The Athlete’s Mantra

“Chuck Norris wouldn’t quit”

Like having an internal Nike ad on repeat, many athletes have a personal mantra.

Columnist Gigi Douban wrote for Runner’s World: “Mantras – those short power bytes you play over and over in your head – can help you stay focused and centered. They can be your inner motivation when you need it most. Finding a mantra isn’t hard: It can pop into your head as you’re listening to your iPod, chatting with training partners, or flipping through a running magazine. But having one that suits you … is the key to making it work.” Read the interesting full-length column here.

If you’ve never had one before, I highly recommend coming up with one. It’s a good motivator, but more importantly when the going gets tough, you can focus on that mantra instead of what your body may be screaming at you.

For my first marathon, I repeated in my head “Mind over matter.” No matter how badly my legs started to hurt and how badly I just wanted to sit down, I had made up my mind long ago that I was going to finish the race no matter what. So, I shuffled along, mind over matter.

When biking up a long hill, I use a riff off a “Finding Nemo” quote: “Just keep spinning.” (My sister-in-law uses “Just keep swimming” when she runs).

My old bike club often threw around the phrase “HTFU,” which is “Hurry the @#$% up” put nicely.

Lately, my husband and I like to say “Pain don’t hurt” (a “Road House” reference, embarrassingly enough). It’s caught on in our little running group.

I’d love to hear some of your mantras – leave a comment listing what helps you get through a run or ride!

Want to read what others use as mantras? Here are a few forums that collected some mantras, a Cool Running forum, Runner’s World forum and this tri blog. There are ton more, just do a Google search to find more.

Here are some of my favorites from the aforementioned sites:

• “Who do you want to be?”
• “Pain is nothing compared to what it feels like to quit.”
• “I am tough
• “I am strong
• “I am healthy
• “I am awesome
• “I LOVE TO RUN, I LOVE TO RUN, I LOVE TO RUN!”
• “I’m a lean, mean, fighting machine.”
• “Feet fast, legs strong, I can do this all day long.”
• “Today I will do what you won’t so tomorrow I can do what you can’t.”
• “JUST BELIEVE”
• “Suck it up, buttercup.”
• “Beer is near.”
• “Don’t give up.  Don’t ever give up.”
• ”I can do this. I will do this.”