When it comes to race day or even a particularly hard workout or period of training, it’s important to not only consider your physical preparation, but also your mental preparation.

We all know that consistent training, eating well, and getting enough sleep are essential. Without this, I am almost certain you will not get to your goal.

What most runners don’t realise is that even the best physical preparation can be undone by poor mental preparation.

That is why asking yourself these three questions can be the most powerful exercise you do before a race.

The Power Of The Mind

It can allow us to soar past what we even thought was imaginable.

It can deny us our potential, cripple us with nerves, make us lose control of our emotions, and limit how well we can demonstrate our physical capabilities.

To give yourself the best chance of achieving what you are capable of physically, and to ensure all your hard work doesn’t go to waste, you need to devote deliberate time to mental preparation.

Although there are many ways to do this, the best way for me is to do it as a very intentional journaling activity.

This is how I prepare myself mentally.

Prepare Your Mind

Start off with a 10-minute grounding meditation, aiming to bring your awareness to the present and to your body.

You will spend 10 minutes thinking specifically about the race, but without trying to judge how those thoughts present themself. This allows me to witness the thoughts that spring to mind, giving me insight into what my worries and excitements are naturally.

Now you are in a good state of mind, and you are ready to answer three important questions.

You will devote 10 minutes per question of free-writing, aiming to just write whatever comes to mind, without editing, or stopping to think.

This is something I typically do every day for 7-10 days prior to a race.

1. What are you willing to endure to discover your potential?

This question is designed to have pre-set parameters for what you are willing to go through to reach your goal.

How much discomfort? How much suffering? How much pain? How much resistance? How much doubt? How much fear? How much judgment are you willing to experience in your pursuit?

By answering this, through deep introspection, you prepare your body to take on what you have decided. Because if you don’t, when push comes to shove on race day, at the first sign of any of these doubts, discomforts, or challenges, your mind will want to run and you’ll agree.

You must clarify what you are prepared to withstand.

2. What could go wrong?

This question is a way of preparing for worst-case scenarios and how you will manage them.

It is useful when the journaling is coupled with visualization. Think deeply about every possible thing you can imagine might go wrong on race day.

This could be things such as forgetting your nutrition, getting injured, losing your phone, adverse weather, waking up with the flu, etc.

The more things you can list, even if you start thinking of incredibly unlikely things, the more prepared you will be to face those challenges.

Now that you have clarified what you are prepared to withstand, and have imagined what could go wrong, comes the third question (which has two parts).

3a) How could you best manage the situation?

3b) How could you reframe your expectations for the rest of the race?

This two part question is now giving you an opportunity to practice facing the challenges from question 2 in a relaxed state of mind.

It is one thing to think about their possibilities, but without also spending time thinking about how you would manage it, you are wasting precious time.

If you wait for it to come up during the event before trying to come up with a suitable answer, chances are you will fail to deal with it. You will be too stressed in your state of heightened emotion.

Think of it like an exam where you’ve prepared for every possible question. When you get to the exam and those questions come up, you automatically know how to answer, you don’t need to think of the answer because you’ve prepared yourself for it.

For part a), think of the practical things you can do to manage the situation.

For example if your shoe breaks mid run, you could ensure you have tape in your pack so you can tape the shoe back together to allow you to continue running.

For part b), think about how you can adjust your goals and criteria for success to suit your new reality.

When something goes wrong we can quickly be disheartened as the feeling of disappointment sinks in that we won’t reach our goal. So being able to reframe a goal to suit the reality that is in front of us, rather than the one hoped for, we can eliminate the feelings of disappointment and self-pity, and instead get on with the new task.

To summarise, these are the three questions:

What are you willing to endure to discover your potential?
What could go wrong?
a) How could you best manage the situation?
b) How could you reframe your expectations for the rest of the race?

Go through this exercise before your next race and see for yourself how much mental preparation can help you achieve your best when it counts.

Yours in running and life,

Daniel Lucchini

Three Important Questions You Must Ask Yourself In The Lead Up To A Race.