Picture it, late evening, a near deserted street, cars parked in front of homes, and the only sound is a shuffle of running shoes pounding along a pavement… as you look closer you see a sad sight, a runner head hanging looking down, and moving at a slow pace, oblivious to his surroundings…
Sound like a Zombie runner? Ok, let me explain what all this is about… but first the intro.
Thank for joining me on today’s Zombie blog… I have been excited a long time already to write about this topic. Would have been great to have a related intro song… I was thinking of
……Remember the song zombie zombie, was the by the cranberries… if you don’t remember it you might be either too old, or too young well ….. that should be todays intro song but of course due to copyright I am not allowed to use it… anyway…
First off thanks for coming back and joining me on another episode of the hypno run blog. By Did you know, the podcast…Listeners in over 32 countries….. whow certainly most impressive thank you very much. I have no idea how you found this show, or how you became aware of it… but I genuinely I appreciate your support, and please, if you enjoy it, let me use this chance right now to ask you to please share the podcast with someone who you know… someone who could just be needing to hear this type of content.
Perhaps someone who values high level content, and doesn’t want to hear 5 min ad’s or endorsement of a nutritional product which supposedly boost you run….. Is it ok if we skip advertisements, and keep going with the show… ? ….
Great thanks for that…. Hey, perhaps, maybe you share the show with a fellow runner called depro Dave sad Samantha… what I mean is someone who is struggling and so miserable because he or she cannot run at this moent in time.
What type of content are we talking about? Are you lost…. ok, for all those new listeners… wit is content that will help you become a smarter runner.
Smarter… “Heiko…..I want to become faster”, or “Heiko…. I want to run further”….
Yes, I can or I could guess that… and to run faster or further, there is one universal solution… you need to become smarter in terms of how you approach your running.
Apparently money doesn’t make you happy (although put me on the billionaires list, I wouldn’t mind trying…) this also means that the money you are currently investing in your running is most probably not making you run faster or further.
New Shoes, a cool Smart watches with a lot of features, Apps to download and measure each run and heartbeat, nope… sorry they don’t make you stronger.
Ah least we forget, the Runners sunglasses, no matter how cool they are, don’t make you run faster. Ah and I have a wide range of sunglasses, tested them all…. Apparently according to my daughter sometimes you don’t even look cool you look stupid…
But… drumroll…. Using a series of scientifically proven techniques which have been adapted to our sport of running, learnt correctly and applied, that my dear fellow runner, will get you to increase your performance, it will enable you to find a cure to overcome procrastination, and most important it will ensure you stay in love with running.
Because lets face it, you only do something really well if you really love it. If you don’t get some deeper sense of satisfaction out of it, you will abandon it.
But before I get carried away… Zombie runner…. Each city has one… do you think that runner decided to run like that? Or did it just happen? I think it just happened. Actually, I know it occurred over a specific period of time where no attention was given to the mindset, to his or her approach towards running. The miles or kilometers to be run are just, a set to be completed, and the reward is, its done. I run regularly. Full stop. Better than not running correct?
This is the part we start to disagree.
Just doing something and doing something with a positive mindset gives two different results. And listen here, you know this, time is limited, and passes so quickly. Soon we will all be in a age where running is no longer possible, not to get you depressed, but it’s a fact, and this should inspire and motivate you to give more attention to your run performance. So when that day comes where you use your running shoes for walks, rather than runs, you look back a proud run performance, where you know, you didn’t settle for halfhearted attempts but rather went for your best, crossed imaginary boundaries and limitations.
Good thing you found this show…. It’s a bit like my neighbors, two out of three have a very nice garden. I am talking of whow, like some Japanese park, or Botanical garden, except its typical plants that thrive in this German climate.
Now picture it, the neighbor in the middle, he doesn’t have such a great garden, and Saturday morning, guess what.. he decided he is going to mow his lawn. Yup, got his ancient lawn mower out… now I mention ancient, it’s a bit of an exaggeration, but fact is it reminds me of my lawn mower that I used as a kid.
So it took him about half an hour to get that lawn mower engine to run without shutting down immediately, and he was eager to get started… but he pushed it for 2, 3 meters… engine stopped. And now what happened was the other neighbor, he had a lot of advice…. I couldn’t eavesdrop properly, too far away, but it got technical, it was deep… electrical mowers are best… might be carburetor, do you have fuel, heck even I was getting mentally involved.. .he should get a garden service.
Poor fellow he was getting more and more frustrated, upset, and I felt his pain, he just wanted to get the lawn done.
Finally he got fed up… then he must’ve have googled something, or read some instructions… because after an hour he came back, calm, composed, and (seems really was the carburetor) got the lawnmower going.
What does this have to do with running? Hey Heiko I thought you are a endurance run coach not a gardener…
Ha Ha…
Heiko I thought you are a hypnotherapist that specializes in running what are you talking about mowing lawns?
Yes I am getting to it… maybe you once had a bad injury that didn’t allow you to run. You had to rest, recuperate and the weeks waiting where frustrating. Now you are thinking of making a comeback.
And perhaps you are that lonesome runner I described at the beginning… that Zombie runner, and you might even have gotten a lot of advice. Perhaps looked at your nutrition, your distances, and weekly mileage that you need to progress to. Hey, perhaps you thought about a new pair of shoes… because shoes do make you a faster runner.. .one of the more popular podcast about 7 shows back… give it a listen whether shoes really do help you become faster…
And perhaps you are at that stage where you have gone for a online coaching program, for three moths invested money, maybe you didn’t have time to run as the plan was laid out, but the money is gone, however your training wasn’t sufficient and your times haven’t improved.
Frustration sets in, or acceptance, and that is when Zombie running starts.
See this sport of our is so individual. I am sure you will agree with me here, it all comes down to your decisions, how willing you are to test yourself, to grow as a running by exploring what you are capable of.
But so often we want quick results, quick wins, obviously social media is full of quick wins type of promises.
But after working with many runners and looking back at my best experiences working with runners from various backgrounds, the ones that make progress are those that have gotten out of the Zombie mode, or avoided it completely.
Those runners that understood, competition or the Strava like-minded focus on Fastest known time, or comparing to others in your area… hey, nothing against Strava, don’t get me wrong here… competition as long as it is healthy, as long as it is conducted in good spirit is fine.
Sometimes the tech providers don’t have our best interest in mind… hey hey watch me gain a whole bunch of conspiracy theorist listeners…. Lol… Kidding, but you know what I mean.
Growth as a runner doesn’t come from a running app. Improved mileage doesn’t come from comparing yourself to others in the same age group.
What does help you grow and improve, irrelevant at what stage you as a runner are at is:
GET OUT OF ZOMBIE MODE….
By becoming aware of what are the thoughts that are not supporting you. Those thoughts that you have perhaps before or during every run, where you realize, and perhaps the penny just dropped, where you realize, its this thought that’s keeping me from growing as a runner. Maybe its not the neighbor and his lawn mower advice, maybe its something inside my mindset.
Perhaps its that goal you are setting which made you loose that joy, you became Strava’s sucker… haha… not running for yourself anymore but for a set of data which is displayed to people you don’t even know, who don’t even care about you or who you are… and you are trying to impress them?
Rather than doing that, stay accountable, and the easiest way to do that is by focusing on your process…. By focusing on your journey…
To summarize it, to become self-aware. If its one thing you should remember of today’s podcasts… that’s it… become self-ware.
Become that mindful runner…. It is easier than you think….
To be mindful it requires three components… you need to be curious… curiosity killed the cat… what are your running ambitions, your running hopes and dreams… hey after so many years of running, in various parts of the world, short distances, multiday events I still am incredibly curious as to new races that I want to participate in, and revisit and of course improve my times on some events….
The most important mental aspect runners’ struggle with…. be non-judgmental… especially towards yourself. Please don’t fool yourself… that by trash talking to yourself you get motivated. Leave that to WWF wrestlers… be kind, simple.
That’s not just me talking it’s a study by Maslow… that top leaders had spiritual beliefs, or transcendence a life without spiritual growth isn’t worth living… that might just be another podcast… but I am sure you all know that one runner, male or female who is really doing great, sports wise, super performance, got the medals, the finisher t-shirts, the Fastest known times, knows how to motivate himself or herself, but… as soon as you want to have a friendly dialogue…. You regret it as the person is aloof, indifferent, and it is a unpleasant conversation, so don’t become that person…. Check out our website hypnorun.com where we have basically taken a very successful real life mindset training course, for runners’ and made a very user orientated online program, so that you actually have tools in place to develop that runners’ brain, identify those limiting beliefs you might have (apparently we all do) and get yourself into developing intrinsic motivation.
Now this makes sense, doesn’t it, I mean its not rocket science… running happens in your head… so get out of your head or you are dead…
Thanks for joining me, my time is up, till next time God bless and
Take it easy.