Overcoming the Tough Stuff: My Brain

Why is it that if someone tells us that there are one billion stars in the universe, we will believe them.  But if they tell us a wall has wet paint, we have to touch it to believe it’s really wet?

There's a lot to be said about what we believe about our own running and amazing too how fickle our running heads can be.

Consider how I’m working on my running in preparation for the Chicago Marathon.  Endurance—check.  Speed—check.  Weight—check.  Core strength—check.  Hydration, flexibility, recovery—check, check, check.

Notice the absence of focus on the mental game of my running.

Oh sure, the day-in-and-day-out training add up to a more confident me.  But I also know that on race day, my self confidence can be fleeting. 

I have a whole range of negative thinking that can disable months of training and planning.  One minute I’m wearing all the confidence of a solidly-trained and experience runner.  The next moment, I’m milk toast.

Some days, my mental game can be so frail, that one thought alone of others’ capabilities has been known to set me back in a race.  I’m disadvantaged even before a race is underway merely by glancing around at more athletic, fit, trim, taught, and seemingly better-trained runners than me.

Then the race unfolds, and it’s a whole new set of challenges as the waves of fatigue and discomfort hit me.  I can ward off the early stuff, but as the difficulty increases, then the excuses just seem to pile up with each stride.

“Guess I’m not in shape…”

“Today isn’t my day…”

“Still not recovered from my last long run…"

And those are just the nano-second thoughts, and I'm beginning to slow down.

Then I start hearing the voices and the thoughts keep hammering at me repeatedly and in much more developed sentences.

“You’ve run enough years…or miles…or marathons (whatever excuse I prefer) and you don’t have anything more to prove.”

And before I know it, I've cashed in my goal and I'm rehearsing what I’m going to tell my family, friends, and co-workers about my performance.   (The truth is they really don’t care and don’t measure me by time, finish, or what I tell them.)  Then I sometimes break down my story into more details I’ll share with runners versus non-runners.  Do I refer to elementary stuff like the weather or the course, or do I go into more technical detail such as depleted glycogen stores or my lousy piriformis?

We invest in so much physical effort, learning, putting in the time, managing our gear, and building hope.  And then in the time it takes for our feet to land between strides, we trample our own self confidence.

In working with others under stress I’ve learned that the average person experiences somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000 unique thoughts a day.  And it’s not uncommon for 30% - 40% of thoughts to be negative for even the mentally healthiest of us.  So I can only imagine how the flow of negative thoughts increases and pummels us when we’re at midpoint or later stages of a demanding training run or race.

Why is it I’d rather study and rehab a sore muscle than manage the flow of negative thoughts that assault my mind? Especially when there’s no shortage of helpful tools, techniques, and approaches that can help manage our mindsets and whirlwind of thoughts while running.  A few include:

Mental Training

The Body Achieves When the Mind Believes

Self Talk and Running Performance

Marathon Training: Psychological Issues

Be Positive: Talk to Yourself

Maximum Strength Positive Thinking

The mental discipline of Marathons

Self Talk and the Endurance Athlete

Mental Marathon

A personal favorite book on the subject is Running Within: A Guide to Mastering the Body-Mind-Spirit Connection for Ultimate Training and Racing.  Plus on my night stand (translated: it's bookmarked and been there for months) is a book called Brain Training For Runners.

Speaking of the mental aspect of running the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business is conducting a study on marathoners and satisfaction.  Not sure what satisfaction means—Marcy, I'm pretty sure it's not what you're thinking.  But if anyone wants to be part of the study, you just can check out which marathons the study includes, complete a few surveys and then you're eligible prizes.

The tough season is upon us, so we're eagerly, okay frantically, looking forward to learning from each other at this week's Take It And Run Thursday.

Comments

[Tootie]

I love that quote about the paint - so true!

Your post hit on such an important point - that running is just as much a mental sport as a physical sport.

[Runner Girl]

Mental strength is just as important as physical. My nonrunner friends always ask me "how can you just run for an hour straight? Don't you get bored?" and I always answer that running is really my meditation. It's a time to use to clear my mind and when it gets tough I use it to push me through. Just 5 more miles... haha

[Laura]

I just got Brain Training for Runners as a birthday present, and can't wait to read it. I find the mental aspect of marathons MUCH harder than the physical.

[Bob Allen]

I think I'm dealing with a fickle running head. Somehow my brain seems to have convinced my body that it can't run well in this warm, humid weather we're having. On Saturday, during my long run (13.1 miles), I found myself talking myself into accepting a revision of my half-marathon goal to down from 1:44 to "just beat 2 hours" -- even though I ran a 1:49 half last September and have followed a Runner's World training plan almost obsessively.

I've got to get my head straightened out.

[Laurel (aka Lily)]

Long runs are definitely a brain game. You have to dig deep, but if you've done your training and set your goals then you have to focus on that and continue on.

However, if you are running through an injury to finish a race, you really have to focus on why.

If the injury is serious, sometimes you just have to stop the race, and stop the negative brain talk. Look at the long term, you want to be able to run again once your are injury free.

[Coach Deab]

Thanks for linking to one of my articles. Very good comments here. I also believe that the mind stuff is toughest. Even as a practitioner (mental games coaching professional) and lifelong student of it all I struggle like everyone else at times. There is no secret or magic bullet. It takes practice... and lots of it to curb all our habitually poor thought patterns.
PS Brain Training for Runners was exceedingly disappointing. (I was even given a free copy to write a review.) It'll be interesting to see how you all feel about it. I've read far better, more relevant books and without hype-fluff. Very little substance in it.

[Teri]

I'm so glad to have come across your post this week. I have been feeling like mentally, lately, I have not been "in the game" so to speak, or just letting myself down by not being able to stay positive enough while in my long runs. I am going to try to get my hands on that Running Within book, thanks very much for the recommendation.