Why Training Your Brain for Running Matters
Hi and welcome fellow trail&ultra runners! You’re probably here because you have some really big running goals and realized that for better or worse your brain is along for the race! As much as we like to say that running is a “soul sport” and a time for peace or solitude, my experiences working with lots of runners have proven that running is also a place where the mind and self-narrative are loud which can be to our advantage or disadvantage. The longer we venture out on the trail and the further we push our bodies to run, the more our brains have the opportunity to run freely with all our thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. Like I said before, for some this is “soul running” and positivity and joy and healthy competition flow as their legs carry them but for a lot of trail&ultra runners it is much more complicated.
Before we go any further, I want to give you an outline of how we will be approaching the intersection of mental health, performance skills, and running. I hope to provide a framework that takes a topic and breaks it down as simply as possible while communicating clearly what it means for you practically, how you can apply it, and how I would utilize it with my clients.
There are a lot of possibilities on why the mental aspect of running is so hard but really the answer is simple, it is hard because we are all humans and we all have our internal struggles. This could be performance anxiety, comparison, perfectionism, finding our worth in running successes, placing our identity in being an ultra runner, or a mental health struggle such as an eating disorder, addiction, depression, or anxiety. Given that we all struggle with something running and racing can provide the time and opportunity for our thoughts and struggles to ruminate and derail not only our running goals but also our happiness and well-being outside of running.
Sounds cheerful, I know… But hang tight the good news is coming! Before we get there, I want to acknowledge that mental struggles are part of life for EVERYONE. They exist on a spectrum and you might be here today saying, “I’m not struggling in any of those ways, I just want to train my brain to handle my first 100miler.” If this is you don’t worry, we are going to do that we will also be learning skills that are translatable to both running and life! That’s one of my favorite things about the mental aspect of running- the endurance mindset and skills applied to life can help us thrive outside of running.
So now onto the good news which I kind of already hinted at, our brains are highly trainable and adaptable! There is a deep well of research from brain scans to self-reports to diagnostic testing in both sports psychology and mental health research that backs this claim, that brains can change. The complexity of change can best be put into layman’s terms through the idea that we can build new neural networks- think of these as trails. Some trails currently exist, already run-down and easy to see and follow. These are like the neural pathways our brain has- they link together beliefs, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Some of these are beautiful and functional and help us run and live our best lives. Others are keeping us stuck in unhelpful and limiting ways of thinking and being. These are like those trails you always think are a good idea until you are halfway through the loop and regretting the bushwacking and spiderweb-invested isolated part. And then there is the creation of new trails (don’t build your own trail in real life, trail stewards and the government frown upon this). Building a new trail takes time and patience and usually takes some trimming of roots and brambles to make it runnable. That’s building new neural pathways.
The Simple Rundown:
Running is hard. When you run, your brain runs. Our brains have both beautiful helpful parts and beautiful less helpful parts. We can build new trails (neural pathways) in our brains that help us think, feel, and respond differently to running and life events. It takes patience, grace, time, and imperfection to build new paths.
Application: To start with we are going to just brainstorm some ideas about our mental health and running. Like we would in the first session together- I would just ask what brought you in- so the prompt you could start with is “What led you to read this post about mental health, sport psychology, and running?” From there I encourage you to begin writing down the first ideas that come to mind when you think about your mental health in general, your running, and the intersection of your brain and running (could be sports psych or mental health or both!). If you’re still feeling unsure I would encourage you to begin daily writing down a sentence to describe the relationship between your brain and running after you finish your run.