My good friend and past training partner Matt Johnston decided to take some time out of his busy schedule to write a guest post for StrongerRunner.com on mental preparation for racing.

Matt’s a Performance Enhancement Consultant at Centered Lifestyle (www.centeredlifestyle.com) and he also represented Canada at the international level in Athletics.

Take it away Matt…

The following is a combination of my experience as a professional athlete and the research I have reviewed in the realm of athletic performance enhancement.

In order for these mental preparation tips to be effective, you have to be physically prepared for the demands of the competition for which you have set out to tackle. Battling through injury or setting your goals too high, makes mental preparation largely ineffective because the prolonged benefits of proper mental preparation involve being honest with yourself and knowing where you stand in your training cycles. Think of your consistent injury-free training as the basic ingredients for baking a cake and once it cools down, mental preparation is the icing that is applied to complete it. What follows is a very brief description of some important mental preparation tips that each and in themselves could be a series of future, more elaborate posts.

Top Five Tips for Pre-Race Mental Preparation

 
1. Feeling alert and slightly nervous is an indication you are ready. Acknowledge that butter flies and slight anxiety is an indication that you are in the right pre-race mindset. There is an optimal level of arousal for each person that corresponds to ideal race performance. Too laid back is an indication that you may not be focused on the demands of the competition at hand. Conversely, being overly anxious is likely an indication that you have set your goals too high. If you feel overly anxious before a race, you may benefit from relaxation techniques that involve resetting your breathing pattern, thereby facilitating a calmer mindset and correspondingly, lower muscle tension that is associated with excessive anxiety.

2. Create a mental map of the course and pair it with positive, process-oriented feelings. Run the course several days prior to the race (if not possible, look at the race progression chart online) and spend time visualizing each kilometer, pairing various parts of the course with how you want to be feeling. Keep this visualization very vivid, but use simple key words like “breathe through the pain” or “keep loose” at difficult parts of the race. Because we tend to be focused during the race, using complicated mantras usually do not work, because they are easy to forget in the moment.

3. Strive for personal excellence rather than perfection. This applies to any runner from novice to world record holder. We do not have much control over external results because results largely depend on the performance of our competitors and how we perform on the given day. Personal excellence however, is largely intrinsic, meaning that our goals and achievements come from within us and we are not distracted by the performance of others around us. When we focus on extrinsic goals, we are prone to overlooking the unpredictable and often uncontrollable challenges that get us to the finish line.

4. Focus on process rather than outcome goals. We live in a society that is obsessed with outcome achievements based around results. While your job may require you to live in this mindset, the most successful athletes train within themselves. They do not focus on what other athletes are doing unless it motivates them to become better. Your goals should be on things like improving your race time in comparison to the previous year, or tackling a tough kilometer faster than years past.

5. You pick the races, they do not pick you. You are most likely to experience flow when your skills match the level of challenge. Often, people think more is better, and quickly jump up to a distance that they are not prepared for on a physical and mental/emotional level. Aside from the physical challenges of staying injury-free, our mindset is going to be flooded with insecurity and self-doubt over a prolonged period of time in the race. Some people think this is part of the challenge and celebrate how hard it was just to finish, but in my experience this is a recipe for burn-out, injury and loss of interest in consistent training. To have an enjoyable and challenging experience, we should be honest with ourselves and pick races that reflect where we are at in terms of our training and experience, rather than prestige or bragging rights.

In your mental preparation, it may be helpful to remember that you cannot be both anxious and relaxed at the same time. For smaller races that are hard to get mentally up for, visualize a more important race during the warm up to increase your arousal levels. Conversely, if you are entered in a race that is flooding you with self-doubt and worry, find ways to minimize these negative feelings by breathing through the anxiety and telling yourself positive statements based on previous performances. In doing this, you will soon realize that you can manipulate your level of pre-race arousal thereby facilitating better results. Good luck and I hope all of you have an injury-free winter.

*****

Matthew Johnston is a Performance Enhancement Consultant at Centered Lifestyle Services (www.centeredlifestyle.com). In addition to his training as a Clinical Counselor, he also represented Canada at several international competitions in distance running.

Matt’s personal bests:
1500m:  3:47
Mile:  4:04
3000m:  7:55
5000m:  13: 47
10,000m (road):  29:52

Thanks for reading and RUN STRONG (physically and mentally),

-JK

JKC was recommended to me by my good friend Casidhe Dyke. Cas had been training with JKC for a while, and both he and his father had seen great results from the personal training that Jon and Thomas were giving them. I was and still am primarily a triathlete and I’ve always struggled with injuries. I was talking to Cas about incorporating more strength training in my program to try and prevent injuries going forward and Cas suggested that I give JKC a try. I reached out to Jon not long after, and the rest is history! After working with Jon and Thomas for a few months, I was getting stronger, faster, and most importantly, I was staying injury-free. I ended up being able to train the whole season without significant injury and posted a personal best at Ironman Copenhagen in 2018. A big part of that was due to the strength training and coaching I received at JKC.

I’ve always struggled with both my weight and anxiety throughout my life. As a writer you live a pretty sedentary lifestyle filled with both realistic and unrealistic deadlines, so I needed something to get me off my butt and to get me moving. JK has been a godsend during this past year and a half in particular. The pandemic has been tough, but workouts with both Thomas and Jon have really helped reduce the stress and strain of a global pandemic, and added an anchor of normalcy back into my life — which has been worth its weight in gold.

JKC has created an incredibly inclusive environment that’s filled with all kinds of supportive folks from all kinds of different backgrounds. For folks like myself, being surrounded by people with such athletic ability can be intimidating in most gyms. It can actually be a deterrent, and it sometimes has been for me. But, at JKC it’s far from that — it’s inspirational. Everyone supports one another. Which is something that’s not easily found in this day and age, inside of a gym or out. Not to sound like a total cheeseball here, but it really feels like a family.

I joined JKC because I wanted to better care for my physical health, but didn’t really know how, or where, to begin.  Seeking help from a trainer seemed like a wise choice, and I had heard great things about the staff at JKC. Anyone who knows me knows that I hate exercising.  So, I’ve only ever tried sticking with a gym routine twice in my life.  Each experience consisted of me wandering around, not knowing what to do, and settling for an elliptical machine or something else that seemed comfortable and non-threatening.  Each session was the same, and I felt like I was wasting my time.

Each session at JKC, however, is specifically crafted for me.  I don’t have to think about what to do, because I’m told what to do.  I don’t have to worry about how to do things properly, because I’m shown (sometimes multiple times!) how to accomplish each task.  I don’t have to be concerned about slipping into a comfortable routine, because Jon and Thomas won’t let that happen.

I originally joined JKC because I was anxious about passing out and embarrassing myself since I hadn’t weight trained in a while and I’d hoped to find somewhere sympathetic. My husband @terry_hussey had been training at JKC and his success there made me miss the achievement you feel from a good workout. I went to meet Jon and immediately knew it was going to be a safe space for me. I was never judged for the fears I had and where I was starting from. Jon and Thomas made sure to check on me often, and found a way to challenge me but make me feel secure at the same time, and Terry and I were able to book sessions together, so working out became a shared win for us!

JKC is different from other gyms because of the personal growth you have outside JKC (the sessions inside JKC creates a great positive feedback loop!). You gain self confidence, learn how to show up for yourself, meet a community of newfound friends, and get the support of your trainers who are behind you 100%. I’ve left a scattered workout so proud of myself I’ve honestly shed a tear in the car on the drive home. JKC is the mental health relief valve I need to stay positive, and keep my anxiety and health related fears at bay.

I chose JKC originally to help prevent rowing injuries. I’m a rower and we won the St. John’s Regatta in 2019 but I rowed through a rib stress fracture and missed significant time in the boat during the racing season. Training at JKC consistently since the pandemic helped me stay injury free this year and made me the strongest I’ve ever felt, which helped me help my team win the 2021 St. John’s Regatta! Jon adds variety and mixes the exercises up well so that the workout goes by quickly and strength is gained. The gym is very personable and I like the eclectic mix of people that are there. JKC is much more intimate and personal than other gyms.

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