- Athletes often focus on training to improve their physical fitness but often ignore another large component of performance, mental fitness
- “Physical fitness determines where the wall that represents your physical limit is placed. Mental fitness determines how close you are able to get to that limit in competition. Mental fitness is a collection of coping skills – behaviors, thoughts and emotions that help athletes master the discomfort and stress of the athletic experience, mainly by increasing tolerance for perceived effort and by reducing the amount of effort that is perceived at any given intensity of exercise” -Matt Fitzgerald
- Ways to improve mental fitness include:
- Preparing yourself for racing being difficult, if you go into a race hoping it will feel easy you will be discouraged when it inevitably becomes challenging. The more you expect discomfort the easier it is to tolerate it.
- Practice giving yourself positive feedback and encouraging yourself while running and racing.
- Clearly identify your motivators and remind yourself of them when training gets tough.
- Ways to improve mental fitness include:
- If your interested in learning more about this topic I highly recommend How Bad Do You Want It? By Matt Fitzgerald, which overviews research on the psychological aspect of fitness and demonstrates these principles through stories of real athletes
