10 Mental Strategies to make you a Stronger Runner

This recent article in the Irish Times has some useful information on training your brain and the mental strategies needed to help you complete a marathon.

Many of us will experience anxious moments as the miles increase and marathon day gets closer. The voices in our head shout a little louder as the long runs get longer. Unfortunately, many runners turn on their music and try and block out what signals the head is sending to the body.

As marathon runners, we are often guilty of churning out miles but ignoring what is going on inside our head. If we are not careful, our head can become filled with negativity and doubts. This can adversely impact a runner’s confidence and performance.

Sports psychology is all about learning how to stay calm and positive. Also, avoid anxiety, deal with doubts and achieve peak performance on race day by training our head as well as our legs. You don’t need to be an elite athlete to apply the tips and secrets of sports psychology to your running.

We are all looking for peak performance. Whether our goal is to win the marathon or finish in one piece with a smile on our face. Sport psychology techniques and exercises take practise and will only work on race day. If you start integrating them into your training from now. A few minutes a day is all you need and these tips can make all the difference to your confidence, anxiety levels and race day performance.

Continuing reading about these mental strategies here.