Spectating at the heat-fest known as the 2012 Boston Marathon on Monday got me thinking a lot about my own mental toughness. As I stood on the streets of Newton, watching runners gut it out in 89 degrees under a scorching sun, I was so impressed by how deep these people had to dig to will themselves to keep moving. I wondered what strategies they had used to build their mental strength…what mental tricks were they using now to push through the tough conditions.
How do you prepare yourself mentally for a race? There is a natural level of mental training that comes from doing the physical training. Through the long runs, tempo runs, track work, etc., you are faced with times where you must push through a tough workout, convince yourself to not give up on that last 1600 interval or even just will yourself to get out of bed and hit the road in the first place! There is no doubt that making the commitment to months of training for a race requires you to push yourself mentally.
But how else do you up your mental ante? — Do you use visualization? Vision boards? Running journals? Mantras? Draw on certain past races/training runs? I find mantras to be really helpful – short, powerful affirmations that help me stay positive and remember how I want to feel in a particular moment. And, while I have just a few races under my belt, each one is a learning experience and gives me some experiences to draw on when a race turns ugly. For my upcoming half marathon, I’ve also started visualizing the course (easy to to do since I’ve run it before) – mentally walking through every turn and hill will hopefully boost my confidence on race day.
Despite the perfect training cycle and having a well-planned race strategy, days like yesterday prove that things can happen on race day that are well out of our control. In those moments, having a deep mental well to draw from makes all the difference!
So right Michelle….a day like yesterday comes along and all bets are off! My way of gutting through was part visualization and mostly attitude/goal adjustment early on. A friend/coworker of mine who also ran yesterday told me, “I checked my watch and my ego at the door”. Couldn’t have said it better.
Absolutely love that quote!
Congrats for making it through yesterday!
Boston is such a hard course on a perfect day, I can’t even imagine how hard it was yesterday. I’ll bet spectating yesterday was no picnic either! I find myself getting really stubborn during tough races. It’s me against the weather. My water bottle says ‘never give up’ and I don’t.
I love that quote…”I checked my watch and my ego at the door.” That sums it up.
My mental game is pretty weak. I have a really hard time not psyching myself out before things even get difficult.
when I was finishing up my final post before running Boston, I referenced a quote I’d read on another blog….”yet the inevitable question will be, what was your time? The best answer to that question is….it was the time of my life!”.
Yesterday was beyond difficult, but I stayed focused on the preparation that got me there, the people I was running for, and the determination to stick to a sensible plan, as you can’t control the weather….quitting wasn’t going to be an option, as I stuck to my plan. And it truly was the time of my life…a truly peak experience!
Mostly it’s just a matter of committing myself to a regimen and keeping my training specific to the task at hand; running hilly routes when preparing for a hilly race, making sure to work on my speed if I have my sight set on a PR, and of course, throwing in some confidence-building workouts that I know I can rock in order to keep myself pushing forward.
I am facing a different issue with rain forecast for my 10 miler tomorrow. I don’t mind running in drizzle, but 10 miles in a downpour is going to require some mental strength. I think mostly I will be focusing on a steaming grande bold coffee from Starbucks and a hot epsom salt bath!
I try to stay positive. I have a few mantras:
Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you are right! Believe in yourself!!
Pain is temporary, Pride is forever
And then I visualize the finish line and my BF waiting for me and being proud of you.
This is a great post! I think my mental game is probably the toughest part of my running game. I may not be the fastest but I won’t quit and I can put myself in a position mentally to keep pushing myself.