There’s a quote that’s floated around the running world for years...
“Long distance running is 90 percent mental and the other half is physical.”
It always made me smile, but it wasn’t until I revisited Deena Kastor’s book Let Your Mind Run that it really clicked in a deeper way.
If you’ve read it, you know she doesn’t sugarcoat the mental side of this sport. She talks about training her mind with just as much intention as her body. She breaks down confidence as a skill. She walks through the mental patterns that used to hold her back and the mindset shifts that helped her run to her potential.
That’s the part I want to talk about. Because for Masters and menopausal athletes, the mental game becomes a different kind of lifeline.
The mindset shift most runners never train
Here’s the truth I see every day as a coach.
Your body changes in this season.
Your recovery window shifts.
Motivation ebbs.
Fatigue hits differently.
If you try to rely on willpower or old-school grit alone, you burn out.
But if you approach your mindset the same way Deena approached hers, things start to open up. You stop treating mental strength as a last-minute pep talk and start treating it like a training block.
Just like:
Warm-ups
Strength cycles
Polarized programming
Form drills
Mindset becomes part of the system.
What Let Your Mind Run gets right
Deena talks about noticing her thoughts first. Not pushing them away. Not pretending she wasn’t frustrated, tired, or doubting.
Noticing.
Then she learned to shift those thoughts little by little, rep by rep.
That’s exactly the approach I use with masters and menopausal athletes. You’re not forcing positivity. You’re building mental patterns that support your training instead of undermining it.
A few cues I love:
Catch the self-doubt early.
Name what’s actually hard.
Shift toward what you can control today.
Anchor into small wins instead of chasing a mood.
This work is subtle at first, but it adds up the same way mileage does.
Why the mental game matters even more during menopause
Running truly is 90 percent mental, especially when you no longer have a body full of estrogen smoothing out stress, recovery, and mood regulation.
Your thoughts hit louder.
Your motivation dips harder.
You second-guess yourself more easily.
That’s physiology, not personal failure.
When athletes finally understand that, they stop fighting themselves. They train smarter. They give themselves permission to run the body they woke up in. And they build confidence that has nothing to do with pace.
This is where we take a page straight out of Deena’s book.
Your mind is a muscle.
And it gets stronger the more reps you give it.
How to build a stronger running mindset
If you’re rebuilding, aging up, navigating menopause, or coming back from a tough season, your mindset isn’t just helpful. It’s essential.
Here’s what I coach athletes to practice:
Reflect after runs instead of judge
Focus on process goals, not just finish-line goals
Use body sensing instead of forcing pace
Celebrate consistency, not perfection
Build belief through repetition, not hype
These are the tools that help you stay grounded when your training gets disrupted or your body feels unpredictable. They give you structure and confidence when motivation dips. And they help you reconnect with the runner you’re becoming instead of clinging to the runner you used to be.
Ready to train your mind with intention?
Mindset doesn’t magically appear when you need it. You build it the same way you build endurance. Slowly. Repetitively. Intentionally.
If you’re ready to strengthen the mental foundation behind your running, the Mindset Reset system will help you rebuild focus, confidence, and momentum in a way that supports this exact season of life.
If your brain’s doing gymnastics and your running feels harder than it should, this is where you start.