 So, self-talk while running. Do you do it? I do it. I talk to myself when I'm running all the time. And particularly, I have a few things that I tell myself that I think has a profound effect on my performance. Okay? And I want to share that self-talk with you guys today. Stay tuned. So, self-talk is essentially defined as just what it sounds like talking to yourself while you're running. Either in your head or out loud. I typically do it almost always out loud, but not like loud, just like quietly for myself. And, you know, it varies a little bit what I'm telling myself. But essentially, it always, typically, always comes back to something like this. Okay, I'm gonna do it exactly as I say it to myself, okay? So, I'm gonna act a little bit now, pretend I'm talking to myself and give you guys an idea of how I'm talking to myself while I'm running. So, I'm out there, let's say I'm out there on my easy run. I find myself tensing up a bit, maybe running a bit too fast. And I should actually be running easy, but I'm running a bit too fast. My breathing gets a bit too heavy or I'm pushing a bit too hard up a hill where I was supposed to go easy. I look at my heart rate is a bit high or something like that. I might do something like this. Easy, easy, easy, easy, easy. Relax, relax, relax, relax, relax, just quiet down. You know, I'm telling myself just quiet down. I might even stop and walk for just like a few seconds. Take a deep breath and go just like, we're just supposed to take it easy today, Nicole. Relax and take it easy. And then I go, you know, I basically just tell myself to take it easy, relax and don't stress. And this is essential if you want to be able to run easy on your easy days. Because as you know, you don't want to run hard on all days, but you don't want to run easy on all days either. You want to run hard on some days and then easy on the other days. And if you run hard yesterday or really long, you probably want to take it pretty easy today. And if you don't, your recovery from last run, your last run will not be ideal and you won't be ready for your next hard effort tomorrow or maybe the day after. So it's really important to be able to take it easy on your easy days. And it's easy, no pun intended, to get carried away when you're up running. Suddenly you're running faster than you should. And you know you should be keeping it in that zone one kind of effort. And do check out my video on running easy. I'll put a link to it here. You do know you want to keep it in that zone one, maybe zone two effort, but you're getting into that zone three, your heart is spiking a little bit and bringing consciousness back to your intention, which is to run easy and getting your body again in tune with what you're doing here and just like telling yourself to just relax, relax, relax, take it easy. And also the way you talk to yourself, you want to, don't be like, take it easy now, take it easy. You definitely want to speak in a sort of relaxing manner. Like take it easy, easy, easy, easy. So I pretty much tell myself easy, easy, easy, easy all the time when I'm running. Take it easy, take it easy, take it easy, relax, relax, relax. And I almost have to remind myself to take it easy. Like, I don't know, once every two, three, four, five minutes, certainly every 10 minutes I get into the tense mode again. I'm just like remembering to come back to center. It's almost like a meditation where your mind wanders and then you just bring it back to center, bring it back to center. Now, what if you're doing a hard session? So for example, doing a threshold session, maybe I'm doing like 10 minutes at threshold and like a couple of minutes break in another 10 minutes at threshold or something like that. Or maybe I'm doing a VO2 max session on the track, right? Like maybe I'm like running at my max aerobic capacity and really, really hard for like three minutes. It's almost, it almost seems like in this situation you should be like, come on, come on, come on to yourself. But I actually think that even in this situation, you want to actually tell yourself to keep it easy. Not keep it easy maybe, but keep it relaxed. So what I do is I tell myself to relax because actually in this high intensity mode when you're running very fast, there's a high injury risk. And if you tense up, not only will you risk getting injured because you're running form because gum's compromised, but you're also running less efficiently and you're spending more energy. You're actually consuming more oxygen in order to run at the same pace because you're tensing other muscles. So to be as efficient as possible, you want to relax every muscle in your body except the ones that work, that are working. So you want to have that fluid smooth form and you can only achieve that if you relax. So, you know, even at, even if you're doing strides or something like that, which is almost like a sprint, the key is always fast, but relaxed, fast, but relaxed. So in these threshold sessions, in this the other max sessions, I'm telling myself usually only in my head at this point because of course, you don't want to speak too much when you're breathing heavy. I'll just tell myself in my head, relax, relax, relaxed, controlled, controlled, maintain control, no crazy movements, no bad mechanics, just like fast and controlled. Keep everything under control, don't tense up, relax, smooth, easy, smooth, easy, that sort of thing. That's what I'm telling myself over and over in my head. Keep it smooth, keep it easy, keep it relaxed, but fast, you know? And especially if you're going very fast, you could also have another type of motivational self-talk and that is, you know, you're going fast, you're two minutes into like a three minute rep or at the other max and it's really painful and you're really suffering and you want to quit. I like to tell myself, this is what you're training for. This is when it counts. Don't give up now, this is what matters, right? Like because you can think of it almost like when you're, as long as you're in your comfort zone, as long as you're in a comfortable sort of pace or, you know, time range that you already are fit enough to manage, well, then you're not gaining fitness. But when you're pushing that envelope, when you're pushing beyond what you're able to handle, that's when you're really gaining fitness. So in those moments when you're really suffering at the end of the long run like I did yesterday, like it was 5K left and I was just like, oh my God, it's so hard. Or at the end of a rep, a VO2 max rep or something like that. Your body's telling you to quit and that's when you have to remind yourself why you're training, what are you trying to achieve and remember that this is when it counts. So I'm telling myself this when I'm running in my head though, this is when it counts. This is what's important. Don't give up now, don't give up now. You're almost there, you're almost there. This is quality, this is good quality stuff. Right now, a lot of good stuff is happening and that helps me get through it. But then what happens is that when you tell yourself to push and maintain and endure, you tense up a little bit again. Yeah, I'm gonna push through, I'm gonna push through. And that's when you have to come back to that first self talk, bring it back to center and relax, right? Because you tense up because you're gonna push but relax, relax, relax. Keep it controlled, keep it steady, keep good mechanics, keep good form. Don't slouch, you know? Relax, relax, relax. So that's really it for me. I'm all about relaxation. As Ars Baludir said, train, don't strain and that applies to both training, scheduling and avoiding over-training and not pushing your limits too far, just slightly. But it also really applies to just during the run, whether that be an easy run or a hard run. Train, don't strain, don't strain yourself. As soon as you strain yourself, that injury risk just goes up through the roof. As soon as you tighten up your body, et cetera, you are wasting energy. You're wasting energy that you could use in running faster, right? You're using it up, tensing up. No good. So relax, relax, relax, relax. That's what it's all about. Let me know in the comments what you talk to yourself about when you're out running. What do you tell yourself? And of course, if you like this video, give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel. And until next time, relax.