Think About It!

What is your goal for today, for this training session? Is the goal you have set for this particular practice session SMART?

S- Is it specific? (I will run x-amount of minutes at threshold pace) rather than general (I’ll do my best today)

M- Is it measurable? (Does it have a specific time, distance, heart rate, number of intervals, number of reps, etc.)?

A- Is it agreeable? Is it your goal, and you are committed to it, or is it somebody else’s goal? Is it action oriented?

Meaning, is it something that you need to do, and is this under your control or do other athletes control it?

R- Is it realistic? Is it within your reach, and is it challenging. Or is it too easy, or too hard?

T- Is it time limited? Meaning, is it achievable today?

These are great questions to ask yourself before every training session that we do. Learn to maximize your run workouts by establishing daily goals and working efficiently to achieve them.

Defining The Four C's

Confidence means believing in yourself, in your skills, in your ability to handle whatever is thrown at you. Concentration is the ability to stay focused on the task at hand despite distractions (ex. your run cadence, breath and posture during changes in terrain or weather conditions). Composure means managing your emotions. Commitment is the willingness to train hard, to sacrifice, to persevere when things are not going well in order to achieve your goals.

These qualities play a role at all stages of performance and training. It is important as runners to understand and employ these qualities and work towards perfecting them during training and competition. In doing so, we "set the table" so to speak, by not only training optimally in all areas of performance, but also by developing these four mental qualities.

I think all of us have been "in the zone" at some point, where you are totally absorbed in the task at hand, fully engaged, all of your attention is focused "on the doing," on the "here and now". Outside distractions cease to exist and even though we exert great effort, it almost feels effortless. Unfortunately, this doesn't happen every time we go out for a run. Difficult and unexpected situations will come up, but the mentally strong runner will still make the best out of these situations by reassessing and modifying goals (commitment), toning down negative emotions such as anger, and turning the setback into positive energy (composure), quickly focusing on the immediate task at hand (concentration), all while believing in skills to reach new goals (confidence).

Keep the four C's in mind during your run sessions! We will be working on some exercises over the next few weeks that will help to develop or improve these mental qualities!