Description
Pre-Run Mindset Hypnosis Download
Manage Your Mindset and Emotions Before Running To Improve Performance
Do you want to boost your confidence and self-belief so that you can run to the best of your ability in training and competition?
Would you benefit from managing your mindset and emotions effectively before you go and run?
How good would it be to manage your emotions and psychologically prepare well ready to run so that you perform well?
Using this Pre-Run Mindset hypnosis download can help you to
- Learn to manage your thoughts and emotions effectively before you train or race
- Successfully develop your mindset, attitude and approach to your running
- Boost your confidence and self-efficacy in your running ability
- Advance your ability to perform well in training and racing
- Feel confident, focused and capable and ready to go and run well
How well you manage your thoughts and feelings before a training run or race can have a large impact on how well you perform. This hypnosis download will help you manage your emotions and mindset effectively so that you get the most from your running and so that you perform to the best of your ability.
Running Psychology: Strategies In The Hour Before Running
I remember when I first started entering a few local, mainly 10km races. I had little idea of what to expect and used to just mill around somewhere near the start and copy some of the warm up routines and strategies from other runners who looked like they knew what they were doing. My training consisted of about three runs a week, totaling ten miles, and I was happy just to jog along in a race, get my medal at the end and enjoy that post-race glow from the satisfaction of finishing. I can still even just about remember doing the ‘Run The World’ 10km in Cardiff way back in the Band Aid days!
Over the years, my pre run routine, and especially my pre race routine, has become a bit more refined. To my mind, getting ready to perform to your best involves not only being physically ready but also mentally in the zone. My days of listening to the Rocky theme tune on repeat before a run are long gone, mainly because it used to get me so pumped in the car on a way to a race that by the time I got there I was already tired!
Because I run in the morning these days, my pre-run strategy for a training run involves getting up, moving about and generally getting awake and moving a bit (along with coffee) before warming up and out the door. For a race, I aim to get ready, travel there and then it’s about getting the right level of intensity and focus to race, along with staying relaxed enough to perform as best as I can on the day. It’s all about getting mentally and physically ready so that at the start line, I’m in the zone cognitively and emotionally (I’ve left out the trips to the loo, checking my watch for the time and making sure it has a GPS signal, trying to get my race number on comfortably and tying and retying my laces a few times!).
Of course, all runners have their own routines and strategies in the lead up hour to a run. At any race you can see runners getting ready, some pacing about and others still and composed, some seek company and others prefer solitude, some look lost in thought and others are busy doing warm up exercises. So what sort of strategies do runners employ before training and competition?
Managing Your Emotions Before Running
Runners can experience all kinds of emotions before racing or training. There can be emotions such as excitement, joy, anger, dejection and anxiety before running (Jones, 2005). Any of these emotions can be potentially beneficial or destructive towards how you run.
Take anger, for example. If anger is directed internally it could lead to self-blame that impacts on how you run, or it could mean an adrenaline fueled spurt at the start that wears off and leaves you struggling. Alternatively, if another runner annoys you a bit, that could push you to get past them or draw upon competitiveness in a constructive way. Likewise, anxiety could lead to doubt and uncertainty that wastes energy, or to a feeling of not being able to cope when running or to achieve your goal. On the flip side, some anxiety can help you perform better, to make better decisions during your run and to be better prepared in advance.
And there’s a lot to be said for positive emotions too, such as joy, happiness and excitement. Some of the most pleasant runs are those where you can just enjoy the experience, and these can be the ones that keep the motivation and the joy of running brimming over. Last year I ran several times in the New Forest while on holiday there and, with no watch and no goals, those were some of the most enjoyable runs I can remember.
A little bit of anxiety about a race can mean that you plan effectively in advance, your kit is ready, you know the route there and the timings have been calculated. A bit of anxiety can mean you manage your pace well and can also push on, despite the mutterings of the voice in your head, because you want to have a time you are proud to share with friends. I’ve worked with lots of runners who are anxious about a race and want to feel calm and confident to run their best. My own awareness of my state before I run a race means I draw upon breathing techniques, cognitive strategies, distractions, goal setting, recalling past successes, emotional regulation, state management and more to have just the right amount of excitement and energy to run well, yet to not be so anxious or pumped up that it gets in the way.
The use of such strategies certainly fits with the notion that you can control your mood and that it’s not simply a reaction to external events (Stevens & Lane, 2001). This fits with the cognitive behavioural hypnotherapy model that suggests that it isn’t the thing/situation/event that causes consequences (such as anxiety) but rather our thoughts, ideas, images, self-talk, beliefs, expectations and the other things that go on inside our heads. It isn’t the run or race that causes, for example, anxiety but rather thoughts such as worry about failing, about not having trained enough, about what other people might think and so on that creates the anxiety at a race. Obviously this is a positive thing because there are lot of effective strategies for managing your pre-run mindset, thoughts, feelings and beliefs.
Emotional Regulation Before Running
Give the range of emotions that can be experienced before a run, and the potential impact of these upon performance, it’s no surprise to learn that many runners use strategies to manage their pre-run mindset and how they feel prior to running.
To learn more about the strategies used by runners, Stanley, Lane, Beedie, Friesen and Devonport (2012) carried out an online survey to explore emotion regulation strategies used by runners in the hour prior to training or competition.
One of the most popular strategies used by runners was goal setting, which tends to fit with the nature of running where we usually focus on distance and time when we run. Before you run you can focus upon your goal to boost positive emotions, to think about how good you’ll feel when you achieve it, to apply a little self-pressure to perform or by focusing on the importance of any fund raising you might be doing.
Distraction was another frequently reported means of trying to manage emotions before a run. In any emotional situations (running or otherwise), distraction can have a useful role in helping you to engage in other things (e.g. talking with friends or people watching) to stop unwanted thoughts and feelings arising. Before a race, for example, there can be a period of hanging around and waiting, and when combined with a bit of anxiety, that can lead to your mind filling with all sorts of unhelpful thoughts that you would rather not be thinking. Emotional thinking loves having time and space to grow inside your mind so distracting yourself can stop this before it even starts.
On the more positive thinking front, runners reported recalling past performance accomplishments and also thought about anticipated pleasant emotions after running. Drawing upon past successful runs, or ones where you’ve felt accomplished, can help boost your confidence and your belief in your ability to run well. You might remind yourself of how your previous accomplishments mean you know you can complete the distance, it can boost your pre-run confidence and self-belief and you can beneficially remind yourself of the training you have under your belt that will serve you well in the run you are about to complete. This sort of thinking can boost your own self-efficacy and there is clear evidence in the literature that links your levels of self-efficacy (belief in your own running ability) and your performance.
Many other runners managed their pre-run emotions by thinking abut the emotions they would experience after the run had been completed. that could be a general sense of feeling good after a run or by thinking about crossing the finishing line.
The methods of managing pre-run mindset and emotions above were the most commonly employed strategies. However, there were many other strategies such as listening to upbeat music, reducing the importance of this one run in their minds, positive thinking and self-reassurance. Some runners also used visualisation and would imagine crossing the line in their goal time, overcoming challenges during the run, aspects of their race strategy and the course and imagining running with good technique.
These findings demonstrate the plethora of ways that runners manage their emotions before a run. Give the link between emotions and performance this is perhaps to be expected. The majority of these pre-run mindset methods are cognitive in nature, rather than behavioural, as runners prepare themselves to perform in their training run or race. .
Pre-Run Mindset Hypnosis
Too much emotion before you run can lead to anxiety, dread, tension and fatigue that impacts upon how you perform. It can lead to negative thinking about your running and about your ability to do well.
This hypnosis download will help you to regulate your emotions and manage your thinking prior to running. By getting the right level of arousal and managing your mindset, you can feel confident, focused and capable and ready to go and run well.
By listening to this Pre-Run Mindset Hypnosis Download Audio you will:
- Learn to manage your thoughts and emotions effectively before you train or race
- Successfully develop your mindset, attitude and approach to your running
- Boost your confidence and self-efficacy in your running ability
- Advance your ability to perform well in training and racing
- Feel confident, focused and capable and ready to go and run well
You can get your copy today and enjoy instant access to this awesome hypnosis download. If you do really want to improve your running performance then do get your copy of this Pre-Run Mindset hypnosis download right now.
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References:
Jones, M.V., Lane, A.M., Bray, S.R., Uphill, M. and Catlin, J., 2005. Development and validation of the sport emotion questionnaire. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 27(4), pp.407-431.
Lane, A.M., Devonport, T.J., Friesen, A.P., Beedie, C.J., Fullerton, C.L. and Stanley, D.M., 2016. How should I regulate my emotions if I want to run faster?. European Journal of Sport Science, 16(4), pp.465-472.
Stanley, D.M., Lane, A.M., Beedie, C.J., Friesen, A.P. and Devonport, T.J., 2012. Emotion regulation strategies used in the hour before running. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 10(3), pp.159-171.
Stevens, M.J. and Lane, A.M., 2001. Mood-regulating strategies used by athletes. Athletic Insight, 3(3), pp.1-12.
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