I am a D1 runner, I always do great in practice but when it comes down to a meet I always fall apart, and underperform. It has been that way for as long as i can remember. Has anyone gone through this and came out the other side? Any advice, how to get better mentally? Im looking to have a great indoor season this year, the mental aspect is the only thing putting me behind.
find your balls.
Transfer to Stanford
Relax, Elliot. Chris didn't mean those things he said.
Dealt with that a lot in high school and early on in college. I learned a few things that helped me out:
1) when you "do great" in practice, it probably means you are working out TOO hard, and expending mental energy at practice when you need to be saving it up for the race.
2) Nobody will disown you if you run poorly. I put too much pressure and expectations into my races. I tended to do better early in the season at unimportant meets, but the important ones I bombed. You need to not worry so much about your races, and just treat them like a workout. Don't drastically change things leading up to a race, and do something mindless the day before/day of (watch TV, whatever) to keep your mind off it. No need wasting mental energy. You need to arrive at the starting line feeling fresh and happy and confident, not like you've already ran the race 10 times in your head.
3) Confidence is very important. For me, I got my confidence from getting in a ton of good training over the summer. So when I started to run well, it was because I was confident in my fitness and didn't have to WORRY about performing--it was a given that I'd PR, but it was up to me by how much. When you know you are in great shape, it is also easier not to push it too hard in your workouts (as paradoxical as that seems). The real trick is staying mentally together when you are NOT in great shape...and I still struggle with that. The key there, I think, is having realistic expectations, as depressing as that sounds. Don't try to go out and be a hero if you haven't been working out at a level that indicates you can do what you want to do. And don't fool yourself into thinking you are more fit than you really are by running yourself into the ground in your workouts.
4) Finally, relaxation is very big too. When you are nervous, you waste energy. If you can relax, and let things (and people) go, you will do a lot better.
If you're just s wannabee then why should we listen to you?
Sounds like some very good advice, though.
thanks!
Here are a couple things that helped me stay focused.
1.) Build a routine that you can transfer from practice to races. Know how long your routine takes and know how to adjust it when you need to adapt. I always found that the best guys on the track were the last ones to put their spike on. They had their routine down to a science and they and they didn’t mess with it.
2.) Don’t go out to hard. Try to get through as much of the race as possible with a feeling of control. You should always feel like you could throw in a surge if you needed to.
3.) Visualize your race. You will need to be careful with this because you don’t want to obsess about it. Run through your entire day in your head, not just your race. Picture a number of different scenarios, weather conditions and paces. Do this once a day for about 15 min for the week leading up to a race. If it just freaks you out even more, than drop it. However, the idea is that you have run the race so many times in your head that nothing surprises you on race day.
-Nacht
Through a good sourse Dellinger used to talk about Pre having some excuse before most races, such as to the effect, like he had some ailment, headache, stomach, sore this or that. The thing that was important here is that he gave himself an out, that took off a bunch of pressure. He never really gave in to these excuses, but at the end of the day it was a good way for him.