Justin Ross, a clinical psychologist, shares advice on building training plans, setting big goals, staying injury free and eating to perform. Here are some of the questions you had for Justin Ross (a nutritionist, a physical therapist, a psychologist, a coach, and two American record holders).
On hitting the wall
The Boston Marathon is a beast of a race to train for given that the build up of training happens in the winter, often alongside dreary and cold weather.
- On a psychological level, this all comes down to the recognition that mood follows action. We feel better once we’ve completed the day’s training.
On staring down a goal
How do you build confidence in yourself in your present state when you are far away from your goal?
- Setting sights on massive, long-shot goals can be equally exhilarating and daunting
- Self efficacy, a term and theory coined by Albert Bandura, a Canadian American psychologist, that gets to the heart of what we believe we are capable of achieving
- The most important factor in developing our self-efficacy beliefs is our own personal experiences
- Take a minute to mentally catalog what you just completed and how you completed the work
On getting out the door
The early morning alarm pits us directly between a state of comfort and the importance of achieving longer-term goals
- To win the hero’s minute, try to go to bed with your running clothes already on knowing that you will need to engage in a challenge mind-set when the alarm sounds
- Physical and mental reminders will help ease the transition
- Make sure everything else you need is ready and your route is planned
On breaking a running habit
Break down the three components of every habit into three components: the precursor, the behavior itself, and the consequence
- Think of the exact thoughts, messages and narrative that enter your mind telling you to slow down or take a break
- Develop a pre-run mental plan with a programmed set of thoughts ready to combat those messages
- Pair this positive, forward-momentum self talk with a deep commitment to running continuously
