OUTDOORS
Using your inner voice to take the edge off endurance exercises
Anyone who’s tried their hand at a marathon will tell you that it takes equal amounts of physical and mental toughness. For some, that mental toughness means ignoring the inner voice telling them to pack it in. For others, their mental game consists of talking themselves through the course so they can stay on track with their race goals.
“You can talk yourself in and out of anything over 42K,” said Kim Dawson, professor of sport and exercise psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont.
Sports psychologists tout the value of self-talk, defined as a conversation where the sender and the receiver are the same, and encourage athletes to use it to their advantage. It also works for recreational runners, especially if practised before pinning on a race bib.
“When your body feels good, you don’t need to go to your mind much but on those days when it doesn’t, it helps,” said Dawson, who works with several runners, including Canadian marathoner and Olympian Eric Gillis.
There’s a growing amount of science that addresses the concept of self-talk, with most studies suggesting that using your inner voice to your advantage can delay the time to fatigue and take the edge off the discomfort associated with endurance exercise.
Of course what happens in a lab isn’t necessarily representative of what happens during a marathon. But that’s what self-talk is all about, to help you cope with race day distractions and emotions that can often be overwhelming.
Not all self-talk is silent and not all is positive or instructive. You’ve probably seen goalies berate themselves after a soft goal or tennis players mumble to themselves when they double-fault. And you may have seen athletes trying to calm themselves when they think their emotions are causing their game to get away from them. This kind of self-talk is often spontaneous and in direct response to the current situation.
The real value of self-talk lies in its ability to be proactive not reactive. Its goal is to motivate and regulate behaviour, which means using it deliberately and strategically instead of talking yourself away from your performance goals.
Dawson suggests marathoners divide the race into sections, with a distinctive self-talk strategy for each segment. The early part of the race is all about using your inner voice to keep you on track, using instructional cues designed to stop you from making classic marathon mistakes like going out too fast or allowing the pack to set your pace. Keep those cues as specific as possible, like repeating your pre-determined race pace or telling yourself to slow down and run your own race.
This is the time to tune into your form — “my shoulders are too high,” “my pace is too quick” — and self-regulate as needed in order to stay true to your race plan. It’s also the time to take stock of your environment — “It’s a hot day so I’m going to have to adjust my time goal” — and how you feel — “I’m feeling great, maybe it’s the day to go for a PR” — so that you can modify your goals as necessary.
Later in the race, when your body is starting to fatigue, your self-talk strategy is more about dissociating from how you feel. You want to get out of your head and focus on getting the job done. This is when motivational mantras can help. Repeating phrases like “you got this” or “you’ve done the work, now finish the job” can get you through to the finish line.
Dissociating can also be something as simple as going over your weekly “to do” list, visualizing one of your favourite runs or mentally writing a report for work.
Ideally marathoners should practise self-talk before taking on the race itself. Choose instructional cues and mantras that are short, personalized, meaningful and prompt action. Avoid empty phrases like “don’t stop believing” that won’t do much to get you over the hump.
Another word to the wise is not to overdo it. Too much directive self-talk can exhaust your mental resources and cause your inner dialogue to collapse. It’s also important that your conversation stay grounded in reality. If you don’t believe your own motivational messages, like saying “stay strong” when you’re feeling weak and depleted, then self-talk will do little more than add to your frustration. Instead tell yourself to do one more kilometre before reassessing how you feel.
“You want your head to be an ally to your body not an adversary,” Dawson said.
For anyone with a fall marathon on their schedule, it’s not too late to develop a few mantras and some instructional cues for use leading up to and including the big day. Training your head is as important as training your body.