The Speed of Your Thoughts

I made the decision to run the Cooper Test with my players at Swarthmore College this preseason after a 3 year hiatus. I ran this test 4 times while at Millersville and I ran it from 2003-2011 at Swarthmore. The expectation of Cooper Test is that a young man trying out for a college soccer team will be able run 2 miles under 12 minutes. I stopped running this fitness test in 2012 because it is grueling. The run will cause burning muscles, breathlessness, and agony. The run can cause numbness/tingling in the extremities, nausea, and vomiting. The training required for test will involve mental toughness, discipline, and grit. I will focus on a mental aspect of the training and its direct impact on the physical training.

My torture/training for this test began in late June. On a weekly basis I would run between 5-10 miles 4-6 times a week. Thanks to mindfulness and present-centered awareness, I discovered that my anxiety would increase on the days in which I really pushed myself. Upon closer examination of my thoughts during these runs I learned something useful. Mental images of what I would expect the morning of the run (waking up at 5:00AM, warming up, being on the starting line, dreaded laps 3 through 7, a slow time…) triggered heightened anxiety. Then these anxiety provoking images and thoughts would dramatically speed up. As a result I became more anxious, physically tense, breathing sped up, my pace was thrown off, and these runs would end up feeling miserable. Equipped with this awareness, I made the decision to slow down these thoughts. I realized these thoughts were inevitable, but I was the one in charge of the speed at which they entered my brain. Metaphorically speaking it was as if my anxiety was a fire and my thoughts were the fuel. In the beginning of the summer I mindlessly poured fuel on this fire and it burned out of control. I then decided to let the fire burn without dousing it. When this mental shift was established my pace improved and remained more steady, but more importantly, I wasn’t completely miserable on these runs. More often I experienced that sense of pride that comes when one really pushes them self.  

Anxiety is inevitable and it is natural for our thoughts speed up in tense moments. In certain situations this is a beneficial and protective mental function. For example, being able to quickly think of different ways to handle a physically aggressive confrontation might help you avoid a punch in the face or being able to quickly think of multiple believable excuses might help you avoid getting a speeding ticket. However when fast thoughts are slowed down on the field, track, rink, court, office, classroom, or stage the anxiety is likely to remain at a healthy level and performance does not suffer. This information seems appropriate for this time of year because many people are anxious with a new school year and/or new season of sports.