This one doesn’t fit into the real research category as it hasn’t been critically reviewed, involves an N of 1, and is subject to notable “self-fulfilling prophecy” error rates. With that said, it hits on an area that may be of interest to anyone who’s a certified wellness coach and has considered integrating “self-talk” (which overlaps with several other psychological training components that we’ll likely address in the future). The following was a track interval session performed by the author. It was not a new routine, but the rest interval was significantly less than previous. This impacted the consistency of the interval times, but did not influence the results since the self-talk and non-self talk laps were interspersed appropriately.
- Plan:
- 12 x 400 (good sleep, low stress, no other cMT leakage of note)
- Limited recovery (avg 72 sec recovery on 78 sec repeats).
- Self-talk on #2, 4, 6, 9, 11 and non-ST on #3, 5, 7, 8, 10 and 12 (flipped order at #8 to be sure no benefit from “on/off” effect). Interval #1 not included since fully rested coming into that one.
- Heart Rate Monitor utilized for tracking max HR within each interval
- Results:
- Blank mind sessions (6) average time of 79 seconds/400
- Self-talk sessions (5) avg time 77 seconds/400
- Blank mind session avg max HR 153.5 BPM
- Self-talk sessions avg max HR 159 BPM
- Reflections:
- Working off Dr. J Daniels’ data, this session was a mix of standard recovery protocol. Based on current fitness levels, target splits with 40 sec recovery = 85 sec goal and target splits with 2 ½ – 3 min recovery would be 79 seconds. Using this range, expected splits with the limited recovery should have been approx. 81-82 seconds/400
- I hadn’t reviewed the J. Daniels charts prior to session, so set stretch goal at 75 sec since I’m working my way back toward 5:00 mile (75 second laps).
- Hit 75 sec first 2 intervals and avg 76 on first 4 with HR monitor indicating stretch effort (171, 175, 173 and 168 BPM)
- Fast initial intervals were costly, as I averaged then averaged 79 sec for the remaining 8 intervals. HR also showed effects of the early effort, maxing out at just 144-152 for intervals 5-10
- All that aside, intriguing to see results, with the self-talk sessions demonstrating both a significantly faster time and higher max HR
