How to build mental toughness

How to build mental toughness

Good question.

I asked for some topics this week and someone asked me how to build mental toughness.  That’s an excellent question that I’m probably not qualified to answer. But I will give it a shot.

What is this mental toughness?  Is it being able to get up when the alarm goes off and do your work out?  Is it going to the track to do that hard and painful speed work?  Is it holding that race pace even though it hurts?  Is it the ability to keep moving forward when every ounce of energy is gone from your body?

Yes. Mental toughness is all those things.

My question is whether mental toughness is something you learn or something you are born with?  I think the answer is a little bit of both.

We have all heard the stories of how Steve Prefontaine would challenge his opponents to see who had the most ‘guts’.  I don’t have that ability to run until I drop.  I never had it.  I don’t want to be in pain.

I think the way a person is wired will allow them to dip deeper into their mental reserves when the time comes.  Some of us have that crazy streak and some of us don’t.

I also know that this is not absolute.  You can condition and train yourself mentally to be stronger.  How do you do this?

First you start by making good decisions.  Decide to get up when the alarm goes off.  Every time you make the right decision, the hard decision it becomes easier.  You reinforce the strong mental behavior and it becomes a habit.

If you find the thought of this daunting, start small.  Set yourself up to succeed.  Decide to have skim milk in your coffee instead of cream.  Decide to get up 5 minutes earlier.  Decide to run one mile. My point is that once you establish a pattern of successfully making good decisions you will build that choice making muscle.

In a race, or in a workout, how to you get through that painful part?  How do you hold on?

The biggest part of it is practice.  Practice holding that pace for 2 minutes, or 5 minutes.   The more you practice overriding your pain signals the more comfortable you will be when the time comes to put up with a little discomfort.

The mind is the taskmaster.  Experiments have shown that people are able to run faster if they think the finish line is near.  You have that ability to persevere; you just have to find it.

Visualization helps.  Think ahead to that point in the race and go over it in your mind.  Go over what you are going to do when the time comes.  Burn it in. See yourself doing it. See yourself holding strong.

Visualize Usain Bolt or your favorite athlete driving to the finish.  Play that loop in your head.

Visualize the pain in your muscles as strength.  Visualize it as liquid fuel burning up through your muscles and powering your stride.  Convert the pain to power.

Mantra’s help.  When you get into that hard place it helps to have something to focus on besides the pain and effort.  Come up with a song or a phrase that you can repeat and it will help get you through.

Sometimes I’ll try to disassociate from the act of running.  I’ll essentially leave my body and float along as an observer.  If I can disassociate I can relax and stop fighting the pace.

These are some of the way s I can simulate the mental toughness that I frankly don’t possess.  What are yours?