Learning to have Trust

Learning to have Trust:
"This is a concept that is often ignored by runners when it comes to training and racing. Having trust in your training schedule, your fitness, and yourself is something that’s just as important as having trust in your partner or family member. Runners often don’t have much trust in their own training even when they have a great schedule in front of them. They can also lack trust with their race plans. They just don’t trust themselves attempting a negative split race for example. They can even lack trust in their own fitness even after all the hard work they’ve put in over the last few months. This typically turns into a decrease in self-confidence and creates negative thinking.

Most of the time beginner runners struggle with this issue. But don’t be fooled, though, even the most experienced runners can lack trust in their training, fitness, and race strategy. Some likely causes of this type of mindset could be from injuries or poor recent race results. To help you get a better idea on how to trust your training and prevent you from making mistakes, here are some examples of how a lack of trust in your coach, your training, and fitness can lead to poor races or injuries, and how you can prevent similar situations from happening to you.

You Must Have Trust in Your Fitness:
There can be many factors for you to lack trust in your fitness. When you’re standing on that starting line you must be confident. If you’re not confident in your fitness then you’re not going to race well. The next time you line up on that starting line, don’t let any other runner, no matter how fast they look, prevent you from trusting your fitness. This could prevent you from running a poorly-paced race. To help avoid this issue, you should practice mental strategies in training and then use these strategies on race day to ensure you always trust your fitness. You’re more ready than you think.

Trust in Your Coach and Training Plan:
There are many great reasons why you have a coach. They’re the expert that is trying to guide you in the right direction. For example, if your coach thinks you need some extra rest after some tough training then you need to trust his judgment. While injured you might have a million different thoughts and ideas going on in your head, and some may seem crazy. But your coach is there to keep you sane and help you make the right decision so you can resume training without any issues. Most importantly, if you’re going to put in all this work to hire a coach and put all this training in, then the least you can do is have trust that it’s all going to work out.

Have Trust in Yourself:
One of the toughest things you can learn as a runner is knowing that being tough doesn’t mean you have to crush every workout and push through the fatigue. This mindset is something most runners deal with in training. This couldn’t be further from the truth. You must have confidence in yourself where you believe that you can take some extra days off, run less mileage, or skip a workout and still run a great race. Don’t let this approach be your weakness. You must learn from your mistakes and have trust in yourself to listen to your body when it’s tired or injured. Be confident and great things will happen." - Coach Jon Mott