Learn how to apply key ideas from sports psychology to optimize your endurance performance!

Mental skills training isn’t just for elite athletes. It’s for anyone interested in optimizing performance. If you’re an endurance athlete looking to perform at your best — regardless of experience or competitive level — mental skills training is just as important as the physical training you do.

In this course, you will gain a better understanding of your motivations and purpose as you set your performance standards and goals. You will learn about the limits of performance and how to develop the mental skills needed to help you get more out of your training and execute more effectively on race day. 

The course introduces key ideas from performance psychology alongside a series of hands-on practical applications that guide you through the goal setting process and help you become a better athlete. 

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Identify your motivations and your big “why”
• Set your personal performance standards
• Set your outcome and process goals
• Develop mindfulness and attentional control
• Develop mental toughness
• Use mental imagery to enhance performance
• Deal with pre-race anxiety 
• Assess your race performance

No prior background in endurance sports or performance psychology is needed, just a curiosity about how you can perform at your best. The focus of the course is on athletic performance, but the key takeaways are equally applicable to other domains of life. 

Complete the hands-on practical applications using the downloadable course workbook that contains templates of all the exercises. 

Hands-on practical exercises include:

• How to identify your motivation
• How to identify your core values
• How to identify your “why,” or purpose 
• How to set your performance standards
• How to set your outcome and process goals
• How to develop mindfulness and attentional control
• How to write a mental imagery script
• How to prepare for race day
• How to assess your race when it’s over

Course length is approximately 2-4 hours, plus any additional time you’d like to spend with the exercises. You can move through the content at your own pace, returning to topics for further study or skipping around based on your interests.

Accompanying this course is the “Goal Setting & Mental Skills Training Plan” on TrainingPeaks, which provides prompts and activities directly in your training calendar to help you implement the ideas and skills.

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Disclaimer: This course is for athletes interested in developing their goals and mental skills. The content is not intended to be diagnostic in nature; it is not intended to be used for treatment or therapy. If you are experiencing mental health issues, seek the support of an appropriate health professional.

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Introduction to Goal Setting and Mental Skills Training

Many athletes recognize the importance of the mental side of sport, but few dedicate time to mental skills training. When they do, it’s often when a problem arises. Performance psychology then comes to be seen as a form of rehab for the mind that promises quick results to get them back in the game, at which point they can leave behind the rehab and resume life as before. Or, athletes approach mental skills training with the expectation that it will make them invincible, turning them into super athletes who are faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Still others recognize the importance of the mental side of sport, but view mental skills training as something only elite or professional athletes benefit from. 

Few athletes think these things about physical training. Nobody thinks that a few runs will quickly prepare them for a marathon, that applying principles of physiology to their training will make them invincible, or that doing any training at all will only benefit Olympians. Yet there is a double standard when it comes to mental skills training, with mental skills training often seen as an optional add-on to physical training. 

The reality is that everyone benefits from integrating insights from performance psychology into their training program. Rather than something to do only as a race approaches or when a problem arises, mental skills training is a key piece of the larger athletic performance puzzle. Proactively working on mental skills alongside your physical training allows you to optimize your performance. It may not turn you into Superman, but it will help you perform at your best. 

An increasing number of endurance athletes of all competitive levels are not only recognizing the importance of the mental side of sport, but are now starting to integrate mental skills training into their programs. Much has been written in the field of performance psychology — both for academic and general audiences — but it can still be difficult to know where to start or how to apply the ideas. 

I developed this course as a practical guide to help you begin integrating mental skills training into your own pursuits. Throughout the course, explanations of key ideas are followed by hands-on practical applications that allow you to apply the ideas to your own life and athletic interests. Move through the course at your own pace and download the course workbook with templates of all the exercises to do the work along the way.

The course is structured into four main sections. The first section, Motivation, takes you through a series of exercises to help you identify your prime motivators and discover your personal “why,” or purpose. The second section, Goal Setting, introduces key ideas about goal setting and guides you through practical applications to help you set your outcome, performance, and process goals. The third section, Mental Skills Training, discusses what limits endurance performance and helps you develop the foundational skills of mindfulness and attentional control, put your self-talk to strategic use, train your mental toughness, and use mental imagery. The final section, Executing on Race Day, helps you optimize your arousal level going into the race, deal with pre-race anxiety, and then bring the goal-achievement cycle full circle by drawing lessons from your race once it’s over. 

Approaching mental skills development with the same level of commitment you give to your physical training will make you a better athlete. But it may also make you a better person as you start to realize how the ideas and training are not just limited to athletics, but cross over into other domains of your life. 

Knowing Yourself

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” 
— Aristotle

Before you can effectively set your goals, you need to first understand what motivates you. After all, these are your goals — not someone else’s goals. Your goals need to be meaningful to you. They need to reflect who you are and what you’re after. They need to resonate with your big “why” for pursuing them in the first place. 

So before discussing goals, let’s start by talking about motivation.

What Motivates You?

When we talk about motivation, it’s helpful to distinguish between intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. This distinction is based on the source of the motivation: internal versus external. 

Intrinsic motivation comes from your internal drive or desire to engage in an activity or behavior for its own sake. There’s an intrinsic joy, fulfillment, or personal satisfaction you derive from simply engaging in the activity. External rewards or reinforcement are besides the point. For example, you may be intrinsically motivated to run because you gain self-fulfillment from doing so or gain personal satisfaction from mastering challenges associated with it. 

Extrinsic motivation involves engaging in an activity or behavior to earn external rewards or reinforcement. The external rewards can take the form of praise, recognition, money, or other external incentives. For example, grades can be a form of extrinsic motivation in school or salary in one’s career. Medals, race shirts, recognition on social media can all be extrinsic motivators in sports. 

More emphasis is often placed on intrinsic motivation because it tends to be more sustainable over time. When motivation comes from a place of genuine interest or a sense of purpose, we tend to stick with an activity or behavior longer. Intrinsic motivation fosters stronger commitment and greater persistence. But extrinsic factors can also be important motivators. The key point is that, as athletes, we draw on both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators to varying degrees. 

To know yourself as an athlete, it’s important to identify the factors — both intrinsic and extrinsic — that motivate you. What’s important to you individually? 

How Motivation Relates to Basic Psychological Needs

Another layer to understanding your motivation comes from Self-Determination Theory (SDT) developed by psychologists Edward Deci and Richard Ryan. Central to the theory are three basic psychological needs that we all have: autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

Autonomy, or independence refers to the control we have over our own actions and decisions. We are more motivated to engage in activities when we have the autonomy to do so — that is, when we have decided for ourselves that we want to pursue those activities. 

Competence, or mastery refers to feeling capable and effective in what we do. A key motivator, especially in athletic pursuits, is the desire to master a set of skills related to a sport. 

Relatedness, or belonging refers to the need we have to connect with others and develop meaningful relationships. We are motivated to engage in activities when we’re part of a community that provides a larger sense of belonging surrounding those activities. 

With these ideas in mind, it’s time to turn to a practical application to get to know your own motivations for your athletic pursuits. 

✍Practical Application: Identify Your Motivations

What Motivates You? 

On a piece of paper or in the workbook for this course, create a list of your reasons for racing or engaging in endurance sports under two columns: one column for your intrinsic motivations and one column for your extrinsic motivations. Next, categorize those motivations into the buckets of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Finally, reflect on the themes that emerge to gain a better understanding of what drives you. 

Detailed Instructions

1. Identify your intrinsic and extrinsic motivations:

• Intrinsic. Write down your intrinsic motivations by identifying the ways you gain personal joy, fulfillment, or satisfaction from your athletic pursuits. 
• Extrinsic. Write down your extrinsic motivations by identifying the external rewards associated with your athletic pursuits that are important to you (e.g., medals, finisher mugs, recognition of peers). 

2. Categorize your motivations according to these three basic psychological needs:

• Autonomy/Independence. Which motivations are related to feeling in control of your own actions and decisions in your athletic pursuits?
• Competence/Mastery. Which motivations are related to growing and gaining mastery through your athletic pursuits? 
• Relatedness/Belonging. Which motivations are related to being part of a community surrounding your athletic pursuits? 

3. Reflect on your motivations:

• What are the key themes that emerged? 
• What are the common sources of your motivation? 
• How do those sources of motivation relate to basic psychological needs?

Workbook

The workbook provides templates for all of the practical applications in the course. Download here if you haven’t already:

• Practical Application Workbook (Google Doc)

Example

Below is an example of what I came up with when I did this exercise.

✍(Optional) Practical Application: Identify Your Core Values

“We don’t have to be perfect, just engaged and committed to aligning values with actions.”
— Brené Brown

Another aspect of knowing yourself is recognizing your core values — what you believe and hold important in life. Recognizing your core values is foundational to practicing those values. After all, you may not always practice your values if you’re not clear on what they are. 

Why Knowing Your Values Is Important to Goal Setting

Knowing your values allows you to ensure your goals are aligned with those values. This is important because the road to achieving your goals is filled with challenges and setbacks. When your goals align with your values, your commitment to them is stronger and you are more likely to persist in the face of obstacles. 

As sports psychologist Jim Afremow discusses, “Goals are all about what’s coming tomorrow, next month, or next race season. Sometimes, we can waver from them because they seem too distant. That’s where our behaviors and habits can be informed by core values that help us identify the most important things in our lives and then double down on our commitment to them.”

How to Identify Your Core Values

In her book, Dare to Lead, Brené Brown walks through an exercise to help us identify our core values so we can then live into them. 

The exercise starts by looking at a list of over 100 values to which you can add any that you feel are missing. Your task is to winnow that list down to the two values that are most important to you. Not 10 or 15, but two. 

If you’re up for the challenge, here’s how to do the exercise. You can do this on a piece of paper or in the workbook for this course.

Detailed Instructions

1. Start with the list of values on Brown’s website. 

2. Highlight all the values that resonate with you. You may have identified up to a few dozen at this point. 

3. Organize those values into a handful of categories by placing similar values together. Within each cluster of like values, place one at the top as the organizing value that represents the cluster. This may leave you with up to a half dozen values at this point. 

4. From those handful of values, narrow your choices down to two values. Remember, these two values may headline lists of sub-values related to them. But these two are your core values. 

5. With your two core values identified, write a sentence that communicates each of these two values. Use the list of related values you categorized under those two core values to help you articulate what those two core values mean to you. 

Equipped with self-awareness of your core values, now go live those values in your everyday life. 

As Brown writes, “Living into our values means that we do more than profess our values, we practice them. We walk our talk—we are clear about what we believe and hold important, and we take care that our intentions, words, thoughts, and behaviors align with those beliefs.”

Workbook

The workbook provides templates for all of the practical applications in the course. Download here if you haven’t already:

• Practical Application Workbook (Google Doc)

Example

For an example of this exercise in action, see this blog post by Colin Breck.

Knowing Your Purpose

“He who has a strong enough why can bear almost any how.”
— Friedrich Nietzsche

“Your ‘why’ has a huge influence on your will. The more compelling your ‘why,’ the more adversity you will weather for the cause.”
— Paul Stoltz & Erik Weihenmayer

You know what activities you do. You also know how you do those activities. But why do you pursue them in the first place? Previously, you identified several factors that motivate you to engage in your athletic pursuits. In this lesson, you will explore further to uncover your underlying purpose in life — your big “why.” Before going after big goals you need to discover and articulate your big “why.”

What’s the Point of it All? 

What’s the point of running all those miles? What’s the point of getting up in the dark to get in those workouts? What’s the point of doing that 10K, marathon, ultramarathon, triathlon, Ironman, ski mountaineering objective, fastpacking adventure, or whatever you do? What’s the point of doing those athletic pursuits you’ve dedicated your life to doing day in and day out? 

Not everyone is out there doing what you do. Many find it pointless. But you find it meaningful in some way. How so? Why do you do it? What’s your purpose? 

Answering this question for yourself is foundational to achieving your most ambitious goals. You may be in the best physical shape of your life when you toe the starting line of that big race you’ve been targeting. But if you don’t know why you’re doing it, you may not get to the finish line. That’s because, as the quotes above recognize, without a strong grounding in your “why,”  the easier it will be to surrender to the challenges and setbacks you encounter along the way. After all, if you don’t have a clear understanding of “why” it’s important to you, it’s importance will inevitably wane as the difficulty increases.

Athletes who know their big “why” are better equipped to make the sacrifices and work through the difficulties that lie between them and their goals. The good news is that we all have a purpose for doing what we do, even if it remains below our level of conscious awareness. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be out there at all. The challenge comes in putting that “why” into words and bringing it above the level of conscious awareness. But doing so is an invaluable foundational exercise in self-awareness that is key to achieving our goals. 

Discovering Your Big Why

Your big “why” is unique to you. It’s not someone else’s purpose. It’s your own. It’s personal. It’s your need to do what you do. It’s your mission in life. Your big “why” fuels you with focus and energy. It powers your actions. It keeps you going when the going gets tough because you are driven to fulfill your mission. Your “why” instills your effort with meaning and purpose.

Your big “why” is your guiding purpose in life. Your goals may change each year, but your “why” remains as the force underlying those goals. It is central to who you are as a person and endures over time. You may refine your articulation of it, but your big “why” is you. If your “why” changes from year to year, then it’s probably not your “why.” Keep looking.

Finding your big “why” is a process of discovery. It requires self-reflection to uncover who you are and put that into words that rise above the level of conscious awareness. 

In the video below, author Simon Sinek discusses how to find your “why.”

For more background on Sinek’s framework, watch his Ted Talk below that goes into more detail on the ideas in his book, Start with Why.

As Sinek describes, your what is usually given, but starting there or simply residing there lacks inspiration and motivation. Instead, start with your “why” and work from the inside out of what Sinek calls the golden circle (see image below). Once you know your “why,” then you can determine the “how.”

With these ideas in mind, it’s time to turn to a practical application to discover and articulate your “why.” Your “why” is bigger than your athletic goals, but knowing your “why” will help you shape and give meaning to those goals.

✍Practical Application: Identify Your Why

“If purpose is bigger than pain, then purpose wins.”
— Michael Gervais

What’s Your Big Why?

On a piece of paper or in the workbook for this course, reflect on the things you do consistently in life and why you do them, identify the common themes that emerge, and use these insights to craft your personal why statement.

Detailed Instructions 

1. Write down all the things you consistently do in life. Consider the things you voluntarily do and look forward to doing, the things that fulfill you and that you derive personal satisfaction from doing. Consider your career activities (or aspirations) that give meaning to your life. Consider what activities you are passionate about doing and the outcomes you want to achieve. You may have up to a dozen activities you’ve listed at this point. 

2. Below each item in your list, write down why you do them. These can be bullet points that complete the statement, I do them to… Move beyond general statements such as “to have fun.” You obviously do the activities because you love doing them and they bring you satisfaction, but why? What is it about those activities that you find fulfilling? How do those activities serve as vehicles for something meaningful to you? You may have up to a half dozen bullet points beneath each activity at this point. 

3. Identify the common themes in your list. Look over your list and highlight the common themes that keep appearing beneath each activity. What do your most consistent activities have in common? Pull these themes out into a new list so you can focus on them. Try to winnow this list down to focus on the one or two themes that are the most important to you.

4. Write your personal why statement. Based on these themes you identified as most important to you and what you’ve learned from your reflections up to this point, draft several iterations of a why statement that encompasses who you are and why you do what you do in life. Writing down these iterations will help you think through how to concisely articulate your driving purpose in life. 

Additional Steps. Once you’ve reflected and come up with an initial draft of your why statement, talk with a friend to get an outside perspective as described by Simon Sinek in the video below. Although your why is a constant in your adult life, it may take some time to fully articulate for yourself in words. The practical application described here is one way to help you with that process, but approach finding your why as an ongoing process rather than a one-time exercise. As you gain greater self-awareness, your “why” will come into clearer focus. The more self-awareness you have about what drives you in life, the easier it will be to connect your goals to that purpose. 

Workbook

The workbook provides templates for all of the practical applications in the course. Download here if you haven’t already:

• Practical Application Workbook (Google Doc) 

Example

Below is an example of what I came up with when I did this exercise.

Your Self-Concept as an Athlete

Who are you? This may seem like a simple question, but it’s foundational to understanding what drives you and your goals. If you took time to work through the practical applications in the previous lessons, you should have a stronger sense of who you are as a person, what you feel is important, and what motivates you — key aspects of your self-concept. 

We all have varying ways we identify ourselves as athletes. Take your given sport and consider what identifying statements you typically use to position yourself as someone involved with that sport. 

Here are some examples that someone involved in running might use. What do you notice about these statements? For your given sport, which equivalent formulation would you typically use? 

• I’m an endurance athlete. 
• I’m a runner. 
• I’m an ultramarathoner. 
• I’m an Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) ultramarathoner.

Notice how the statements formulate slightly different self-concepts, moving from broad to narrow images the person has of themselves as an athlete. There’s nothing wrong with any of these images or identity statements — as long as they serve the athlete well. 

Self-concept drives our decision-making and a healthy self-concept will help us make good decisions. But it’s important to recognize when an image we have of ourselves stops serving us in that capacity. In extreme cases, an overly rigid or narrow self-concept can lead to bad decisions that end up being detrimental to our health or long term development in the sport. 

For example, if the athlete above identifies not just as an ultramarathoner but as someone who only sees themselves as an ultramarathoner if they race in the UTMB every year, then what happens the year they don’t qualify? 

If a competitive athlete only sees themselves as an athlete when they finish in the top-10 at races, then what happens when age slows them down and they can no longer compete at that level? 

If an athlete spends a year or more training for a big event and defines themselves as an athlete through that specific event, then what happens after they finish the event?

The point is that rigid self-concepts that lock you into a narrow way of defining who you are as an athlete can be a hindrance to growth and development. Your self-concept as an athlete should serve you as a positive motivator in your athletic pursuits. If it no longer serves that function, then you may need to reexamine your identity statements and realign them with your big “why.”

Remember, your “why” never goes away. As you evolve, age, and change as an athlete — as we all do — your “why” will remain with you. Go back to your “why” to examine your motivation for defining yourself the way you do and adjust your self-concept as needed to instill your (changing and shifting) athletic pursuits and goals with meaning and purpose. 

Now that you have a good understanding of who you are and what motivates you, the next section of the course will help you set your goals. 

Outcome, Performance, and Process Goals

Before setting your goals, let’s start with some background on different types of goals. You will then use these ideas to formulate your own goals in the practical applications in this section of the course. 

When talking about goals, it’s useful to distinguish between outcome goals, performance goals (or standards), and process goals. 

Outcome Goals (race times/places)

Outcome goals are what we typically think of as “goals.” These are big future goals that typically involve a particular race or event, such as targeting a time or place.

We have the least control over outcome goals, but they allow us to target a tangible result we want to achieve.

Examples of outcome goals:

• Run a sub-3-hour marathon
• Place in the top-10 at the Local 10K
• Qualify for the Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc
• Finish the Leadville Trail 100 under 30 hours

Performance Standards (how you “show up”)

Performance goals are the principles that guide how you show up as an athlete during training and racing regardless of the obstacles you may encounter. Think of these as standards that you’ve set for yourself in terms of attitude, effort, preparation, and mindset. 

We have control over these if we train to implement them, but implementing them is not automatic without practice. So develop your performance standards and practice them every day during training. You want your performance standards to become your default settings for how you execute as an athlete, whether in training or racing. 

As with all goals, your performance standards are specific to you. They should reflect who you are and what you want to achieve. In an upcoming practical application, you will have the opportunity to set your performance standards. 

To illustrate what these can look like, below are the performance standards I developed for myself. I strive to implement these in my daily training and racing. I’ve labeled each performance standard with a short title that makes it easy to remember, allowing me to quickly run through each one in my mind to facilitate implementation. 

Examples of my performance standards:

• Mindfulness. Pay attention in each present moment with purpose and without judgment.
• Gratitude. Be grateful for the opportunities and challenges that arise while engaged in endurance activities.
• Curiosity. Be curious when facing challenges and probing your limits.
• Growth mindset. Use setbacks and obstacles as opportunities for learning and growth.
• Best effort. Do what you can do in each moment with what you’ve got on that day. 
• Fueling/hydration. Consistently monitor and maintain consistent blood sugar and hydration levels to keep a clear mind and support performance.

Process Goals (smaller executable steps)

Process goals are the smaller executable steps you need to take along the path to reach your outcome goal — daily, weekly, monthly goals that are connected to the larger outcome. If outcome goals represent your destination, then process goals represent the intermediary steps you need to take to reach your destination.

A popular way companies track their outcome and process goals is through the goal-setting framework known as OKRs, which stands for objectives and key results. In the OKR framework, outcome goals are called objectives and process goals are called key results. There are typically 3-5 key results associated with each objective, providing the measurable success criteria used to track movement toward each objective. If you use OKRs at work, you may find it preferable to think in terms of OKRs when setting your athletic goals; but keep in mind this is just another way of talking about outcome and process goals.

Process goals feed into your outcome goals, so they need to be developed by working backwards from those outcome goals. An upcoming practical application walks you through this backwards design process to set your outcome and process goals.

We have the most control over process goals since these represent process-oriented steps we can take to keep us moving toward our final destination. The destination may be set, but the route we take to get there is more within our control as we make adjustments along the way to ensure we stay on a path that will take us where we want to go.

Examples of process goals:

• Sleep at least 8 hours each night
• Eat a good meal the night before my long runs
• Hydrate with a sports drink every 20-30 minutes during my long runs
• Do 15 minutes/day of mobility work at least 5 days/week
• Consistently follow my training plan

SMART Goals

Defining your goals is a personal endeavor. Your coach, friends, and family can provide input and act as sounding boards, but you ultimately need to identify what is important to you and what you want to achieve. Goals that are personally meaningful to you will be more effective and fulfilling. 

Choose goals that resonate with you, align with your interests, and develop your trajectory as an athlete. Goals do not always have to be based on finishing times (or places). The longer the event, the more challenging it becomes to log a finish, which may be the goal you’re primarily after. You may also approach “races” more as “events” where you focus on eventing — participating in them largely for fun and for the camaraderie without the pressure to perform that may come with racing.

Whatever your goals, when devising them keep the SMART acronym in mind. The SMART acronym acts as a mnemonic device for a set of criteria underpinning effective goals. Creating SMART goals leads to better results. 

SMART goals are: 

• Specific. What do you want to accomplish? For example, designate a specific race with a specific goal.

• Measurable. How will you know when you’ve accomplished the goal? For example, indicate a time or distance that can be measured.

• Achievable (or attainable). Is the goal achievable while still being challenging? The goal should be neither too easy nor unrealizable.

• Relevant (or realistic). Is it relevant to your interests and motivation? Do you have the time and ability to realistically pursue the goal? 

• Time-bound (or timely). When do you want to accomplish the goal? There should be a timeline or deadline associated with the goal. 

Take, for example, a goal statement from an athlete who wants to run their first marathon next year. It might look something like this:

• Next year, I want to finish the Boulder Marathon.

Let’s see if it’s a SMART goal. In working through the criteria, I’m going to start with S-M-T since these three criteria are explicitly included in the goal statement, and then discuss how to ensure the A-R criteria are met.

Is the goal specific? Yes, the goal specifies a particular race so we know exactly what’s being targeted. If the athlete simply said, I want to finish a marathon, we would want to know more details. Being specific helps make the goal tangible. 

Is the goal measurable? Yes, although many outcome goals often involve race times (measured by the clock) or places (measured by race results), it’s easy enough to determine whether you finish a race or not. The goal of finishing a marathon may be appropriate for this runner since it’s their first marathon. Developing some target times to aim for could be useful motivators going into the event, but that could come closer to the race based on feedback from their training; their primary goal may still be to log a finish. 

Is the goal time-bound? Yes, we know it’s next year’s Boulder Marathon, which occurs on a specific date. This date provides a definite timeline associated with the goal. The athlete may have said, I want to finish a marathon at some point in the future. This could be a valid “someday” goal to act as a motivator for long-term development, but it’s not yet formulated as a SMART goal. 

The remaining two criteria — achievable/attainable (A) and relevant/realistic (R) — may not be written directly in the goal statement, but they are crucial aspects of a SMART goal. Here’s how to think through these two elements. 

Is the goal achievable/attainable? SMART goals should challenge you while remaining within the realm of possibility given your background. When developing your goal, rather than simply thinking about this, write down 1-3 highlights from your previous experiences, whether specific to your past athletic pursuits or other relevant life events, that give you confidence your goal is achievable/attainable. 

For this particular athlete, they might write down something like this: 

• Last year, I finished the Boulder Half-Marathon.

Although finishing a half-marathon is not a necessary prerequisite to entering a marathon, it’s a valuable part of this athlete’s past running experience that gives them confidence their marathon goal is achievable/attainable. They might also identify other aspects of their progression as a runner, such as recent mileage, that give them confidence they can reach the marathon goal. 

The point is to articulate these past experiences while defining your outcome goal. Then keep these confidence statements in writing next to your outcome goal and return to them as a reminder that you’re capable of achieving the goal, especially when you encounter difficulties and setbacks along the way.

Is the goal relevant/realistic? This is another aspect of the goal that must be considered. The goal may be achievable/attainable based on your background and progression as an athlete, but you may not be in a position to pursue it right now due to other commitments. Maybe, for example, this athlete just started a new job that requires working late hours and weekends, making it difficult to fit in the long runs needed to train for a marathon. In that case, targeting a marathon in the upcoming year may not be relevant/realistic to where they’re at right now; but a different goal might make more sense, such as returning to the half-marathon they did last year with the goal of lowering their time.

To assess whether a goal is relevant/realistic, answer these questions: 

• Does the goal align with and resonate with your current athletic interests? 
• Does the goal represent something you truly want to do and freely choose to do (versus something you feel you “should” do to check a box or because others want you to do it)? 
• Considering your other life commitments (work, family, etc.), financial situation, and the training you will need to do to realistically achieve the goal, are you in a position right now to pursue this goal? 

If you answer yes to each of these questions, then you have yourself a

Connecting Your Outcome Goals to the Present

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”
— Goethe

When setting goals, you always want to start with the future outcome you want to achieve, and then work backwards to outline the intermediary process goals you need to hit to reach that outcome.

Goal setting can reach as far into the future as you’re interested in planning for — or you can simply focus on the upcoming year or season. Even if you haven’t yet thought much about your athletic goals beyond the upcoming year, it can be helpful to consider where you want to be at least a few years down the road.

For long-term goal planning, you can start with an unspecified “someday” goal — a big, ambitious dream goal that you want to achieve more than 10 years into the future. Since this is further removed from the present, you don’t need to designate a specific end date yet; but you will need to develop intermediary goals with specific time frames that put you on the path to achieving your “someday” goal. As “someday” gets closer, you will assign a more specific timeframe for meeting it. You can also start with a 10-year goal or 5-year goal. Or, to develop your goals for the upcoming year or season, start with that time frame. 

In setting goals for your upcoming year or season, you typically will have 1-3 main outcome goals (or objectives, if you’re using the OKR framework). These are your A-priority races that you design your training plan around. You may also have some races that are important to you but you plan to do without a full taper while working them around your most important races — these are your B-priority races. You might also decide to jump into some “training races” that effectively act as fun workouts or to practice race-specific skills in an authentic setting without the pressure to perform associated with a higher priority race — these are your C-priority races. With your A-priority race or races comprising your main outcome goal or goals, your B-priority and C-priority races, if any, provide some of the intermediary process goals that act as stepping stones to those main outcome goals. 

Similar to B-priority and C-priority training races are other key milestones positioned at different points on your timeline. These process goals are key workouts or other actions you need to take in the lead-up to the main outcome goal. If your outcome goal is to finish a marathon, then this might be a particular long run mileage or duration you want to achieve by a certain date. 

Finally, consider the monthly, weekly, and daily actions you want to achieve. These process goals are the regular actions that you want to become habits. As sports psychologist Bob Rotella emphasizes, “Success comes from patiently and persistently doing the right things over and over. Process goals are the ‘to-do lists’ of players striving for excellence. The process is what gives you a chance to find out how good you can be.” 

Let’s return to the athlete looking to finish their first marathon. Recall that they wrote down a SMART goal statement that looks like this: 

• Next year, I want to finish the Boulder Marathon.

Working backwards to connect that future outcome goal to the present via a chain of intermediary process goals, here’s what the athlete’s goal sheet might look like for the upcoming year:  

Outcome Goal:

• Finish next year’s Boulder Marathon on September 22 (A-priority race)

Training Races/Key Milestones:

• Long run of 18-20 miles by August 25
• Rocky Mountain Half-Marathon on August 3 (C-priority)
• Bolder Boulder 10K on May 27 (B-priority)

Monthly Actions:

• Talk with my coach about the past/upcoming months of training
• Get in for a bodywork session

Weekly Actions: 

• Do my long run each weekend
• Assess my training plan consistency at the end of each week to understand what barriers exist and how to address them in the upcoming week

Daily Actions: 

• Start each day with a 20-minute mobility spin-up
• Consistently follow my training plan and record workouts in TrainingPeaks
• Sleep at least 8 hours each night

Everything below the main outcome goal (objective) are process goals (key results) that contribute something to achieving the main goal. They all represent realistic actions that this athlete can commit to doing. Notice that the goal sheet keeps things fairly simple. You can add as many process goals as you like, but no more than you can realistically commit to getting done. You can’t do everything — even if you’re a professional athlete that trains full-time. Prioritize what’s most important and consistently execute those actions to move yourself along the path of your goal-achievement journey. 

As you progress along the path, keep your process goals visible and regularly evaluate your progress. The end destination (outcome goal) may be fixed, but you’re in control of the path you take (process goals) to get there. Adjust your process goals as needed to navigate around obstacles that come up and keep yourself on track to get to your final destination.

✍Practical Application: Set Your Performance Standards

“Some days it just flows and I feel like I’m born to do this, other days it feels like I’m trudging through hell. Every day I make the choice to show up and see what I’ve got, and to try and be better. My advice: keep showing up.” 
— Des Linden

“I went through a rough time last fall and debated whether I wanted to keep doing this or not. But I stopped thinking about the overall picture and just thought about each day individually — thinking about right now and showing up for this moment. If you can show up for that, then you have a chance. But if you don’t show up, it’s just automatically giving in.” 
— Des Linden

How Do You Want to Show Up?

Answering this question is key to establishing your own set of performance standards. Remember, these are standards you’ve set for yourself in terms of attitude, effort, preparation, and mindset. These principles guide how you show up during training and racing regardless of the obstacles you may encounter. 

Everything in the world could be going wrong during a particular race or workout, but your performance standards provide a way of acting in line with the expectations you’ve set for yourself. You want these to become your default settings that you automatically implement regardless of the conditions you face. These standards will allow you to consistently align your regular performance with the type of athlete you want to be. 

Establish Your Performance Standards

In a notebook or in the workbook for the course, write down your performance standards. Consider how you want to show up as an athlete during your training and racing. These are specific to you and your goals. Keep the number manageable (no more than a handful) to make them easier to remember and implement. 

Workbook

The workbook provides templates for all of the practical applications in the course. Download here if you haven’t already:

• Practical Application Workbook (Google Doc) 

Example

Below is an example of what I came up with when I did this exercise.

✍Practical Application: Set Your Outcome and Process Goals

“Do those things that incline you toward the big questions, and avoid the things that would reduce you and make you trivial.” 
— George Saunders

Begin with the End in Mind and Work Backwards

Goal setting involves identifying a future outcome goal you want to achieve and then working backwards to outline the process goals needed to reach that future destination.

Detailed Instructions 

1. Write a future outcome goal you want to achieve using the SMART guidelines. Ensure that the goal statement defines a goal that is: Specific, Measurable, and Time-bound.

2. Write 1-3 highlights from your previous experiences, whether specific to your past athletic pursuits or other relevant life events, that give you confidence that your ambitious, challenging goal is Achievable/Attainable. 

3. Ensure the goal is Relevant/Realistic by considering these questions:

• Does the goal align with and resonate with your current athletic interests? 
• Does the goal represent something you truly want to do and freely choose to do (versus something you feel you “should” do to check a box or because others want you to do it)? 
• Considering your other life commitments (work, family, etc.), financial situation, and the training you will need to do to realistically achieve the goal, are you in a position right now to pursue this goal? 

4. Work backwards from your future outcome goal to outline your process goals. These process goals include:

• Training Races/Key Milestones
• Monthly Actions
• Weekly Actions
• Daily Actions

5. Now that you have your goals outlined, go do the work and evaluate your progress on a regular basis. Adjust your process goals as needed to keep moving toward the outcome goal. 

Workbook

The workbook provides templates for all of the practical applications in the course. Download here if you haven’t already:

• Practical Application Workbook (Google Doc) 

Example

Below is the finished goal sheet for the athlete seen throughout this lesson whose goal is to finish their first marathon. The lesson that follows provides a more in-

Case Study: Goal Setting as a Journey

“It’s really looking at the vision, the history, the roadblocks, and obstacles, and then setting and mapping — through the discovery process — a strategy to move forward.”
— Michael Gervais

As noted earlier, the final step of goal setting is to execute those process goals and make adjustments as needed to stay on target to reach the main outcome goal. The goal sheet acts as a starting point and a roadmap for the goal-achievement journey, but there will often be obstacles along the road that require navigating around before reaching the final destination. In this case study, I share with you my own personal journey toward a goal of finishing my first 100 mile trail ultramarathon. Many things went according to plan. But one big thing didn’t. That’s often the case with ultramarathons, but it’s also indicative of the goal-achievement process more generally. 

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Early in 2022, I decided that 2023 would be the year for me to run a 100-mile trail ultramarathon. As a SMART goal, I felt the goal was achievable/attainable given my past experiences as a mountain runner — I was ready to take on 100 miles. I was also in a good place in my life. That year, my other life commitments provided enough flexibility and support to allow me to dedicate the time for training. So it was a relevant/realistic goal for me to pursue at that time. 

I just needed to pick a race. I considered both the Leadville Trail 100 (LT100) and the Run Rabbit Run 100 (RRR100) in Steamboat Springs. In June 2022, I volunteered at the Leadville Trail Marathon to earn preference in the LT100 lottery and set myself up for a spot (a key early process goal). I found out in January 2023 that I got in, so my goal of wanting to run/finish a 100 miler gained specificity and timeliness to round out the SMART criteria. I had a specific race and a time-bound date to go along with my measurable goal that was achievable/attainable and relevant/realistic for me at that moment in my life, as seen below in the SMART outcome goal worksheet.

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Specific, Measurable, Time-Bound
Write a future outcome goal that is specific, measurable, and time-bound.

• I want to finish the Leadville Trail 100 in August 2023 (A-priority race).

Achievable/Attainable
Write 1-3 highlights from your previous experiences, whether specific to your past athletic pursuits or other relevant life events, that give you confidence your goal is achievable/attainable. 

• I ran around Mont Blanc from Chamonix to Courmayeur in both directions in one week in 2015 (runs of ~44 and ~53 miles, plus other recovery training on the days between).
• I have several years experience of long days moving swiftly through the mountains to summit peaks (including all ranked summits in the IPWA, all of the Colorado 14ers, Mount Rainier, etc.), plus related objectives like trekking to Everest base camp and running the Mount Everest Marathon.
• I’ve developed a substantial running base from 40+ years of consistent running and other endurance sports (Ironman triathlons, biking, XC skiing, etc.).

Relevant/Realistic
Evaluate whether the goal is relevant/realistic by answering these questions.

✔ Does the goal align with and resonate with your current athletic interests? 

✔ Does the goal represent something you truly want to do and freely choose to do (versus something you feel you “should” do to check a box or because others want you to do it)? 

✔ Considering your other life commitments (work, family, etc.), financial situation, and the training you will need to do to realistically achieve the goal, are you in a position right now to pursue this goal? 

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A key early process goal, as I noted, was doing the volunteer work over a year in advance of the race to help me qualify for a spot. This wasn’t a training milestone, but it was nevertheless an important step in the process of being able to achieve my goal. So this is included in the goal sheet. 

The 100 miler was my only A-priority race of the year. Some people love to race frequently and do well integrating “training races” into their training plan. I’m the opposite. I love to go off on my own and just focus on training. I had considered using the Leadville Trail Marathon and Silver Rush 50 miler as training races, but opted against it knowing I often do better just focusing on training for a big objective like the LT100. I did have several skimo and cross-country ski races during the winter months, but once I transitioned fully into run training by April, the rest of the summer was focused on training without any more races. Instead, I had some key milestones that I used as important process goals.

I also worked out the regular actions I would need to take on a monthly, weekly, and daily basis. This included focusing on consistent mobility work to deal with a long-time knee issue that mobility work helps keep at bay, a consistent sleep schedule including at least one nap each week to ensure I was recovering from the increased training load over the summer months, and a focus on proper eating. 

These process goals can be seen in the goal sheet below.

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Outcome Goal

• Finish the Leadville Trail 100 on August 19, 2023 (A-priority race).

Confidence Statements

• I ran around Mont Blanc from Chamonix to Courmayeur in both directions in one week in 2015 (runs of ~44 and ~53 miles, plus other recovery training on the days between).
• I have several years experience of long days moving swiftly through the mountains to summit peaks (including all of the Indian Peaks, all of the Colorado 14ers, Mount Rainier, etc.), plus related objectives like trekking to Everest base camp and running the Mount Everest Marathon.
• I’ve developed a substantial running base from 40+ years of consistent running (and other endurance sports, including Ironman triathlons, biking, XC skiing, etc.).

Training Races/Key Milestones:

• Dial in drop bag logistics in early to mid August
• Max mileage/vert training block from June 19-30
• 10+ hrs running and 5-10,000 vertical ft per week in June/July 
• Run each section of the course 1+ times in June/July
• Frisco Gold Rush 10K skate ski race on February 11 (B-priority)
• XC ski races at Frisco in Jan/Feb (5 races from 6-8 km) (C-priority)
• Skimo races at A-Basin in Nov/Dec (2 races from 1-2 hrs) (C-priority)
• Volunteer at Leadville Marathon in June 2022 to earn LT100 spot

Monthly Actions:

• 3+ runs/month on sections of the LT100 course in June/July
• Assess past/upcoming training and adjust as needed

Weekly Actions: 

• Follow training plan for back-to-back long runs
• Follow training plan for threshold/tempo workouts
• Take one or more naps per week as needed
• Assess past/upcoming training and adjust as needed

Daily Actions: 

• Start/end each day with 30 minutes of mobility work
• Sleep at least 8 hours each night with consistent bedtime 
• Ensure adequate calorie and protein intake with meals

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Even the best laid plans can encounter obstacles and setbacks. 

My training moved along like clockwork as I consistently hit my process goals on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. During June and July, I surpassed all of my training milestones and the coaching tools I use on TrainingPeaks to monitor training and model training load/form helped me peak right on schedule for the LT100 on August 19. 

I lived at 9,400 feet less than an hour drive from Leadville, so I did many of my longer training runs on the LT100 course. I was also able to sprinkle in mountain runs of the type I usually spend my summers doing with ridge scrambles and plenty of summits over 13,000 feet. 

I thoroughly loved the journey of training for this goal and I was set up well to get it done on August 19. Only I didn’t. 

Heat is a nemesis of mine and race day was particularly hot, hotter than any of my training runs on the course. Having trained all summer at altitude, I wasn’t heat acclimated. It was also my first time racing an ultra of that distance and I made every mistake I could have made. Ultimately, I wasn’t able to get all the fluids I needed between aid stations early in the race and severely overheated with my body shutting down, physically and mentally. I DNFed at mile 50. 

I allowed myself a day to be disappointed, but then went back to my performance standards, one of which is to use setbacks and obstacles as opportunities for learning and growth. When I got home from Leadville, I sat down and recorded in my notebook everything I learned from the day. Several pages later I had a roadmap for what to do differently on my next attempt. When would that be?

The next day, I checked the Run Rabbit Run 100 registration page and found a few open spots remaining. I signed up for one and adjusted my goals. Now, my main outcome goal for the year was to finish the Run Rabbit Run 100 — four weeks away — and the LT100 attempt became just another 50-mile training run, another process goal for the RRR100. The timing worked well so that I could adjust the outcome goal and use the LT100 attempt as a process goal. I carried forward enough unused fitness from Leadville that peaking for another 100 miler attempt four weeks later was feasible. 

I may not have been in as great a condition physically for the RRR100 on September 15 as I had been for the LT100 on August 19, but I was certainly better prepared mentally and strategically. I went back to my personal “why,” applied the learnings from the LT100 DNF, successfully navigated the ups and downs of the RRR100 (without encountering any problems with heat on a much cooler day), and achieved my outcome goal of finishing a 100 miler. Relying on my performance standards and process goals — while keeping my big “why” in sight — ultimately allowed me to get it done. 

I was lucky to have a second opportunity during the same season, but sometimes the goal-achievement journey can take longer than anticipated or result in not achieving the desired outcome goal. That’s part of the process — and, ultimately, it’s the process that sustains life, not the final destination. 

What Limits Performance?

“Whether you believe you can or not, you’re right.”
— Henry Ford 

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” 
— William Shakespeare

What causes an endurance athlete to slow down or stop during a race or training session? 

Historically, this question has been answered by either focusing on the accumulation of fatigue in the muscles themselves (peripheral fatigue) or via the role played by the central nervous system in regulating activity (central governor model). The central governor model, proposed by physiologist Tim Noakes in the late 1990s, proposed that the brain regulates intensity during exercise to maintain homeostasis and prevent the body from reaching catastrophic failure. Yet both of these historical approaches have been criticized for overlooking and failing to explain the influence of psychological variables in shaping an athlete’s performance.

Athletic Performance as an Interplay of Body and Mind

The current understanding of the limits of endurance performance is known as the psychobiological model. As the word root psycho indicates, the model places increased focus on psychological factors such as cognitive perception, motivation, and willingness. This is in addition to, as the word root bio indicates, biological or physiological factors. The interplay of psychology and physiology is what limits performance — or, conversely, allows an athlete to extend those limits.

According to the psychobiological model, an athlete doesn’t necessarily stop when they reach their physiological limits, but only when the activity requires more effort than they are willing to exert. If the athlete perceives that the effort required by the activity exceeds the greatest amount they are willing to put forth, then they will slow down or stop. If the athlete perceives that they have already put forth all the effort they can muster, then continuing will be viewed as impossible and they will slow down or stop. So motivation and perception of effort guide the athlete’s decision-making. As long as the athlete continues to view their goal for the activity as attainable, then they will keep at it with the same intensity. 

The greatest limiter to performance, therefore, can often be our beliefs, appraisals, and self-talk.  

Belief in Our Capacity to Act

Self-efficacy is our belief in our capacity to act in a way that allows us to reach our goals. Originally developed by psychologist Albert Bandura, self-efficacy influences how we approach challenges and make choices. It’s what we think we can do, what we think we can’t do, and what we think our limits are.

We learn and develop our self-efficacy beliefs through both personal experiences and social interaction. Our own life histories are filled with lessons on how we handled challenges and adversity in the past. On a day-to-day basis, we continue to observe and draw lessons from our training, learning what drives us to push beyond our limits or slow down. Social facilitation also plays a role in how we develop our belief systems. Watching others push the boundaries and post incredible times can provide positive models that influence our beliefs in what we can do. Feedback from others on our own performances also plays a role. 

Cognitive Appraisals

Cognitive appraisals are the subjective interpretations we make about what we perceive to be happening around us. In the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat, a threat appraisal involves judging a task as important to us while also perceiving that we lack the ability or resources to meet the demands of the task. Threat appraisals can lead to anxiety and stress. This can occur, for example, when heading into a race where we start to doubt our readiness. Countering threat appraisals involves reframing them as challenge appraisals to shift the perception to one where we have sufficient (or nearly sufficient) ability and resources to meet the demands of the task. 

We also make appraisals, or judgments in everyday training as we look at the numbers on our devices to judge pacing, heart rate, and other metrics. If the watch is telling us we’re running at a certain pace but we have the perception that we should be going faster given the effort level, then this could lead to a negative appraisal of the situation. Metrics are useful in training, but they can also lead to negative judgments that impact our self-efficacy beliefs. Recognizing these potential pitfalls is important to avoid falling into them. 

Organic Self-Talk

Self-talk refers to our internal dialogue, the verbalizations and statements we address to ourselves. Our minds tend to be quite chatty and filled with spontaneous thoughts and narratives that come and go. This natural flow of dialogue in our mind is organic self-talk. Sometimes we hold onto certain narratives and repeat them on loop. Sometimes random ideas pop into our head and disappear just as quickly. 

Becoming more aware of that chatter allows us to better shape our internal dialogue in a way that serves us rather than hinders us. Is your organic self-talk generally positive, negative, self-critical, etc.? 

Since we can’t change what we’re not aware of, the first step to harnessing self-talk is to become aware of it. Gaining awareness is a crucial step to developing your mental skills as an athlete.

Developing Mindfulness

To excel in what we do as athletes, we need to be able to exercise attentional control — to be aware of what’s happening both internally in the body/mind and externally in the surrounding environment, and to consciously choose where and how to focus our attention for extended periods of time. 

Since the body tends to follow and respond to wherever we place our attention, we typically get more of what we attend to. This cuts both ways. If the mind is filled with negative chatter related to discomfort we’re experiencing during a race, the discomfort can be magnified. If, on the other hand, the mind is focused on getting to that next mile marker, the body can respond accordingly by harnessing the energy needed to get there. 

Attentional control consists of three key elements: awareness, focus, and concentration. Awareness refers to a broad, general sense of what’s happening in and around us. Focus places that awareness onto something in particular. Concentration holds the awareness and focus in mind for an extended period of time.

We can shift attentional control across two overlapping dimensions: broad/narrow and internal/external. As these dimensions overlap, they form the four quadrants of the diagram below, as discussed by sports psychologist Robert Nideffer. Attention can be broad external, narrow external, broad internal, or narrow internal.

For example, before a run we might do a (broad internal) body scan to check in with how we’re feeling. After we start running, we might shift attention (narrow internal) to our shoulders to keep them relaxed during an intense interval. Likewise, during a race, we might pay (broad external) attention to the racecourse, the positioning of competitors, and other environmental factors that we need to be aware of to execute our race tactics. That attention might then shift again (narrow external) as we zero in on a runner in front of us that we want to catch. 

Mindfulness is another way of talking about awareness, focus, and concentration. Jon Kabat-Zinn, a professor of medicine and pioneer in the scientific study of mindfulness, defines mindfulness as “paying attention on purpose in the present moment non-judgmentally.” Practicing mindfulness involves adopting the stance of a neutral observer and watching what comes up in your mind. It’s about developing a meta-awareness — that is, an awareness that you’re aware — of what’s unfolding in each present moment.

In the video below, Jon Kabat-Zinn provides a brief overview of mindfulness. 

In the next video, Andy Puddicombe — author, meditation teacher, and co-founder of the Headspace meditation app — explains mindfulness in this TED Talk.

Mindfulness is a foundational mental skill on which all other high-performance mental skills build. Developing mindfulness — awareness, presence of mind, and attentional control — requires consistent and frequent practice, but the good news is that even dedicating just 10 minutes a day to mindfulness practice can go a long way. An upcoming practical application provides some specific mindfulness exercises that you can integrate into your daily routine.

✍Practical Application: Mindfulness Practice

“You should sit in meditation for 20 minutes a day, unless you’re too busy. Then you should sit for an hour.” 
— Zen saying

Mindfulness is a foundational mental skill. Consistency and frequency is key when it comes to mindfulness practice. So find a regular time each day to practice for at least 10 minutes, whether after waking up in the morning, before going to bed, before/after a workout, or during another time of the day. The point of the dedicated practice time is to develop awareness with an eye on expanding that awareness into everything you do in training, racing, and life. 

Various approaches and techniques for mindfulness practice have developed over the centuries. Choose one that works for you and stick with it. Regardless of the specific approach or technique, you are practicing meta-awareness — the awareness of being aware in the present moment.

Below are guidelines to get started with basic mindfulness meditation, plus a mindfulness exercise that takes you through the four attentional control quadrants discussed in the previous lesson. These instructions are followed by a 10-minute guided meditation led by Andy Puddicombe of Headspace, plus several short animations from Headspace to help you get started with your practice. If you don’t already know about the Headspace guided meditation app, consider checking out their free trial using this link and you’ll support Alp Fitness in the process.

Mindfulness Meditation Practice

Here are instructions for a basic mindfulness meditation that you can do for 10 minutes, 20 minutes, or however long works for you. The point of the exercise is to simply sit and count your breaths. As your mind wanders, return your focus to the breath. The breath is your anchor.

Prepare:

• Find a quiet space where you won’t be disturbed (no texts, emails, etc.).
• Sit upright in a comfortable position in a chair or on the floor. 
• Set a timer on your watch for 10 minutes (or your chosen duration).

Start:

• Take three deep breaths, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. 
• On the third breath, close your eyes or lower your gaze. 
• Relax into a steady breathing pattern, breathing in and out through the nose, without trying to control the breath.

Practice:

• Focus on each in-breath and out-breath by choosing one aspect of your breathing to follow, such as the rising/lowering of your diaphragm or the sensation of air coming into/out of your nose.
• Count each in-breath and out-breath until you reach 10. Then start again at 1. Continue repeating this cycle of counting your breaths from 1-10. 
• When your mind wanders or if you lose track of your count, simply return to the breath and start the counting again. The breath is your anchor. 

When finished, take a moment to reflect on how the exercise went for you. The busy-ness of the mind varies from day to day. That’s normal and to be expected. As you continue practicing each day, bring awareness to what’s going on without judging or trying to push away the thoughts. Simply observe the thoughts and let them move on without turning your attention to them. 

Noting/Labeling. Another mindfulness meditation technique is to note or label what comes up when your mind wanders and distracts you from counting your breaths. When something pops into your mind, give it a label, such as “thinking” or “feeling.” Then let it go on its way. You’ve recognized and acknowledged it, but don’t need to identify with or be distracted by it. Once noted, return to counting your breaths.  

Attentional Control Practice

Use this exercise to either supplement the mindfulness meditation or integrate into it. In this exercise, you’re going to shift your attention across each of the four quadrants of attentional control discussed in the previous lesson: broad external, narrow external, broad internal, and narrow internal.

Prepare:

• Find a quiet space where you won’t be disturbed (no texts, emails, etc.).
• Sit upright in a comfortable position in a chair or on the floor. 
• Set a repeat timer on your watch for 1-5 minutes (or however long you’d like to spend on each quadrant).

Start:

• Take three deep breaths, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. 
• On the third breath, close your eyes or lower your gaze. 
• Relax into a steady breathing pattern, breathing in and out through the nose, without trying to control the breath.

Practice:

• Broad external. Focus broadly on your external surroundings, noticing all of the various sounds, smells, and sensations around you.
• Narrow external. After the timer goes off, shift to a narrow focus on something from those external surroundings you previously surveyed. It could be a particular sound or smell or maybe the feeling of the floor on your feet.
• Broad internal. After the timer goes off again, shift your attention inward with a broad focus on how your body is feeling. You can scan through from head to toe to get a general sense of whether you’re feeling alert, fatigued, tight, etc.
• Narrow internal. After the time goes off again, now shift your internal attention onto one thing in particular, such as a niggle or twinge you may be having in your knee. Focus your attention there and just observe what’s going on. 

Guided 10-Minute Meditation with Andy Puddicombe

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Why Meditation is Just Like Riding a Bike

Meditation doesn’t just take practice, it is practice. You have to get used to gently letting go of the thoughts and feelings that occur in the mind. But, just like riding a bike, the more you do it, the easier it feels. So jump on your trusty bicycle, and enjoy a taste of freedom.

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Noting Technique

Noting is one of eight techniques used within the Headspace app to help you train your mind. Rather than trying to create calm by stamping out thoughts or feelings, this simple strategy helps us to acknowledge them before returning to the object of focus. 

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Training the Monkey Mind

When you first close your eyes to meditate, you might be surprised by how energetic the mind is. Where is the peace I was promised? It’s not peaceful in here at all! But don’t be discouraged. In this animation we explore how to create the conditions for a calm, quiet mind.

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Accepting the Mind

Meditation is the simple act of taking time out to observe the mind. But what happens if we don’t like what we find? In this Headspace animation, co-founder Andy Puddicombe uses a traditional metaphor of a calm pool of water to explain how each meditation session can become an exercise in acceptance.

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Choosing Where to Focus Your Attention

Mindfulness isn’t something to do while just meditating, it’s a skill you want to bring into your everyday activities. During training and racing, strive to pay attention in each present moment so you can purposefully direct where to place the focus of your attention. This allows you to intentionally choose when to turn on your narrow internal focus, for example, versus allowing your mind to wander and relax. It also allows you to put your self-talk to strategic use.

Moving Between Attentional Strategies

Endurance athletes move between what has been termed associative and dissociative attentional strategies during training and racing. Associative thoughts involve a narrow task-relevant focus on matters related to performance, such as your breathing rate or muscle contractions. Dissociative thoughts involve a broad task-irrelevant focus on things unrelated to the immediate task at hand, such as the scenery around you or what you’ll do on your next vacation. 

Early research on the topic found that elite marathoners tend to do more associative thinking while non-elite marathoners tend to do more dissociative thinking. After several more decades of research, the general perspective is that both strategies are relevant at different times for different purposes. Associative thinking helps athletes focus on the task at hand and is particularly beneficial at higher intensity levels where a task-relevant attentional strategy is helpful. The faster you’re going, the more beneficial it will be to focus on task-relevant aspects of your performance. Dissociative thinking, on the other hand, helps reduce perceived exertion and is particularly beneficial at longer distances with lower intensity levels where mind-wandering can be a helpful distraction. 

A valuable mental skill is the ability to move between these attentional strategies as needed during your training and racing. Doing this builds on your foundational mindfulness training, which allows you to be aware of which strategy you’re currently using so you can switch between them at will. 

Use associative thinking when you need a task-relevant attentional focus. This includes moments where you need to monitor your exertion level to keep it in check, such as at the beginning of a race or during a long climb. This also includes technical sections of a course where you need to place attentional focus on the task at hand to avoid falling or missing a turn. Associative thinking is necessary to monitor your fueling and hydration during prolonged activity, or to ensure you’re in the right zone during interval training. You can also use it to do a body scan to identify tense areas that need to be relaxed, and then to modulate your muscle tension or breathing to help you relax. 

Use dissociative thinking when you need to redirect attention away from sensations of pain and discomfort. Simply letting your mind wander freely can also provide a needed mental break during longer events — and, of course, mind-wandering during lower-intensity training sessions is often what makes those workouts so fulfilling, promoting creativity and positively impacting mood.

Mind-wandering, or dissociative thinking where spontaneous thoughts come and go freely is a form of organic self-talk. As defined earlier, self-talk refers to our internal dialogue, the verbalizations and statements we address to ourselves. Organic self-talk refers to the natural flow of that dialogue. Creative ideas and problem-solving come from the type of organic self-talk we call mind-wandering, which provides room for reflection and introspection. This differs from the negative form of organic self-talk that we call rumination. Rumination involves a narrow focus on similar thoughts that get repeated over and over, causing worry and stress. When shifting into dissociative thinking, it’s the mind-wandering we want to embrace, not the rumination. 

Using Self-Talk Strategically

Self-talk can also be strategic, motivational, and instructional. 

Strategic self-talk is when we intentionally deploy words or narratives for a specific reason to help us. These are strategic forms of self-talk that we’ve trained ourselves to use. 

Motivational self-talk is what we often associate with self-talk in athletic settings. It’s your internal coach or cheerleader that uses self-talk to boost confidence or motivate performance. Motivational self-talk can be used to stimulate arousal (“Let’s do this!”), maintain emotional control (“Stay present”), reinforce mastery (“You did that well”), or facilitate drive (“Keep going, you can do this”). 

Research on motivational self-talk has shown that it reduces perceived effort and increases time to exhaustion. For example, you might use motivational self-talk in the later stages of a marathon to keep focused on getting to that next mile marker without letting up on your pace. Research has also demonstrated that addressing yourself in the second person (“you”) when using motivational self-talk is more effective than using the first-person pronoun (“I”).

Instructional self-talk is the verbal guidance we provide to ourselves on how to do something, talking us through the mechanics of a skill. Instructional self-talk is especially useful when we’re learning a new skill or for skills that require fine motor control and specific movements. 

For example, you might use instructional self-talk to guide yourself through a transition in a triathlon or skimo race (“First do this, then that, and then…”) or to guide yourself through the technical segment of a course to stay focused on the movements you need to make. Devising instructional checklists that you intentionally deploy in such situations can facilitate performance.

Knowing these different attentional strategies allows you to deliberately deploy them at different times for different purposes. This is something you can practice on a regular basis during training, so you’re adept at implementing your attentional flexibility when racing. 

Developing Mental Toughness

“We often think of races as ‘painful,’ but physical pain is completely distinct from the sense of effort — the struggle to keep going against a mounting desire to stop — that usually limits race speed.”
— Alex Hutchinson

Consider for a moment what mental toughness means to you within the context of your sport. What does it look like in practice? What are some examples of situations where you found yourself implementing it? 

What Is Mental Toughness?

Sport — and life — is filled with challenges, obstacles, and setbacks. At some point in a race where we’re pushing our limits, it’s not a matter of if we’ll feel uncomfortable but when. Knowing how to deal with discomfort and pain, and how to navigate around obstacles and setbacks is an invaluable mental skill for athletes to develop. 

Mental toughness generally refers to the application of grit, resilience, and perseverance in the face of mounting challenges and difficulties. It involves a willingness to stay in moments of difficulty because of a deep connection to our goals and purpose. It involves a psychological flexibility to accept what comes up, a curiosity to explore what we can do to bridge difficult moments, and an optimism that we will get through them if we keep at it. 

Mental toughness is central to the psychobiological model of endurance performance — how perception of effort and a willingness to endure can be limiters (or enablers) of performance. If we are willing to put forth the level of effort required by the activity, believe we have more to give, and continue to view our goal as attainable, then we will persevere. But we must be in pursuit of something meaningful, underscoring how important our big “why” — or purpose — becomes to deploying mental toughness. 

Our Relationship to Discomfort and Pain

As running coach Joe Vigil has remarked, the key to faster times as a runner is to learn “to be comfortable being uncomfortable.” Being comfortable in uncomfortable situations is a skill that can be trained and developed through experience and practice.

To understand our relationship to discomfort and pain, consider the distinction between pain threshold and pain tolerance. Pain threshold is the point at which the perception of a stimulus is recognized as being painful. For example, if you place your hand in a glass of ice water and time how long you keep it there, there will be a point when the experience turns painful. If you and a group of friends do this at a dinner table together, there’s likely to be fairly similar judgments about when that pain threshold is reached — as measured by time spent in water at a given temperature. 

Pain tolerance, however, may vary quite a bit among your group of friends engaged in this experiment. Pain tolerance refers to the maximum level of pain you are willing to endure. This may go beyond the pain threshold. In the ice water experiment, different individuals may exhibit vastly different levels of pain tolerance — how long they keep their hand in the ice water — even if everyone generally agrees on the pain threshold for the activity. 

If you turn the ice water experiment into a contest, the willingness of you and your friends to keep your hands in the ice water for a longer period of time would likely increase. Now there’s a point to the exercise — it’s become a contest (maybe for bragging rights or a free dinner) rather than simply being an experiment. It’s gained some sort of greater meaning for the group of participants. Some may still see it as pointless, in which case they may spend little time in the glass of ice water. Others may be highly motivated to win the free dinner, in which case they would try to match their willingness to endure the pain and the effort they put forth with the requirements of the activity (needing to keep their hand in the ice water a second longer than everyone else at the table). 

Enduring in the ice water game depends on several factors, as discussed earlier when defining mental toughness, including the meaningfulness of the game to each participant, a willingness to keep a hand in the ice water beyond one’s pain threshold, a curiosity to explore what comes up, and an optimism one can last as long as needed. But how well any of the contestants navigate and deploy mental toughness in this endurance test can be improved through training.

Training to Be Comfortable Being Uncomfortable

There are plenty of opportunities during training to gain experience learning to be comfortable while uncomfortable — every VO2max workout you do demands just that. But to train this skill further, look for opportunities to integrate situations of discomfort and controlled adversity into your everyday training sessions. Choose practice situations that are relevant to you and your goals. 

Below are a few ways to do this. During these situations, focus on being mentally flexible to cope with the adversity. Accept the situation without being rigid or trying to avoid it. Deploy relaxation techniques or strategic self-talk to guide yourself through the moments. 

Training in adverse weather conditions. As we all know, not all races take place in perfect conditions, so training in adverse conditions can help you learn coping mechanisms that you can apply when race conditions are less than ideal. For example, instead of shelving a run due to adverse weather or running inside on the treadmill, head out into the pelting rain, blowing snow, or fierce wind. You may not be able to achieve the originally planned workout in those weather conditions, but you can turn it into a mental toughness workout instead. 

Training with an intentional irritant. Introducing some sort of irritant, such as cold exposure, during a training session forces you to adjust and cope. For example, when you’re on a run on a cold day, take off one of your gloves and put it in your pocket for some amount of time. Run like that beyond your point of discomfort. Use strategic self-talk to positively frame the experience and motivate yourself. Apply what you learn when future training and racing situations don’t always go as planned.

When It Stops Being Mental Toughness

The point of training “to be comfortable being uncomfortable” is obviously not to cause harm or injury. The point is to develop resilience and grit. The line between what is and what isn’t mental toughness can be fluid and therefore sometimes hard to recognize, but making that distinction is part of what it means to be a resilient, self-aware athlete. Sometimes pushing through pain in a race is a form of mental toughness, sometimes pushing through pain can lead to serious injury. Knowing the difference is a skill just as important as developing mental toughness itself. 

When something fails to serve your goals, it’s no longer mental toughness. Running barefoot on hot pavement might test your pain tolerance, but it doesn’t serve your goals or develop mental toughness when it leaves you with burned feet and unable to train or start the race you’re targeting. When training in adverse weather conditions or using cold exposure, overexposure doesn’t serve your interests. Running without a glove on a cold day doesn’t make sense if you have Raynaud syndrome and doing so to the point of frostbite on your fingers is counterproductive. 

Part of developing resilience is learning how to take care of yourself when you face adversity — before, during, and after the difficult moments. After running outside in a blizzard, for example, implement the steps needed when you finish to avoid hypothermia — taking a hot shower, putting on warm clothes, and so forth. Take a holistic approach to developing your awareness and mental toughness. Keep your purpose and goals visible as a guide. Be wise. Train smart. 

Using Mental Imagery

Many elite athletes use visualization techniques to enhance concentration, motivation, and self-efficacy, as well as to modulate arousal levels or to work through a plan for an anticipated experience. If you’re interested in tapping into these techniques, here’s what you need to know to do it effectively.  

Mental imagery is the term of choice within sports psychology, rather than visualization, because imagery emphasizes the multisensory nature of the experience. Imagery draws from all of the senses as you move through a particular athletic experience in vivid detail. 

When using mental imagery, you can use either a first-person perspective (1PP) or third-person perspective (3PP). In first-person imagery, you visualize the scene or action from your own viewpoint, as if you are experiencing it firsthand. For example, you might imagine standing on the starting line of a race when the gun goes off with your eyes focused ahead listening to the sound of the starter pistol. In third-person imagery, you visualize a scene or action from an external viewpoint, as if observing yourself from the outside. For example, you might see yourself standing on the starting line of a race as a spectator watching the performance.

Mental imagery provides a growth-oriented framework for rehearsing skills that you need to learn or master, such as navigating a technical section of a course or moving through a triathlon or skimo transition. It can also help you work out a plan for situations you anticipate coming up during a race, such as how to deal with “hitting the wall” in a marathon or how you’ll react when you feel like your lungs are going to explode at the end of a fast 5K. 

The key to using mental imagery effectively is to make the experience as specific as possible. The PETTLEP acronym represents different details that can be integrated into mental imagery sessions:

• Physical sensations involved in the performance, such as the feel of muscles contracting and the sense of balance.

• Environment, or environmental conditions where the performance takes place, including sights, sounds, and other relevant elements.

• Task, or the specific skills associated with the performance, breaking down actions into detailed steps.

• Timing and rhythm of the performance, aligning mental rehearsal with the actual tempo of the activity.

• Learning and skill acquisition, such as visualizing the process of improvement and skill refinement.

• Emotion associated with the performance, such as feelings of confidence or motivation.

• Perspective, or adopting a particular viewpoint from which to visualize the performance. 

Including all of these elements is neither required nor essential for effective mental imagery; they are simply meant as suggestions. The specific details you include will depend on your own preferences, needs, and purpose. 

Mental imagery can be done with a guide who takes you through the process or on your own. It’s helpful to write out a script specific to your needs and refine it before putting it into action. You could record an audio or video of you reading the script (you as the guide) that you could listen to during your mental imagery sessions. You could have a friend or coach read the script to guide you through the experience, or you could read the script to yourself. You could also memorize short scripts to use during training. Sarah Williams and colleagues recommend starting with the five Ws when creating a script.

Who? Consider your background, characteristics, and preferences when creating a script. What is your sport and competitive level? Experts may benefit from greater complexity in the movements and scenarios, whereas less experienced athletes may benefit from less complex scenarios. What prior imagery experience do you have? How good is your imagery ability? Shorter scripts/sessions tend to work better for those with less imagery experience and a smaller number of sensory modalities work better for those with poorer imagery ability. Do metaphors resonate with you or do you prefer explicit descriptions? Do you prefer a first-person perspective (1PP) or third-person perspective (3PP)? 

Where and when? Consider where and when you will do the imagery sessions. Will you do imagery before, during, or after training sessions? Or maybe during another time of the day, such as before bed or after waking up? How frequently — for example, once a week, every day? Or maybe you want to do an imagery session before key workouts, such as a weekly interval session on the track. Will you use it before a race — for example, to calm pre-race nerves? Where will you do the imagery sessions? For example, is there a quiet place at home you’d like to use? Or would it work better to do the sessions at the site of your training sessions, such as at the track before an interval workout? At the race site? 

Why? Consider the reasons for using mental imagery and what you want to achieve with it. Do you want to rehearse specific skills or run through a technical course section? Do you want to play out a race strategy or implement tactics for how to run a race, such as how it will feel to run negative splits? Do you want to use imagery to motivate you? Do you want to use imagery to lower your arousal level and calm pre-race nerves? You may have more than one purpose for using imagery. Knowing what you want to get out of the sessions will help you tailor the script with those purposes in mind.

What? Consider what content you will include in the script. What images will you use? What details will you include? Refer to the PETTLEP model for ideas. What sensory elements will you use — sight, sound, touch, taste, smell? Will you include any movement? Or will you be sitting or lying down without movement during your session? Will you wear your race kit or running shoes to simulate that aspect of the experience? 

Once you’ve written a script, read it out loud and revise it until you feel you have what you need for your imagery sessions. Put it to use and be sure to revisit the five Ws periodically to update the script as your needs change. 

The practical application that follows provides a template to help you identify the five Ws before writing your script. 

✍Practical Application: Develop a Mental Imagery Script

To develop a mental imagery script, follow the instructions. Write down your notes and script on paper or use the workbook for this course. 

Detailed Instructions

1. Write down notes for each of the five Ws:

• Who
• Where and When
• Why 
• What

2. As part of the “what,” note:

• The perspective you will use (1PP or 3PP)
• Multisensory detail you will include (PETTLEP)

3. Based on your notes, write your script. 

4. Read it aloud and revise as needed. 

5. Implement it by one of these methods:

• Record audio of you as the guide to be played in your headphones.
• Ask another person to read the script as your guide. 
• Read and/or memorize the script to guide yourself.

6. Periodically evaluate the script and update it and/or create new ones as your needs change. 

Workbook

The workbook provides templates for all of the practical applications in the course. Download here if you haven’t already:

• Practical Application Workbook (Google Doc) 

Example

Below is a screenshot of a sample script from the paper by Sarah Williams and colleagues. This is a script used by a young slalom canoeist before competition to deal with pre-race nerves and enhance self-confidence.

Race Day Readiness

Racing is an incredible opportunity to showcase the impact of your training. You’ve put in all the hard work to prepare for the event. Now put the final touches on your preparation to ensure you arrive at the starting line ready to execute your performance standards and go after that outcome goal. 

Optimizing Your Arousal Level

When it comes to race day readiness, it’s helpful to understand your optimal level of arousal as you arrive at the race, warm up, and line up at the start. Although arousal levels vary by sport, they are also very personal to each athlete within a sport. It may also differ for you based on event type and distance. For example, you might need a lower level of arousal before the start of a marathon than you do before the start of a 5K. 

The optimal level of arousal for performance is based on the Yerkes–Dodson law, originally developed in 1908 by psychologists Robert Yerkes and John Dodson. This law states that performance increases as physiological and psychological arousal increases — but only up to a point, because too much arousal diminishes performance. The relationship between arousal and performance therefore looks like a bell curve with optimal arousal somewhere in the middle of the two extremes. For example, on a scale from 1 (no arousal) to 10 (maximum arousal), optimal arousal will be somewhere between 4 and 6. 

As a high school cross country runner, I remember driving to some of our meets with friends who blasted music in the car that got all of us pumped up as we moved to the upbeat tunes. I would often arrive at the starting line of those races feeling drained compared to when I drove myself. I eventually recognized that I needed a calmer pre-race routine to arrive at the starting line in my optimal state.

To determine your optimal arousal state, think about your prior race experiences and the level of arousal going into those races that worked best for you. Rate that on an arousal scale from 1 to 10. Then develop a pre-race routine that positions you in your optimal arousal state. 

Dealing with Pre-Race Jitters

It’s common for athletes to experience anxiety before a race or key training session — “pre-race jitters.” Dealing with the jitters starts by recognizing anxiety as a sign that you care about your performance and understanding how anxiety develops in the mind. 

Anxiety is related to fear, but differs in key ways. Fear occurs when we experience a real-life threat to our well-being or existence. For example, you’re running down the trail and find yourself face-to-face with a bear. That’s a very real threat. Anxiety, on the other hand, occurs when we develop a mental image of something that may go wrong — the anticipation of a future threat. For example, you’re getting ready for a trail run and start to think, “What if I encounter a bear? I know bears are active where I’ll be running.” The anticipation of a future threat stimulates the same “fight-flight-or-freeze” nervous system response as an actual threat, causing the pre-race jitters.

Anxiety — whether in sport or life — develops in situations that involve unpredictability, where we lack control, or when something we care about feels threatened. We can’t predict how the race will unfold or what other competitors will do, and this may be a source of anxiety. We have no control over the weather and a forecast of rain, which may be a source of anxiety if we don’t like competing in the rain. We may feel anxious about anticipated pain or discomfort associated with the race. We may feel like we don’t have the necessary skills to match the activity. We may feel like our identity is on the line and threatened. The deeper the threat to our identity, the greater the anxiety. This is why jitters often arise before those big events we’ve been training for all year. We might perceive the inability to perform up to our expectations as a threat to our identity as an athlete or as a person. 

Simply ignoring anxiety or trying to push it away doesn’t work. Since we can’t change what we’re not fully aware of, dealing with anxiety requires applying that foundational mental skill of mindfulness to recognize what is triggering it. We can then tame it by understanding its sources, reframing the perceived threats as challenges, and countering the anxiety triggers with trust. Anxiety, in many ways, revolves around a temporary lack of trust we have in our abilities to perform. The practical application that follows this lesson walks you through each of these steps to help you prepare for an upcoming race. 

Regulating Emotions

Emotional regulation is another vital mental skill for athletes to have in their repertoire on race day to deal with the jitters, but it can also be put to use on training days and in everyday life. 

Emotional regulation refers to the ability to regulate your mind, body, and spirit given the demands of the situation. There’s no single method for emotional regulation and how you go about it depends on what works best for you. But, as with all advanced mental skills, emotional regulation builds on the foundational skill of awareness. We must first recognize what’s happening with our emotions before we can regulate them. 

We also need to understand the levers we have for regulating emotions. There are three key aspects of our lived experiences: (1) actions/behaviors, (2) thoughts/thinking, and (3) emotions/moods. Only the first two are directly modifiable in any given moment. We can change what we’re doing and we can change what we’re thinking. Emotions/moods are trickier to control. Since we don’t have a direct lever to shift emotions, we need to use the levers for actions and thoughts to indirectly regulate emotions. 

Regulating our physical experiences can modify our psychological states. Let’s say you leave a chaotic work meeting that leaves you feeling frustrated and angry. From your mindfulness training, you recognize the emotions you’re feeling and want to modify them before you take an important call with a client. So you focus on shifting your physical state by sitting quietly for a minute to bring your breathing and heart rate down to a resting state. By the end of that minute, your physical state has shifted with the nervous system moving from a “flight or flight” state to a relaxed state. You complement this by redirecting your thoughts, perhaps reframing your frustration and anger as signs of involvement and opportunities to pursue. This paves the way for your emotions to follow. 

The same process works in athletic situations where you need to maintain composure and control over your emotions, whether you’re experiencing anxiety at the start of a race or anger at a competitor who cut you off at a turn. What you can control are your actions, such as taking some deep breaths to slow your breathing rate, and your thoughts about the situation, allowing your emotions to shift accordingly. 

Responding to the Unexpected

Races — and life — never unfold perfectly. Even the best laid plans are subject to disruption as unexpected situations inevitably arise. 

I like to think of racing as something done from within the eye of a hurricane. Within the eye, everything is calm and still, even as the chaos of the hurricane swirls around it. This metaphor underscores how a calm mind can be the driving center of intense physical performance surrounded by unexpected variables out of your control. Residing within the hurricane’s eye allows you to maintain composure as you direct all of your resources to perform at your best. 

When dealing with unplanned or unexpected situations, strive to respond rather than simply react. Responding entails starting from a place of awareness and presence. You take in the situation and recognize what’s happening without judgment, purposefully attending to the relevant details so you can respond effectively. Reacting, on the other hand, carries the connotation of being driven by a stimulus without necessarily acting from a place of awareness and presence. 

Responding is clearly a better strategy to dealing with any crisis situation because it leaves you in charge, not the stimulus. Responding can be done quickly, but must always be done with awareness and presence. Draw from your foundational mindfulness practice as you work to bring this type of awareness and presence into your training and racing — and life. 

✍Practical Application: Prepare for Race Day

Work through the exercises below as you get closer to a key race. Writing these down on paper or in the workbook for this course facilitates the thinking process, allowing you to work through any barriers that you’re running up against as the race approaches. 

Your Optimal Arousal Level

On a scale from 1 (no arousal) to 10 (maximum arousal), optimal arousal is usually somewhere between 4 and 6. 

1. Note your optimal arousal level going into a race. 

2. Jot down some ways you can regulate that level.

Understand the Threat Appraisal

Going into a race, write down responses to each of the three building blocks of anxiety. This brings awareness to what you’re experiencing so you can more effectively deal with it.

1. What’s unpredictable?

2. What can’t you control?

3. What (that you care about) feels like it’s being threatened? 

Turn the Threat into a Challenge Appraisal

Challenge drives excitement and enthusiasm. To turn the threat appraisal into a challenge appraisal, consider what’s exciting about the challenge, what opportunities it provides, and how you might be curious about the experience. Write down your thoughts to each of these questions as you work to reframe the experience from a threat to a challenge and opportunity.

1. What’s exciting to you about the challenge?

2. What opportunities does the challenge provide?

3. In what ways could you explore the experience with curiosity?

Counter Anxiety Triggers with Trust

Anxiety, in many ways, revolves around a temporary lack of trust we have in our abilities to perform. To remind yourself of those abilities, take a moment to reflect on your training leading up to the race, your past experiences as an athlete, and your past life experiences. Keep these confidence statements in mind as you head to the starting line of the race.

1. Trust Your Training. Look back at your training leading up to the race and write down key milestones you achieved and positive takeaways you had from particular training sessions. (Facilitate this during training by jotting down positive takeaways in your training log for key workouts.)

2. Trust Yourself as an Athlete. Look back at your athletic career and write down key milestones you achieved, including the confidence statements from your goal sheet for this race. 

3. Trust Yourself as a Person. Look back at your life experiences and write down key moments where you weathered adversity or overcame difficult challenges.

Workbook

The workbook provides templates for all of the practical applications in the course. Download here if you haven’t already:

• Practical Application Workbook (Google Doc) 

Post-Race Debriefing

Assessing Your Race

Debriefing after the race is a great way to close the loop on your goal-achievement journey. It allows you to record lessons learned so you can set yourself up for future success. 

The best time to debrief after a race is not immediately after crossing the finish line. Give yourself time to relax, eat, and sleep before sitting down for a self-assessment. The next day or two is ideal, if possible. Otherwise, try to do it within a week or two at the most. You want to capture your thoughts while the experience is still fresh in your mind. 

Approach your post-race debriefing with a growth mindset to pull out key learnings. Here are some questions to guide your self-assessment — or, if you’re working with a coach, to guide your discussion with your coach.

• What went well in the race? Consider things like pacing, nutrition, tactics, etc. You can note things both in your control and out of your control. 

• What didn’t go well in the race? Consider things like pacing, nutrition, tactics, etc. You can note things both in your control and out of your control. 

• If you had a race plan or strategy, were you able to follow it? Is there anything you would have changed about that plan or strategy? 

• Did you stay on top of your fueling and hydration? If not, what barriers did you encounter? What lessons did you learn about food preferences while racing? 

• How well did you show up and meet the performance standards you set for yourself? Consider where you met the standards. Consider where you may have struggled and what the barriers were to meeting them. 

• In what areas did you feel particularly prepared and/or underprepared? Consider any issues that are relevant — physical, mental, nutritional, etc. 

• What about your training would you do differently next time? If you could go back and adjust your training plan with 20/20 hindsight, how would you adjust it? 

• What about your training would you keep the same next time? What are some things that worked well? 

• What did you learn about yourself as an athlete and as a person from the experience? In what ways are you a different person now that you’ve gone through that experience? 

• Any additional thoughts or reflections on the experience? Reflect on and discuss anything else that’s on your mind after the race. 

Writing down your thoughts is not only a great way to facilitate self-assessment, but you can also look back on the lessons you recorded to guide your future success. 

Dealing with Not Meeting Your Outcome Goal

“Don’t fear failure. Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail.”
— Bruce Lee

Many things on race day are out of our control, including many factors related to whether we achieve the outcome goal we set. As discussed in the goal setting section of the course, we have less control over outcome goals than we do over our performance standards and process goals. Maybe course or weather conditions mitigate against achieving the outcome goal. Maybe we experience illness or injury that keeps us from reaching the desired outcome. 

Over the course of your athletic career, there will be times when you do not achieve the outcome you set for yourself and it’s important to be prepared to deal with that. One way to do that is by focusing on your performance standards. Remember, these standards represent how you want to perform even when everything around you seems to be unraveling. Keep those performance standards front of mind and pursue those even when the outcome goal moves out of reach. 

Disappointment often comes with not reaching an outcome goal. Disappointment is fine, but don’t let disappointment turn to devastation by undermining your identity as an athlete or person. Not achieving an outcome goal is not the end of who you are. Keep things in perspective and remember that who you are as an athlete and person runs deeper than any single race. 

Adopt a growth mindset to stay focused on learning and growth. The path to success never follows a straight line and we often learn the most from setbacks. After the sting of disappointment subsides, dive into the learnings you gained from the experience. Apply those lessons to continue to develop as an athlete and person. They’re valuable and you paid for them in sweat and tears, so don’t let them go to waste.

✍Practical Application: Assess Your Race

In a notebook or the workbook for the course, use the prompts below to reflect on your race experience.

• What went well in the race? Consider things like pacing, nutrition, tactics, etc. You can note things both in your control and out of your control. 

• What didn’t go well in the race? Consider things like pacing, nutrition, tactics, etc. You can note things both in your control and out of your control. 

• If you had a race plan or strategy, were you able to follow it? Is there anything you would have changed about that plan or strategy? 

• Did you stay on top of your fueling and hydration? If not, what barriers did you encounter? What lessons did you learn about food preferences while racing? 

• How well did you show up and meet the performance standards you set for yourself? Consider where you met the standards. Consider where you may have struggled and what the barriers were to meeting them. 

• In what areas did you feel particularly prepared and/or underprepared? Consider any issues that are relevant — physical, mental, nutritional, etc. 

• What about your training would you do differently next time? If you could go back and adjust your training plan with 20/20 hindsight, how would you adjust it? 

• What about your training would you keep the same next time? What are some things that worked well? 

• What did you learn about yourself as an athlete and as a person from the experience? In what ways are you a different person now that you’ve gone through that experience? 

• Any additional thoughts or reflections on the experience? Reflect on and discuss anything else that’s on your mind after the race. 

Workbook

The workbook provides templates for all of the practical applications in the course. Download here if you haven’t already:

• Practical Application Workbook (Google Doc) 

Mental Skills Development as an Ongoing Process

“It is not the things we do in life that we regret on our deathbed. It is the things we do not. I assure you I’ve done a lot of really stupid things, and none of them bother me. All the mistakes, and all the dopey things, and all the times I was embarrassed — they don’t matter. What matters is that I can kind of look back and say: Pretty much any time I got the chance to do something cool I tried to grab for it — and that’s where my solace comes from.”
— Randy Pausch 

By now you should have a better understanding of what motivates you — including your big “why,” or purpose. You have a specific set of performance standards that you can work on implementing in everyday training and racing. You know how to set SMART outcome goals and work backwards to develop your process goals. 

You have a better understanding of the limits of performance and the power of mental skills to improve performance. You are developing your mindfulness and attentional control. You have strategies to develop your mental toughness, leverage your self-talk, and use mental imagery.

You know how to prepare for your race to optimize arousal and allay pre-race anxiety. And you know how to close the loop of the goal-achievement journey with a post-race debriefing. 

Although it’s the end of this course, it’s only just the beginning of your mental skills training. 

Developing mental skills is an ongoing process that is never complete or final. It’s not like the skill of tying a shoe where there’s a clear delineation between having the skill or not. Mental skills are always a work in progress. We never simply “have them” or not, but are always working to develop them, to improve them, and to implement them more effectively. 

Even with consistent mental skills training, there will be times when you struggle and fail. Imperfection is part of what it means to be human and mental skills training will not make you immune to failure, but it will allow you to harness failure to more effectively set yourself up for success.

You may not always reach your outcome goals, but mental skills training will make you a better athlete in the process of going after them — and, if done with the right intention, a better person.

✍ Practical Application: Mental Skills Training for Your Workouts

Integrate mental skills training directly into your physical workouts. Check out the “Goal Setting & Mental Skills Training Plan” on TrainingPeaks, which provides prompts and activities directly in your training calendar to help you implement the ideas and skills found in the “Guide to Goal Setting & Mental Skills Training.”