chicago Marathon in terrible shape. At the beginning of the year, he dislocated his knee, a little later injured his lower back, and shortly before the race he contracted an intestinal infection. Moreover, after his last victory at the Olympic Games, he trained poorly, indulged in alcohol and gained 4 kilograms of excess weight.

Sammy was inferior in all respects to his main competitor, the Ethiopian Tsegae Kebede. During the race, Wanjiru repeatedly lost hope and fell behind, and then saw Kebede slowing down and, inspired, tried to pass him again. As a result, he managed to overtake his main competitor and snatch victory, beating him by 19 seconds.

Examining this case, Fitzgerald notes that Wanjiru was inferior to Kebede in all respects except one - psychological toughness. And it was she who helped him accomplish the impossible.

Why consciousness matters as much as physical fitness

It is logical to assume that the athlete with the best physical fitness will win any sports competition. But the 2010 Chicago Marathon, like many other incredible finishes, suggests that winning isn't always about maximizing oxygen consumption and muscle glycogen levels.

To explain this phenomenon, Professor Samuel Marcora proposed a psychobiological model endurance, which takes into account not only the state of the body, but also consciousness.

According to this model, exhaustion during a race does not occur when the body has reached its physiological limit— for example, the same glycogen reserve in the muscles - and when the athlete approaches the limit of effort that he is ready or capable of attach.

What makes a person stop and slow down is not complete exhaustion, but the perception of effort - an assessment of how hard it is to work. This indicator is influenced not only by the level of pain and fatigue, but also by other factors not related to physical fitness.

For example, dose caffeine, rhythmic music, support from other people and personal motivation can make a person run faster despite the fact that his strength is running low.

Therefore, elite runners not only have good physical fitness, but also know how to use it.

Where the wall is placed determines your fitness level. And how close you can get to it is mental correspondence.

The latter depends on many factors, including behaviors, thoughts and emotions, that help overcome discomfort and stress, reduce the level of perceived effort and keep you going.

What can stop you from realizing your potential?

Incorrect mental installations can turn your race into torture, even if you have prepared for a long time and are in excellent physical shape. They will very quickly make you give up the fight, prevent you from enjoying the competition and will certainly spoil the result.

Hope it will be easy

How you perceive your effort and sensations while running has a lot to do with your expectations. If you set yourself up for an easy and enjoyable competition, but in the process you feel that it’s hard to run, you will slow down the pace or stop altogether, even if in fact you could speed up.

If you were already expecting this to be the hardest run of your life, the discomfort will not surprise you, and you will be able to endure more, despite the pain and shortness of breath.

In one study found outthat the ability to accept physical discomfort as an inevitable facet of experience helps reduce perceived effort by 55% and prolong time to fatigue by 15%.

Always expect the race to be tough. Mentally prepare yourself to endure discomfort. It's inevitable, but not scary at all.

Fantasies about results

To overcome difficulties, you definitely need meaningful target. But at the same time, excessive concentration on results is a bad help. Fantasies about a positive outcome, be it a medal, qualifying for a competition, or a cheering crowd, are certainly pleasant, but they do not help achieve what you want. Quite the contrary.

Colorful dreams place undue importance on results, which creates unnecessary pressure—a feeling that the stakes are too high, you simply must win, you have no right to run worse than planned.

If you go into a race in this mood, you are more likely to have a mental breakdown and perform really poorly.

Increased control

Psychological pressure goes hand in hand with excessive analysis of one’s actions, which also has a bad effect on results. Our muscles do not need careful control from the mind and work much better if the focus of attention is directed outward. Moreover, focusing on your sensations, especially when they are very unpleasant, increases the perception of effort.

In one experiment checkedHow athletes will perform in a 16 km training session on an exercise bike. In the first case, participants pedaled in front of a screen that showed their avatar and the distance traveled; in the second, a virtual opponent; in the third, nothing.

Those who worked in front of a blank screen had the worst results. U cyclists there was no opportunity to be distracted by anything, and this increased the level of perceived effort and forced a decrease in the intensity of work.

This effect can also be noticed during training. When you concentrate on your body—how heavy it is, how your legs hurt, how short of breath you are—jogging becomes a challenge. But as soon as you become distracted by a passing person or your thoughts, all these sensations disappear.

Imagine that you are walking on burning coals. Which will hurt more - if you are focused on the goal or if you are focused on every painful touch?

Inner critic

It's hard to think of a more losing strategy than beating yourself up during a race. Mental fatigue causes two types of automatic thoughts: “It’s so hard for me, I can’t do it anymore” and “Why do I need all this? The devil pulled me to sign up for this.”

If you add to them critical thoughts that something is wrong with you, that you have no talent and abilities, the race will turn into torture, and the results will be bad.

This is especially true for those who generally suffer from low self-esteem, does not believe in himself and wants to use victory as a way to assert himself. As soon as the brain gets tired, habitual negative thoughts come out.

If you don’t learn to track them and stop them in time, you risk falling into a cycle of negativity, which will take away your strength even more, or even force you to stop.

What will help you surpass yourself?

Every runner can cultivate mental fitness—learn to tolerate discomfort, embrace challenges, and outperform themselves every time. What’s even better is that these qualities will be applied in everyday life, making you a more positive, purposeful and psychologically stable person.

Thread State

This term is new used psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Flow is a state of being fully engaged in a goal-directed activity for its own sake. At this time, the person’s personality seems to disappear, and he seems to become what he does.

Thread State reduces activity in the passive mode network of the brain. This is a series of regions that operate during relaxed mind wandering—spontaneously arising thoughts and memories, judgments about oneself and others.

Once you enter a state of flow, you stop worrying and become fully engaged in the activity. At the same time, the perception of effort does not disappear - it is still hard for you, but now it feels completely different.

This is not to say that the flow state is completely controllable, but you can learn to enter it. For this it is worth working on awareness at a specific moment in time - the ability to stay “here and now”, without floating away after your thoughts.

While running, try to concentrate on what is happening in the present moment. For example, you can focus on the frequency of your steps or inhalations and exhalations, pay attention to the surrounding area, sounds, or the feeling of the wind on your skin.

Just don't focus on muscle pain or heaviness in your body: it will have the opposite effect.

Mental support

In one experiment provedthat positive dialogue with yourself helps you last much longer before fatigue sets in.

First, participants were asked to work on a bicycle ergometer until exhaustion. The people were then divided into two groups and half were told how to talk positively to themselves during the test. Two weeks later, the experiment was repeated, and it turned out that the participants who learned to support themselves improved their performance by 17%.

Stop worrying about the result, surrender to the flow and mentally praise yourself. Positive thoughts will improve your mood and reduce perceived effort.

Fan support

Even the presence of strangers can make an athlete feel much more tense than if he were working alone. Perhaps that is why at official races people often show results that they did not even dare to dream of in training.

What works even better is not just a look from the outside, but warm approval. In one experiment, runners received words of encouragement every three minutes, one minute or 20 seconds, or ran in silence. As a result, those who received verbal encouragement every 60 and 20 seconds performed best.

In another study of volunteers asked perform a test on exercise bike with high intensity until failure. At the same time, some were shown images of happy faces, and others - gloomy ones. But they did it very quickly, so that people did not have time to realize what they saw. As a result, those who saw smiling faces were able to work 12% longer.

When choosing competitions, focus on those where you will be watched by positive and active fans. Many official races can boast of this - people there greet any runner, familiar or not, shouting words of encouragement.

If possible, take your family and friends with you and ask them to actively support you during the race. And don't forget to do it yourself. Let only the thoughts remain in your head: “Come on, you can do it!”

Positive outlook on the world

In his book, Matt Fitzgerald says that the majority of endurance athletes who have not given up their hobby and after 40 years, similar in character. They have extraversion, are open and aware, and have low levels of anxiety and pessimism.

A positive outlook on the world improves athletic performance and even slows down the aging of the body. And although not everyone is lucky enough to have such a character, certain qualities can be cultivated. For example, through a sincere passion for running.

In one scientific article found outthat any passion - a person’s favorite activity to which he regularly devotes strength - strengthens psychological well-being.

As a result, he spends less time on destructive emotions. Even initially anxious people can strengthen their mental resilience, which in turn will improve performance, increase self-confidence and establish a more positive outlook on the world.