The 30 day challenge - Day 22 - Mental Toughness guest post by Duncan Simpson PHD

Duncan Simpson, PHD

I'm really pleased to be posting today's contribution to the Focused Mind from Duncan Simpson of Barry University, Florida, as I think it cuts across all of the endurance field I try to cover (running, triathlon and cycling), and possibly beyond to other sports that you may participate in. The reason I wanted Duncan to write is due to my (somewhat) skepticism about what 'Mental Toughness' actually is. I think it is intuitively appealing as a psychological construct and something that all athletes possess and can work at, but whether it is a phenomenon that can be fully endorsed academically, such as confidence or anxiety, I'm not so sure myself. Whether mental toughness is needed for sporting endeavour is without debate, so I'm parking my cynicism at the door and leaving you in the capable hands of Duncan to outline in more detail what Mental Toughness is, and provide some helpful mental skills training to you to try and incorporate in your training.

Over to you Duncan!

***

In response to a Twitter comment I made regarding “Mental Toughness” (MT) Stu invited to
write a post on the concept. As a researcher, teacher and practitioner of sport psychology I’ve
thought long and hard about this construct and what to talk about here. MT certainly isn’t a
new term and has been widely researched and written about. To provide a historical account
of research and a full theoretical explanation of MT is beyond this post but I do encourage
readers to seek out a new book if they are interested in such topics “Mental Toughness in
Sport” (Gucciardi & Gordon, 2012). The aim of this post to present an overview of what mental
toughness appears to be from the literature and to provide readers with some applied suggestions
about how to become more mentally tough.

Based on research (e.g., Bull et al., 2005; Connaughton & Hanton, 2009; Crust, 2007; Jones et
al, 2002; 2007 etc.) mental toughness is a complex psychological construct that encompasses
some of the following common attributes possessed by athletes that appear to not vary much
from sport-to-sport. This is not an exhaustive list and basically any desirable psychological
characteristic has been categorized under MT at some time or another.

• successfully managing anxiety, pressure, and other emotions

• staying focused, finding balance and keeping perspective

• being confident

• summoning motivation and desire

• effectively dealing with adversity and failure

• overcoming physical and/or emotional pain and hardship

Fairly recently Jones et al., (2007) developed a framework for MT based on 30 distinct
attributes which divided into 4 categories: Attitude/Mindset, Training, Competition and Post-
Competition. I believe athletes can benefit from thinking about their performance using these 4
categories. For example, the type of MT needed in training (e.g., pushing yourself to the limit) is
perhaps different than the type required during competition (e.g., handling pressure). Therefore,
I encourage readers to write down under these 4 categories what mental skills they need in each
(skills will overlap). For example, a marathon runner might write under competition: Regulating
emotions, self belief, awareness and control of thoughts etc.

Moving away from such attributes, renowned researcher of MT, Prof. Bob Harmison, suggests
mental toughness is more than just how much confidence, motivation, positive emotions, mental
skills, etc. that an athlete possesses. Rather, the key to understanding and developing mental
toughness is to view your level of mental toughness as a function of your whole personality that
is comprised of interconnected and interacting thoughts and emotions. As these interact with
each other and your environment they manifest themselves in predictable patterns of behavior
(e.g., competing with poise, making good decisions) or mentally weak (e.g., competing with
little composure, rushing decisions). As these patterns are predictable in people i.e. they usually
either give up or not. This makes them and/or significant others assume/and believe they are
either mentally “strong” or “weak”. When in fact it’s not an all-or-nothing situation and you’re
not “born” with it rather it can be developed. Once you start to recognize these patterns of
behavior you can start to change the undesirable moments (e.g., giving up when it gets tough) or
you can build upon where you are strong.

Furthermore Harmison suggests that to be mentally tough you need to adopt specific values
(i.e. motives, goals, and desired outcomes regarding training and competition), attitudes (i.e.,
personal constructs about yourself and the competitive environment), beliefs (i.e., convictions
and expectations about yourself), emotions (i.e., adaptive feeling states in response to
competitive situations), and self-regulations/awareness skills (i.e., plans, strategies, and actions
to regulate thoughts, feelings, and behaviors). I suggest the readers write down your thoughts
related to each of these 5 categories above. Try to identify where you are strong and where you
need to improve. Once you’ve written these lists, take one page of paper and write “WHO I
AM”, underneath it write about who you are as a person and try to incorporate the lists you’ve
just generated. This exercise will help provide you with an insight into your personal MT.

To develop mental toughness YOU need to make a commitment to shape these values, attitudes,
beliefs, emotions, and self-regulation skills in yourself. It is a process that takes time and
the reality is that some athletes will be able to develop some to all of these aspects of their
personality while others will struggle.

As an example, I recently consulted with an elderly lady who was competing in her first ever
marathon and was terrified she wouldn’t finish. She felt she gave up too easily in her training
runs when things got tough and said she was “mentally weak”. After speaking to this lady at
great length I was astounded to hear she was solely responsible for the daily care of her husband
who had been battling progressive cancer for years, she had to raise 3 daughters single-
handedly while also supporting the family financially. It quickly became apparent she was
extremely mentally tough but just in a different domains of sport. I believe each of us have
certain psychological strengths from daily life that we can build upon to facilitate our athletic
performance. For this client we did numerous exercises that highlighted and utilized the MT she
has in daily life to apply to her running. We talked at great lengths about her values, attitudes,
beliefs, and worked on controlling her emotions, and on developing self-regulation skills. It was a
great story and she finished London Virgin Marathon in 2012.

While MT is certainly not a concept that is easy to pin down it is one that athletes and coaches
can relate to. So I suggest you readers attempt some of the exercises I mentioned above and start
working on becoming more mentally tough.

The 30 day challenge - Day 21. Adapting to the conditions

So another delay in posting. But today I am recompensing by doing a double day (and I've recorded an interview for day 25 with Carlos Taboas Lorenzo on cycling endurance). But then again, I've come to Spain to see my folks and celebrate their respective birthdays.

Not going to get into detail about this post but I did learn a few salutary lessons for running today.
We went to favourite place to run, along the front at Sant Joan beach - about 5 miles from my folks house. Its a long beach with a wide pavement which runs about 5km in each direction. Its a beautiful blue flag beach with a lovely breeze pulling across it from the Med. Normally I bomb along quite happily, but today was one of those off running days. 4 miles and I was beat. Mainly due to the sun (it was midday) and feeling tired. Without the motivation of an upcoming race, I just couldn't get into it. So I opted to walk along the shore and take in the air. Kicking off the trainers, it was gorgeous to feel the sea lap my feet.

Needless to say, I got my mojo back and I gave some barefoot running a go. Along the compact wet sand I ran just half a mile, but enjoyed it much more than the previous 4. The Riley gets into town on Saturday so I'm going to see if we can do a morning barefoot run on Sunday. This time doing the full length of the shore. Though 5 to 10k doesn't sound much, having not run barefoot much before, I'm anticipating it will be a tough (and slow) one.

Take home lesson for me. Don't run in the midday sun. Going swimming was lush though. It woke my from my slumber. Even though its October, the sea here is lovely to swim in still. Tomorrow will be a different proposition entirely. I've got a tough hill and tempo run round the back of where my folks live away from the sea. I'll make sure I'm back on my game for that.

The 30 day challenge - Day 20. The chimp paradox

Dr Steve Peters - Sport Psychiatrist

I've been meaning to write about Steve Peter's book, 'The Chimp Paradox', for over a couple of months now. When I was thinking of what to write for today's entry, I realised I'd got this at the end of my list of posts I want to put online, but had neglected it. What a mistake.

As someone working on the mental side of performance, one of the highlights from this years Olympics, was the fact so many Sport Psychologists and mental skills trainers got airtime on radio and TV during Team GB's amazing success. Not only that, but I felt a sea change in that they were considered 'normal' by the audience as part of the multidisciplinary team that surrounds elite level performers. As sport has become ever more professional across the board since the 1980s; fans from sports as diverse as rugby, football, motor racing, athletics and golf have gotten more used to nutritionists, strength and conditioning experts and psychologists - amongst others appearing as part of professional sport. These have all helped individuals and teams set ever faster times, personal bests and winning performances.

But if you asked me as a trainee practitioner (one in their 7th year of professional development I'll grant you!), who is the sport psychologists sport psychologist, I'd personally say "Steve Peters." And I'd have to correct you that he isn't even a psychologist! He's a qualified psychiatrist, who happens to work in sport.

In terms of his achievements, working in conjunction with the awesome Dave Brailsford, and the rest of UK cycling, he's made a massive impact on those who've worked with him. For different reasons, both Sir Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton contribute large parts of their success down to the good Doctor. What I like about their views of the man though, is that they would say he hasn't just improved them as athletes - and therefore winners, but that he has followed the same kind of professional care and philosophy as I subscribe to. That is to help try to help improve them as people.

This is an important point. For a lot of people trying to get into our field, if asked about what their purpose is, would probably to say to help improve athlete performance, and start off with finding out what an individual's problem is and try going about fixing that. What the likes of Peters do, is to look at the whole person and see how they can help that individual become a better person and in so doing, obtain the best out of themselves.

I don't have the space here to outline what techniques Steve uses, or why the athletes that he works with require his services, but this article by him on UK cycling's website gives you the fuller picture. Fundamentally, his method relies on an individual understanding themselves better and getting a handle on managing their emotions. Some require a little help, some a lot. But having read the chimp paradox and its methods (there isn't any sport specific advice before you dive off looking for any!), I can say that it is more a book for life, for everyone.

As someone in the field with training across the different types of psychology (cognitive behavioural, humanistic, psychoanalytic, etc), I can understand and can see the approach Steve has taken in explaining quite complex neurological and psychological concepts, and putting them in to plain English for anyone who is a lay reader. As it is his approach is cognitive behavioural, but his care through the writing as a reader has the qualities of a humanistic 'holistic' practitioner.

By this what I mean is that he gets you to look at your whole emotional and mental life and explains how the brain works so that you can implement strategies to manage the best and worst aspects of your character. There's no revolutionary change that you are asked to go through. The main premise of the book is that you have 2 brains in (almost) constant daily conflict. Your 'new' rational human brain, and your 'old' emotional chimp brain. Whilst as a person you may have quite sound rational thought, through evolution, you still have your old monkey brain which has a habit of giving you those dark thoughts; those doubts about your ability which disrupt you from achieving what you are fully capable of. One of the key things to get the best out of this book, is that you have to buy into this premise and work with the book through a number of scenarios. Once over the acceptance of the concept, the idea is that you will get a better grasp of yourself and thus your emotions and ultimately your life. Heavy going this sounds I know, but with regard to sport, I could see the immediate benefits for more low level aspects of performance, e.g. accepting your limitations, being kinder to yourself in training and understanding what is possible, whilst simultaneously pushing your own limits.

To anyone who wants to understand themselves in relation to performance and to subsequently push themselves, I advocate giving this book at try. If you want to 'train your brain', you first need to know how it functions and then build from there. I'll try and write more specifically on this approach around endurance once I've gotten past this 30 day challenge. In the meantime, I thoroughly recommend reading the paradox. I'd even go so far as to say I've seen the benefit of its advice in other areas of my life beyond sport. Not a bad recommend for someone who cares for others mental well being!

The 30 day challenge - Day 19. Steve Way.

A short post this afternoon given what I have to get on with study wise for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Was wondering what to write about and was reminded of a gentleman I spoke to Simon Freeman about when we caught up last week. As ever when he and I get together, we try to fit about 10 conversations into 1, cover our respective running, how our girlfriends are keeping and what daft plans we've both got next.

I'd spotted that Steve Way, another running blogger, had been putting up his training stats 'for a big race' he had upcoming and I asked Simon whether this was Amsterdam. It wasn't, for Steve had the IAU World 50Km Trophy to run in Italy. Simon reminded me that my own club mate and former blog interviewee, Paul Martelletti was running it as well.

For those who don't  know who Steve is, he explains well on his blog of his former life, overweight, a smoker and fond of a drink or two and now runs sub 2:20 marathons. I've never met Steve personally, but he did pass me at the Bristol half marathon last month, as he looked very comfortable near the front of the pack and I was en route to a satisfying, albeit slightly painful PB. Whenever I've read his tweets or blog posts, I've always been impressed. Simon vouched for his all round cheerful and friendly persona - he was talked about when Simon and I were saying how much we preferred positive, encouraging runners - so I looked forward to his result this Sunday with interest.

And I was pleased to see that he went and won the damn race! I recommend you read his account. So today - I salute Mr Way (and congratulate Mr Martelletti for an impressive 3rd place as well), and will spend the rest of this afternoon on a hard tempo session, admittedly of speed reading and revising!

As ever, I try and fulfil some sport psych/coaching advice in each post I leave you with. I read through the comments on Steve's 'About' page, and pleasingly found some sound advice that I thought neatly encapsulated his determination and hope it inspires any of the athletes reading this in those moments when you think about skipping a training session:

"the truth is I do still treat myself every now and then. When I’m not in the key 3-4 month build up phase before a target marathon I don’t worry too much about my diet, have the odd drink (although to be honest not really a drinker these days anyway) and I even treat myself to the odd cigar (monthly poker night!)
I find it quite easy to then “knuckle down” in the key phase before my target marathon because all thoughts are on getting the best out of myself for the big day.
The one thing I do all year round though is not have any “Can’t not be arsed” moments with my training, doesn’t matter how much I don’t feel like going for a run I always try and remember how depressed I get when I can’t run due to injury which normally gets me out the door. I also remind myself how good I feel when the miles are in the bag and the session is done.  "

Hope you have a good rest of today, whatever you're doing and push yourself that little bit further if you need an extra lift.

S

ps. I know I'm a few days behind. Give me the chance to catch up will ya? ;-)

The 30 Day Challenge - Day 18. Keep on moving.

Over half way in to the 30 day challenge and I'm realising how much it takes to write good content on a daily basis! So far I've enjoyed almost every post I've written. I've tried to vary from interview, to guests to insight and I've enjoyed what I've come up with so far. Last week was a particular highlight with 3 great guests. Talking with Adharanand Finn on Running with Kenyans was really insightful and it was challenging to distil what we'd discussed into something with a sport psychology angle. As with my interview with Gilles Peterson on Thursday (which was so much fun to record, edit and write up), I had so much to include in the write up, keeping focused and concise as possible without losing any crucial detail was difficult. Hence why I had to split it across two posts!

Simon Whyatt's post on nutrition for endurance and reviewing the views of Professor Tim Noakes I loved and what buzzed me the most was that even with a lot of knowledge on the topic, I learnt loads from Simon's advice. I hope it was as useful for you.

Overall, last week was the most successful week on the blog - over 500 readers a day and counting.

This week I have to apply the same dedication from the work I've done so far on the blog to my revision for the 'psychology of performance'. I have an exam in a fortnight at the British Psychological Society to complete so I'm going to have to cut back on the amount of copy I can write. Luckily, what I have to learn is both really interesting and relevant to this blog. Fortunately, to help, I've got a couple of guest blogs due to come through this week again. I'm hoping my guests will get their copy to me on time (hint! ;-) about Mental Toughness (something that I started to cover with Carlos Taboas two years ago), and on triathlon. Before the 30 days is out I want to also cover some endurance cycling as that is an area that I'm really interested in.

Unfortunately the subject has taken a lot of a kicking that last couple of weeks due to the Lance Armstrong affair, but I'm hoping with Carlos' help I can re-dress some of the balance of the performance side of the sport by getting some insight from Carlos (an ex pro in Spain) into the psychological skills required for readers.

On my side I'm going to try and do some end of day highlights of the topics I've been revising each day. I'll be putting in some serious hours in the saddle (as it were), but I'll try and help my revision by explaining to readers how their performance anxiety, confidence and motivation can be improved according to the latest scientific evidence I'm reading up on.

Think this is a relevant track to keep me focused this week...

Here's hoping to a good week to all of you.

S

In Pursuit of Medal

In Pursuit of Medal

The 30 day challenge - Day 17. Gilles Peterson in conversation & on running

So... This is a post that I've been lining up for a few months now. Like I said at the beginning of the 30 day challenge, I don't just want to write purely on coaching and sport psychology. Though the blog is mainly about running and training, I want to cover my interests and those of the running community who tune in. I mostly know my UK audience personally through running clubs and races, but the stats for the blog show the largest readership is in Canada and the US, where my next guest is heading in the next few weeks for work.

Having set up the Worldwide radio show, festival and website, Mr Gilles Peterson is a guest I've wanted to host on the blog for over a year. I want to explore some of the knowledge from sport psychology research on running and the effects of music, but also get expert opinion from elsewhere.

In the past 10 years, a lot of musicians, DJs and artists have donned their trainers and pushed their physical endurance as evidenced by the success of groups like London's Run Dem Crew, New York's Bridge runners, and events such as Run to the Beat and The Rock and Roll series of half and full marathons.

I have a common link with Gilles through Run Dem Crew's Charlie Dark - who I interviewed back on this blog for the London marathon in 2011, also Gilles first marathon race (he finished in 4:43:09). Gilles fundraised over £12,000, with the money going to his charity, the Steve Reid foundation, which has an impressive board of trustees including Charlie, Theo Parrish, Floating Points, Koreless and Four Tet. It's a charity that is part of the musicians benevolent fund which aids the plight of struggling musicians. Some of the fundraising gigs lined up for next year sound awesome, particularly Floating Points who may be doing a series of rooftop dates in the capital...

I was down in London for a few days and managed to grab an hour of Mr Peterson's time. Between presenting BBC 6 Music's Saturday afternoon show, DJ gigs and running the Brownswood collective, Gilles has slowly been feeding his running bug over the past 10 years. All after having the wake up call of his first proper hangover at 37! (how?) when he realised his body needed more care and attention than he was giving it.

Having made the time to run, he admits he is now running "obsessed." I put it to him that the same level of obsession needed for record collecting, keeping to a hectic DJ schedule and pushing himself in the field of music has led to running being a natural hobby he'd end up participating in. He didn't disagree!

So early today, I headed to the Brownswood offices where we talked for over an hour about running, France, psychology, and more. The edited highlights of the first part of the interview of how he started running and his experiences you'll find below. The rest of what we discussed I've put into a Q and A format for running and music devotees. Hope you enjoy. Good luck Gilles in getting towards that magic 4 hour marathon time!

Audio Link: The Focused Mind Gilles Peterson Interview (opens in new window)

Podcast Contents:

How did you start running?
Juggling the conflicts of working in the music industry and running.
Marathons past and future.
Routes around London and what running does for relaxation and the mind.

Q and A on running, music and endurance.

Q. Do you run with music? GP: "No. It's my time off. My yoga, my meditation. Earl Zinger (my running buddy) calls round to get me out of my 'music world' to run and help chill me out."

Q. How do you rank running your first Marathon? GP: "Best ever thing! Even better than having kids!"

Q. How did you find the psychological part of running your first Marathon? GP: "Well it wasn't that bad! I can run about 14 or 15 miles without those (carbohydrate) gels. I was surprised. Of course it was mentally hard and tiring, but I didn't suffer that badly throughout. It helped that at the finish the last steward you see as you come round Buckingham Palace to the Mall recognised me and gave some encouragement to get to the line!" 

Q. Sport Psychologist Costas Karageorghis studies the effect of music on running and sport. He's found that if the amount of times your feet hit the ground during a minute running match a music selection you're listening to, with a rhythm that matches or is a few BPM above that number, your perception of effort is lowered. In theory, this then makes your mind feel less fatigued. But as each persons speed is unique, you need to program a playlist that matches your tempo.

With this in mind QoolDJMarv from New York asks: "Have you ever thought of putting together running playlists for people?" GP: "Not till now. Wow! That's really interesting. Maybe? Personally, I reckon in the future we'll be able to run and just with the power of thought be able to call on music that is in the right tempo to the speed we're running along at. Though thats a long way off!"

I've decided that when I run my next marathon, wherever I do it, whatever time I finish in, that night I'll DJ for that length of time. I was so hyper after London in 2010 I couldn't get to sleep!"

Q. [Blatantly ripping off Marathon Talk - apologies guys!]. If you had 1 months full training, using a 400 metre track and going all out; how fast do you think you could run a mile in? GP: "Oof! What am I running now? Seven and a half? Eight minute miles? Maybe with proper coaching 6 minutes."

Q. Favourite place to run abroad? GP: "Cuba. Havana is amazing. Not many runners. I get a few funny looks when I run there!"

Q. Favourite run in London and what time of day? GP: "Well, I'm a better runner at night. Isn't everyone? Though I love running really early in the morning at 5/6 o'clock. My favourite long run is from Stokey, down the Essex road, through Islington, into Clerkenwell, past all the ravers leaving Fabric! into town, cross Westminster bridge, and along the embankment, past the Shard, up to Liverpool Street Station, up Kingsland Road, through Dalston, back home. London's such a good city for routes."