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You arrive at your race after a restful night’s sleep, about an hour early. You like to get there early so that you can warm up, stretch, and relax before the race. You can’t be rushed and frantic so plenty of time is on the clock prior to the start. As you step out of the car you feel the gravel below your feet and hear the crunch as you make your way to check in, you taste the cool air along the way. There is a short line at check in and there is a low conversation among the participants, not loud enough to make out what they are saying. You wave to a friend that you’ve seen at many races as they are heading back to their car. The sun is coming up over the horizon and the birds have started to sing. There is no rain but the sun will be in and out making it warm but not unpleasant, perfect running weather. You grab your bib at check in, look at that in the swag bag they give you your favorite gel and your lucky number. As you walk back to your car you stop off at the Porta Potty, no line and they are the cleanest bathrooms you have ever seen at a race. After dropping your stuff off at your car, you begin to do your pre-race routine of checking your gear, dynamic warm ups, and stretching…just like the coach prescribed. You go over your pacing plan once more so you commit it to memory. More participants are arriving and you can feel the anticipation in the air as the morning begins to wake up and the volume increases. The smell of suntan lotion hits your nose and reminds you to put yours on, you can never be too careful. Start time is nearing and you arrange your gear and safety pin your bib to your shirt, you remind yourself to get a set of those fancy bib holders so you can forgo the pins next time. Heading to the line you situate yourself in the middle of the pack, and let other runners head to the front, coach said don’t go out too fast so you don’t want to get caught up in the pack. The race director goes over the final directions and begins his countdown, the feeling of pre-race anxiety hits the all time high as he starts. You can feel the energy of the morning building as the starting horn blows. You are off, making sure to not to put forth too much in the beginning as you tend to do. Stick to the plan you remind yourself, as you glance at your watch to confirm. Boom, right on schedule. As you cruise through the course you can feel the dust begin to collect on your face feeling the grittiness against your skin, and you wouldn’t have it any other way. You stick to your hydration and nutrition plan, things are rolling. As you hit midway, you feel that familiar burn in your legs. Did I go out too fast, you think to yourself. Nope, you’re right where you need to be, confirming. At a point where you normally would start to slow down, you dig deeper than you have before pushing past the burn and pick up your pace according to plan, feeling the sun warm your face as you sip some hydration and feel the cool sweet somewhat salty liquid fill your mouth….
Guess what you just had an exercise in? Visualization. I know, I know. What is this hokey nonsense of visualization that you speak of? Visualization has been shown to improve performance across all aspects of performance. In Dr. Joe Dispenza’s book Becoming Supernatural: How Common People Are Doing the Uncommon, he details multiple studies on this. One study by a team of Harvard researchers took a group of volunteers that never played the piano before, and split them into two groups. One group practiced a simple piano exercise for two hours a day over a period of five days, the second group did the same thing, but just imagined they were at the piano and not actually moving their fingers in any way. They found, through before and after brain scans that BOTH groups created a similar amount of new neural circuits and new neurological programming in the region of the brain that controls finger movements. Another study showed similar results with muscle training. The Cleveland Clinic took ten research subjects and had them imagine that they were flexing their biceps as hard as they could over five training sessions a week for 12 weeks. The researchers measured brain activity and measured muscled strength. They found that the participants increased their bicep strength by 13.5% and maintained this gain for three months after the study, even though they hadn’t been using these muscles at all. These are just two examples of the countless studies that show the power of visualization. The thought is that your body doesn’t know the difference between things that are actually happening and things that are just happening in your brain. This is why your stress hormones can trigger just by having an argument in your head with someone. Your body thinks you are actually having that argument. Why not turn your brain into a power for good?
Am I saying that all you have to do is imagine that you can run a race, PR a marathon, or complete a 100 mile ultra, no not at all. What I am saying is if you put the work in what’s the harm in throwing some visualization exercises along the way? If you can have a 1 to 5% increase in performance over the length of any race, what’s the harm? I put forth a very positive version of a race above, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. What I like to do is also incorporate some version of the lows I will undoubtedly face during a race. What will the low point feel like? What will I feel like and how will I respond to manage it or get out of it? It is a powerful tool, your body will know that you have been there already and you will train it through your thoughts on how to respond. A few tips that made it easy for me to create my own visualizations are:
Stream of consciousness writing
I just pick a starting point for a race or topic and then write whatever pops into my brain.
You can reorganize later.
It’s great there are no wrong answers, so let it flow.
Try to be as descriptive as possible
What do each of your five senses interpret? Put them all down on the page.
Incorporate feelings
Precondition your brain on how you think you are going to feel at certain points.
Run through the positive and negative
This will have you prepared for the good and the bad that comes in any race.
Read through your exercise as many times as you can before your race
The more the better I found.
I know it sounds weird, but I have found it extremely useful, and the good thing is there are no drawbacks. If it helps you increase performance just a bit or reduce pre-race anxiety, then it is a win-win. Hand write, or type and keep a running Google doc going, or dictate something to your note app on your phone. However you do it, just give it a shot and let me know how it goes.
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