Looking for ways to feel less anxious and more confident on the starting line? We all are!
Most people tend to feel nervous before a race, (even if they know they prepared themselves well for what lies ahead), and while a few “butterflies” can serve us well, too much anxiety can take the fun out of the overall race experience. Before a race, adrenaline kicks in, leading to an elevated heart rate and an elevated respiration level. For most of us, this is accompanied by a sense of squeamishness in our stomachs.
While most people dread these feelings and tolerate them as a necessary part of racing, author and running coach Matt Fitzgerald recommends we choose to interpret the “butterflies in stomach” feeling as excitement rather than anxiety, since our brain doesn’t know the difference. Certified hypnotherapist Tim Sinnett explains, “One strategy is to try to reduce that intensity of the nervous feeling, but another strategy is to cognitively reframe the feeling from that of nervousness to excitement. The visceral feeling is natural – it’s our interpretation of it that causes anxiety.”
Check out this three-step process for feeling like a superhero on the start line…
1) Cognitively reframe feelings of nervousness to that of excitement (as described above)
2) Do a power pose
-According to social psychologist Amy Cuddy, “Body language affects how others see us, but it may also affect how we see ourselves.” I think this theory has merit, because in my experience, standing tall on the start line in a “Wonder Woman pose” with my arms on hips, chest open, shoulders relaxed, helps me feel confident, empowered, and ready to roll.
3) Wear something that makes you feel confident
-When I do road races, I like to dress up in a superhero costume (e.g. Batgirl or Wonder Woman) because it keeps me relaxed and having fun yet also makes me actually feel like a superhero! According to a study by Danish researchers, this is due to a theory called “enclothed cognition,” which essentially means people dressed a certain way act similarly to the way they are dressed, described in more detail here: https://humanoctane.com/blog/post/enclothed-cognition-html When competing on American Ninja Warrior, I like to wear red, white, and blue, covered in stars; and during wet, muddy obstacle course races, I like to wear sleek, high-quality compression gear. From high school cross country runners wearing their hair in French braids to Olympic track star Alysia Montana wearing a yellow flower in her hair, showing up in your version of makes you look good will help you feel good and feel confident.
Why is confidence so important when it comes to racing? Confidence plays an important role in getting us to perform our best. It takes confidence to go out in a faster heat and work to stay up with a fast pack, and it takes confidence to jump on the monkey bars (without stopping to take a breather) and take a risk tackling them with a high heart rate.
So next time you race, take the time to dress in a way that makes you feel your best, stand on the start line with good posture, and greet feelings of nervousness as a sign that you’re excited and ready to rock your race! Try it and let me know how it works for you!
When people ask me how to get a six-pack, instead of dishing out a challenging routine of running and core work, or throwing out the “abs are made in the kitchen” line, I encourage them to dive passionately into an athletic goal that is so lofty and exciting that it will require/motivate them to train hard, fuel well/healthfully, and stay committed. In the words of super-fit American Ninja Warrior star Jessie Graff, “When I stopped worrying about what I thought I should look like and instead focused on the strength and agility required for skills that inspire me, everything else fell into place.” I completely agree. People might not find this fact satisfying, but I initially got my six-pack by not trying to get it at all. I was so busy training for a 200 miles-in-a-day bike ride, using it as therapy to get over a breakup, that one day I looked down and it was just there. It didn’t change me at all; I simply went from being someone who did not have a visible six pack to someone who did. Sure, I got some sports modeling opportunities because of it, but again, that wasn’t what I was going for. (In fact, I got asked out on fewer dates after getting a six pack, go figure.) I was simply training hard, focused on athletic goals, and eating plenty of healthy food. My body naturally did what it did.
When it comes to caring about how one looks, I feel like there’s a fine balance: care too little and it’s hard to find a job and attract a mate (if you want one), care too much and it can lead to a vulnerable sense of self-worth. I strive to land right within that balanced zone. I care about my appearance to the point of it being a part of healthy self-esteem, though as an athlete by nature, I find happiness in focusing more on what my body can do than what it looks like. It just dawned on me, however, that the last decade or so since college, my weight has fluctuated by 20 or more pounds four times. After college, I gained 20 pounds while working at a summer camp and then dealing with a “quarter-life crisis”, then I lost it inadvertently by training hard after a breakup (plus eating healthier due to having a better job and thus more money to buy fresher food). I gained it back again last year with the weight of my first pregnancy, and now, six months post-partum, the bulk of my pregnancy weight has been shed (though with no promise of a six-pack coming fully back).
Throughout this entire time period, I’ve had a large handful of people make comments on my weight. During the year or two after college in which I carried 20 extra pounds, I remember a guy I was dating pinch my right love handle and say, “What’s this?” implying it was unacceptable. (Bye, bye, guy – that’s a part of me, that’s what that is. To love me is to love all of me, love handles and everythingl.) A year or two later, after I’d lost the weight, another guy I was dating looked at my abs and said, “You’re almost too lean.” I certainly didn’t ask him for his opinion about my body and if it was optimally pleasing to his eye, but he felt entitled to give it anyway. (No, thank you. My goal in life was not to change my body according to the specific standards of each guy I was dating.) During this extra lean time period of my life, which came about from a consistent barrage of athletic goals to challenge myself athletically (from a 200 mile bike ride and a couple triathlons to countless road races, track races, and eventually, obstacle course races), and lasted from my mid-twenties until a year ago (my mid-thirties), when I started to gain pregnancy weight, comments about my physique have mainly been about my “six-pack.” They’ve always been positive in nature, though I try not to overly pay attention to them, in order to stay focused on the reasons I train that motivate me most, which is not to get compliments, but to challenge myself, inspire others to be their best, and be a part of a big, amazing community; things I can do whether I happen to have a six-pack, (like I often do by the end of the racing season) or not, (like I rarely do at the end of my off-season/during the holidays).
Why am I bringing all of this up? Because our society puts such a strong emphasis on looks, especially for women, and I just had an epiphany I’d like to share…
Throughout my weight fluctuations, from looking lean with abs to looking soft in the middle, and there and back again, I can honestly say that I haven’t found any correlation between my level of leanness and my level of happiness.
In other words, when I had my six pack, I did not wake up every morning, high-five myself in the mirror, and walk around with my head held high, ready to conquer the world just because I looked lean. I had just as many personal, day-to-day problems as I did before, (though being fit and healthy enough to race well did contribute to some fun race weekends). Having a six pack did not necessarily mean I won every race, however, and it certainly didn’t mean I was generally better or more valuable than anyone else. And now that I don’t have it, with no promise of ever getting it back again, I do not feel less worthy in society. This is not to say that striving to be fit and healthy cannot help with overall health and happiness, as it definitely can, which is why I’ve found a lot of fulfillment working as a personal trainer for a decade. I just mean that striving for a particular lean look can be stressful, especially since some people have body types where they can be incredibly fit and still not have a six-pack because they come from an “apple-shaped” family. I happen to come from a “pear-shaped” family, where I can lose all but a thin layer of weight on my belly (but no matter how lean I get, my thighs won’t ever look as toned as my upper body and core). Though it’s easier said than done, I’ve learned it’s best not to let things I can’t control bother me, however, and distract from potential life joy; life is just too short. As they say, “Comparison is the thief of joy” – it’s so true!
A common theme I found throughout my years as a personal trainer was that people who wanted to lose weight got better results when they had a performance goal to focus on (e.g. finish a half marathon or do a pullup) rather than simply a weight loss goal. Plus, they enjoyed the process more, feeling empowered as their body became stronger and able to accomplish more, no matter what the scale said that week. Even when I was single and dating, wanting to look good in a pair of jeans has never been enough motivation for me to, say, go do a swim workout on a Saturday morning, but signing up for a triathlon and being legitimately worried that I wouldn’t be able to complete the ½ mile open-water swim was.
At the end of the day, people are driven by different motivations to work out, and I’m not here to preach that one way is better than another – that’s for each individual to decide. But I would encourage anyone who finds themself obsessing over how they look and fretting about each pound to consider looking at their body/weight/working out in a different light. Rather than exercise to look a certain way; I’d encourage them to try setting an athletic goal or signing up for a race they’ll have to really train for in order to finish injury-free. There’s a good chance that focusing on something positive (i.e. an accomplishment) will actually help them reach their aesthetic goal sooner than when focusing on trying to lose ornery weight. It’s human nature to want to look attractive, so I’m not trying to imply that it is more noble to work out to accomplish something than to look good; I’m just saying that my research indicates it’s easier to hit an aesthetic goal by focusing on an athletic goal.
If any of this resonates with you, I say get out there and sign up for something out of your comfort zone and immerse yourself in the training of it so deeply that you don’t have time to analyze every inch of your body. Train so hard you’re too tired to step on the scale, and maybe one day, on your way out for a summer run, you’ll catch a glimpse of your midsection in the mirror, see some ridges, and say to yourself, “hot damn, you look good,” with a satisfying smile.
Baby Taylor arrived on July 28th, 2017, lighting up my world with her spunky personality! Now six months old, she loves to babble, to roll, and to squeal in her daddy’s arms as she watches me fly through the air, working on Ninja moves. She’s a very healthy and active baby who LOVES to be outside, so Tim and I lucked out bigtime. Throughout my pregnancy, I exercised consistently, even racing a 200 meter race the week I was due. Whenever I would post about doing pullups pregnant or doing a half marathon pregnant, most people saw the posts as what they were intended to be: inspiring and educational. Every once in awhile, though, I would get a comment saying I was hurting my baby or even killing my baby by exercising. Now that my baby has been doing fantastically well for six months, I feel confident enough to tell those people…
They were wrong.
It’s not so much that I want to tell them for personal gratification. I’ve come to a beautiful, freeing place in my life, now that I’m a parent, where I simply don’t have the time or energy to care anymore about what people think. My main motivation for writing this post is to let other pregnant women know that what I was doing was fine and healthy for my baby, in case they needed reassurance, as they search for the right balance for them. That’s right – everyone is different, so because I did x or y exercise doesn’t mean someone should follow me exactly, but hopefully sharing my experience training while pregnant will encourage others to do the research needed to figure out what they can do to exercise and stay healthy and fit while pregnant, too – not just for themselves, but for their baby, too, (rather than stay away from all exercise for fear of overdoing it). How does one go about this? Well, it’s not easy. As a professional athlete with many good years of competition left, I wanted to find the balance of staying as fit as I could while erring on the side of safety. I looked for books on high-performance pregnancy, but found practically nothing. A few pro runners have blogs about their experience but I couldn’t find a ton of detail there, so I stared interviewing all of my athletic mama friends. I chatted with everyone from my friends who like to jog for recreation to Olympian Carrie Tollefson, and everyone in between.
What I ended up finding out was right for me was getting rid of my tempo runs, fartlek workouts, and interval workouts, but maintaining my speed drills (e.g. high knees, butt kicks, skips), along with solid-effort sprints that lasted under a minute or so. I continued to strength train, even lifting a significant amount of weight, just not as much as before and I did it all very slowly and carefully, with full and proper form and engagement. That’s what felt right for me. I know some women with healthy babies who still did tempo runs. I have a friend who went skiing well into her second trimester (something I wouldn’t have done) because she is an excellent skier, (far better than I am). The universal truth, besides being careful not to get overheated, is to LISTEN TO YOUR BODY. Now, people throw that term out all the time. And I thought I listened to my body pretty well as an athlete. I had two stress fractures in my first decade of running – just enough to now know and respect the signs of onset before they lead to another such injury.
If you feel judged as a pregnant person or as a parent, you may not know exactly what you’re doing (nobody does!), but just remember, you care more about your baby than anyone else does, especially some random stranger on social media. Whether others are well-meaning or just feeling judge-y, please try to brush off what they say, (at least that’s what I tell myself to do). The next time someone criticizes what I’m doing with my baby, I’m going to ask them for their phone number to come babysit if they think they can do it better. And if they really care that much, they can spend the night and take some night feeding shifts, too.
Listen to me, getting all sassy as a mama.
At the end of the day, with a few rare exceptions, we parents are all trying to do the best we can with the knowledge and experience we may or may not have, feeling scared shitless half the time but going for it anyway.
It turns out, running a half marathon seven months pregnant is about as easy as it sounds. With 25 extra pounds to lug around, I managed to finish a half marathon recently, only to have my “bun in the oven” wake me up after her long nap to kick me, as if to say, “You’re only doing a half marathon, Mom, not a full marathon? Slacker.” She’s a tough coach!
After doing a ten mile training run at 9 min/mile pace, I remember thinking I could possibly run under 2 hours, but decided instead to put my ego aside and take this opportunity, after 20 years of racing, to focus on truly enjoying this experience, with no goal time in mind, especially since this race was on cement rather than trail, with each footstrike taxing my lower back, hips, and knees far more than trail running, pregnant or not. I decided to stay very chill, really listen to my body (in case my growing baby, who loves it when I run, decides she doesn’t want to go that far or fast that day far any reason and sends even the slightest signal since she’s in charge), run when I felt like it, walk when I felt like it, stop at all water stations and port-a-potties, thank all volunteers, and cheer on fellow racers. Success! According to my watch, my finishing time was 2:32, though I stopped it while waiting in line for my bathroom stops, so my official time would be a few minutes more. I started out at 7:30 pace for the first two (downhill) miles, and even though I felt good, made myself slow down to 8:30/9 min mile for the next few miles, hit the halfway point at around 1 hour, walked a couple miles when indigestion settled in nowhere near a bathroom, and then did a jog/walk combo for the last half as the indigestion went away but my lower back and hips inevitably started to get sore under the added weight. Although indigestion is common during pregnancy, in retrospect, I probably got it simply from not sticking with my usual strict pre-race meal. I figured I wasn’t running hard, so It wouldn’t matter, but it turns out it did. It’s okay, though, because I wasn’t worried about time, and walking allowed me to engage in conversation with the people around me, soak in some waterfront views, and enjoy a sense of accomplishment not only in finishing, but in feeling pretty good the rest of the day, injury-free and not too terribly sore, either.
I’d be lying if I said a part of me isn’t itchin’ to race hard again, blasting off the starting line with a rush of adrenaline, pushing myself to the max throughout a race, chasing after competitors, and sprinting home all-out, but for now, I’m embracing this phase of my life, a passage of time where my top priority is to be a healthy, fit mama for a healthy pregnancy and baby. Besides, deep down, I’ll know I’ll back out there before long, more excited to run fast and race hard than ever!
Let’s move past what people currently think a “runner’s body” should look like, shall we? Let’s define a “runner’s body” by a body’s ability to run rather than a body’s appearance. Have you ever watched a local 5k road race or even a marathon? All kinds of body shapes come cruising across that finish line – it’s inspiring!
As Sally Bergesen, founder of Oiselle (a popular women’s running gear company) said in a recent tweet, “Can’t tell you how many times women tell me, ‘I don’t have a runner’s body.’ STOP. If you have a body, you can have a runner’s body.” In other words, if you have a body (outside of certain physical/medical exceptions, of course, though I know a crutching athlete and an athlete who “runs” with his arms), you have the tools needed to run/move athletically, no matter your weight or size. By defining a “runner’s body” as lean, small, thin, toned, etc., we send a message to people without a naturally slight build or lean, toned body that they are “not meant to be runners.” How terrible it is that we inadvertently then close doors on people who could otherwise be encouraged to join in this fantastic, healthy, simple activity countless humans love to participate in on a regular basis. Running endorphins boost mood, improve energy, and improve sleep. When done on a regular basis, running can prevent certain diseases, such as heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. With the high rates of obesity in the US, let’s use language to encourage everyone to lace up and head outside for a run, no matter how fast or slow, or large or small they are.
These pictures represent different time periods in my life. In each one of these periods, I ran 7 days a week, outside of an occassional day off for recovery. My size/shape/weight has changed quite a bit in my adult life, but through it all, I’ve never thought of myself as not having a “runner’s body.” Why? Because a body that runs is a runner’s body, and when this body, in all of its phases, runs quickly on tracks or leisurely on trails, it feels happy and free. So please, if you feel a desire to run, take that amazing body of yours out for a spin, and don’t let preconceptions about shape or size ever stop you.
As Bruce Springsteen sings, “Baby, we were born to run.”
Looking for ways to feel less anxious and more confident on the starting line? We all are!
Baby Taylor arrived on July 28th, 2017, lighting up my world with her spunky personality! Now six months old, she loves to babble, to roll, and to squeal in her daddy’s arms as she watches me fly through the air, working on Ninja moves. She’s a very healthy and active baby who LOVES to be outside, so Tim and I lucked out bigtime. Throughout my pregnancy, I exercised consistently, even racing a 200 meter race the week I was due. Whenever I would post about doing pullups pregnant or doing a half marathon pregnant, most people saw the posts as what they were intended to be: inspiring and educational. Every once in awhile, though, I would get a comment saying I was hurting my baby or even killing my baby by exercising. Now that my baby has been doing fantastically well for six months, I feel confident enough to tell those people…
What I ended up finding out was right for me was getting rid of my tempo runs, fartlek workouts, and interval workouts, but maintaining my speed drills (e.g. high knees, butt kicks, skips), along with solid-effort sprints that lasted under a minute or so. I continued to strength train, even lifting a significant amount of weight, just not as much as before and I did it all very slowly and carefully, with full and proper form and engagement. That’s what felt right for me. I know some women with healthy babies who still did tempo runs. I have a friend who went skiing well into her second trimester (something I wouldn’t have done) because she is an excellent skier, (far better than I am). The universal truth, besides being careful not to get overheated, is to LISTEN TO YOUR BODY. Now, people throw that term out all the time. And I thought I listened to my body pretty well as an athlete. I had two stress fractures in my first decade of running – just enough to now know and respect the signs of onset before they lead to another such injury.
If you feel judged as a pregnant person or as a parent, you may not know exactly what you’re doing (nobody does!), but just remember, you care more about your baby than anyone else does, especially some random stranger on social media. Whether others are well-meaning or just feeling judge-y, please try to brush off what they say, (at least that’s what I tell myself to do). The next time someone criticizes what I’m doing with my baby, I’m going to ask them for their phone number to come babysit if they think they can do it better. And if they really care that much, they can spend the night and take some night feeding shifts, too.
It turns out, running a half marathon seven months pregnant is about as easy as it sounds. With 25 extra pounds to lug around, I managed to finish a half marathon recently, only to have my “bun in the oven” wake me up after her long nap to kick me, as if to say, “You’re only doing a half marathon, Mom, not a full marathon? Slacker.” She’s a tough coach!
