Using Your Imagination To Go Further
I have used visualisation for as long as I have been running. I remember training for my first marathon in Rome 2010. On every training run around my neighbourhood, for the last hundred metres, I would pretend that I was running to the finish line at the Colosseum. I’d raise my arms in the air as I crossed my imaginary finish line and punch the air, smile on my face. Since then I have expanded the window and do my best to visualise as much of the race as I can imagine.
Athletes make use of numerous tactics adapted by sport psychologists to strengthen their resilience and mental skills. One is mental practice, the cognitive practice of a function in the absence of obvious bodily motion. Visualisation gives athletes a sense of being successful and overcoming difficult parts of races before they actually go through them. It allows them to find solutions to in-race problems like the desire to slow down, walk, or stop, while also setting positive expectations and rehearsing a positive outcome.
The marathon event in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games went down in Irish sporting history as Jimmy Magee famously listed all the previous Irish medalists as John Tracy claimed silver. But today, I want to talk about the man who came third that day.
Charlie Spedding was representing Great Britain in the marathon. Throughout his whole career, his dream had been to win an Olympic medal. He had been visualising it for years. He ran competitively from age 16 and made the Olympic team at age 32.
The marathon was the final event of the 1984 Olympics and it finished in the LA Memorial Coliseum stadium. The stadium was crammed with 92,500 spectators. Carlos Lopes from Portugal crossed the finish line for gold, setting a new Olympic record of 2:09:21, followed by Ireland’s John Treacy who took silver in 2:09:56 and, two seconds later, Spedding, whose time of 2:09:58 earned him the bronze.
Spedding commented in his biography, From Last to First: A Long-Distance Runner’s Journey from Failure to Success, 'I just think it’s interesting that I had a long-term goal, which for most of my career was ridiculously ambitious, but in the last few minutes it wasn’t high enough.'
Studies have shown that the brain doesn’t know the difference between vivid visualisation of an action and actually undertaking the physical action itself. However for it to work best, visualisation relies on memory of the task. If you’ve never driven a car, imagining how to do it wouldn’t replace learning how to drive. But once you’ve learnt how to drive, you could use visualisation to prepare for a driving test. Imagining the feeling of seeing a red light, checking your rear-view mirror before gently pressing the brake pedal, changing gear with your hand while simultaneously pressing the clutch, before coming to a smooth, controlled stop. Visualisation is a technique practiced by some of the world’s top performing athletes. It needs no physical strength, stamina or speed to excel. If you watched the recent Formula 1 series on Netflix Drive To Survive you see driver Esteban Ocon sitting in a makeshift car at home, eyes closed, holding a steering wheel, practicing driving a particular race. He knows the racetrack completely. Every turn, when to brake, accelerate, change gear and he plays it over and over again, in his mind, in preparation.
How does a virtual lap match an actual lap? Watch as Esteban Ocon and Daniel Ricciardo visualise a lap of the Barcelona F1 Circuit.
Your brain is not hardwired but is neuroplastic, and has the ability to change its structure and function in response to experiences, real or imagined. Visualisation is a habit that can be practiced anywhere; in bed, in the shower or sitting on a bus. With just 10 minutes a day you can make a difference to your life. Make your visualisation as real as possible. Try to use all of your senses. If it’s a race, can you get out and preview the course beforehand? Can you run sections of it so you have real memories to use? Notice the landmarks as you pass them. What sounds will you hear, your shoes on the road, spectators cheering you on? What do you feel on your skin? Is it raining or is it dry, hot or cold? How are you feeling, confident, strong? Fill in as much detail as possible. Visualisation can be used as a technique to prepare for any event. Preparing for an interview, playing an instrument in a band or training for a marathon.
Once you discover what you long for (and you know why you’re taking it on) visualise it every chance you get. You may be amazed at how that personal focus will propel you in directions and at speeds you didn’t think were possible for you. Visualisation can make things happen. If you visualise yourself achieving something you set out to achieve, then your brain thinks you have already done it and therefore believes you can. Visualisation builds courage. Take advantage of it.