Achieving set goals will boost your confidence and inspire you to perform at your best. ‘Reasonable’, ‘incremental’ and ‘achievable’ are the words that can shape your goals as a runner. Being reasonable means being realistic: ask yourself, how do you really feel that day? Have you fully recovered from the previous training? The answers to these questions should be factors in deciding what you are capable of accomplishing on a particular day. If your goal is achievable, you will be able to complete your run successfully even if your physical and emotional energies are at their lowest. Then you can always finish your workout (and maybe even do a little more than planned). This successful completion of your goals will give you psychological boosts and this will benefit your physical performance.
The power of positive rituals
Positive ritual involves developing a routine that remains standard and consistent throughout your training regimen. It can be something as simple as brushing your teeth before you start running. In fact, it can be anything, as long as you do it every time you train. Then, when you’re in a stressful situation, like a race, this positive ritual tells your subconscious that you’re embarking on a training run; that you’ve done this before. Not surprisingly, this has a huge impact on your mood, allowing you to relax and subsequently improve your performance.
There are many ways to incorporate a positive ritual into your training; you could even ‘ritually’ tie your shoe. Many runners tie the ritual shoe knot twice just before running.