PodsGPT.io - Podcasts Summaries and Transcriptions

As athletes, I coach, if they can do it, I can do it too. And so I was playing a real virtually in my head of athletes that I coach who've had really strong results and really, really brave and courageous finishes. And so that's something that I've used as well. You are strong, you are fast, you are strong, you are fast is another one that I've used that can sync up with your stride nicely with the cadence of those words to just remind you that no matter what you're facing, no matter how bad it hurts, you're strong, you're fast. Are you constantly worried about getting injured or you don't know how to get faster as a runner? And you wanna continue to run for stress relief, then this is the podcast for you. Welcome to Healthy Runner, the only place that provides you with training tips, injury recovery, and prevention tools with actionable strategies by experts in the running industry so you can develop a stronger running body and feel confident that you can overcome any obstacle as a runner. I'm your host, Dr. Dwayne Scotty, Avid Runner, running physical therapist and coach, educator, founder of Spark Healthy Runner, where we help dedicated runners get stronger, run faster, and enjoy lifelong, injury-free running with the perfect online running coach, even if you've been told to stop running with an injury, or you think coaching is just for fast runners. Learn more about our signature coaching program at learn.sparkhealthyrunner.com. Every week on the show, we coach you to grow as a runner, just like the process of building a strong, durable home that will last a lifetime requiring little maintenance. The design and planning is your mindset. The foundation is your strength training. The framing is your run plan. The electrical and plumbing is your nutrition. The insulation, drywall, and flooring is your recovery. The landscaping and exterior is your race strategy. If you master the six parts of growing as a runner, your running will be strong and last long, hitting PRs well into your 40s, 50s, and beyond. Every week, we help a runner just like you build their dream home. I'm your host, Dr. Duane Scotty. Welcome to the Healthy Runner podcast. This episode is powered by UCan, fuel smarter during a run with the best no sugar energy gel on the market, delivering up to 75 minutes plus of steady energy to power your best running performance. If you've been listening to this podcast and you know how important it is to fuel your body for your runs, especially those long runs and races. And one of the biggest questions we get from our athletes is, what should I take with me during a run in order to get that fuel in? And our Healthy Runner coaching team and I have been using UCan energy gels for all of our long runs and races since it launched over a year ago now. We recommend it to all our athletes because it's not made up of sugar, which means it's easy on the stomach, especially for those of you who haven't responded to other gels. The other thing I love about it is the consistency is not thick like it's competitors. So it goes down nice and easy, especially when you're running at a hard effort or it's really hot outside. And the other thing is it tastes amazing. So my personal favorite flavor is the strawberry banana with pineapple finishing in a close second. However, the most important reason that we recommend it to our athletes and I use it myself to power my runs is because it provides that long lasting energy that we need in order to crush that long run or race. So now that you're a part of our Healthy Runner community, you will get 20% off all your orders using the special link I have in the show notes. Just go to ucan.co, that's dotco.com forward slash healthy runner and use the code Healthy Runner during checkout when placing your order to get your 20% off, go ahead and give UCan energy gel a try for your next long run. Trust me, you won't regret it. Have you struggled to stay mentally strong during your race? Do you wanna leverage your mental tools in your toolbox to maintain a strong mind during race or really during your training? Welcome to episode 173 on the Healthy Runner podcast where we help you get stronger, run faster and enjoy lifelong injury free running. Today I get to chat with a true professional in the running podcast and coaching space. Chris McClung is a 245 marathoner. He's a running coach and the host of the popular running rogue podcast. He is just super knowledgeable about many aspects of running and training and he's really going to share some of the things that I've learned so much from his work on the mental aspects of training. So I invited him to come on the show. So Chris, thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to share some of your mindset mastery with our Healthy Runner community today. Gore is happy to be here. Thanks for having me. All right guys, so in this episode, Chris is really going to share his kind of best running mantras and mental strategies so you can cross your race. Chris on the show where we start with a little dynamic warmup just like we would do before our runs. So if you can just tell the listeners, where do you call home and give us a little bit more backstory on how you've really gotten to this point in your career journey? Well, it's a long time coming, I guess, to this point now, but I'm in Austin, Texas. Have a business here called Rogue Running. We train in-person groups here in Austin and also in Dallas and we have virtual runners now around the world. Also host my podcast here running rogue from my house and but my journey goes back to in sports to playing soccer growing up where I was inadvertently developing aerobic foundation and aerobic capacity over 15 years on a soccer field until at some point, I decided to move on from that and running, became a thing I did to just stay in shape initially and eventually a friend of mine got me into doing some races. So I did my first race in college in my junior year, and had a friend kind of goad me into it, did a 10K and really was hooked as it being this new competitive outlet after being a competitive soccer player for a long time. So I went from there to wanting to run a marathon, skipped straight over the half marathon distance, but actually got injured and training for my first marathon in Chicago after I graduated, I graduated Chicago 2000 was going to be my first marathon, but I got a stress fracture and training for that, which was probably the best thing that could have ever happened to me now in hindsight because it started me on the path to where I am today because I wanted to figure out how to never let that happen again. And I was following a schedule that I had pulled online for that marathon but I was doing everything wrong and so I decided to dig into the literature and figure out how to actually coach myself and do it the right way. And so that began my coaching journey, really trying to learn how to coach myself. And now the rest is kind of history as I've been coaching for about 15 years, running for the last 23 or so plus, you know, really across all distances. And I've had probably thousands of athletes that have helped coach to all distances well along the way. And so it's been a passion project of mine ever since that first stress fracture, to be honest. Yeah, and I know you've shared and I don't know if this will come up later about your calcineal stress fracture when you were training for Boston. Where was the location of that original one when you were training for Chicago? First one was a tibial stress fracture, which I was somebody that struggled with Shinsplains early on in my running career and that became Shinsplains to stress fracture because I was just stubborn about continuing to train on it and eventually had to figure out the Shinsplains element as well after I came back. But I was able to sort through that and really haven't had any shin issues since. Yeah, and I think that is just, you know, it is kind of a common path. I feel like for most coaches and how they get into the coaching element. And even myself is just kind of going from kind of clinic, physical therapist for my career. When I started running, I was about like 12 years, we're the same age, but I was about like 12 years after you when I started kind of as an adult onset runner, I call myself, but I was getting injured too, even knowing like, you know, the physical therapy stuff and the strength training and like how to do prehab, right? Because of the training element. And that's why I wanted to learn more about the coaching element and like to train properly. And that's where like your podcast has been super helpful for me, quite frankly, as I've started to learn more of those elements of training. And I just love hearing how, you know, you had those issues and then that really kind of decided you're essentially your career path in going down, you know, this coaching journey that you've been on and it is just so important, the training aspect. And we talk about that a lot on this show, but yeah, I just can't underscore how important it is to kind of stay healthy is just having some smart, balanced training approach. And I know you're very transparent on your show about your own kind of personal running journey. Like I am here. I know you've taken a little break from the marathons and you started doing some of the shorter stuff. But do you mind just sharing kind of what your, you know, current running is looking like and, you know, what you're looking to do still for your own personal goals as a runner? Yeah, you know, I think it's a big part of coaching is to live the journey as well and do things by example. And so it's a big part of what keeps me going, both as an athlete and as a coach is having that personal running journey. And now it's very different for me than it was when I started. Initially it was about just a competitive element and getting faster. And now it is that too, but so much more. It's about the mental health side and also the ability to connect with other people. But still important for me to get faster. And even at 43, I still think I have potentially a faster marathon in my legs. So that's been the goal. And as long as I can remember in the sport, I've thought about 240 as a number in my head to try to go after and I've been able to get close to 45 as my current PR, but I've, I think I've been fitter than that a few different times in my career. And it just hasn't come together on the day for whatever reason. And so I'd like to take as good a swing at that goal still as I can, even at my more advanced stage than when I started. And so I've been really trying to lay the groundwork for that over the last 18 months with a new emphasis on strength training and getting back to the shorter or faster distances, both in training and in racing. So I spent most of 2022, 2022 focused there. At the beginning part of this year, kind of did a mental reset and I'm now starting to rebuild my, my base foundation for a marathon cycle that will start late summer to build towards Houston in 2024. So my next marathon will be January 2024 in Houston with the goal to PR and to hopefully take a big swing towards that 240 goal. Nice, nice. Now that's, that's awesome. And I know you, you know, congrats on your 5K success day you had recently. That's, that's, that's pretty, uh, pretty awesome. And it is just good to hear about, you know, when someone does kind of shift their focus and this is something that we see a lot with, you know, kind of like myself that was like the gym athlete, right? That kind of dipped their toe in running and kind of did all the training things wrong and, you know, really wasn't periodizing my training and running too fast and doing all the, the things, not the consistent kind of volume and really building up the long runs and respecting them and the medium, you know, the midweek long run, um, as you call it. And I find like there's that element of athletes that we see a lot in our community. And then there's the other element of the distance runners who've been doing marathons for five, 10, 15, 20 years and they're doing the same thing, right? And they're just have volume. They just are doing long runs, but they're maybe not, you know, dedicating some of the faster work and quality work and they're not periodizing their weekly training and they're not doubling down on the benefits that they can get from strength training. Just because quite frankly, they don't like it. They're just like running and they're not consistent with it. So it's been, it's been great hearing your journey and how you've kind of shifted your focus a little bit and you're seeing results. But now, you know, you're going back to, you know, starting to kind of lengthen things out a little bit and yeah, it'll be neat following your journey toward Houston. So thank you for sharing that. Yeah, we'll see. I mean, from, I mean, I believe 100% that I have the capability to do it, but the fun part about it. And I think a lot of people may get paralyzed here is the fact that you just don't know what's possible ultimately and yes, I believe in my heart that I can do what I want, but at the same time, I don't know for that for certain. And I just got to do the work and put myself out there. I can say that it's nice getting back to a place of refocusing on the marathon because that is definitely the type of training I like the most. But now I have this renewed toolkit and some other pieces that I think will help me take that next step. So excited to see where it goes. Yeah, now we're excited to follow your journey. And as we kind of transition to today's talk, for those that have been following along in our kind of six steps to how we grow as runners, one of the most important elements and I even kind of listed first is this kind of mental side of training and this mental bucket because if we don't have appropriate goals and we don't have appropriate expectations and if we don't strengthen the mind in addition to the body, then it's going to be really tough for us to kind of grow in our running journey. And I'm really excited to kind of dive deep today into that mental bucket. And I've listened to many of your episodes and how you kind of, you know, talk about mantras and how we can, you know, leverage them as well as visualization for our races. So I'm really excited to kind of share some of your framework and how you categorize them with our listeners today. And I guess, you know, the first kind of basic question, because honestly, until like three years ago, I didn't know what a race mantra was myself. You know, if someone's like, what is a mantra? What's a mantra with you? You know, what is a race mantra? Let's start with the kind of the basics first. Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of people would categorize this stuff that we're going to talk about as a little bit cheesy maybe or woo woo, but it's important. And it works. And it's something that I use in my own training and running, but also, of course, I coach it, but a mantra is simply a word, a phrase. I think you can even be an image, something that is easy to pull into your mind that you can go to to reinforce some message in your brain while also simultaneously taking your mind off the pain and the challenge you might be facing in the moment. So I personally advise that they be short word or a handful of words that could be easily repeated in your brain that might even be something that you could rhythm rhythmically sink to your steps. But honestly, I've also used mental images as a form of mantra as well. So I don't necessarily think it has to be words. I think it could be simply a vision or an image that you bring to mind that helps you accomplish the same thing. All right. So there are these phrases, these words that we're kind of telling ourselves or these visuals that we're having in our mind to really essentially keep us focused, right? During that race and in what you're looking to accomplish. And, you know, these definitely for me personally have been super helpful as I've starting to integrate them into my races. And I did my first marathon last fall in five years. And I really like studied your episodes on this, you know, leading up to it. And I credit honestly a lot of that success to implementing, you know, some of these mantras, even though like my race had a really tough race. So I needed the mental, you know, game TV even stronger because physically I wasn't doing so well. Unfortunately with the GI system. So the mantras were super, super helpful. And, you know, have you found any, you know, scientific evidence or based upon your coaching experience, you know, Ken mantras, you know, make you run faster or do they actually work? Or is it just like you said, you know, rah, rah, are they just cheesy? And, you know, we're just talking, talking heads over here. All right. Science actually supports it. It would, it would fall into the category of positive self talk is how you would hear about it in the scientific literature. If you read the book and door by Alex Hutchinson, he talks about the science behind it in that book about how positive self talk can improve performance in focused time trial efforts. If they're doing that in a scientific study, there's also proof that even neutral words that allow you to focus or dissociate from pain can work in a similar fashion. So even if, and one of the mental tips I use, especially at the end of the race is simply counting. So counting to 30 or counting to 60 for a set block of time telling yourself that I can just push through the next 60 seconds and I'll be in a better place. So even just using neutral words like numbers can, according to the science, have a similar effect of giving us that extra little boost. So yes, the science supports it, but then obviously in reality, I've experienced the benefits of it personally. And this is something that I talk about with all of my athletes as they go into their races. Yeah. Yeah, I'm going to definitely have to read that book there. Um, I haven't read that one yet. So I'm going to have to check that out and do her. And, and you kind of have this unique classification of your mantras and, you know, how do you kind of bucket your mantras? Cause it seems like you have kind of a little system on, you know, depending upon the purpose. You mind just sharing kind of your classification system. Yeah, traditionally I would talk about two of them, but I actually this week thought about adding a third category to my breaking news. We've got to. I love it. So, so I've got a third category. The name needs some work, but I, but I would normally talk about rhythm, mantras, fight mantras. And this week, I've been thinking about a third category, which I'm going to call pre-race mantras needs a little better language or term, but especially when you're prepping for a race, like the Boston Marathon. And I've been talking to a lot of runners about that coming up or a race like New York, where you have a late start and you have a lot of logistics to deal with, to get to the start line. That I think a pre-race mantra can help you stay in that calm, relaxed place before you go and get ready to go in the start line, because I've been in, I know I've been in that place at a race with a late start where you're just, you burned all your energy before you even get to take that first step because of the chaos and logistics early on. So pre-race mantras is something I've been talking about for my Boston runners this week of that word or phrase that's going to help them stay calm and relaxed and not burn that nervous energy before they get to the start line. But mainly I talk about two during the race, the rhythm mantras and the fight mantras. And from what I can tell, these are unique to my terminology, but something I've seen really, really valuable to put into place because it just breaks it down into the two different types of messages you need to tell yourself in a race. For the early parts of the race, for the middle parts of the race, especially in a marathon, where it's all about staying relaxed and burning as little energy as possible for as long as possible. For that phase of the race, you want a rhythm mantra, which is about finding a rhythm, getting into a smooth, sustainable, comfortable and relaxed place so that you can put yourself in a good position for the end of the race to go finish strongly. And so rhythm mantras would cover the early in the middle parts of the race. And then the fight mantra mantras kick in when it's time to go, when the pain kicks in, when that mild 20 point hits or 21 and you're starting to think about trying to pick it up a little bit to the finish and or you're just trying to hold on for dear life. And it's all about fighting and pushing and working through the pain in order to get to that finish line as fast as you can. In those moments being relaxed might help, but it's not necessarily the message you need to get you to that finish line. So then I talk about fight mantras for the end of the race. All right, so we have three different classifications, kind of this quote, unquote temporary name of pre-race mantras right now. We have our rhythm mantras and then our fight mantras. I hope you are enjoying this episode and it is providing value for you. I wanted to take a brief moment to share a story of a real runner like you who was struggling with a common problem that you may be facing. Here's one of our athletes who got the guidance, support and accountability from our healthy runner coaching team to get clarity and structure on the six steps to growing as a runner with personalized strength, nutrition and run plans. I hope their story inspires you that there is hope to either get over your running injury or to continue getting faster or running longer so you can continue to get in those mental clearing miles and enjoy your running journey again. Here is their inspiring story. Hi, I'm Gigi and I live in Los Angeles, California. And thanks to Coach Dwayne and the healthy runner community. Last month I completed the New York City Marathon. Coach Dwayne was exactly what I was looking for after I had knee surgery last year. Not only is he a doctor of physical therapy, which helped me immensely, but he's also a certified running coach and a runner himself. His advice was spot on from the little things, which can be the big things like what shoes to wear and how to warm up properly to fueling, which was a huge issue for me. I completed the marathon feeling strong. I never hit a wall, what wall there was none. All of his advice was right on and I highly recommend him. I hope sharing that story inspired you and provided you some hope. If you want the one on one structure, accountability and support from our healthy runner coaching team of experts, check out the behind the scenes video tour of our signature coaching program. You just heard about including other stories from runners who are just like you and we're struggling with the same sticking points before they signed up for our program. Just head to learn.spark healthy runner.com to learn more and book. Your strategy call with me today. Now let's get back into this episode. So if you don't mind, if we could, if you don't mind sharing, this would be like breaking news. This pre-race mantra from what I'm hearing so far is helps to really alleviate some pre-race jitters, a little bit of anxiety, all the chaos of, of, you know, the logistics before a race and, you know, what time, where are you staying? Right. How long are you waiting before the race? You know, what types of kind of phrases or mantras are you helping your athletes with as they're like preparing for Boston, for example? Yeah, I can just remember standing on the start line at Boston and for those that don't know full context, you know, that race starts at 10 a.m. and that's the first wave and then you'll have a wave going off or waves going off after that. I think there's five waves that go off all the way into, you know, around 1130 or so. So you've got an hour and a half window to start. Oftentimes you're getting to the pre-race buses in Boston that they bust you out one way out of the city to Hopkins and you might get there at 7 a.m. 738 a.m. to go to the start and then they dump you into this open field that a school in Hopkins 10 and you have to hang out with a bunch of other nervous athletes until you get to walk a mile to the start line and then actually do the thing. And so I can just remember being on the start line in Boston one year, having not even passed the starting line and being so frustrated and stressed and angry. It was also a hot day. And so sweating and just thinking about how miserable it was going to be and not enjoying the moment and really honestly having wasted all the energy that I needed to have a good day that day. And ultimately that wasn't a good day for me because largely I think I wasn't prepared to stay in that calm place until the start line. And so as I think about pre-race mantras, it's really all about how can you stay calm? How can you stay relaxed? How can you let the water fall off the ducks back so to speak? Where the chaos of some of those pre-race logistics just don't affect you. And so, and one thing I will underscore about mantras is that it has to be personal to you, has to mean something to you. I always encourage people to develop their own. People always ask me, what are your mantras and I'm happy to share examples. But I don't necessarily think that you can just grab somebody's and use it. You have to really think about it, come to your own because I do believe they're personal in there. They really mean something to you and sometimes co-opting somebody else's mantra doesn't quite work the same. It can. And then certainly have people steal ideas from others that end up resonating with them. But mostly I want you to really be thinking about yourself. One of the things for me in pre-race is just simply stay calm, just reminding myself stay calm. Yeah. So, as you're doing that, you also recommend, you know, I could see meditation at this point, especially when you're waiting around. Is that a helpful tool to just do some short meditations for some athletes as they're just sitting there waiting in these holding areas? Yeah, I think so. I think focusing on your breathing, letting your mind be as clear as possible, even just observing what's going through your mind in a meditative process can work. I also think pre-race, you know, this is sort of a separate suggestion. But one of the things I recommend for some people going to a start line like Boston that might be a later start is to bring something to distract yourself with. So bring a magazine, a paperback book that you can toss, something that's going to take your mind off of it because that's another strategy. You can either associate or you can dissociate. And I think the mantra is more of an associative practice where you're associating and you're trying to be present and you're trying to actively work through what you're facing, whereas dissociating, which can be equally effective, is just about taking your mind off of it and hopefully having the time pass a little bit more quickly. So that's a separate mental approach, but one that I think can work as well. Okay. All right, gotcha. No, I like that. And thinking about what are you doing before the race? And now let's get into race starts, let's go to the rhythm mantras. And why is it important to implement this rhythm mantra in order to really kind of execute the perfect race day strategy? Yeah, if you think about it from a physical standpoint, especially in longer races like the half marathon marathon, it's as much an efficiency game as it is anything else. You know you can run those paces for one mile, two miles, three miles. And so it's really all about conserving energy early so that you have energy late in the race in order to finish well, finish strong. And so to do that, you need to be efficient. You need to be relaxed. You need to burn as few calories as possible running your target race pace as you can. And certainly there are physical elements to think through in doing that. But I believe that a rhythm mantra can also put you into that meditative running place where you're actually relaxing and burning as little energy as you can. I can remember a marathon that I ran in, I believe it was 2014, ended up being a marathon PR. And this is the first and only marathon of my 21 where I had this challenge, which is that I got three miles into that race and I felt just absolutely terrible. It was a really cold morning. I think part of it was I just, my body wasn't warming up. The temperatures were sub-preasing. And I got some all three that I just remember thinking, I don't even know if I can make 10 miles at this pace much less of full 26. And I saw actually my coach on the sideline at that point, he would later tell me that I looked like shit. And that's how I felt. And so instead of panicking in that moment, which I could have easily done and gone on to maybe DNFing or certainly having a horrible day as it felt like I was having, I instead went into my rhythm mantra space of thinking, okay, you can work through this worst case scenario. It doesn't work. And for me in that race, my rhythm mantra was actually just breathe. So at that time, I was actually integrating some yoga into my overall weekly practice. And I learned about breathing practices through that experience. And so I went into this kind of yogi mindset, really focusing on my breathing, really thinking about sinking my breathing with my running, with my stride. And I spent the next four or five miles really in a meditative place, actually sometimes closing my eyes during that process on the straightaways, just thinking about my breathing, trying to slow it down. And ultimately, and repeating that rhythm mantra, just breathe in my head. And then I got to mile eight. And I remember suddenly everything shifted. The challenge of it sort of melted away. I found a new gear. Suddenly the pace I'd been running felt easy as it should at that point in a marathon. And I went on to PR that day. And honestly, the hardest parts of the race were miles three to eight when I was working through getting in that groove. And once I did, ultimately, I went on to have a great race with a great and strong finish and never hit a wall, never felt the tough things that I'd normally feel at the end of a marathon. It was all at the beginning, but it was the key for me was going to that rhythm mantra place of finding those words and thought processes that were going to help me relax, stay smooth, burn as little energy possible so that my body could sustain the rhythm. Yeah. And I think this is such an undervalued part of running and of racing. And even on my training runs, I've really implemented this. And by the way, it is like, it's definitely a challenge to run with your eyes closed. I've heard you mention that before. And I actually did that this morning. And I like to last like, I don't know, six to eight seconds before I feel like, hey, I'm bearing like too far off. And I haven't tried it in a race yet when there's like other people around me. But even like right now I'm half marathon training. So I did my first 14 actual Myler this morning since the fall. And you know, I knew, okay, this is going to be a little challenge for me. And I need to stay relaxed. And I need to make sure that I'm keeping my heart rate down. I'm staying in that aerobic zone. And I was going into some of these rhythm mantras. And I think this is a good point too, because we're kind of talking in the context of like race day, but we really need to practice these right during training in order to actually have those tools accessible on race day. And, you know, I think staying relaxed and it's so easy, especially on race day, right? We get amped up, we get pumped up. You're at the start line. You're like, let's do this. Right? You almost get into kind of like gym mode, right? You're going to like blow this thing out of the water, but for a half and even a 10K, right? Like 5K, you can somewhat do that, right? You can kind of be all charged up and just like, you know, go fast out of the gates. But, you know, 10K half, definitely the marathon. It is more about like staying relaxed and getting in this zone where like you said, that we're actually conserving energy that's going to be super valuable later on. And really focusing on the breathing, like you mentioned, the form, you know, make sure you're not like chest breathing. And, you know, you're not running with different form than you normally do on, let's say, an easy run. Yes, you're going faster than you would during your easy pace, but you want to stay as relaxed as possible. So I think it is definitely an undervalued part of training and not a lot of people think about that or give that respect. But I know I've found it super helpful in training and in races, quite frankly, to conserve some of that energy. And I know, you know, just breathe was one of them. I know you've mentioned just now smooth and you've talked about that before. Do you mind sharing some of the smooth mantras that I've worked for you in the past that you've been in, you know, smooth and relaxed is another one that I've used sort of stay smooth, stay relaxed, stay smooth, stay relaxed that you can sync up with the rhythm of your stride. I think one of the things we don't necessarily realize how much we have control over our breathing in our heart rate. We think that that's sort of a product of our effort and our activity, but and certainly that's true to some extent, but you have a lot more control than you think. And rhythm mantras and focusing on your breathing. You can actually bring those things back under control and not let them slip out of your control, especially early in a race. But stay smooth, stay relaxed. Another one that I like to use is just reminding myself to smile. So you know, just smile because when you smile, it's hard to be agro or hard to be too tense. So reminding myself to smile is another one that I've gone to as a way to not only relax, but also just to remind myself that we're doing this for fun, that I get to do this. And yes, it's hard at times and in challenging, but it's something that I do because ultimately it brings me a lot of joy. And so smile is another mantra that I go back to. Yeah, I love that. And I've definitely utilized that every races as well. And it just brings so much gratitude as well, right? Like to the people who are standing there cheering you on, to the folks at the water stations, right? Like just smiling. And I think that helps put you in a more positive mindset as well. It's hard to start getting those negative thoughts if you maybe aren't following the exact, you know, race strategy or peace plan that you had planned for. And it just takes your mind away from that a little bit that can help you relax and really enjoy the process, right? Like we do this for fun. Like we're all, you know, recreational athletes that we're just trying to like challenge ourselves. And, you know, we can't get it, I guess, too serious. And, you know, we're not forced to do this, right? We do this because we want and we get the opportunity to do this. So, you know, being able to kind of have some gratitude and smiling definitely has helped me and it does kind of give more of that positive mindset as well. So, you know, when in the race is it best to now pull out, you know, the mantras that are going to be helping us, you know, these fight mantras and or like what are the best mantras that you found, you know, that you used during closing in a race? Yeah. So, rhythm mantras for early and sort of the middle parts of the race, you know, for a half marathon, I would say really mostly you want to use those by all 10 and sooner for a rhythm mantras and for the marathon mile 20 and sooner. But then you shift into that point where it's time to go, it's time to finish. It's time to work through the challenges that you might face. And we know at the end of a half and a full, it's going to be hard. And that's part of what you sign up for when you do these challenges is to be faced with struggle so that you can see what you're made of. And so that's when fight mantras can come in to remind you to fight, to push for every second to not leave anything out on the course. And so for me, this I find that the fight mantras need to be as specific as possible to you and also to what you're trying to accomplish on that given day. You know, for some people, it might be getting to the finish line. For some people, it might be getting to the finish line in a certain time. People might have other goals, but I can tell you for me, the fight mantras, I want it to be very specific to what I'm trying to accomplish so that it reminds me of the big goal for the day. So for example, I can remember a race where a marathon, my last marathon PR where I was trying to get everything out of that race and I was shooting for a PR, but I knew that it was going to be close, that my fitness was really close to my prior fitness, my prior PR. And my plan was to basically beat it by not a lot, you know, and I ended up PR-ing by 14 seconds. So about a half second per mile in the marathon. My mantra that day was every second counts. So it was just a reminder that you can't let up for even a second because if you do, that might end up costing you your goal for the day. And so I was repeating that mantra in my head every second counts for the last almost probably 10 miles of that race, which is abnormally long time for me to go into the fight mantra space, but I just started to struggle early on that race than normal and went to the fight mantra really soon about mile 16 and used it all the way to the finish and ultimately every second did count in that race. And so I got the PR that I wanted, but a big part of it was just being propelled by that constant reminder that the seconds do matter. Yes. Yeah. And I've actually used that one that was helpful for me. So yeah, thank you for reminding us that every second does count and some of the ones that I've been helpful for me is like penis temporary pride is forever or even just going strong mind because I think that's the thing. I know me personally, it is that mental side where it's like, all right, it's time to go when you have every single voice in your head telling you to slow down, right? How are we going to keep going and be able to get the most out of our training? So just strong mind, strong body, like I just kind of, and that's kind of our phrase. So it's meaningful to me. And it's something that I believe in, but I think your point is well taken that it does need to have meaning to you. And that's why I would recommend for most runners listening to this is you have to try these out in training. Try them out on your first, you know, hard long run. Try them out during your quality sessions, your speed work. Try them out when your stomach isn't feeling good and you're out on a race because you know, you had dinner and drinks the night before because it, you have to get used to practicing and using these in training. So you can implement them in your racing and the other fight mantras that have been helpful for some of the athletes that you work with. For example, and I remember distinctly practicing this one, this approach on a long run, but this is actually, I think five mantras are where the visual elements can come into play. So I've had a marathon where I, in place of words, I was using the images in my head of athletes that I've coached who've had strong, inspiring finishes. And so I was playing sort of a roll a decks of people's faces through my brain at the end of the race as just a reminder that as athletes, I coach, if they can do it, I can do it too. And so I was playing a real virtually in my head of athletes that I coach who've had really strong results and really, really brave and courageous finishes. And so that's something that I've used as well. You are strong. You are fast. You are strong. You are fast is another one that I've used that can sync up with your stride nicely with the cadence of those words to just remind you that no matter what you're facing, no matter how bad it hurts, you're strong, you're fast. So those are a few other examples. Oh, I love it. I love it. And yeah, you mentioned the visualization. How does visualization, you know, boost mindset for race day? And I guess, you know, when is the best time to do it? So you just talked about that when you're in that, you know, you're getting to the pain cave, you know, during the end of a race that you can kind of play that real. Are there any other times that you recommend visualization for your athletes? Yeah, visualization to me is a really, really powerful mental training tool. You talk about practicing using the mantras physically, but I think you can also practice using them in a visualization context when you're not actually running or not actually doing a workout. And the good news on that again, it sounds cheesy, but the science on visualization is also very strong that if you visualize your race and using mantras prior to the race itself, it will have similar neurological effects as if you've already done it physically. So that's pretty powerful idea that, you know, you may never have run a half or a full in the time that you're shooting for, but you can actually visualize doing it and that will give your body some of the actual physical stimuli that you would also get while doing it. So even though you've never done it and can't know, you can actually do it in your mind's eye prior to race day. So typically this is something I like to remind people to start about a month out from race day. I personally don't necessarily like to do old race visualizations where I go start to finish all at once. Although I have had people tell me that that's how they actually like to do it. Personally it's hard to do it that way. I guess I'm not patient enough. I like to do it in smaller chunks where I might visualize a segment of the race on a recovery run, for example, starting about a month out. And I do like to do it more or less sequentially where I'll visualize the first part of the race and you think about all of the chaos of that and the adrenaline of a start line, all the things you know to be true. And so visualizing, managing all of that while also executing your race plan effectively in a smart way is, you know, one segment to visualize. And then you can visualize using your rhythm mantras to find that race rhythm to settle into a pace that you can sustain for a long period of time and to pair that with visuals that you know of the course. If you have experience on that course or if you've watched a video of the course, you can start to pair that with all the visual elements as well. And then you know, you can visualize using your nutrition to plan, getting your hydration in the way that you play on race day and then carry that all the way to visualizing what challenges you might face, the pains you might have. And one thing I know for sure about every marathon is that it's different and you may not have the same challenges in one race that you have in another, but visualizing some of those challenges and then working through them with your problem solving in the middle of the race using fight mantras when that late race closes time and then visualize all the way to getting to that finish line with the crowd around you and the time on the clock that you want doing that start to finish in different chunks starting about a month out. Again, it actually programs your nerves to think that you've done it so that when you actually go do it on race day, it is in some way familiar even if you've never actually physically done it. So that's a really powerful way to not only prepare mentally, but also practice using your mantras without using them during a physical run. Yeah, and that could definitely be super helpful for checking out images of the courses. Like if it's a new course that you haven't run or videos, right, of others who have that scenery and you're just picturing, obviously they can boil in the street, right? Or what is it going to feel like you actually running down that street or you going over the bridges in New York, right? Or whatever race that you have just thinking about almost those surroundings like you mentioned. Yeah, I could see that is super helpful and I found it also helpful to do some of that visualization when I'm journaling. So that's kind of something new that I've taken up since really almost a year ago now, maybe nine months that I like to do some of that visualization start my day in the morning and then to kind of close my day before bed is do some journaling and I'll do some of that visualization, especially if I am kind of reflecting on training or what I'm grateful for. I'm doing some of that visualization as well and just saying like, hey, what is that next goal? I'm visualizing what that's going to look like. So that's been super helpful to me just not even during a run in training, during like a hard run and a hard session, a speed work session where it's hurting and I'm trying to visualize like, okay, this is how it's going to feel when I'm trying to close in the race. And also during kind of some of that, you know, quiet, reflective time, I found that super helpful. Yeah. And one thing I always remind people of is that and then you know this and I know your listeners do too. When you're in taper mode, when you're pulling back three weeks out from a marathon, two weeks out from a half, perhaps you go into that mental challenge of the training block where we call a taper madness where you start to go a little bit crazy. The nerves are building up, you're not running as much. You start to feel like you're losing all your fitness, you're squandering everything that you did in preparation. It just doesn't necessarily feel great and mentally you start to let the nerves become overwhelming. And again, as we talked about kind of associative strategies and dissociative strategies in that pre race window two or three weeks out, you know, you can dissociate by watching a Netflix show, reading a book, whatever it may be, you go in to see a movie. But the thing I like to do to the extent that I can is to associate when you have those nerves building up, certainly acknowledge them, don't dismiss them, but acknowledge them and then shift your mind towards something productive that's going to help you prepare for race day. And visualization is a one of the great things you can do. You know, some people or sometimes I like to tell people, well, do whatever planning you can, you know, write your race plan down, figure out your nutrition strategy, plan the restaurant or the food you're going to eat the night before, get into planning mode. That's one thing you can do, but you can also just visualize if you're at a loss or of all those other things are ticked and tied and you're ready to go, then slip into visualization mode because it allows you to take that nervous energy and repurpose it into something that's going to actually help you. Yeah, no, I think that's super helpful. And kind of shifting gears just a little bit because this is the healthy owner podcast. And we have a lot of listeners who, you know, probably found us, you know, they had a specific injury, whether it was Achilles pain, shin splints, like you had mentioned earlier, high hamstring tended off the who kind of started following the show. You know, I'm kind of interested to hear from your perspective on, you know, what you have personally learned either as an athlete or coach about recovering from a running related injury that will be helpful for our community to learn today. I think the number one headline I could give anybody in recovering for a running injury of pretty much every category is that it is an active process. Doing nothing, just stopping movement is not going to solve your injury. In fact, in many cases, it might actually make it worse if we're talking about a soft tissue injury and you're going to stop running. You're going to think it's helping. You're going to start a week later or two weeks later and it's going to be right back where you were when it's when you when you when you stopped. So it's an active process. Many times that means active in terms of actually still moving, maybe some easy running, maybe some cross training. But more than that, it's finding a provider, a physical therapist who can help you figure out the root cause, work out the rehab you need to do, whether that be strength or mobility or sometimes flexibility in order to work through that issue. Because if you don't engage and consider an active process, then most likely it's going to be right there when you start again or it's going to come back again later in some form. Man, I couldn't agree more, Chris. This is something that we see a lot with many runners is, yeah, my Achilles started hurting, my shin started hurting. So I took a week off and then I'll get back into it or I took two weeks off. I figured my body needed to rest and you guys have heard it from me way too many times. So now you're hearing it from Chris McClaug, you know, so listen to him. If you haven't listened to me at all and it is just so important and it is super rare. It is only those bone stress injuries that honestly, I've had any of my runners actually stop running. All of the other soft tissue injuries, if it is, you know, high tissue irritability and it's like super painful, super flared up, if there is an active swelling element to it, maybe a day two, tops three that I've ever had, really a runner kind of not run. Like you said, you are able to modify for the most part and yes, find out the root cause like you had mentioned. So I would say even in the case of a bone stress injury, well, yes, you shouldn't be running when you have a bone stress injury. There's still a lot you should be doing to understand the root cause because you got that bone stress injury for some reason and you want to figure out why it wasn't an accident that it happened to you. And sometimes that's simply recognizing that you had faults in training. So the active thing you can do in that moment is just to learn about how to actually train appropriately. But sometimes it's more than that. Could be that you might need blood work to understand that you've got some deficiencies that need to be addressed in my stress fracture in Boston that you referred to the calcaneal one. There was a situation where I was low vitamin D, which was affecting my calcium uptake. And so I was still seeing providers to try to figure out why did this happen? As someone who hadn't had a stress fracture in 15 years. So I was still, while not running, I was still doing active things to figure out why that happened to me so that it didn't happen again. And in that case, it meant seeing some providers getting some blood work done that identified the core problem in that situation. So I would say even in a bone stress situation, there are things you can do to figure out why it happened while you were taking a little time off from the actual running part. I love it. So not only active, keeping the body moving, but also being active in finding out why this injury occurred and finding the right provider for you. And unfortunately, with today's day of healthcare, you do need to be an active participant in your care because a lot of times the communication isn't great between providers and you have to be your own advocate. So I love that, Chris. Thank you for bringing that up. And as we kind of head down the final stretch here, the last question that we ask all our guests, if you can change one thing about the misconception about mantras or race day strategies, what would that be? I think the headline there that I alluded to a little bit earlier was just the idea that it's woo-woo or cheesy or people think it's not for them. And I've had people tell me, well, I'm just not into the mantra thing. It's a little too cheesy for me. And what I would point, what I would say to that person is that one, the science backs it up. So this isn't just me making stuff up or telling you to do something cheesy for the sake of watching you do it and laughing. It's because the science backs it up that it works. Also I have from personal experience and from coaching experience, I know that it works. And again, while it needs to be personalized so that you can set it up in a situation where it doesn't feel cheesy to you, where it actually feels personal and relevant, if you're willing to do that and take a step maybe outside of your comfort zone for somebody who might be in that camp, then I promise you it'll work. And even if it might end up being something more neutral, we didn't talk about it, but simply counting in a race is a way to use a non positive neutral word set of words in order to achieve the same thing. So maybe that's more appropriate for some people who might be in this camp. But it's not cheesy if it works, if the science backs it up. So it just encourages anybody who's a little uncertain from that perspective to step out of your comfort zone and give it a shot. Yeah. And I don't even think we mentioned that during the fight mantra parks. I know that's a big thing that you've talked about before. And that's been super helpful for me is just simply counting to 20 or even sometimes I only can count to 10. Like when cognitively your brain is not able to do simple math in your head during the end of a race and you're kind of like, you can't even think of words for mantra. The counting exercise is very, very helpful. And like you said, it's neutral. So yeah, try implementing that if you do have some fear, disdain, whatever it is about kind of using mantras. Chris, this has been so great. It's been great to, you know, chat and connect with you. Like I said, I've been following your show for, you know, many years now. And I'm sure there's going to be many folks in our healthy runner community that want to hear more from you and learn from you just like I have, you know, where is the best place for our healthy runner community to connect with you? Yeah, if you want to listen to the podcast, I've got, I'm going to just post to my 312 episode today. This morning, you can find that wherever podcast, wherever you get your podcasts, it's called running rogue, rogue spelled R O G U E, which I have to sometimes remind people of. Or you can go to our website if you're interested in our business or coaching. We coach again in person in Austin and Dallas, but all over the world virtually via a few different options. We've got group based virtual coaching and we have one to one virtual coaching. You can find info on that at our website, rogue running.com. You can also follow us on Instagram at rogue running. And you can follow me on Instagram at rogue Chris. So go check it out. Awesome. And we will definitely put all those links in the show notes. Yeah. Thank you so much, Chris, for sharing really your expertise and educating us on some practical tips in using mantras and visualization to really improve that mental side of training for our next race. I hope everyone listening starts implementing some of these strategies. And thanks again for coming on the show. I appreciate it. Of course. Thanks for having me. And thank you to the listener, whether you're catching this during a run. Hopefully you are enjoying that run. And you maybe even practice some of those rhythm mantras as you are running. Or if you've watched the video version of this on the Spark healthy runner YouTube channel, I appreciate all of you guys as always. Let's maintain a strong mind, a strong body. And let's just keep on running until next time. Thank you as always for listening to the healthy runner podcast where we help you get stronger, run faster and enjoy lifelong injury free running. If you found this content valuable, here's five ways we can help you grow as a runner for free. One, grab a free copy of our six steps to growing as a runner framework at learn.sparkhealthyrunner.com forward slash grow. Two, follow our Instagram page at Spark healthy runner. Three, join our free group by searching healthy runner in Facebook for subscribe to our YouTube channel at youtube.com forward slash spark healthy runner. Five, leave us a five star review so we can gain access to more experts in the running field and bring those lessons and trainings back here right to you. Don't forget hit the subscribe button on Apple podcast or the follow button on Spotify so you don't miss the next episode of healthy runner so you can maintain a strong mind, a strong body and just keep running. Lastly, if you've been struggling with the constant injury cycle, not eating the right foods for running or not getting faster as a runner and you are ready to invest in becoming a lifelong injury free runner, head to spark healthy runner dot com forward slash coaching to apply for a one on one signature coaching program. Thank you again. I really truly mean it from the bottom of my heart that I appreciate you for listening and sharing this podcast with a running friend who can use the help. Now go and crush your run today. See you next week. Bye. Bye.

173. Mantras and Mental Strategies for Race Day with Chris McClung