Why Mental Strength Needs a Place in Your Training Plan

MEDITATION HAS LONG been used to promote calmness and relaxation, cope with stress and illness, and manage anxiety and depression. As its list of positive effects grows, so too has the number of adults in the U.S. who reported meditating-up from 4 percent in 2012 to 14 percent in 2017, per the most recent National Health Interview Survey. During the pandemic, those numbers continued to rise, too, according to app data.

- CHRISSY HORAN

Runners often call their time logging miles their moving meditation. However, if the disappointment of a slower-than-expected mile split or panic over unexplained tightness in your calf can derail your race or ruin your workout, adding a formal meditation practice to your training can better prepare you to handle these stressful feelings and emotions-both on the run and in life. Just as lifting weights can strengthen your hips or hamstrings, meditation can strengthen your mind by enhancing your running and overall well-being.

How to begin a meditation practice

Meditation, or simply bringing awareness to a specific focus, typically involves holding a comfortable posture, such as sitting or lying down. Ideally, you'll practice meditation in a place with limited distractions.

Once you've checked those boxes, meditation exercises are simple. For example, you may focus on your breath, count, or repeat a phrase. Or you can scan your senses and observe what your body sees, hears, tastes, smells, or feels to center your attention. When distracting thoughts arise-this is boring; my nose itches; we're out of milk-simply come back to that focus.

There is no time requirement to make a meditation "count," so practice for as long as you feel comfortable. But know that the more you make an effort to meditate, the more you will get out of it.

Rebecca Pacheco-author of Still Life: The Myths and Magic of Mindful Living, and a meditation and yoga instructor-acknowledges that meditation will, at times, feel difficult for even the most experienced. "You may find you're bored, anxious, or fidgety, and that's okay," says Pacheco, a two-time Boston Marathon finisher. It doesn't mean you're "bad" at meditation.

Meditation vs. mindfulness