Reading this great book, Mental Training for Runners, written by Jeff Galloway was insightful, informative and intimidating!
The book explains how to improve motivation, why and how you lose motivation and provides specific strategies for staying your best. While written for runners, his advice is applicable for anyone wanting to understand the brain and body connection with motivation.
Some of my favorite parts of the book include:
Glossary of mind body elements – Galloway explains how the mind, brain, reflex brain, frontal lobe, left and right brain receptors, peptides, TMS (Tension myositis syndrome), growth mode and protection mode all wrok. I was fascinated by the mind – brain – gut relationship and the importance of self-talk and nutrition.
Mental training – he provides specific techniques for stress management, managing fatigue, aches and pains and low blood sugar (LBS) levels and how these impact our thoughts.
Jump start motivation – he shares almost every runner experiences ‘those days’ when the subconscious reflex brain is under a higher level of stress/ pressure. He prescribes eating blood sugar boosting snacks, drinking coffee, walking, smiling breathing in cadence with your steps, believing you will feel better and mantras.
No more excuses – a section is dedicated to the most common excuses and how to overcome them i.e. this hurts, I have no time, I don’t have the right body (I relate to this one as that was my excuse before my great friend told me to just do it), I need to spend more time with my kids/partner/family, I have too much work to do, I don’t have my running clothes with me – he outlines solutions for every excuse!
Rehearsing drills –specific drills are outlined to build mental toughness that include rehearsing and visualizing success, using magic words (relax, power, glide), and playing dirty tricks on the reflex brain (I liked this section a lot).
Mantras – I am a fan of mantras and have written about this before. He separates mantras into categories; mantras that work anytime, talking to your workhorses (body parts), when it gets tough, the vision, funny mantras, distractions from negative thoughts, talking to spectators and volunteers, talking to the pain mantras (this was one of my most favorite parts of the entire book).
Troubleshooting and treatment – Galloway explains in detail how to handle injury, recovery and his practical approach ensured in most cases you could still keep running with modification and include more walking. He is famous for his philosophy of run-walk-run.
Products that enhance running – this section advocates for specific nutrition, recovery, safety, vitamins and supplements and of course his other books. I purchased some of his suggestions as he seems knowledgeable on this topic and has tested extensively.
This book is a great read, informative and backed by research. Highly recommend it for anyone training for an important race or someone who is a brand new runner like me crazy enough to start running and sign up for a marathon within a week of starting running!
