Advice for getting your head in the game

Was going to post this in the running thread but suspect I might got some advice from a wider audience.

Context. I run 60-70 miles per week, have a half PB of 1:20, have ran a sub-3 marathon. I am at the start of a block for an autumn marathon and is going well so far. I love running and by most people’s standard am a pretty good runner.

I did a half marathon yesterday and spent the first half cursing myself, as my legs felt heavy, didn’t fancy it, came close to stepping off the course and just had a bad time, my splits reflected this as I was getting slower and slower…until mile 8. At that point something clicked, I realised the course was much tougher than expected and I was not in bad shape at all. I ended up finished in 1:25, a time I’m relatively happy with partially given how crap I was in the first half, and my last 5 miles were getting faster and faster. Basically, I self sabotaged the first half. It’s not the first time this has happened either.

So do you have any techniques for keeping your head in the game? I’m naturally hard on myself and have high standards that I rarely meet. I can name maybe 2 races in the last 3 year that I’ve come out of happy, even when I’ve PBed.

Thanks, and sorry for the long post.

I can name maybe 2 races in the last 3 year that I’ve come out of happy, even when I’ve PBed

Are you sure that

I love running

?

That sounds like a proper coach/sports psychology issue, to be honest. That’s great running, if you are not happy with those performances, you need to dig to the root cause.

Though if your legs felt heavy at the start, maybe under recovered/tapering issue?

What bails said ^^^

Have you tried cycling?

Winky..Lolz..etc,etc 🙂

Are you sure that

Oh yeah, love the training, love turning myself inside out in sessions, love chatting with friends on long runs, love the control of my body that gives.

The part I don’t love it how my brain works in races (and it’s only on races, never in training).

Weights.

Weights taught me alot about my running psychology.

Its awful awful awful body screaming to give up and yet nearly always ends in success, you can nearly  always add a little bit nore. Repeated multiple times a session.

Taught me that my self imposed limit is not my actual limit.

My limits are still tiny mind but they are better than they were.

Unless it’s your job you don’t need to care that much, chill out.

So this is going to be tricky with the swear filter. Whenever I have to do something tough, or when my body is screaming at me to stop, I tell myself:

“F*** it… it’s a piece of piss”

If I truly believe my own words, then I can achieve it. This has got me through, and helped my excel, in many situations.

It sounds like the weight of expectation killed you, training done, made it to the start line and expected a good run, then when it wasn’t panning out that way spiralled instead of enjoying the race or stepping up to the challenge.

I would expect a trip to a Waterstones or other book store would find you a sports psychology book, I seem to recall the chimp paradox stuff being big few years ago. Pick something up and see if you can do it yourself.

If not, I’m sure there will be plenty of professionals happy to help by taking your money!

EDIT: I have just found a copy of the chimp paradox on my bookshelf, unread… cover postage and its yours.

Do you feel the same on trail/fell races?

I know a guy who was previously a high level runner and had a pretty unhealthy (obesssive) relationship with training. He quit completely but has started again and is avoiding road racing so it’s less time/benchmark oriented. He seems to be enjoying his running far more that way.

“F*** it… it’s a piece of piss”

If I truly believe my own words, then I can achieve it.

Right up until you can’t.

Running the Manchester 10k one year.  I’ve done it a few times.  I’m no athlete but I can naturally run a bit, and I’ve always been a strong sprint finisher.  Anyway, one time I really put the hammer down with however many 100m left to run, probably went too early, crossed the finish line and as I started to slow my head swam and everything suddenly went reeeeeally far away.  I’d to grab onto the barriers to stop myself hitting the deck.

I don’t know what happened – perhaps someone here can explain? – but I took it as a warning sign not to push quite so hard in future.

@oikeith, kind offer, but I should really read my copy of it before asking for another copy of someone else!

How old are you?

There comes a point with running IMO where you have to accept that speed increase isnt going to keep coming, and as above, unless you are getting paid to do it, just try to enjoy it for what it is. You may actually find you get quicker.

Are you road running ? Try a different challenge ie off road fell races etc. You wont have any idea what time you should expect to get so all you can do is enjoy the run.

Right up until you can’t.

Running the Manchester 10k one year.  I’ve done it a few times.  I’m no athlete but I can naturally run a bit, and I’ve always been a strong sprint finisher.  Anyway, one time I really put the hammer down with however many 100m left to run, probably went too early, crossed the finish line and as I started to slow my head swam and everything suddenly went reeeeeally far away.  I’d to grab onto the barriers to stop myself hitting the deck.

But at least you know you did your absolute best 🙂

Well it may be your race preparation is wrong, I can’t comment.  But in the context of mountain biking, I find giving myself a good talking to along the lines of “just **** send it you plonker”  sometimes works.  Until it doesn’t.

That is some impressive running there dude.

I think having realistic expectations helps. I’m currently a long way off my previous standards, had a bit of a break from running at the start of the year due to a combination of injury and CBA (binned my planned marathon this April). But I’m ticking over gently and have really enjoyed a handful of park runs and 10ks over the summer – literally my longest runs since Feb have been three 10k races, I had been doing 20-milers at the end of last year. My goal is to keep on enjoying myself, maybe duck under 20 for a (somewhat hilly) parkrun and/or 40 for a flat 10k. It’s not going to set the world alight but ok for now. I haven’t been turning myself inside out on races, just setting a decent challenging pace and seeing how it goes.

Not sure if I’ll get back into marathoning, starting to think about the longevity of my joints. I’ve had a good decade at it, reached my limit (2:47 aged 50) and it is all downhill from here anyway. I still enjoy getting out for a jog, enjoying the views and my freewheeling thoughts as I cruise along the local lanes. It’s more about the journey than the destination. Which is just as well, as I’m running in a loop, and I end up where I started 🙂

The part I don’t love it how my brain works in races (and it’s only on races, never in training)

Maybe don’t race then, just run. This is what I do with bikes…until I fancy doing a race and then I just smash myself with no pressure or expectations. OK if I was focussed on a race I would train and perform better but I doubt I would enjoy it more….and crucially I don’t get the burn out that many seem to have after an “event” they have trained hard for, it’s not physical burn out, it’s mental.

 I’m naturally hard on myself and have high standards that I rarely meet.

It sounds like this has helped you but is also hindering you a little.

Can you just try to remember that while you’re running?

How often are you racing , particularly shorter stuff, 5K, 10K?  They’ll serve a bunch of purposes here – practice racing, intermediate targets etc.  Racing 10 miles, half marathon often is too hard for most people really, so you get a lot of fairly duff results..

Winter is coming up – do you do cross country ?- wink – you should-  You can use the races as training, they’re tough enough to be fun, and you’ll meet/race a lot of people- if you’re not in a club, join one for this.

What you describe isn’t uncommon, especially if you go down the road of not racing often and having a lot of eggs in a high pressure 1/2 of full marathon basket. I’d also note I once talked to some other pretty good runners (<30K , < 65 half) and generally we all only seemed happy with about 3  races ever!). It might not hurt to see a sports psychologist, if you can get recomended one people seem happy with, if only to be reassured you’re normal!

• Find something in your technique to concentrate on, breathing, pace, stride length etc.
• When you find yourself getting bogged down in your thoughts, gently push yourself back to concentrating on that aspect of your technique.
• Break the course down into chunks, tell yourself that you’ll assess how you’re doing  at the 5k mark etc
• Remember this race, and next time you’re feeling down, remind yourself that you felt that in this race and were still able to make a good recovery.

For me, having a playlist ready to go on my headphones. Sometimes the legs just feel heavy and the body just doesn’t feel on it. Sometimes the splits show it’s all in my head; but on the days when it’s really not going to plan, half a dozen tracks of something loud really help: Thunderstruck, Killing in the Name, Crazy Train, Paranoid, stuff like that. Even if it doesn’t make me faster, it gets my head in it.

YMMV of course!

Are you clear about what your goals are? Setting effective goals is one of the most important (and most difficult) aspects of competition. They need to be challenging (otherwise what’s the point of racing?) but achievable (if you put the work in and everything else comes together). You also can’t make every race a major goal. Most people will probably have 2 or 3 major targets in a season.

Once you have a good set of goals in place, you have to accept that some races will just be part of the plan for achieving those goals, and it’s OK if you don’t feel great or perform at your best in every event. Recognising what are secondary goals or training races might take some of the pressure off yourself in those events, allowing you to enjoy them more and get the most out of them.

Pre race prep, know the course and when.you could expect it to feel hard/hurt it should avoid most of the issues around feeling bad because that section is hard. Race, don’t run; look around you, are others hurting or struggling, are you gaining/holding/losing positions, pick a target and aim to hold or pass them can get you through hard patches you aren’t expecting.

In my experience, how you fell has little if no reflection on how you actually perform. You might feel slow but it sounds like you’re actually going quite well. It could also be an effect of adrenaline before you start.

https://www.wob.com/en-gb/books/dr-ruth-anderson/cycling-mind/9781472948892?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw5ea1BhC6ARIsAEOG5pyOXJEN8uGNBYIZsTkLeDu00Sn-I0JVvmy31CohdPF-B_XxfCxZ4nsaAmyOEALw_wcB#GOR011439498

Getting hold of a copy of this might be worthwhile?
Similar ideas to the Chimp Paradox which might also be worth a read.

There are probably running equivalents.

All you can ever do is control your own performance. Ensure you arrive in form and do the best with that form when the race starts. A huge amount of this is a head game which is why people seem to have a run of winning things. A win gives you the confidence and belief that brings more success.

I’m no expert, but I have theories…

Your goals in the moment during the first phase shouldn’t involve your finishing time: they’re things like settling into your pacing, breathing focus, “run to that tree”, “run to the road sign”, keep HR below x, stay out of the wind, etc. Don’t let your thoughts linger on how you’re feeling or anything beyond the right now. You’ll likely know what pacing strategy works for you, where your lactate threshold is in terms of HR, how race conditions or weather affect how you perform, and so on. The training you’ve done and the fitness you’ve built will take care of each split and each phase of the race. Your immediate goals shift onto form and pace as the race goes on.

All that said, only some of my PBs have felt like the best I could do for my fitness and conditions. Many of my fastest 5k times involved unsustainable pace and lurching to the finish.

‘All you can ever do is control your own performance. Ensure you arrive in form and do the best with that form when the race starts. A huge amount of this is a head game which is why people seem to have a run of winning things. A win gives you the confidence and belief that brings more success.’

The problem with this is that winning is VERY reliant on other peoples performance, or non attendance.

More interestingly is the contrast between those who are happy to win local races, and those who go to bigger races with better fields, and will be running faster times and still not be in a position to win .  The definition of success is very different in these obvs.