From Self-Doubt to Self-Confidence
Mental toughness is a skill you can train—here’s how.
Self-doubt spreads like a virus. The moment we set our sights on something meaningful—signing up for our next race, qualifying for Boston, changing careers, starting a family—it sneaks in, attacking our confidence in running and making us question our ability to succeed. And just like a virus, self-doubt thrives in the right conditions: exhaustion, setbacks, high stakes. The bigger the goal, the more meaning we attach to it, and the stronger the doubt becomes. I’m not ready. What if I fail?
Maybe it shows up when you’re struggling through a workout, coming back from an injury, or staring down mile 20 of a marathon. Self-doubt can be paralyzing, but here’s the thing—it’s also proof that you care and that you want to do your best. Self-doubt is also only half of the story we create in our minds—self-confidence is the other half. And when you know how to work with both, they actually fuel your success.
Self-doubt and self-confidence are two sides of the same coin. Doubt tells us what we can’tdo. Confidence tells us what we can do. But real confidence isn’t about feeling 100 percent sure all the time—it’s about trusting your ability to handle challenges, adapt when things go sideways, and keep moving forward even when doubt creeps in. And the best part? Confidence isn’t something you either have or don’t. It’s something you build, just like endurance, through experience, preparation, and mindset.
I’ve seen it work in my own running and with the athletes I coach. It’s not about having a magic formula—it’s about taking one step at a time to discover and strengthen your self-confidence. Because when you learn to harness both doubt and confidence, your performance will improve. Science proves it, and you will, too. Let’s dive in.
How to Gain Confidence in Running
Confidence comes from experience, preparation, and mindset. For us runners, self-confidence is knowing we can push through tough workouts, execute our race plan, and adapt when things don’t go perfectly. (Because let’s face it, running never goes perfectly.) It’s what allows us to not only reach our goals but burst through barriers.
At a fundamental level, self-confidence doesn’t need to come from achievements or external validation—it can simply exist. Just being here is enough. We don’t need to change who we are to feel whole or worthy of confidence.
At the same time, when we pursue big goals and push our limits, self-confidence becomes essential. It allows us to grow, take risks, and meet challenges with resilience. The good thing about self-confidence is the more you practice it, the more it grows. And who doesn’t want a garden full of self-confidence to give life to our running goals?
Turning Running Experience Into Confidence
Experience comes from challenges. You’ve failed and then figured it out. It means you have some level of trust in yourself because your past success wasn’t handed to you. It didn’t happen overnight, but you worked towards it and learned what worked and what didn’t along the way.
If you’re new to running, you still can use non-running-related experiences to build confidence in this way. When we use our past experience to build self-confidence, the challenges and failures come before we figure out how to succeed consistently.
Actionable Steps to Track Experience:
Write down three times you failed but later figured out how to succeed. These can be related to running or any other aspect of life.
Note how long it took you to achieve success in each instance. This can serve as a reminder that some goals are reached in a week, while others take months, years, or even decades—just like our running journey.
Identify one key realization, lesson, or strategy that helped you achieve each of these three goals. Chances are, these insights can be applied to both running and other areas of life.
Create a collage or highlight reel of your past experiences. I recently made a highlight reel on Instagram, where I found old footage of myself leading the indoor 3000 meters at the U.S. indoor national championship. Watching it brought tears to my eyes as it reminded me of moving through depression during that season and still competing at a high level after taking some time off. Sometimes, we just need to pause and celebrate our wins—to truly see ourselves in them and remember that there are wins we may have forgotten about.
Building Self-Confidence Through Preparation
Preparation for a race or running goal invites us to physically and mentally embark on an adventure, where every meal, run, and night of rest helps bridge the gap between where we are now and where we want to be. The key is progress, not perfection.
It’s a lot to juggle all of these, and most of us aren’t professional athletes who can thoughtfully tend to each of those baskets. But there are small changes you can make that will help you mindfully eat, run, and sleep. And in doing so, you’re mentally preparing as well. For a deep dive into this, check out Peter Attia’s book Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity.
Actionable Steps to Prepare:
Write a plan: Break down your goal into actionable steps. Note what small step you can take now, and then work backward from your goal to map out a training plan or schedule that works for you.
Find support: If you need structure and accountability, join a local run club, follow a training plan, or work with a running coach. Write a list of your “dream team” to help you reach your goal. Seriously, write down anything in your wildest dreams. You may be able to connect with someone or something on that list, or at least it’ll point you in a direction. Remember the proverb, “If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together.”
Meal prep: I’ve found that having healthy meals readily on hand helps to fuel my running, keep me healthy, and make running a sustainable part of my daily routine. So I choose one day a week (I prefer Sundays) to prep so I have healthy meals on-the-go. I like to make a double batch of a smoothie, bake four to six sweet potato halves to eat throughout the week as a snack or side, and cook a hearty, high-protein veggie soup that I freeze for later. I also buy lettuce and salad ingredients for a quick tossed lunch, topped with canned chickpeas and nuts. Shalane Flanagan and Elyse Kopecky’s recipe book Run Fast, Cook Fast, Eat Slow contains delicious, nutrient-dense meals, snacks, and smoothies that are quick and easy to make!
Reflect: During training, write down every workout you do on a sticky note and save it in a mason jar. On race week, or sometime before if you’re feeling doubtful, read through some of the workouts you’ve already done and reflect on how far you’ve come. This also works if you write down your training in a journal.
Sleep well: For better sleep, read my Sleep Protocol article.
Building Confidence In Running Through Mindset
Now to my favorite building block—mindset shifts. As a running coach for the past 15 years, I’ve noticed training gets you only so far, and mindset blasts you into another realm. It’s not always about training harder and having a more gritty mindset. Instead, it’s more about letting go of our need to control, noticing patterns that have developed over a lifetime that hold us back, and reversing negative self-talk.
Sleep impacts our mindset, possibly more than anything else. I know, I know—this was supposed to be a paragraph about mindset…and it is! But the more fatigued we are, the harder it is to feel playful, curious, open, and have enough energy to shift from self-doubt to self-confidence.
A study done at the University of Kent looked at whether we are limited by our muscles or our minds. They found that mental fatigue can impact the length of time you’re able to continue a challenging effort before muscle fatigue sets in. They also found that using positive self-talk can increase performance and lower endurance athletes’ perceived exertion in training (i.e., training doesn’t feel as hard when you’re cheering yourself on). Ultimately this led to the athletes holding their maximum effort for longer, without any added fitness compared to the control group. Positive self-talk and a successful mindset go hand in hand. They’re besties.
Mindset is a limitless exploration. One more story! A former Marine once shared the “40 percent rule” with me: when you feel like you’ve hit your limit, you’re likely only at 40 percent of your true capacity. Hearing this changed my perspective on mental toughness. It reminded me that there’s a deep well of endurance, resilience, and determination within all of us. The next time you’re struggling—whether in a VO2 max workout on a cold, rainy day or in the middle of a tough race—remind yourself: you have so much more in the tank. This realization can help you push through moments of doubt.
Actionable Mindset Shifts:
Sleep
40 percent rule
Positive self-talk: Having a mantra or saying “Yes I can” is more powerful than you think when you are three-quarters into a race. Repeating the word “yes” over and over can actually activate positive emotions in your body versus saying “no.”
Rule of thirds: One-third of training will feel good, one-third of training will feel okay, and one-third of training will feel challenging. This is a helpful reminder on the tougher days. This too shall pass!
Shift your focus: Think about what you can do instead of what you can’t do.
Shift out of your head and into your body: Feel your feet grip the ground with each step, count each time your right foot strikes the ground, up to 10 steps, then switch to counting your left foot strike, sync your arms with your cadence—feel your right hand sync up with your left foot for 10 steps, then switch to feeling your left hand sync up with your right foot for 10 steps.
Notice your breathing rate: Use a 2:2 or 3:3 breathing rate in races, 3:3 or 4:4 for easy runs. A 2:2 breathing rate means you’re taking two steps for every inhale (one step on your left foot, one step on your right foot) and two steps for every exhale. 3:3 means three steps (left foot, right foot, left foot) for each inhale and three steps for each exhale. See Jack Daniel’s video on how to do this during a run.
The funny thing about self-doubt is that it often disappears once we do the thing or gain a little distance from it. Right now, are you doubting your ability to run last week? Of course not—it already happened. We typically only doubt things in the future, things we can’t control, or situations where we don’t yet know the outcome.
The key is to recognize when doubt arises, use it as information, and flip the script to self-confidence by leaning on our experience, preparation, and mindset shifts. When we do this, we can run our personal best, be our best, and embrace the challenges life brings—knowing that self-doubt and self-confidence can coexist. The difference is that we choose to keep moving forward with the mindset of, Actually, I can.
