It’s difficult to remember a time when I didn’t love running. I’ve run for nearly 10 years so it’s part of me now. I do remember one of my hesitations towards starting running was that I’d find it boring. Of course, I didn’t know what I know now or else I’d have started running sooner. For me the thrill of running is in pushing yourself beyond what you once thought was impossible. In the early days 10K was the summit I wanted to climb. Nowadays 10K is a sprint! In the early days running a sub 60 minute 10K was the destination. Nowadays a sub 50 minute 10K is the goal (I’m almost there!). My point is that running is so much more than putting one foot in front of another. So many times I’ve had to justify my enjoyment of my hobby to non-runners. To (mis-)quote Jerome Drayton: to describe running to a non-runners is like trying to explain colour to a man born blind. However, going back to my original hesitations, occupying your mind during running is one of the biggest challenges for a runner. Not properly occupying your mind can quite often affect performance.
This was something that occurred to me during training for my first marathon in 2012 (London) is that the biggest battle of training for a marathon is keeping positive during long periods of time running. I love the way my mind wanders during a run. All sorts of thoughts float through my head and quite often a work problem will get resolved whilst I’m running. As a Christian, I also take the opportunity to pray (of course I don’t close my eyes before you ask! That would be silly!) and spend time with God, even if it is just “Please God get me to the finish line I’ve had enough!” Quite often if I’m not watching my Garmin, I’ll get home and think where did that run go or cannot remember anything about the run because I’ve been absorbed in my thoughts. For me this is the biggest benefit of running. We all live busy lives and getting time to just think is a rare commodity.
So what does this all have to do with “Mind Games” the title of this blog? Well to train for a marathon requires the right mindset. Sometimes this will take a few weeks into the plan to embed. Finding what your inspiration is before you start is important. Reflecting on this every time a training run hurts or every time you don’t feel like lacing up your running shoes will help immensely. At the moment I’m winning the mind games but this can all change with a skipped run so it’s a constant battle. This is also applicable during a run. How many times have you thought half way through a run “I can’t do this, I’m quitting” For me this is a frequent occurrence. What’s important is I never entertain these thoughts and use mind games to trick my body to keep going. I do this by breaking down the remaining distance into chunks and then mentally ticking them off as I pass them. This makes the challenge less auspicious!
Recently, I’ve been strengthening my mind by pushing myself to run when it’s raining heavy or very windy. The easy option would be to run another time but I think this is an important part of the training. I’ve also been doing a tough morning run and then doing a second session in the evening. This running on tired legs gets the mind prepared for the toughest. I’m hoping this will prepare me for 2 marathons in 7 days!
So week 8 of Brighton and London marathon training is drawing to a close. It’s going well so far. Better than I’d expected having been a bit stop-start with my running at the end of 2013. As of yesterday’s run I’ve run 258 miles since 1 January so well on my way to achieving my target of 1,251 miles (2,014K) in 2014. I’m averaging 40+ miles a week and am up to 18 miles on my long runs. I haven’t concentrated on pace so far as the mileage has taken over but a 4 hour marathon time is within grasp. A good sign is I haven’t skipped a single run so far despite having had a cold for the past 6 weeks and quite frankly some shocking weather! This is testament to my current mindset. I’m firmly focused on the task in hand! I’ve also worked on the factors that let me down at my last marathon in 2012. One of these was my weight. I used running big miles as an excuse to eat during marathon training and gained 7 pounds before the big days. This time around, I’ve eaten normally and I fast 2 days a week (a huge challenge whilst training so hard!) I’m pleased to say I’m 32 pounds lighter than I was at London 2012. I am concentrating on shedding a few more pounds before April!
Raising sponsorship for WSPA is going slowly. I’m at £422 (excluding GAYE) out of a target of £1,500 so I need your support please!
Give through my just giving site: www.justgiving.com/account/your-pages/Russell-Weston-Walker1
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Thanks for reading. If you’re running, stay safe!
Russ Runs 