Mental Toughness
If I'm going to push myself anywhere close to my potential, there's one challenge I'm going to have to face up to.
Call it the wall, call it my natural tendency to give up if things aren't going to plan, call it a 10 mile walk break, call it what you want. At Berlin my simple race plan was to run as far as I could and then do what it took to get to the end. It meant that I finished in one piece, and I got that medal, but it also meant that the second half of the race was very much a walk. Not the regular walk breaks all the way theory, a 16 mile run and a 10 mile walk.
One of my big things in training has been keeping running, however slowly, without taking breaks. That race plan was OK for a first marathon, but now I want to do myself justice.
Another thing has been trying to develop mental toughness when I want to slow down or stop, and making myself complete my runs. I'm not talking about running through injury, but just those runs when you reach a point where you can't be bothered any more and just want to sit down with a nice glass of wine and rest your legs rather than doing another 5 miles.
If I want the sort of time I'm aiming for I'm going to have to run until the end. I know that I'll be able to do the right pace for a good 15 miles, my training has made me confident of that. Almost certainly I'd be able to keep it up for 20. But can I keep it up for 26? I was pleased at Ackworth that I kept up the sub 8 minute miles right to the end to get the best time I could, rather than simply thinking that it would be a PB anyway, even if I slowed down a bit. The feeling in my legs on the Monday (far sorer than after any of the my other runs recently) reminded me how hard I'd had to work to override my "it hurts, can't I slow down a bit" instinct to race right to the bitter end. And if that was tough, it could be a lot tougher in Edinburgh.
I'm doing what I can though. Today I was aiming for 18 - 20 miles, but wasn't really enthusiastic about it when I set off. I got myself out of the door but made a potential mistake by heading for the local park. It's a nice park, don't get me wrong, but if you're trying to run round it for 20 miles you're going to be doing a lot of loops, and you're not going to be far from home when that "is that enough" though pops into your head.
So I was really really proud of myself that I managed to go round and round and round the lake for a grand total of somewhere between 19 and 19.5 miles. I lost count of the number of laps that I did, but I kept on persuading myself to do another one, and another, and with it being traffic free there was no excuse for even the slightest crossing the road breather. I just kept on running, round and round and round. I didn't let myself go home until my Polar showed roughly the right distance run, and I didn't let myself walk either.
I'm being tougher on myself this year. If I've earmarked a day for a long run of a certain distance, injuries willing, I make myself do it whether I want to or not. There's none of this "oh well, I've done really well to get from where I was to even be attempting a marathon" thinking in my head this year. This year I'm training, and I'm making myself do what I need to do.
Call it the wall, call it my natural tendency to give up if things aren't going to plan, call it a 10 mile walk break, call it what you want. At Berlin my simple race plan was to run as far as I could and then do what it took to get to the end. It meant that I finished in one piece, and I got that medal, but it also meant that the second half of the race was very much a walk. Not the regular walk breaks all the way theory, a 16 mile run and a 10 mile walk.
One of my big things in training has been keeping running, however slowly, without taking breaks. That race plan was OK for a first marathon, but now I want to do myself justice.
Another thing has been trying to develop mental toughness when I want to slow down or stop, and making myself complete my runs. I'm not talking about running through injury, but just those runs when you reach a point where you can't be bothered any more and just want to sit down with a nice glass of wine and rest your legs rather than doing another 5 miles.
If I want the sort of time I'm aiming for I'm going to have to run until the end. I know that I'll be able to do the right pace for a good 15 miles, my training has made me confident of that. Almost certainly I'd be able to keep it up for 20. But can I keep it up for 26? I was pleased at Ackworth that I kept up the sub 8 minute miles right to the end to get the best time I could, rather than simply thinking that it would be a PB anyway, even if I slowed down a bit. The feeling in my legs on the Monday (far sorer than after any of the my other runs recently) reminded me how hard I'd had to work to override my "it hurts, can't I slow down a bit" instinct to race right to the bitter end. And if that was tough, it could be a lot tougher in Edinburgh.
I'm doing what I can though. Today I was aiming for 18 - 20 miles, but wasn't really enthusiastic about it when I set off. I got myself out of the door but made a potential mistake by heading for the local park. It's a nice park, don't get me wrong, but if you're trying to run round it for 20 miles you're going to be doing a lot of loops, and you're not going to be far from home when that "is that enough" though pops into your head.
So I was really really proud of myself that I managed to go round and round and round the lake for a grand total of somewhere between 19 and 19.5 miles. I lost count of the number of laps that I did, but I kept on persuading myself to do another one, and another, and with it being traffic free there was no excuse for even the slightest crossing the road breather. I just kept on running, round and round and round. I didn't let myself go home until my Polar showed roughly the right distance run, and I didn't let myself walk either.
I'm being tougher on myself this year. If I've earmarked a day for a long run of a certain distance, injuries willing, I make myself do it whether I want to or not. There's none of this "oh well, I've done really well to get from where I was to even be attempting a marathon" thinking in my head this year. This year I'm training, and I'm making myself do what I need to do.
posted by YP at 2:44 PM
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