The mind is our greatest asset. Or our biggest enemy. It all depends on how we use it to frame our world. Henry Ford long ago said, “If you think you can do a thing, or you think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.” Few experienced athletes would disagree with Ford’s observation.
Still, it’s not enough to simply nod in agreement. To get results, you have to actively employ positive thinking. This can prove surprisingly difficult. The mind has a way of conjuring up obstacles on all fronts, from our own inertia to our assumed physical limits.
For many years I objected to much of the advice proffered by positive-talk and -visualization psychologists. I regarded them as overly simplistic, and lumped them into the same category as faith healers and peddlers of magic potions. When I watched them on TV or read their books, I’d scream, “Show me the results.” I wanted objective, scientific proof—not mumbo jumbo.
I began to change this view when I noticed that many top runners expressed their own variants on positive talk. Two-time US Olympic marathoner Ryan Hall particularly impressed me. Before big events he would note, “I’m not sure I’m going to win or run super fast tomorrow. But I’m open to the possibility.”
The next day Ryan would run as he had spoken. He attacked the race hard and confidently. He didn’t always win, but he did often excel. He used his positive attitude to open the doors to great achievement.
I also learned about several amazing experiments in which the researchers essentially removed one of the limits we put on ourselves. They did this by lying to their runner subjects. They told the runners that they were performing a treadmill test at the same speed they had achieved in a prior test. Only this was a total fabrication. In the second test, the treadmill speed was actually increased by 1 percent—a substantial difference above an already all-out effort. Yet the runners were able to complete this second, faster test because they didn’t consider it a big reach. They believed it within their grasp.
Finally, in 2011 the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science published a meta-analysis of thirty-two studies on self-talk and athletic success. It confirmed “the effectiveness of self-talk in sport to facilitate learning and enhance performance.”
Increase self-control: “Yes, I can” works best when it enhances your sense of control. It’s less helpful if you set specific but nearly impossible goals like “Today I will win my age group.”
A recent study in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise followed endurance cyclists who performed a ride to exhaustion before and after two weeks of instruction in positive self-talk. In the second test, the cyclists lasted 18 percent longer, based on four positive phrases they had been practicing. The statements were very simple—such as “Feeling good” and “You can push through this”—but produced strong benefits.
Reframe, reframe, reframe: You might be getting slower, but if you’re still in the game, that’s a significant victory on its own. A friend named John Cahill was one of the best American age-group marathoners in the late 1990s. At seventy-two he averaged under 7 minutes per mile for a full marathon, finishing in 3:05:59. Twenty years later, Cahill is still running races even though he had slowed to 16 minutes per mile for 5Ks. “Exercise has kept me happy and healthy and brought great joy to my life,” he said. “I don’t care how slow I run. I just try to finish before dark. It’s way better than sitting in front of a TV with a clicker in my hand.”
Get real: I gained a new belief in visualization techniques when I discovered a psychologist who shared my skepticism, but had discovered a better way. Gabriele Oettingen, PhD, has conducted research showing that many positive-visualization fans spend too much time being positive, and not enough doing the hard work of change and achievement. In her research these people fell short of their weight-loss goals.
Oettingen next taught them a technique she calls “mental contrasting.” They should imagine their success, yes, but also the obstacles they would face, and how they would surmount them. This approach—positive but real—led to far better weight-loss results. It’s also the best way to prepare for your biggest running challenges.