You may have heard how elite athletes visualize their big races, and this sounds like a helpful practice in theory, right?
But when was the last time you visualized something? If anything, some runners will visualize a race the night before. But think about it - your body can’t do things it hasn’t practiced (and practiced and practiced), and neither can your brain. Unless we use visualization frequently and purposefully, we can’t actually reap the benefits.
Now you might be thinking - I just run for fun, I don’t need these fancy tricks! I’d disagree and ask you this - have you ever felt tired on a run and wanted to keep going? Have you ever been in the middle of something challenging at work and wished it didn’t have to be so painful? Visualization can change all of this. We can’t often change reality, but we can always change our thoughts about it.
Runs will always inevitably feel hard, work will always have challenges, so will life! What you can do is practice seeing yourself experiencing these moments and deciding how you want to feel and think about it. With enough time, patience, and practice, you can actually rewire your brain to see challenges in a new way. In whatever way you’d like to see them! Maybe you’ll start seeing challenges as opportunity, or as the part of the day where you’re expanding yourself, or as a meditative time where you surrender and go with the flow. It doesn’t matter what you pick, it matters that you recognize you have a choice.
Here’s how I suggest you start practicing visualization. Once you get the hang of visualizing your runs, you can use visualization for any aspect of your life.
1. Set aside 1 day a week where you will take 3-5 minutes to visualize an upcoming run. Pick a specific day - this could be an easy run, workout, long run, etc. You can use this for any type of workout day - including your easy days. Maybe for you, you need to practice going easy on those recovery days, so you will visualize yourself doing the smart thing and going easy enough.
2. Set a timer and close your eyes. I have some guided audios you can listen to here, or you can read the following and guide yourself through:
Start by thinking about how you’ll get ready for your run, think about what the weather might be like, then picture yourself warming up, and getting started. How might you feel during the run? If you’re feeling great - what will you say to yourself? If you’re feeling tired or sore - what will you say to yourself? What skills will you use to get yourself through the workout? How might you feel when it’s over? Picture the cool down and then continuing on with your day.
And repeat! The key with making this work is repetition, so keep going with the same visualization each time you practice, and eventually you can add a 2nd or 3rd day to your week.
Lastly remember - not every run is supposed to feel great, and in fact, probably half of your workout days will feel lackluster. That’s how training goes, and if you can reset your expectations to prepare for that, you’ll save yourself a lot of disappointment and frustration. Wouldn’t that be nice!