4 Running Shoes & Gear

You can’t fake mental toughness. It’s just not something that magically happens or you can somehow conjure up at mile 20 of a marathon. Yet, as a sport psychologist, I hear so many athletes talk about how they “dig deep” to find a reserve of mental strength when the road gets tough during a race without working on this skill during training.

But mental toughness is a skill set, and execution without practice rarely—if ever—works. Practicing this skill must be incorporated into your training cycle in order for you to access it when it really counts on race day.

So What Is Mental Toughness?

The notion of mental toughness is not well-defined or understood, but being mentally tough is all about how we respond when we begin to feel uncomfortable or encounter an obstacle or challenge. It’s the how that’s important. There are a number of factors that contribute to mental toughness, but at the core, there are two key, defining features: willingness and optimism.

Willingness refers to how inclined you are to endure, whether that's accepting intensity on a physical level, or being determined to maintain your effort level across a given time or distance. Willingness is having the self-determination to stay in the experience without backing down or giving up. We know that our willingness varies based on a number of variables, and most notably, changes in direct relation to the strength and meaning of our goals. We are much more willing to tolerate a hard effort if it means we'll finally grab that PR, for example.

Optimism, on the other hand, is a positive belief about a future state or desired outcome. Optimism helps us bridge the gap between what we are currently doing and how that relates to achieving our goals. Believing that our current effort will help us become stronger, fitter, and faster aids our willingness to maintain that effort during training. This belief is present in the short term and the long term; trusting that you can finish the next interval in a single workout is just as important as knowing that the current workout will help you hit your ultimate goal later in the season. This bigger-picture optimism is critical to access during the training cycle.

How to Build Mental Toughness

There are a number of ways to practice the skill of mental toughness both on and off the run. An ideal training plan will have a range of paces, efforts, and types of runs scattered throughout. The harder days are designed to build your physiological system and help you get stronger, faster, and fitter. Those harder days also provide an opportunity to work on developing a mental toughness platform that you will then be able to access later. Approach these hard days wisely and intentionally. Mark them on your calendar and plan how you will approach them mentally to ensure that you are getting the most out of the workouts. Use these four tips as you embark on each workout:

1. Connect to your why.

We are much more willing to tolerate discomfort when we know that doing so is tied to a meaningful purpose or long-term goal. As you warm up, bring to mind the big goal you are currently working on (maybe that sub-4 marathon) and why that goal is meaningful to you. Be specific. Doing this as you ease into the run will set the stage for tackling what’s to come. With a strong why, But mental toughness how. What to Know About Cortisol and Exercise how you endure.

2. Find a way, not an excuse.

Understand that both willingness and optimism are mediated by self-talk. We can be really good at talking ourselves out of upcoming harder efforts before we even reach them. We can negotiate with ourselves in an effort to avoid unpleasantness. Be mindful of the messages in your mind and realize that you can change your thoughts. You can use the power of self-talk to engage in both willingness and optimism throughout your workout. When you begin to encounter discomfort, bring positive “I am” statements to life: “I am willing to keep pushing. I am capable of this effort. I am optimistic that this will help me obtain my goals.” If “I am” statements don't work, try a variation by using “you are” self-talk—referring to yourself in the second person as if you are a coach, guiding the session along. “You are going to finish strong. You are almost there. You are crushing this segment.”

3. Train purposefully in unpleasant conditions.

Crummy weather provides an ideal test for mental toughness. So does running during a time of day in which you are not used to training. Vary the times you train and intentionally pick a few sessions that will alter your usual schedule to be purposefully uncomfortable. Of course, don’t risk injury or harming yourself in extreme conditions, but if you’re usually a lunch time runner, make it a point to wake up and run in the very early morning when you’re tired or groggy. For morning runners, alter your schedule and run in the evening after a long day when you’re feeling fatigued. Starting at an inconvenient time when you may not feel fresh will train your mind and body to work through uncomfortable situations and help you hone both willingness and optimism.

4. Practice daily.

Outside of the those tough training sessions, there are plenty of opportunities to practice mental toughness in your daily life. For those of us who shower (hopefully you), you can sharpen this skill simply by proactively and purposefully turning the water cold for a few minutes each day. But don't just jump in and shiver. Enter the shower with your arms open, allowing the water to hit your body and accepting the experience for all that is, in both your physiological experience and in your emotional and psychological reactions. Tolerating an uncomfortable moment each day lets you learn the connection between an unpleasant physical experience and the games your mind plays to quickly escape or avoid.

It’s important to remember that your mind is designed to scan for danger and seek protection. Thoughts will start seeking a place of refuge the moment your body crosses the threshold into an area of discomfort; this is where the task of developing mental toughness begins. It’s your job to decide whether you let the mind win, and you back down and let off the gas or if you will enact self-determination to reach your desired level of success. If you train your mind to tolerate and even embrace these uncomfortable moments by establishing an internal level of mental toughness to sustain the experience, you are training yourself to be able to access this same skill set come race day.