Do you remember cross country day at school? It was exhausting, embarrassing, and easily shattered your confidence as you faced your own insecurities head on. And this comes from someone who was actually good at it.
Fast forward to today. The mental demons telling me to stop are just as loud. Not only is running tough on the body, it is also tough on the mind. Most other sports involve short bursts of activity where you can focus on completing a task or helping your team. Not running.
Running involves concentration the entire time. Running involves questioning your sanity every single time. Yet we keep doing it. Before we have even caught our breath from one race, we are already signed up for another, desperate for that satisfaction (and a few extra puddings!).
The cycle continues, but does running ever get any easier? As an elite runner myself, I am here to tell you, unfortunately not.
However, there are some mental tactics that help you through those bad patches to accomplish your running goals. Just as we have to train the body, we also have to train the mind to be strong, and as with the physical aspect of running, there is no quick fix to training your mental muscles.
Running never gets any easier, but you learn to be more comfortable with the pain associated with running. You get better at reminding yourself that the pain is temporary and that despite what your brain might be telling you, this is not going to kill you.
If you are training for a big race such as the London marathon, and the negative thoughts have been relentless, one of the best things to do is to enter a local, shorter race or parkrun.
Not only will you have a starting point to see where your physical fitness is at, but you can experience the anticipation and fear on race morning, the excitement at the start and, of course, those voices in your head that tell you to quit.
Once you finish that race, you may be reminded why you are doing it and you have the bonus of knowing where you struggle the most. Are you someone who goes off fast, feeling confident, but within a few minutes, thinks about how far you have to go, and spends most of the rest of the time slowing down?
Are you someone who paces themselves well, but tends to have a slump towards the end as doubt consumes you? Start to think about mantras that are meaningful to you that will motivate you in those moments. Often that involves finding a reason to run that is bigger than you. If you are racing for charity, the name of the person you are running this race for could work. If you are running this to show your kids that they can commit to something and accomplish it, think of one of their names. If you are doing this for a team, come up with a group mantra.
Whatever it is, find a few words or phrases that you can repeat over and over again in those moments of doubt. Write them on your arm, or get loved ones to shout them as you pass by. This snaps you out of the negative cycle and distracts you from desperately searching for the moment you lost your mind, thinking running was a good idea.
The finish line is a magical place, and once you have raced a few times, you can draw upon those moments in future races. Next time you are struggling, think about how great it is going to feel when you reach your goal. Think about how proud you will be, how you kept going even though every fibre of your being was screaming at you to stop. That can be enough to shake you out of it, or at least keep you moving.
Another tactic that I find especially effective is to ask myself: “Are you doing the best you can in this moment?”. Almost always, the answer is yes. Maybe you slowed down a little more than you wanted to and your goal time is slipping away, but there are many variables that can affect performance on any given day. As long as you are doing your best, that is truly all you can ask for.
Even if you have to ask yourself once a mile, or even once a minute, if you get in the habit of focusing on doing your best, you remove the pressure and become supportive, rather than degrading. When you are in one of those moments where you consider quitting, how do you talk to yourself? I used to be very aggressive and would feel like everyone knew it was going badly. Racing was an ongoing battle between my self-belief and self-doubt.
Mantras like “can’t stop, won’t stop” sound good, but, rather than building us up, when we reach that moment of weakness, the negative word, the “can’t”, becomes the centre of our attention.
Now, I have changed my self-talk to be more positive and affirming. It is much better to be reassuring and kind. Imagine your sister, daughter, partner was the one running and they said: “I can’t do this, I’m a failure”. Would you say: “Yeah, you are: you are worthless”?. Not a chance!
You would build them up, encourage them, and tell them they are doing great. We need to do the same for ourselves. We know children respond better to positive reinforcement than negative, and so do we.
Towards the end of your run, you might need something to take your mind off the pain for even just a few seconds. Instead of thinking about how much pain you are in, give your mind something to concentrate on. Count up to 100 or backwards from 300. It does not matter what sequence you use, but it should distract you through the worst of the rough patch.
Running isn’t easy. Everyone knows that, but there is something so incredibly rewarding about fighting those mental demons and winning. Running is the greatest analogy there is for the mantra“what you put in is what you get out”, and, although it never gets easier, you get tougher. The stronger your mind is while running, the better you will be at dealing with the rest of life’s curveballs.
Running may just save your world.
Tina blogs at tinamuir.com/explore
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