Reframing Your Perspective: Growth Mindset
This week’s message relates to how you view yourself and your running. The way in which you tell yourself (and others) how a run went can impact your mood and your performance and often that story isn’t completely accurate. It’s human nature to dramatize a story or to focus on the negative aspects of a workout which can distort the true story and I could feel myself falling into that trap this week.
This week’s main workout called for 6*1km with a 90sec-2min recovery between each rep. I know some will look at that and be confused why I give myself a range for recovery here. It’s not something I do all the time, but now and again I’ll give myself that breathing room when I know it’s a challenging workout and I’m not 100% sure where my fitness is with this type of workout. It’s okay to be flexible. I went into this workout feeling like I needed to run well. I didn’t do a workout last week due to my race and the previous workout hadn’t gone as planned. I needed a little pick me up (which also relates to the cushioned recovery time this week).
I was aiming for between 3:15-3:18 for my 1km splits. I felt good going into the workout and I was able to hit the following splits: 3:15, 16, 21, 15, 17, 23, and 3:22 (as I opted to add in a 7th). These were hard and fast, but that’s not where my mind jumped to first. I was disappointed. Physically I felt fine during this workout (hence why I added a 7th, but looking back, I really should have called it a day at the planned 6), but during some of those reps I was mentally weak and I let my pace drop. My mind would drift away as I started thinking about prepping for a lesson later that day, or what I needed to add to the grocery list etc. I was frustrated I’d let that happen and now my workout no longer looked perfect.
I’ve been trying to work on the mental side of my running, as I believe it’s untapped potential that can improve performance (I’ll share with you another time my experiment with Calm and Mindfulness app I’ve been using at night). One area I’ve specifically targeted is reflecting and reframing how I frame my runs when telling them back to myself or others. In this instance I decided to look back at my Richmond 2019 training plan where I PR’d. I’d also done a 6*1km workout (with 2min recoveries) around the same time in my training. The splits that time: 3:24, 25, 24, 26, 27, 20. Now, no two days are the same, but suddenly my mind transitioned to “Wow, I was actually flying today.” Not only was I was around 5sec quicker per rep OVER ONE KM, but I also ADDED an extra rep with shorter recoveries, and I PR’d that year (the PR that still stands today). My mood shifted and I had an extra lightness to my step over the next few days.
My takeaway notes for this week:
Record and reflect on your runs, even if it’s just writing down your splits (I do this for all of you on the Silver plan as part of my process for providing weekly feedback)
Don’t get drawn on the negatives of any run. It’s okay to recognize them and make a note of them to work on in the future, but also remember to reframe your thoughts to highlights the positives too.
Look back at your notes and reflections now and again to see the growth you’ve made. Our memories are not very reliable and may disguise your actual growth.