Episode 92: How Deena Kastor Used Her Mind to Become a World-Class Athlete
The Strength Running Podcast
Jason Fitzgerald
4.8 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 16 April 2019
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After college, Deena traveled to Amarosa, Colorado to train under Coach Joe Vigil. That's when her running took off.
To discover why and how this happened (it wasn't better training), Deena joined me on the Strength Running Podcast to discuss the mental journey she's taken throughout her career.
Our conversation focuses on several topics:
- How to turn negative thoughts into positive thoughts - while running or in everyday life
- Why Deena used to race "with fear" (and how she recovered from this dangerous mindset)
- The mental expectations she's had to abandon to reach higher levels of performance
- How to "participate in the process" rather than overly worry about results
These are all major themes of her award-winning memoir Let Your Mind Run: A Memoir of Thinking My Way to Victory.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Ready? |
| 0:02.0 | Say, go. |
| 0:04.0 | This is episode 92 with the US record holder in the marathon, |
| 0:08.0 | Road 10 Mile, 15K and 8K, Olympic bronze medalist, |
| 0:12.0 | and winner of the 2005 Chicago Marathon, 2006 London Marathon |
| 0:17.8 | and the 2008 U.S. Olympic trials, arguably the best distance runner of a generation Ms. Dina Kaster. Oh boy runners, |
| 0:35.0 | runners, strap into your seats, turn the volume up and get ready for one of my personal |
| 0:39.1 | favorite podcast episodes to date. |
| 0:42.0 | I'm speaking with the one and only Dina Castor who has been a dominant |
| 0:46.3 | force if not the dominant force in the sport of running for decades you simply |
| 0:51.6 | can't say enough about Dina range, her ability to race well in nearly every |
| 0:56.0 | distance. She holds the US record in the marathon with a 2-1936 personal best. And as a side note note how unbelievable is it when your personal record is also the |
| 1:07.0 | American record I just think that's unreal she's also the US record holder in the Masters |
| 1:12.3 | marathon with a 227-47 finish, but she's also got |
| 1:16.7 | wheels. |
| 1:17.7 | Dina has the road record in the 8K and 15K, which really shows her versatility. But we're not talking about how fast |
| 1:26.1 | Dina is in this episode. In fact we're barely talking about her training at all. |
| 1:30.1 | We're talking about the thing that binds us recreational runners to the pros, the one similarity |
| 1:36.6 | that's the same whether you run 219 in the marathon or 519. And that's your brain, your mind, your outlook, perspective, or mindset that can either |
| 1:47.0 | make or break your running. The power of sports psychology and gaining this mental fitness is so profound as you're going to see for my |
| 1:54.8 | conversation with Dina. I also want to thank today's sponsor Steady MD |
| 1:59.7 | they're like a personal concierge doctor for endurance runners helping you with nutrition, |
... |
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