For world-class athletes competing at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, their preparation is maybe as much mental as physical. It seems that every top athlete incorporates a mental strategy like meditation or visualization Best Hydration Packs.
Clayton Young, who qualified to represent Team USA for the marathon this summer with a 2:09:06 second-place finish at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in February, has been practicing visualization since before he even understood its impact. The 30-year-old Asics athlete, 2019 NCAA 10K champ for BYU, and soon-to-be Olympian has been mentally training since high school. His high school coach Timo Mostert of American Fork High School in Utah regularly had his squad lie down in the gym’s empty wrestling room, turned off the lights, and led them through visualization, guided meditation, and breathwork.
“I don’t think I recognized how lucky I was to be in a high school program that focused on the mental as much as the physical,” Young says. “I didn’t realize until years later that not everyone does visualization. Being a part of that as a high schooler was something special, and I still use some of the cues Coach Mostert taught us to this day—like Keep contact and Flow like water.”
Now, nightly visualization is only part of the equation for how Young’s prepping for the marathon in Paris. Here are eight ways he’s getting his head in the game—most of which you can steal for your own race prep (no personal sports psychologist or dark wrestling room required).
Map Out the Course
Young was able to get to Paris this past spring and scoped out the route he’ll tackle. He took videos to study as much of the course as possible and has been replaying them in his mind as part of his visualization practice.
When traveling to the race course ahead of time isn’t an option, he likes to use Google Earth and combine it with GPS data of the course and an elevation map—which is a strategy any runner can take advantage of if you take a little time to do the research during your training. “That kind of information can teach you what to expect from mile to mile, turn to turn,” he says. “Being able to know what’s coming throughout the race helps build confidence.”
Visualize the Perfect Race, But Prepare for Anything
Like Coach Mostert had his athletes do visualization in the dark, Young now practices visualization most nights in bed. Having the lights off helps remove visual distractions, he says.
“I picture the perfect race and replay it in my mind over and over again,” he says, noting that he imagines what various scenarios (another runner making a certain move, a missed water bottle, etc.) might feel like and how he can respond well.
Although he thinks of how the race will ideally go, considering slight missteps and how to manage them is also crucial. “You go through all these scenarios so then if they happen, in that moment, you can respond to them and not freak out,” he explains.
“In a race, if something bad happens, your Published: Aug 08, 2024 7:09 AM EDT. You can start breathing more heavily and get in a hole quickly,” he adds. “You have to be prepared for anything. It’s so important to have a game plan in case something goes wrong. Especially in a marathon, when it’s long enough that a lot can go wrong.” For instance, he’ll picture missing a water bottle on the course or looking down at his watch and seeing his pace has slowed on a hill more than anticipated, and what he’ll say to himself to keep calm and stay positive.
Live Vicariously
Along with visualization, Young loves reliving his past race successes—plus, past successes of other runners, too. Leading up the Olympic trials, he watched videos of previous trials and tried to conjure up the emotions that racers felt as they performed well and qualified. “Visualizing other athletes’ experiences over the last few miles of the race was a big part of the psychology prep I did,” he says.
If you’re prepping for a race with a big field, you can try this too: Check out finish-line photos or broadcasts from years past and soak up previous runners’ enthusiasm.
Try Out Motivational Cues
There are certain mantras that are physical and mechanics-based that Young always keeps on stand-by—like “Surge the turns,” “Why not me?”, “Go time,” and “Relax and flow.” He’ll rely on those again and again, no matter the workout or race.
Others are more emotional and personally important to him. With those, he switches them up from race to race and likes to experiment to see what gives him the biggest mental boost; he kicks those that turn out to be less motivational to the curb.
“You have to try them on like you’d try on any piece of clothing,” he says. “I ask myself: How does this resonate with me when I need it most?”
A couple he’s been thinking of lately are “Think celestial” (it has religious significance for him and was his mantra heading into the Olympic trials) and “Claytonium power,” which is a phrase his dad always yells to him midrace.
Give Those Cues to Spectators
The motivational phrases aren’t just for Young to repeat to himself. He loves sharing them with friends and family so they can yell cues that they know will power him up when he needs it.
For instance, for the Olympic trials, he picked out 10 cues for the first half and 10 for the second, then typed them up and sent them around to people who’d be cheering him on. It can be challenging to find your friends and family along on a crowded race course, so knowing where they’ll be and that they’ll be armed with the right phrases to keep you going can offer a big boost.
“Depending on where they were on the course, they picked one to yell at me—to keep me focused, present, and thinking positive,” he says. “If you have people constantly in your ear, using cues that you curated yourself, that are very personal and meaningful to you, it helps so much.”
Look at Each Workout in the Context of the Race
No run is a no throwaway run during training. “I’m approaching every workout now with the idea of, What does this workout represent in terms of how I’ll execute during the race?” Young says. “The other day, we were going up a hill, and I thought, This hill is exactly like that hill [an uphill with an average of 10 percent grade] in Paris. What can I practice now so I’ll be ready for that on race day?”
It’s all about noticing those moments in training runs and thinking of how they can apply—how he’ll hit certain situations on race day and how he’ll respond to them mentally, he says.
Plan for Pace Variations
“In the marathon, especially that last 10K, it’s common to fade—you can see your pace creep up and start to spiral,” Young says.
To help prepare for those late-stage pace fluctuations, so he won’t let them get to him, he reminds himself some amount of slowdown is okay. And he’s practicing thinking about that during challenging moments in his training runs. “I’ll have moments when I’m going up a hill and see a slow pace on my watch—and I tell myself not to get bogged down by that but to think about responding to my teammates and other racers and listening to my body,” he says.
Remember All the Prep Work
What Young plans to do just before the marathon in Paris (and what he does before every race he takes on) is to remind himself exactly how ready he is.
“One thing I’ll do the night before a race is go back and look at all my best workouts and my best races,” he says. “That’s one of the best ways to boost confidence.”
That’s another strategy you can steal from the Olympian and make your own. Check your Strava or look back on all the miles you logged in your notebook and remind yourself: All those tough workouts are done, the mental prep is checked off—now it’s time to put it all together.
