Thanks for joining Darlene, Jenn, Renee, Zenaida, and me for another Fit Five Friday link-up! This week’s suggested topic is “5 Sources of Mental Clutter for Your Training” – of course, you are always free to share any fitness-related post.
Much like the clutter that can take over your physical space, mental clutter can clog your head space causing you to feel stressed and overwhelmed. Mental clutter can get in the way on many fronts including your training.
5 Sources of Mental Clutter When Training
The “Shoulds” – How many times have turned yourself in knots stressing over what your training “should” look like? While it can be inspiring to see what others are doing in their training, it’s important not to get caught up in the comparison game. What works for someone else may not work for you – as the saying goes, “you do you!”
Projecting into the future – Please tell me I’m not the only one who’s looked ahead at a hard workout or long run on a training plan and started to worry. One of the greatest gifts you can give yourself during training is to stay in the moment – run the workout you’re in and don’t worry about the miles to come. Trust the process!
Hanging on to a “bad” performance – Everyone has a tough race at some point and while it’s human nature to replay what went wrong, at some point it’s also important to chalk it up as valuable experience and move on. Ruminating over a tough run or race can be very defeating.
What might go wrong – Stressing over the weather or the impact of missed workouts on a race day is certainly not going to help you to reach the starting line in a good frame of mind. Let go of things you can’t control and focus on the things you can have an effect on.
Comparison with the past – Similar to the “shoulds” is the “I used to’s”. Runners can often get caught up dwelling over the paces they used to be able to run, stressing over why they can’t match those times (or distances). Letting go of comparison with your past self and embracing where you are can go a long way to eliminating the mental clutter.
Do you deal with mental clutter?
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Hiya. I’ve been too busy to keep up with anything but wanted to at least swing by some places today. Those are all clutter I can relate to, some more than others. The worst one for me is getting stuck on past paces. I right now ill be happy to run at any pace, but I know me it won’t take long before I start cluttering my brain again.
I can definitely get caught up in the should talk myself. It can be hard to snap out of!
Ugh. The “shoulds” and “I used to’s” are killing me! No matter what I do I feel like I should be doing more, or something else, or doing it more often. And if I compare my paces now to my old paces, it’s really depressing. I’m doing what a lot of “aging” runners do and taking it to the trails- that way I don’t notice the slowdown as much!
The “shoulds” and comparing myself to when I was younger and other people. Oy! You nailed this one.
Oh, the hanging on! I can relive stuff from DECADES ago! I need to just put it out of my head.
Yes i think from time to time I do ALL of theses. It’s hard not to. Especially coming from from an injury… how do I not comp[are my running to before.
Thanks for the reminder.
All of these are so true! I am trying not to let these affect me (i.e. bad weather) and just be in the moment. There is nothing I can do about the weather or what/how I did in previous races and runs. The most important thing is to focus on now.