Brain Training
How we talk to ourselves:
I have been struggling with a lot of self-doubt, which is counterproductive to meeting goals, even setting goals.Recently I started listening to a new podcast about hypnosis. Why hypnosis? Because the language we use affects every part of our life and hypnosis is communicating with ourselves and others on purpose. Where am I going with this?Last night during my bike ride I decided to use a technique the podcast host teaches, "pretend, then pretend you aren't pretending".What if I pretend, then pretend I'm not pretending that if I work like I believe it, eat like I believe it, speak as if I believe it, then even though this goal is scaring me to death I can achieve it.
So when we hit upon something things fall in line to teach us more, as in this podcast episode.
Mike & Chris talk about the power of "as if".
If someone is more likely to read rather than listen, there is a transcript at the bottom of the page.
As If is powerful if used.
Mike Mandel Hypnosis
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| Chris Thompson - Mike Mandel |
http://mikemandelhypnosis.com/2013/11/18/brain-software-podcast-42-what-are-the-limits-of-hypnosis/
Take a Breath:
That "lizard or monkey" brain serves us well. Breathing, hunger, reproduction, these all are controlled by this animal part of the human brain. This part of the brain, the Amygdala is where our fight/flight/freeze response resides. It is a very normal human response to feel the anxiety that comes with this part of the brain being triggered. It takes practice, but so does anything worth achieving, but we can move our responses from this fight/flight/freeze response to the thinking part of our brain, the Cortex. How do we do this, it can be as simple as taking a breath, a long, slow deep breath, inhale, exhale, there that feels better.
This idea has been introduced to me through reading and podcast listening. As I practice this skill I find myself introduced to deeper ideas taking this skill to the next level.
What does this have to do with migrating adventures? Anything can happen out there. Being able to think and act instead of instinctively react can be race saving, in some extreme cases even life saving.
So we went out too fast, our stomach has turned and we can't take in nutrition, we took a hard fall and something isn't feeling right, a vital piece of gear has failed...... The first reaction or the first attempted reaction is panic! Monkey brain, or lizard brain.
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| Photo © Lisa Gunnoe |
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| Photo © Lisa Gunnoe - I know this is a reptile not a lizard |
What is needed is that breath..... breath in deeply.... slowly exhale..... now think of all the things you have practiced in training, think of solutions to this challenge. That pause can prevent a catastrophic mistake.
Practice the things that can go wrong:
Long before the big dance practice those things that can go wrong.
- Go on a bonk run - run without eating first and without carrying any fuel, this is a long run (always carry water)
- Go on a long run with wet feet, keep your feet watered down, do what you have to to prevent blisters in the worst of conditions. See how I take care of my feet here.
- Heat train - do that yard work in the heat of the day, do hot yoga, sit in a sauna. This practice will help you perform better if race day happens to be hot. This also increases blood plasma so it will help some for altitude training for us low landers.
- What happens when your stomach sours. Can you keep going? Don't stop that training run when your stomach revolts, just keep going.
- Within safety and reason read blog posts, race reports, etc and see what can go wrong, build practicing coping with those things into your training, when it happens on race day you have somewhere to go when you take that breath. Your human brain will take you away from the lizard brain to these solutions you have practiced.
No Complaining - No Cussing:
Now this one is for me. When I talk about my no cussing, no complaining training I'm not mandating or suggesting others do this, it just works for me.
If I can shift my brain and thinking from the negative to solutions or a positive song, mantra, positive thinking, gratitude thinking, it can keep me out of negative places in my thinking that slow me down and maybe even threaten my finish line. I practice this all summer.
Find Something Beautiful:
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| Photo © Lisa Gunnoe - view from Mt Nebo, AR |
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| Photo © Lisa Gunnoe |
I like to carry my adventure camera with me. I know no matter how bad that run may go, no matter how bad it may get I can come home with something beautiful. For me this increases the fun factor and my yearning to be out there.
Friends - Find Your Tribe:
I need to work on this one. I spend way too much of my time training solo. I end up bouncing off burnout and I forget to have fun. This year has been about finding my tribe. Thanks to Trish Hogan here in Searcy we are building a tribe to mimic that of Conway - Team Loco. We call it Run Searcy Loco and we welcome all paces and all intentions as in running or walking, fitness or race goals.
It has been glorious though it has been on pavement. This will keep the fun factor in running as it makes me faster and stronger.
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| Track workout with Run Searcy Loco |
These are a few of the things I am doing to get ready for my redemption
AT100 October 7-8, 2017
Run Happy!
If you have any suggestions to be added to this brain training plan please let me know.
