I’ve just finished “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougall, a read I would highly recommend to anyone who hasn’t already read it. In a nutshell its about his ultra adventure when he goes seeking the Mexican Tarahumara Indians, the world’s greatest distance runners. Here is just the first of some thoughts I had when reading it.

Lesson 1 from the Tarahumara: Live lean and build your soul. 

Our lives have a habit of becoming “cluttered” and in the process we get “cluttered” inside of ourselves too. No coincidence that in psychological terms we talk about “getting rid of baggage”.  Deena Castor understood perfectly the holistic ethos of the Tarahumara when she sought to train under Coach Joe Vigil.  Pg 119 “If Deena even wanted to think about training under Vigil, she had better be ready to train like the Tarahumara. That meant living lean and building her soul as much as her strength.” Vigil believed you had to be a strong person before you could become a strong runner.

In the day to day routine when it’s often natural to compartmentalise our lives, lets not forget running is an integral part of who we are and how we define ourselves. It is interconnected to all parts of our existence and each part affects another. We need to work out for ourselves what it means to live lean and how we can become stronger people and runners.

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Just a timely piece of motivation passed to me by an elite runner the other day.

Think tired – feel tired – run badly

Think positive – feel positive – run well

Memorised for the inevitable part of the race where brain starts to scream “stop” and the negative thoughts seep in.

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Seven days and counting… actually 6 days 20 hours 57 mins….time for the butterflies to take residence in my tummy and the decisions on what top to wear, how many gels to carry etc etc. To be honest I’ve quite enjoyed my short taper runs last week – left the watch behind so no pressure or worrying about pace. The sort of fatalistic mindset that it’s all too late to do anything about it now anyway.

I’m not sure how I feel confidence wise about Dublin – on the plus side I’ve done the most consistent training I’ve ever done before a marathon which is good – on the down side I’ve felt a bit stale and lethargic the past few weeks which is not so good. As Mrs Tweedy tells Mr Tweedy “it’s all in your head” when he says them chickens are organised (fans of Chicken Run will understand!). Same could be said of marathon running or at least from mile 20 onwards!

6 days 20 hrs 54 mins now……. not that I’m counting you understand……….

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You’ve heard of the post-race blues – somehow I seem to have managed to do it the wrong way round and get pre-race blues. Normally at this point before a race (4 weeks) I’m starting to anticipate it, thinking about the course while I’m out running, what it will be like to finish etc etc – basically generally obsessing a bit about it. Not this time. Out of the blue last week for the first time I really did not enjoy running. Normally once I get out the door, it’s fine. Not last week. I hauled myself round my nightly 4 mile route but felt stale. I even asked myself why I was doing this at all.  I followed the JFDI principle but even this couldn’t get me out the door on my LSR on Sunday. I really could just not get my head round going out for 15 miles. So I didn’t – for the first time. I was worried. I am a runner. What was wrong? Then after not running for three days I went out again – it was okay again – so it came out of the blue but now I was out of the blues again. Sometimes maybe we really do need a break – just knowing when can be the difficult thing and when we just need to get on with it and out the door.

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I was just sorting through some old issues of Runners World magazine and came across this article in the “Mind + Body” section of the March 2007 issue.

Entitled “Hanging Tough – having a long hard think can help you through a long hard run”, it grabbed my attention in light of my near-exit from the Lochaber marathon a week previously.

I still feel sick in the pit of my stomach thinking about how I would have felt afterwards if I had given up. And realising that I’m not as tough as I should be and just how important mental toughness is in keeping going.

As John Shepherd says in the article ” Whatever distance you run, the tougher your mind, the better your performance.” The article continues “Mental toughness is not a standalone quality though. It comes from being physically fit, confident and motivated. It’s not just about overcoming pain.”

The good news is that you can train yourself to be mentally tough although, as the article points out, the bad news is that the best way to learn mental toughness is through tough experiences.

• train well
• train hard (sometimes)
• train for yourself – intrinsic rewards rather than extrinsic benefits
• talk to yourself – at the hardest part of the run
• find help if you need it

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I am now at that point in the taper when I just want tomorrow to be race day instead of 2 days away. It seems an age since my last half decent run and my head is starting to play all sorts of funny tricks.It doesn’t help that this will be my first non-city marathon with a small field made up mainly with fast club runners. I did check previous year’s results before registering to ensure there would be a reasonable number of finishers in the 4:30 to 5:00 hr bracket. I just hope they all haven’t drastically improved since last year and come back again this year!

It should be an interesting race from a “psycho” point of view – as it is an out and back route we slower people on one side of the road will be seeing the fast runners on the other side of the road who have already reached the 13 mile turning point and are on their way back.

Also the route is not traffic-free which again, will be another first for me.

So I think to occupy my mind tonight I will make lists – that’s always a useful distraction – and so hopefully will not leave any essential item (such as running shoes) at home!

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Today I did my longest run to date in this training for my April marathon. With 5 weeks to go I had to do 18 miles today to allow myself time to do a couple more long runs before the taper.

I was a bit apprehensive as to how I would get on as my legs had been stiff and hamstrings tight for most of the week after the half marathon last Sunday. I had also discovered that the calibration on my Garmin Forerunner 50 watch was a bit out (that’s for another post!).

The last 15 miler I did had been two loops of the same route so this time I opted to combine three of my shorter runs to give me the required 18 miles. This worked really well as I passed my house at the end of each and only covered a very short distance more than once. Also psychologically it was good as I segmented the run into 3 in my head and concentrated only on that one segment at a time.

Legs definitely feel like I’ve done something but having done this and not died has given me confidence that, with a couple more long runs under my belt, I should manage 26.2 in 5 weeks time.

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Back from my weekly long run – 12.4 miles in 1hr 57mins. I’m pretty happy overall with this considering the route is not flat and I felt okay by the end of it. This hopefully keeps me on track for the marathon in 8 weeks time, although I will probably only get one 18 miler in rather than the two I had hoped for given that I lost some training time due to injury and the snow.

It struck me that a lot of running is to do with what goes on in our heads and our attitude. Read More…

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