February 13, 2025 • 23 mins
#130 - In this episode, I share my journey with positive self talk and its impact on running performance. After being called out for negative self-talk during a training session, I researched how our internal dialogue can significantly affect our racing outcomes. I shared my experience from a recent 5K race where positive self-talk helped him achieve a personal best despite challenging weather conditions.
Through personal experience and research, I break down practical strategies for developing and maintaining positive self-talk during training and races. Whether you're dealing with difficult weather conditions, challenging terrain, or self-doubt, these actionable tips will help you harness the power of positive self-talk to enhance your running performance and achieve your goals.
Topics Covered:
- Staying present-focused and preventing negative thoughts
- Methods to reframe negative self-talk into positive statements
- Using milestones and past wins to build running confidence
- Building a weatherproof mindset for challenging conditions
Your Host
Richard Conner
Richard is a strategic marketing professional with experience in B2B marketing. Richard is the founder of Inspire to Run and is passionate about helping others reach their goals. He is a Connecticut native, a husband, dad, writer, Star Wars fan, and, of course, a runner!
Resources:
- To Run Your Best, Call Yourself ‘You’
- Incrediwear: Code for 10% off RICHARDCONNER
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, my friend.
Are you looking for ways toimprove your mindset with the
goal of achieving betterperformance and training in
races?
Have you found yourself sayingnegative things to yourself at
times where it matters most?
Well, today I'm going to talkabout positive self-talk and
what I've learned about myselfand my own journey, in hopes
that it helps you and yours.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hope you enjoy Welcome to Inspire to Run
Podcast and yours Hope you enjoy.
Welcome to Inspire to Runpodcast.
Here you will find inspiration,whether you are looking to take
control of your health andfitness or you are a seasoned
runner looking for community andsome extra motivation.
You will hear inspiring storiesfrom amazing runners, along
with helpful tips from fitnessexperts.
Now here's your host, richardConnor.
(00:41):
Experts Now here's your host,richard Conner.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Hi, my friend, Welcome to Inspired to Run
Podcast.
I hope you're doing well and Ihope you've been enjoying these
solo episodes lately.
We do have some greatinterviews that are brewing and
I'll drop those episodes soon.
But in the meantime I'd like totalk to you a little bit about
(01:07):
positive self-talk.
And I'm usually positive andoptimistic, but I realize that
I'm not in some cases.
And one of the things that mademe realize this is I was in the
gym a few weeks ago with mycoach and others and we were
talking about some topic relatedto races or training and I
don't really remember thedetails of the topic.
But as we're having aconversation, someone kind of
called me out.
(01:28):
They're like, yeah, well, withthat attitude, you're not.
And then I started to reflect onwhat I was saying with the
conversation, how it was going,and I realized that I must have
been very negative about againwhatever that topic was and
didn't realize it and realize itand I can be pretty hard on
myself in a lot of differentareas, but it's led to this kind
(01:52):
of negative self-talk whichthen I verbalized in that
situation.
So I really started to thinkabout that a lot and even last
year I started to use mantrasand try to have more positive
self-talk.
And if you remember, it was anepisode that I did on my
Brooklyn half marathon from lastyear, which I think I did
(02:14):
pretty well in that racecompared to the year before.
But one of the things that Itried to do was have this mantra
and it was I will, I can, Imust, and that's one of the
mantras that I've used andthat's really helped me stay
positive during the race.
And one of the things that I'verealized about myself is the
happier that I am and the morepositive I am, I tend to perform
(02:36):
better versus if I kind of sinkinto these negative you know
self-talks, whether I realize itor not, the race tends to hurt
a little bit more and I don'ttend to perform as well as I'd
like to or as well as I'vetrained for.
So kind of what spurred thetopic for today's conversation
is today how to race, and I'mreally excited about this race.
(02:56):
It is the Run for Refugees 5Kthat is put on by Iris.
I had Iris on the show manyyears ago to talk about virtual
races and kind of what theorganization does, and I've been
supporting them for a number ofyears by running this races and
promoting the events.
So today I had the race.
It is the first one for theyear and I'm really excited
(03:18):
about it because it not only isan opportunity for me to help
others but it also gives me theopportunity to just kind of see
how I'm doing as I start theyear.
I kind of, you know, january 1is like the clock just reset and
I'm ready for a new year and Ijust want to make sure that you
know I'm really set up forsuccess this year.
This race really kind of tellsme where I am and the good thing
(03:41):
is, you know, I didn't take along break after World
Championships back in December.
And usually the holidays thingstend to slow down and you have
vacation and you know yourtraining can kind of, you know,
go off a little off track andthat's fine because we all need
a break.
But coming back in January, youknow it's a little bit
challenging sometimes to getback into the routine.
So I really just wanted to kindof see how I'm doing.
(04:04):
And I love this race becauseit's local here in Connecticut,
it's in New Haven, it's in abeautiful, beautiful area of New
Haven, so you're runningthrough the streets and it's
great.
You know spectators and crowdand staff and volunteers and
overall it's just a reallywonderful race.
So I had this race today andI'll share a little bit about it
(04:25):
and then I'll kind of get intothe topic here.
So I felt good going into therace.
I've been training kind ofafter world championships.
I've been doing a lot morestrength training and then I've
been building in my miles,probably not as much as I would
have liked, but I was prettygood, like I felt pretty good
about where I was.
So that's been working outreally well.
(04:46):
I felt good going into this race.
But then we had a snowstormovernight.
So I'm like here we go, right,something that's going to get in
the way of really having justkind of standout performance in
this race.
Although it's not my A race, itjust tells me how I'm doing for
the year and it kind of setsthe tone for the year.
So it is pretty important to me.
(05:07):
It snowed overnight, theypostponed the race, which is the
right thing to do, and it justgave the city time to kind of
clear up the streets.
It gave me time to kind ofclear up the snow here at home
and I started thinking about it,I was like, first off I did
like an hour's worth of you know, call it strength training and
cardio before the race, which isnot ideal.
And then I'm thinking I'm goingto get out there and it's going
(05:28):
to be slippery and it's goingto be wet and yada, yada, yada,
right.
So already the negativeself-talk is happening and I'm
like this has got to stop.
I'm going to get out to therace, I'm going to do the best I
can and that's going to be thatright, and then we'll see what
the results are.
So that's what really kind ofspurred this conversation and
(05:48):
you know I'll just jump to theend.
I actually did pretty well inthe race.
It hurt.
So you know there's point intime where I had, you know,
pretty severe cramps, which hasbeen happening to me
periodically.
There's been times where,because of the snow and the
water and the ice, it becamereally crammed in certain areas
so I wasn't able to move as fastas I wanted to in certain areas
and you know that kind ofslowed me down.
(06:09):
But you know I was justthinking about, you know, as I'm
going through the race, I'mlike no excuses, like it's,
these are the conditions thatI'm dealt with.
I'm going to do the best I canhere and really just kind of
take out all the excuses.
That would probably give myselfpermission to dial it back a
little bit, and that's what Ididn't want to happen.
I still wanted to perform asbest as I could in this race,
(06:30):
given all the conditions andeverything that has happened.
So the good news is that Ifinished the race pretty well.
As far as I could tell, I didfar better than I did last year.
So I did about a minute betterin this race than I did last
year, than I did last year.
So I did about a minute betterin this race than I did last
year, and I improved by sevenseconds versus my best time,
which I believe was about twoyears ago.
(06:50):
So all of that was good, but itreally required me not only to
do the training that led up tothe race, but really required me
to focus, you know, on the raceand as well as have these
positive self-talk momentswhenever my brain was going off
the rails, right when somethingwas happening, physically or
(07:12):
otherwise.
So that's what I want to talkabout today.
It's just like for me, I feellike the times that I perform
best is really somewhat linkedto my mood.
So if I'm in a good mood, if Ihave that positive self-talk, if
I'm feeling good about the racegenerally, I've seen that I
perform better.
So if I'm in a good mood, if Ihave that positive self-talk, if
I'm feeling good about the racegenerally, I've seen that I
perform better.
And if I go into the race whereI'm like, well, this, that and
the other, then I've seen that Ihave challenges there.
(07:34):
It's a little bit of aself-fulfilling prophecy.
So I did a little bit ofresearch on this because I'm
curious now is this just me, oris this everybody?
How does positive self-talkreally help a runner such as
myself in these situations?
So I did a little bit ofresearch and what I found is
(07:54):
there are some studies out therethat talks about positive
self-talk and how it affectsrunning performance, and the
interesting thing is it'sinconclusive.
So I couldn't really findstudies that really showed
clearly that positive self-talkcan help lead to better
performance in a race, not tosay it doesn't exist.
(08:17):
I'm saying in my limitedresearch I didn't find those
studies.
So if you know those studies,if you've seen it, something
that's published, go to yourpodcast app, send me a message.
I'd love to see it and I'd loveto read it, but I couldn't find
it.
So one of the studies that Ifound was actually published, or
there was an article inRunner's World and it's called
(08:39):
To Run your Best, call Yourselfyou.
Research finds talking toyourself in the second person
can boost performance, and thiswas by scott douglas.
So this was a reallyinteresting article because,
while the research wasinconclusive about positive
self-talk versus negativeself-talk, it talked about when
(09:01):
you use, when you refer toyourself as you versus I, their
studies show that there isbetter performance.
So, like you can do this versusI can do this.
So I thought that was reallyinteresting and I need to think
about, like, how do I talk tomyself if it's I or you?
But that was really interesting, but that was really one of the
only studies that I saw thatcan really lead to better
(09:23):
performance based on the waythat you talk to yourself,
especially for runners orathletes.
So again, if you've seen studiesthat show this and has that
correlation or link, feel freeto send me a message.
I'd love to take a look at that, but I still believe it, I
still believe it for myself, soI'm going to share with you five
tips for positive self-talk.
(09:45):
So these are the things thatI've either researched or things
that I have experienced kind ofin my own journey and I'd like
to share them with you.
So the first tip for positiveself-talk is really just kind of
run the mile that you're in.
So focus on that moment, focuson on that mile, focus on that
(10:06):
race.
And the reason why I say thisand this is from my own personal
experience is once you startthinking beyond that, that's
when the potential for thosenegative triggers to happen.
So if you're thinking about Ihave to go to work the next day,
I have to do this, this project, I have to run a race, another
(10:27):
race, maybe next week, I have todo this with the family, all
those things, I mean they couldbe positive, maybe it's.
You know you're going to dothis and you're going to go on
to something fun, that's great.
But sometimes they have thepotential to be negative
triggers and then it takes yourfocus away from the race.
But even if you're in the race,if you're thinking gosh, you
(10:49):
know this is a three-mile race.
I'm in the first mile, I havecramps, which I did in this race
, and I have two miles to go.
Am I really going to be able tokeep this pace and go for, you
know, another two miles, giventhe fact that I have these
cramps or I'm really breathingheavy?
My heart rate's off the chart.
Whatever the case is right Focusin the moment, focus on that
(11:11):
mile, focus on that race, andthat'll help you kind of move
forward in a more positivemanner, versus thinking about
things that are kind of outsideof all those and then it kind of
could lead to negativeself-talk.
So for me, that's kind of thefirst tip.
The second tip is, you know,for positive self-talk is
(11:33):
reframe kind of those negativethoughts.
So this could be true for yourtraining, this could be true for
races.
So, whatever the circumstances,how can you reframe those
negative thoughts and have thatpositive self-talk?
So, as an example, I am slow,right, so you may just feel this
(11:55):
way Again if you're training,you're on the treadmill and
maybe you're looking at theperson next to you or you're in
a race and that eight-year-oldkid is just flying by you and
that may or may not havehappened today.
So reframe that.
I am slow to.
I'm building endurance.
So whatever you're doing todayis gonna help you build for the
future.
(12:15):
So reframe your thoughts there.
Or speed work is hard.
So what I generally do is Ilike to do speed work on the
treadmill, even though I don'tlike to do long distance runs on
the treadmill or anything likethat, but I do like to do speed
work because I feel like itreally forces me to run at the
speeds that I need to for mytraining, versus if I did it on
(12:37):
the track or whatever the casemay be.
So for me, if I'm thinkingspeed work is hard, I could
reframe that to I'm gettingstronger with every step and I
could tell you that withcertainty that when I'm doing
speed work, I'm like this iswhat's necessary for me to
perform better in my races.
(12:57):
I have to do this to get betterat that.
So I'm going to do it, and eventhat's probably a little
negative in the way I said it.
Right, I have to do this.
No, I get to do this.
This is going to benefit me andI'm going to get stronger with
every step and I'm going toperform better in my races or
whatever it is that I'm going toget stronger with every step
and I'm going to perform betterin my races or whatever it is
(13:18):
that I'm training for.
The next one is this hill iskilling me.
You can reframe that as hillsmake me powerful, right?
So again, these are ways toreframe kind of those negative
self-talk to positive self-talk.
And these are just examples.
So, whatever it is, reallyreflect and think about.
Whether you're in your trainingor you're doing your races,
(13:41):
what is it that you are sayingto yourself?
And if it seems like it can bea little bit negative, how can
you reframe that into somethingpositive?
How are those things benefitingyou in the long run?
So number three for positiveself-talk is kind of using
milestone markers to build yourconfidence.
(14:03):
So what do I mean by that?
Well, you know, I'm sure manyof you look at your watch every
mile that you go.
I mean, some people don't lookat their watch, which I don't
know.
There's pros and cons to it.
Maybe that's a good thing ifyou don't look at your watch,
but I personally look at mywatch at every mile just to see
kind of how I'm doing and justto kind of pace myself.
So I try not to look at it atany other time, but really it's
(14:26):
those kind of markers ormilestones, just to see how I'm
doing.
I started my first mile at 805 amile, which is pretty good
given that my target waseight-minute miles.
But my first reaction was well,wait a minute.
(14:46):
No, no, no, no.
If I'm at 805, I'm alreadybehind.
I have two miles to go.
I got to make up the fiveseconds Like I'm already behind,
and the first mile is probablygoing to be the easier mile.
So you know, am I really goingto get faster as I continue in
the race?
So for me, that was my negativeself-talk happening right there
at the first mile I was 805.
(15:07):
But then I started thinkingabout it.
I was like, wait a minute, thisis actually a really good thing
.
I didn't start off too fast,I'm not going to burn myself out
and this is an opportunity fornegative splits, which is
actually a pretty cool thing todo in a race.
So you know what?
805 is great, I'm going tostick with it.
I'm just going to speed up alittle bit.
I don't need a lot, I just needto speed up a little bit and
(15:30):
I'm going to see how my secondand third miles go.
So that was kind of the positiveself-talk, how it kind of
reframed like, oh my gosh, I'mslow for this first mile.
They're like no, this isactually really good, I'm in the
game, I just need to speed up alittle bit.
I will speed up a little bitand then I'm going to have
negative splits and that's goingto be cool too.
(15:50):
So the great news I want to saythe second mile.
I came in about seven minutesand 50 seconds, which is
excellent.
So, honestly, like I didn'tfeel like I was going.
Seven minutes and 50 seconds,it all just kind of felt hard.
But I was so happy when I gotto that second mile marker and I
looked at my watch I'm likethat's it right there.
(16:10):
So all I had to do is just holdon to that pace all the way to
the end.
So for me, that was kind of mypositive self-talk, which is
kind of using those milestonesto say here's where I am now,
what do I need to do for thenext mile, and then how do I
turn that kind of in a positivething versus negative?
(16:30):
And then number four forpositive self-talk is use past
success as evidence to counternegative thoughts.
So for me, there's a bunch ofthings that I use.
I will use my speed work, as wejust talked about.
I use my speed work as part ofthat positive self-talk.
Like, hey, I did thosetreadmill workouts and they were
(16:51):
hard and I did my 500-metersprint and I did it faster than
my race pace.
Mill workouts and they werehard and I did my 500 meter
sprints and I did a faster thanmy race pace and I knew I was,
you know, breathing hard and Iknow I was running fast and I
know I put my body through a lot, but that prepared me for this
moment and I know if I could dothat, I for sure can do this.
So that's some of the thingsthat I use.
(17:11):
I also use past races asevidence to kind of counter
negative thoughts.
That one is a little trickyright.
So in this particular case lastyear I was a minute slower than
I did this year and it wasn'tmy best time.
So you know it'd be hard for meto have said well, you know I
did this last year, I certainlycould do it again this year.
I could even improve this year.
(17:32):
That was hard, but I know I didbetter the year before that and
I knew that my target time wasjust a little bit ahead of where
I was a year before.
So I'm like two years oftraining, I've learned a lot.
I have a lot more confidence.
My training is dialed in forsure I could do better than what
I did two years ago and thenlast year was just a fluke, it
(17:53):
was just how I showed up thatday, but I know I could do
better than that.
So just, you know, find and usethose past successes as evidence
to counter negative thoughts aspart of your positive self-talk
.
So you know, document, you knownot only the times and
distances but also kind of howyou overcame challenges.
(18:13):
So maybe there were things thatcome up during the races that
you push through like all ofthat is going to help you, you
know, build that confidence foryour future training and your
future races.
And you know, part of acommunity thing is, you know, I
know many of us are on socialmedia or maybe we belong to
running clubs or have coachesand running communities and you
(18:35):
know it's really great to get,you know, comments and kudos
from the folks in your community, whether it's your
accountability partner, yourrunning coach, your running club
on social media.
So all of those things can helpyou.
And maybe that you know yourfriends and connections there,
your fellow runners see thingsthat you don't.
So maybe you're like you knowyour friends and connections
there.
(18:56):
Your fellow runners see thingsthat you don't.
So maybe you're like, oh gosh,you know, this is what I did for
this race.
You know, wish I did better.
But maybe for them they're likeyou're killing it and you just
don't realize it.
But here's what we see.
So all of that's going to helpyou kind of build evidence for
your future training and yourraces.
So just kind of keep track ofall those things, of your
(19:17):
achievements, and that's goingto help you moving forward.
So the next one number five forpositive self-talk is develop a
weatherproof mindset.
So, you know, maintain thatpositive self-talk in
challenging conditions.
And this one is a little itcould be a little metaphoric or
it could be, you know, actuallike weather.
(19:37):
So let's talk about the weatherfirst, because that's what
happened to me today, right?
So it snowed overnight.
It wasn't terrible, but it wasa bit more snow than we've
received in a while and my mindjust went to.
Well, the ground is going to beslippery and it's going to be
wet, and how can I get my besttime?
And conditions that are worsethan last year, which was cold
(19:59):
but it was completely dry so Icould just take off without
worrying about slipping andfalling and doing all those
things right.
So you need to have thatmindset of, whatever happens,
whatever comes your way, thatyou're going to be able to
overcome that, and weather-wise,the best way to do that, or one
(20:19):
of the ways to do that, Ishould say, is to actually train
for the weather, and you reallydon't know what you're going to
get on race day.
So the best way is to get outthere and do your runs or do
your workouts in that weather,and sometimes you can't.
I think this winter was a littlebit challenging so, admittedly,
I didn't do a lot of runsoutdoors.
(20:39):
I did some, but I was nothaving it.
I was just like it's belowfreezing for a period of time
and we had inclement weather allthe negative things, right.
So I'm like I'm not having it,but I did do it, knowing that,
hey, I have to prepare now forthat race and I want to be the
best, physically and mentally,for when I get there.
So I guess that's the actualpart of it, and the metaphoric
(21:01):
part of it is you just don'tknow what's going to happen that
day right, you don't know howyou're going to feel, you don't
know what's going to happen inyour life that could affect your
view or your self-talk.
So just really kind of buildingthat mental toughness no matter
if it's something related toweather or just something else
kind of in your life that couldbe affecting you.
(21:24):
So these are kind of the fivetips that I wanna share for
positive self-talk, but reallyjust wanna summarize that for me
personally, I felt like themore positive I am, the better
mood that I'm in, the betterprepared I am for the race, the
better off I'm going to do inthat race.
I'm going to feel really goodabout it and then, if I'm not,
(21:46):
I'm going to go through the raceand, depending on the results,
I'm going to beat myself up overit in the end.
So it's something that has beensubconscious, I guess, for a
really long time.
Sometimes I pick it upApparently, sometimes I don't.
So really being conscious andreflecting on like, how are you
thinking about you, knowyourself, your race, how are you
speaking to yourself and whatare those things that you could
(22:08):
do to have positive self-talk.
So there's a book that I'm goingto start to read that hopefully
, is going to help me in thisarea around mental toughness.
I know there's probably a lotof books out there, a lot of
resources, so if you have onethat you haven't picked up and
read yet, I encourage you to doit.
Once I read this book, I'llshare it with all of you on kind
of what I've learned and makethe recommendation to you.
(22:30):
But this is something that Idefinitely feel like I need to
work on this year because,beyond kind of the physical
things that could potentiallyhold me back from getting to my
goals, definitely the mentalaspect is just as important.
So this is a really importanttopic for me.
So I really appreciate youlistening to this conversation.
I hope this helps you.
You know these are my tips andI'm looking to learn more, as I
(22:51):
mentioned.
But if you have tips, if youhave research, if you have
stories to share, go into yourApple podcast app or Spotify, go
into the show notes and thereis an option to send a message
and I really would love to hearfrom you.
I'd really love to hear yourtips, your stories and any
research or studies that youhave.
So, with that, thank you somuch for listening and have a
(23:12):
great day.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
That's it.
So with that, thank you so muchfor listening and have a great
day.
Hi, my friend.
Are you looking for ways toimprove your mindset with the
goal of achieving betterperformance and training in
races?
Have you found yourself sayingnegative things to yourself at
times where it matters most?
Well, today I'm going to talkabout positive self-talk and
what I've learned about myselfand my own journey, in hopes
that it helps you and yours.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hope you enjoy Welcome to Inspire to Run
Podcast and yours Hope you enjoy.
Welcome to Inspire to Runpodcast.
Here you will find inspiration,whether you are looking to take
control of your health andfitness or you are a seasoned
runner looking for community andsome extra motivation.
You will hear inspiring storiesfrom amazing runners, along
with helpful tips from fitnessexperts.
Now here's your host, richardConnor.
(00:41):
Experts Now here's your host,richard Conner.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Hi, my friend, Welcome to Inspired to Run
Podcast.
I hope you're doing well and Ihope you've been enjoying these
solo episodes lately.
We do have some greatinterviews that are brewing and
I'll drop those episodes soon.
But in the meantime I'd like totalk to you a little bit about
(01:07):
positive self-talk.
And I'm usually positive andoptimistic, but I realize that
I'm not in some cases.
And one of the things that mademe realize this is I was in the
gym a few weeks ago with mycoach and others and we were
talking about some topic relatedto races or training and I
don't really remember thedetails of the topic.
But as we're having aconversation, someone kind of
called me out.
(01:28):
They're like, yeah, well, withthat attitude, you're not.
And then I started to reflect onwhat I was saying with the
conversation, how it was going,and I realized that I must have
been very negative about againwhatever that topic was and
didn't realize it and realize itand I can be pretty hard on
myself in a lot of differentareas, but it's led to this kind
(01:52):
of negative self-talk whichthen I verbalized in that
situation.
So I really started to thinkabout that a lot and even last
year I started to use mantrasand try to have more positive
self-talk.
And if you remember, it was anepisode that I did on my
Brooklyn half marathon from lastyear, which I think I did
(02:14):
pretty well in that racecompared to the year before.
But one of the things that Itried to do was have this mantra
and it was I will, I can, Imust, and that's one of the
mantras that I've used andthat's really helped me stay
positive during the race.
And one of the things that I'verealized about myself is the
happier that I am and the morepositive I am, I tend to perform
(02:36):
better versus if I kind of sinkinto these negative you know
self-talks, whether I realize itor not, the race tends to hurt
a little bit more and I don'ttend to perform as well as I'd
like to or as well as I'vetrained for.
So kind of what spurred thetopic for today's conversation
is today how to race, and I'mreally excited about this race.
(02:56):
It is the Run for Refugees 5Kthat is put on by Iris.
I had Iris on the show manyyears ago to talk about virtual
races and kind of what theorganization does, and I've been
supporting them for a number ofyears by running this races and
promoting the events.
So today I had the race.
It is the first one for theyear and I'm really excited
(03:18):
about it because it not only isan opportunity for me to help
others but it also gives me theopportunity to just kind of see
how I'm doing as I start theyear.
I kind of, you know, january 1is like the clock just reset and
I'm ready for a new year and Ijust want to make sure that you
know I'm really set up forsuccess this year.
This race really kind of tellsme where I am and the good thing
(03:41):
is, you know, I didn't take along break after World
Championships back in December.
And usually the holidays thingstend to slow down and you have
vacation and you know yourtraining can kind of, you know,
go off a little off track andthat's fine because we all need
a break.
But coming back in January, youknow it's a little bit
challenging sometimes to getback into the routine.
So I really just wanted to kindof see how I'm doing.
(04:04):
And I love this race becauseit's local here in Connecticut,
it's in New Haven, it's in abeautiful, beautiful area of New
Haven, so you're runningthrough the streets and it's
great.
You know spectators and crowdand staff and volunteers and
overall it's just a reallywonderful race.
So I had this race today andI'll share a little bit about it
(04:25):
and then I'll kind of get intothe topic here.
So I felt good going into therace.
I've been training kind ofafter world championships.
I've been doing a lot morestrength training and then I've
been building in my miles,probably not as much as I would
have liked, but I was prettygood, like I felt pretty good
about where I was.
So that's been working outreally well.
(04:46):
I felt good going into this race.
But then we had a snowstormovernight.
So I'm like here we go, right,something that's going to get in
the way of really having justkind of standout performance in
this race.
Although it's not my A race, itjust tells me how I'm doing for
the year and it kind of setsthe tone for the year.
So it is pretty important to me.
(05:07):
It snowed overnight, theypostponed the race, which is the
right thing to do, and it justgave the city time to kind of
clear up the streets.
It gave me time to kind ofclear up the snow here at home
and I started thinking about it,I was like, first off I did
like an hour's worth of you know, call it strength training and
cardio before the race, which isnot ideal.
And then I'm thinking I'm goingto get out there and it's going
(05:28):
to be slippery and it's goingto be wet and yada, yada, yada,
right.
So already the negativeself-talk is happening and I'm
like this has got to stop.
I'm going to get out to therace, I'm going to do the best I
can and that's going to be thatright, and then we'll see what
the results are.
So that's what really kind ofspurred this conversation and
(05:48):
you know I'll just jump to theend.
I actually did pretty well inthe race.
It hurt.
So you know there's point intime where I had, you know,
pretty severe cramps, which hasbeen happening to me
periodically.
There's been times where,because of the snow and the
water and the ice, it becamereally crammed in certain areas
so I wasn't able to move as fastas I wanted to in certain areas
and you know that kind ofslowed me down.
(06:09):
But you know I was justthinking about, you know, as I'm
going through the race, I'mlike no excuses, like it's,
these are the conditions thatI'm dealt with.
I'm going to do the best I canhere and really just kind of
take out all the excuses.
That would probably give myselfpermission to dial it back a
little bit, and that's what Ididn't want to happen.
I still wanted to perform asbest as I could in this race,
(06:30):
given all the conditions andeverything that has happened.
So the good news is that Ifinished the race pretty well.
As far as I could tell, I didfar better than I did last year.
So I did about a minute betterin this race than I did last
year, than I did last year.
So I did about a minute betterin this race than I did last
year, and I improved by sevenseconds versus my best time,
which I believe was about twoyears ago.
(06:50):
So all of that was good, but itreally required me not only to
do the training that led up tothe race, but really required me
to focus, you know, on the raceand as well as have these
positive self-talk momentswhenever my brain was going off
the rails, right when somethingwas happening, physically or
(07:12):
otherwise.
So that's what I want to talkabout today.
It's just like for me, I feellike the times that I perform
best is really somewhat linkedto my mood.
So if I'm in a good mood, if Ihave that positive self-talk, if
I'm feeling good about the racegenerally, I've seen that I
perform better.
So if I'm in a good mood, if Ihave that positive self-talk, if
I'm feeling good about the racegenerally, I've seen that I
perform better.
And if I go into the race whereI'm like, well, this, that and
the other, then I've seen that Ihave challenges there.
(07:34):
It's a little bit of aself-fulfilling prophecy.
So I did a little bit ofresearch on this because I'm
curious now is this just me, oris this everybody?
How does positive self-talkreally help a runner such as
myself in these situations?
So I did a little bit ofresearch and what I found is
(07:54):
there are some studies out therethat talks about positive
self-talk and how it affectsrunning performance, and the
interesting thing is it'sinconclusive.
So I couldn't really findstudies that really showed
clearly that positive self-talkcan help lead to better
performance in a race, not tosay it doesn't exist.
(08:17):
I'm saying in my limitedresearch I didn't find those
studies.
So if you know those studies,if you've seen it, something
that's published, go to yourpodcast app, send me a message.
I'd love to see it and I'd loveto read it, but I couldn't find
it.
So one of the studies that Ifound was actually published, or
there was an article inRunner's World and it's called
(08:39):
To Run your Best, call Yourselfyou.
Research finds talking toyourself in the second person
can boost performance, and thiswas by scott douglas.
So this was a reallyinteresting article because,
while the research wasinconclusive about positive
self-talk versus negativeself-talk, it talked about when
(09:01):
you use, when you refer toyourself as you versus I, their
studies show that there isbetter performance.
So, like you can do this versusI can do this.
So I thought that was reallyinteresting and I need to think
about, like, how do I talk tomyself if it's I or you?
But that was really interesting, but that was really one of the
only studies that I saw thatcan really lead to better
(09:23):
performance based on the waythat you talk to yourself,
especially for runners orathletes.
So again, if you've seen studiesthat show this and has that
correlation or link, feel freeto send me a message.
I'd love to take a look at that, but I still believe it, I
still believe it for myself, soI'm going to share with you five
tips for positive self-talk.
(09:45):
So these are the things thatI've either researched or things
that I have experienced kind ofin my own journey and I'd like
to share them with you.
So the first tip for positiveself-talk is really just kind of
run the mile that you're in.
So focus on that moment, focuson on that mile, focus on that
(10:06):
race.
And the reason why I say thisand this is from my own personal
experience is once you startthinking beyond that, that's
when the potential for thosenegative triggers to happen.
So if you're thinking about Ihave to go to work the next day,
I have to do this, this project, I have to run a race, another
(10:27):
race, maybe next week, I have todo this with the family, all
those things, I mean they couldbe positive, maybe it's.
You know you're going to dothis and you're going to go on
to something fun, that's great.
But sometimes they have thepotential to be negative
triggers and then it takes yourfocus away from the race.
But even if you're in the race,if you're thinking gosh, you
(10:49):
know this is a three-mile race.
I'm in the first mile, I havecramps, which I did in this race
, and I have two miles to go.
Am I really going to be able tokeep this pace and go for, you
know, another two miles, giventhe fact that I have these
cramps or I'm really breathingheavy?
My heart rate's off the chart.
Whatever the case is right Focusin the moment, focus on that
(11:11):
mile, focus on that race, andthat'll help you kind of move
forward in a more positivemanner, versus thinking about
things that are kind of outsideof all those and then it kind of
could lead to negativeself-talk.
So for me, that's kind of thefirst tip.
The second tip is, you know,for positive self-talk is
(11:33):
reframe kind of those negativethoughts.
So this could be true for yourtraining, this could be true for
races.
So, whatever the circumstances,how can you reframe those
negative thoughts and have thatpositive self-talk?
So, as an example, I am slow,right, so you may just feel this
(11:55):
way Again if you're training,you're on the treadmill and
maybe you're looking at theperson next to you or you're in
a race and that eight-year-oldkid is just flying by you and
that may or may not havehappened today.
So reframe that.
I am slow to.
I'm building endurance.
So whatever you're doing todayis gonna help you build for the
future.
(12:15):
So reframe your thoughts there.
Or speed work is hard.
So what I generally do is Ilike to do speed work on the
treadmill, even though I don'tlike to do long distance runs on
the treadmill or anything likethat, but I do like to do speed
work because I feel like itreally forces me to run at the
speeds that I need to for mytraining, versus if I did it on
(12:37):
the track or whatever the casemay be.
So for me, if I'm thinkingspeed work is hard, I could
reframe that to I'm gettingstronger with every step and I
could tell you that withcertainty that when I'm doing
speed work, I'm like this iswhat's necessary for me to
perform better in my races.
(12:57):
I have to do this to get betterat that.
So I'm going to do it, and eventhat's probably a little
negative in the way I said it.
Right, I have to do this.
No, I get to do this.
This is going to benefit me andI'm going to get stronger with
every step and I'm going toperform better in my races or
whatever it is that I'm going toget stronger with every step
and I'm going to perform betterin my races or whatever it is
(13:18):
that I'm training for.
The next one is this hill iskilling me.
You can reframe that as hillsmake me powerful, right?
So again, these are ways toreframe kind of those negative
self-talk to positive self-talk.
And these are just examples.
So, whatever it is, reallyreflect and think about.
Whether you're in your trainingor you're doing your races,
(13:41):
what is it that you are sayingto yourself?
And if it seems like it can bea little bit negative, how can
you reframe that into somethingpositive?
How are those things benefitingyou in the long run?
So number three for positiveself-talk is kind of using
milestone markers to build yourconfidence.
(14:03):
So what do I mean by that?
Well, you know, I'm sure manyof you look at your watch every
mile that you go.
I mean, some people don't lookat their watch, which I don't
know.
There's pros and cons to it.
Maybe that's a good thing ifyou don't look at your watch,
but I personally look at mywatch at every mile just to see
kind of how I'm doing and justto kind of pace myself.
So I try not to look at it atany other time, but really it's
(14:26):
those kind of markers ormilestones, just to see how I'm
doing.
I started my first mile at 805 amile, which is pretty good
given that my target waseight-minute miles.
But my first reaction was well,wait a minute.
(14:46):
No, no, no, no.
If I'm at 805, I'm alreadybehind.
I have two miles to go.
I got to make up the fiveseconds Like I'm already behind,
and the first mile is probablygoing to be the easier mile.
So you know, am I really goingto get faster as I continue in
the race?
So for me, that was my negativeself-talk happening right there
at the first mile I was 805.
(15:07):
But then I started thinkingabout it.
I was like, wait a minute, thisis actually a really good thing
.
I didn't start off too fast,I'm not going to burn myself out
and this is an opportunity fornegative splits, which is
actually a pretty cool thing todo in a race.
So you know what?
805 is great, I'm going tostick with it.
I'm just going to speed up alittle bit.
I don't need a lot, I just needto speed up a little bit and
(15:30):
I'm going to see how my secondand third miles go.
So that was kind of the positiveself-talk, how it kind of
reframed like, oh my gosh, I'mslow for this first mile.
They're like no, this isactually really good, I'm in the
game, I just need to speed up alittle bit.
I will speed up a little bitand then I'm going to have
negative splits and that's goingto be cool too.
(15:50):
So the great news I want to saythe second mile.
I came in about seven minutesand 50 seconds, which is
excellent.
So, honestly, like I didn'tfeel like I was going.
Seven minutes and 50 seconds,it all just kind of felt hard.
But I was so happy when I gotto that second mile marker and I
looked at my watch I'm likethat's it right there.
(16:10):
So all I had to do is just holdon to that pace all the way to
the end.
So for me, that was kind of mypositive self-talk, which is
kind of using those milestonesto say here's where I am now,
what do I need to do for thenext mile, and then how do I
turn that kind of in a positivething versus negative?
(16:30):
And then number four forpositive self-talk is use past
success as evidence to counternegative thoughts.
So for me, there's a bunch ofthings that I use.
I will use my speed work, as wejust talked about.
I use my speed work as part ofthat positive self-talk.
Like, hey, I did thosetreadmill workouts and they were
(16:51):
hard and I did my 500-metersprint and I did it faster than
my race pace.
Mill workouts and they werehard and I did my 500 meter
sprints and I did a faster thanmy race pace and I knew I was,
you know, breathing hard and Iknow I was running fast and I
know I put my body through a lot, but that prepared me for this
moment and I know if I could dothat, I for sure can do this.
So that's some of the thingsthat I use.
(17:11):
I also use past races asevidence to kind of counter
negative thoughts.
That one is a little trickyright.
So in this particular case lastyear I was a minute slower than
I did this year and it wasn'tmy best time.
So you know it'd be hard for meto have said well, you know I
did this last year, I certainlycould do it again this year.
I could even improve this year.
(17:32):
That was hard, but I know I didbetter the year before that and
I knew that my target time wasjust a little bit ahead of where
I was a year before.
So I'm like two years oftraining, I've learned a lot.
I have a lot more confidence.
My training is dialed in forsure I could do better than what
I did two years ago and thenlast year was just a fluke, it
(17:53):
was just how I showed up thatday, but I know I could do
better than that.
So just, you know, find and usethose past successes as evidence
to counter negative thoughts aspart of your positive self-talk
.
So you know, document, you knownot only the times and
distances but also kind of howyou overcame challenges.
(18:13):
So maybe there were things thatcome up during the races that
you push through like all ofthat is going to help you, you
know, build that confidence foryour future training and your
future races.
And you know, part of acommunity thing is, you know, I
know many of us are on socialmedia or maybe we belong to
running clubs or have coachesand running communities and you
(18:35):
know it's really great to get,you know, comments and kudos
from the folks in your community, whether it's your
accountability partner, yourrunning coach, your running club
on social media.
So all of those things can helpyou.
And maybe that you know yourfriends and connections there,
your fellow runners see thingsthat you don't.
So maybe you're like you knowyour friends and connections
there.
(18:56):
Your fellow runners see thingsthat you don't.
So maybe you're like, oh gosh,you know, this is what I did for
this race.
You know, wish I did better.
But maybe for them they're likeyou're killing it and you just
don't realize it.
But here's what we see.
So all of that's going to helpyou kind of build evidence for
your future training and yourraces.
So just kind of keep track ofall those things, of your
(19:17):
achievements, and that's goingto help you moving forward.
So the next one number five forpositive self-talk is develop a
weatherproof mindset.
So, you know, maintain thatpositive self-talk in
challenging conditions.
And this one is a little itcould be a little metaphoric or
it could be, you know, actuallike weather.
(19:37):
So let's talk about the weatherfirst, because that's what
happened to me today, right?
So it snowed overnight.
It wasn't terrible, but it wasa bit more snow than we've
received in a while and my mindjust went to.
Well, the ground is going to beslippery and it's going to be
wet, and how can I get my besttime?
And conditions that are worsethan last year, which was cold
(19:59):
but it was completely dry so Icould just take off without
worrying about slipping andfalling and doing all those
things right.
So you need to have thatmindset of, whatever happens,
whatever comes your way, thatyou're going to be able to
overcome that, and weather-wise,the best way to do that, or one
(20:19):
of the ways to do that, Ishould say, is to actually train
for the weather, and you reallydon't know what you're going to
get on race day.
So the best way is to get outthere and do your runs or do
your workouts in that weather,and sometimes you can't.
I think this winter was a littlebit challenging so, admittedly,
I didn't do a lot of runsoutdoors.
(20:39):
I did some, but I was nothaving it.
I was just like it's belowfreezing for a period of time
and we had inclement weather allthe negative things, right.
So I'm like I'm not having it,but I did do it, knowing that,
hey, I have to prepare now forthat race and I want to be the
best, physically and mentally,for when I get there.
So I guess that's the actualpart of it, and the metaphoric
(21:01):
part of it is you just don'tknow what's going to happen that
day right, you don't know howyou're going to feel, you don't
know what's going to happen inyour life that could affect your
view or your self-talk.
So just really kind of buildingthat mental toughness no matter
if it's something related toweather or just something else
kind of in your life that couldbe affecting you.
(21:24):
So these are kind of the fivetips that I wanna share for
positive self-talk, but reallyjust wanna summarize that for me
personally, I felt like themore positive I am, the better
mood that I'm in, the betterprepared I am for the race, the
better off I'm going to do inthat race.
I'm going to feel really goodabout it and then, if I'm not,
(21:46):
I'm going to go through the raceand, depending on the results,
I'm going to beat myself up overit in the end.
So it's something that has beensubconscious, I guess, for a
really long time.
Sometimes I pick it upApparently, sometimes I don't.
So really being conscious andreflecting on like, how are you
thinking about you, knowyourself, your race, how are you
speaking to yourself and whatare those things that you could
(22:08):
do to have positive self-talk.
So there's a book that I'm goingto start to read that hopefully
, is going to help me in thisarea around mental toughness.
I know there's probably a lotof books out there, a lot of
resources, so if you have onethat you haven't picked up and
read yet, I encourage you to doit.
Once I read this book, I'llshare it with all of you on kind
of what I've learned and makethe recommendation to you.
(22:30):
But this is something that Idefinitely feel like I need to
work on this year because,beyond kind of the physical
things that could potentiallyhold me back from getting to my
goals, definitely the mentalaspect is just as important.
So this is a really importanttopic for me.
So I really appreciate youlistening to this conversation.
I hope this helps you.
You know these are my tips andI'm looking to learn more, as I
(22:51):
mentioned.
But if you have tips, if youhave research, if you have
stories to share, go into yourApple podcast app or Spotify, go
into the show notes and thereis an option to send a message
and I really would love to hearfrom you.
I'd really love to hear yourtips, your stories and any
research or studies that youhave.
So, with that, thank you somuch for listening and have a
(23:12):
great day.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
That's it.
So with that, thank you so muchfor listening and have a great
day.
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