Mental Part of Running

 I know that there are hundreds of articles online about how important the mental part of running is, some say the most important part. Everyone is different so what happens to one of us is likely different to someone else. I thought, however, that sharing what goes on in my conniving little mind might resonate with some of you.  



From personal experience I can attest to the devious rationalizations my mind throws at me while I am running, especially in race mode. Inevitably I will be confronted by the first mental peep around the 5 minute mark. The point before I reach the more comfortable mode where I do not feel that the world is sucking the oxygen deliberately out of my lungs. It is here where the little voice starts pulling at my metamorphical shoe strings saying “Hey we do not want our lungs to burst do we?” or "It is just not in the cards today buddy”. Fortunately the changeover to the comfort zone is only a couple of minutes away so I generally can thwart this one without too much effort. Once I am in the comfort rhythm zone I am safe from my minds outbursts... well at least for a little while anyway. The second mental thought saboteur starts to appear around mile 2. Something like “Hey, a bunch of runners have already passed us today, so what is the point of keeping up this crazy pace? Let’s just finish the race. Slow down, it is still a victory if we just finish. There is always the next one.” This one is a little more difficult to shake off. Your mind, well at least my mind, can pretty much convince me of anything, and justify it to my body, and make me believe it was my idea all along!  Luckily I have successfully run enough races that I can fight back using the past as inspiration to continue moving forward. Oh, I am not saying it is easy mind you, but it generally gets me over this second mind hurdle. 

However my mind is strong and it does not give up easily. When my body is pouring out sweat, and my legs are burning, my chest is heaving and I feel like I have used up what seems like the last of my ATP; my mind jumps in with both of its proverbial feet and starts playing the “Stop and Rest” card. It is clever, works it in when your body is working at its hardest, and at its most vulnerable state. It goes like this, “OK that is enough. You Have to stop now, just for a minute”. Do you see the multitude of mind tricks being used in these two and a half simple thoughts? First, it is taken a parental authoritative tone, hoping to draw on your childhood experiences of obeying authority figures. Second, it provides you an out by creating an option of a short respite, to prevent a total white flag surrender which you might rebel against. Third, it plays on the ¨mind knows what the body needs” gambit and who are you to argue with that? By this point I am darn near convinced that stopping is not only the right thing to do but is a physical imperative. It takes tremendous fortitude to squash these thoughts and my one successful come back over the years has always been “I have come this far, I am not going to stop now”. That works for me currently, but that has not always been the case. Especially in my early days of running when my mind could play me like a fiddle. It is still an issue even today, particularly on longer runs. 

I am sure that I am not alone in this and that there are many runners that go through some version of the above. There are a plethora of articles out there to assist us in mind training, and not just for running but for everyday life. You can check out some of them at the link below. My challenge now is to not allow my mind to outsmart me during my vulnerable time. It would be so much easier if my mind did not know me so well. 

https://www.runnersworld.com/uk/training/a773966/9-ways-to-boost-your-mental-strength/



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