Train Your Brain to Run Faster

Although I’ve never really done this in a systematic way, I’m a great believer in using the power of the mind to improve your running performance. Some of the tricks that I’ve found effective are:

• Telling myself that ‘I love hills’ when my initial reaction on seeing one is something more akin to dread
• Pretending I’ve got a lasso and I’m using it to pull in the runner in front of me when I need a little extra push
• Visualizing myself at the finish line with the clock showing that I’ve beaten my goal time

That’s why I’m intrigued by a new book by Matt Fitzgerald called Brain Training For Runners. Although I haven’t had the chance to read the book myself yet, according to this excellent discussion over at yourrunning.com, the highlights of the book are Fitzgerald’s teachings on how to prevent your brain from ’shutting down’ prematurely and stopping you from getting a PR, and using visualization to improve your running form.

Although I’ve certainly read a fair amount in the past about how runners can use visualization to help them improve their running, this review suggests that Fitzgerald’s book takes visualization to a whole new level by helping you learn how to use both objective feedback (speed, distance, heart rate) and subjective feedback to get the most from your training.

I’ll follow up this post with a detailed review as soon as I have a chance to get my own copy of the book.

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