The Mental Aspect of Marathon Training

[Dstew]

Ran the Calgary Marathon using an insane training schedule - intervals at 5K plus hills and stairs, tempo runs at 10K pace or faster, long runs (2 at 25 miles included) with at least 75% of the run at marathon pace or faster.

The result was a Boston qualifying time, blood all over the bathroom when I poked my immediately black toe nails to release some pressure and Monty Python like stream ensued, joy, quick recovery or so I thought, tempo runs, pain, aches, depression and regret. When I was feeling low and determined my body would never recovery, that a long run would now be 15K, I get confirmation from Marathon Tours that the hotel I wanted to stay at has been confirmed. Toe nail one falls off - run a very slow 19K on Sunday. Toe nail number two and with it all of the doubt and aches and pain falls off and the Tuesday easy 10K run turns into a 17.5 K tempo run where I was looking for every hill I could find to run.

Then realized that how one small confirmation was able to heal my physical aches and pains and thus how important the mental aspect of the marathon really is.

Before the marathon, told everyone I knew and a few I did not what my goals were. Despite good training and everything coming into place that during the actual race some thoughts of slowing down to ease the pain and fatigue raced through my head - at about the 25-27 k mark. But then the thought of telling people I gave up and threw away the goal help keep the pace up. Realizing that the goal was close helped and passing people by running a even pace actually gave me more energy to increase the pace.

My advice, train for the mental aspect of the marathon.

[paulg]

Hi DSTEW,

No question you showed a great deal of determination and perseverance.
If you look back on the whole event (training included), was there anything
you would have done different ? What would you recommend for the training aspect (mental component)?

Thanks,
Paul

[Dstew]

1) The results speak for themselves so I cannot argue with success.

2) The mental aspect - practice associated thinking.

http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0991.htm

For me, that is spending a whole run focusing on breathing, stride length and proper form. Another thing I did was do a 3 K warm up run, do ten hard stairs and then run 7 - 10 K at marathon pace. That was to teach myself how to run at that pace when very tired such as the last 10 K of the marathon itself.

The idea is to attempt to recreate the things I you will face in a marathon so that you can develop a good mental strategy. If you can run a tough part of the actual marathon course - that prepares you mentally and physically or at least attempt to recreate that with something a little tougher. I was able to do both for the one "hill" part of the Calgary marathon. I would try different methods going up the actual hill section and see which one was faster. I would also run steeper hills and attempt to keep the pace - so when it was race day not only was I physically able to run that hill, I also KNEW I could do it.

On a very long run, practice hydration, gel strategies, etc. Again, to train your body but just as important to train your mind that your body can actually do what you are going to ask it to do.

The mental training is to overcome the Cartesian error that the mind and the body are separate. Any marathoner can tell you that if you do not think you can do it, you cannot. Likewise, there are times the body is telling you to shut it down - it is tired and sore - but the mind can overcome this.

[LILSPARK]

I need info on this, I just finished my first half and plan to do a full marathon next year- giving myself a whole year to plan, this way I plan to do my long runs every second week that way I'll have longer to be ready and on the non-long run week I'll still do 10-15k as a longer run on my non-long run week. I need to be ready for the mental/ emotional aspect of the whole experience so any tips you can give me would be great. I'm not a fast runner so I'm planning for a 5 hour finish...

[Dstew]

I need info on this, I just finished my first half and plan to do a full marathon next year- giving myself a whole year to plan, this way I plan to do my long runs every second week that way I'll have longer to be ready and on the non-long run week I'll still do 10-15k as a longer run on my non-long run week. I need to be ready for the mental/ emotional aspect of the whole experience so any tips you can give me would be great. I'm not a fast runner so I'm planning for a 5 hour finish...

The first and most important tip is not to be overwhelmed by the thought of the marathon. Where most people get into trouble is that they have not properly prepared physically and all of the mental toughness in the world is not going to overcome that. As you are already preparing and it sounds like you have a plan, that is the most important step. Believe in you plan, make adjustments that suit you and that is the biggest mental obstacle to overcome.

But to be more specific, attempt to train for everything you are going to encounter during a marathon so that you have the mental toughness to handle those challenges. For example, if the course has hills at the beginning, run hills at the beginning of some of your runs. Hills at the end, hills at the end of a couple of trianing runs. It will amaze you how just a couple of really long runs under your belt wil increase your confidence. But you need to do some quality long runs - not every time but at least a couple of rehearsal runs. By that, no headphones or other distractions so you can make sure you are consciously paying attention to your form and breathing. With practice, I can now tell what my pace is within a couple of seconds just by how hard I am breathing. If you are doing a 10/1 during the race, do that during your training and attempt to take in water, etc every 3 K as most aid stations are every 3 K in marathons. Run the last 3 - 5 miles at your marathon pace just so that you can mentally prepare for running while tired.

One training method I did was to do 10 hills or sets of stairs and then run 7 - 10 K at marathon pace with little or no rest after the hills. The reason, you want to see that while dead tired and with heavy legs you can physically do that pace but just as important you KNOW that you can do that pace when tired. Another "trick" is to run 8 - 10 miles at marathon pace on Saturday and then run a long slow run on Sunday - again, to physically and mentally get use to running on tired and heavy legs.

Another thing to practice both physically and mentally is a slow start. You have put in all of the training, the taper went well, you are fully carbo loaded and it is race day. You are feeling great and burst past the start line 20 seconds per kilometer faster than you have trained for. By about the 20 mile mark or slow, you are now crawling at 40- 60 seconds slower than you want. I will get into full race gear, go to a light pole that is the start line and hit the stopwatch - it took me countless attempts to get that right. Went out way too fast several times, a little too slow on others but always err on the side of slow.

Another great mental/emotional tip is to tell everyone you know and a few people you do not know that you will be running a marathon and if everything goes to plan you will run it in 5 hours. Trust me on this one, there is not a single marathoner out there who does not have their little voice telling them at sometime during the race, "this is insane, slow down and walk or better yet stop because you are tired and it is much easier to quit". With a little ego on the line, it helps during the race or even better, to get you out of the door on those days you do not feel you want to train.

The bottomline is that if you are properly trained, then the emotional and mental aspect can take care of itself. For example, I knew that when I was dead tired, I could gut out a 5 minute kilometer. So with 10 K left to go in the race, I knew that worst case, I was out there for another 50 minutes. In my last race, I put myself in a position where if I ran the last 10 K in 50 minutes I would qualify for Boston - I knew because of my training that I could do that so I relaxed and decided to continue with the good pace I was running and see what would happen. Ran the last 10 K in under 47 minutes as a result. You can do that throughout the entire race - only 13 miles left, I have run that "X" number of times.

Hope some of this helps.

[Jwolf]

One training method I did was to do 10 hills or sets of stairs and then run 7 - 10 K at marathon pace with little or no rest after the hills. The reason, you want to see that while dead tired and with heavy legs you can physically do that pace but just as important you KNOW that you can do that pace when tired. Another "trick" is to run 8 - 10 miles at marathon pace on Saturday and then run a long slow run on Sunday - again, to physically and mentally get use to running on tired and heavy legs.

David-
You know I respect your advice and experience, but I have to say that I disagee with you on this one...
I don't think that this type of training is appropriate for most people running a first marathon, especially a long first marathon.

10 hills + 7-10K for some people would be about a 20K run-- midweek?

And for someone doing a first marathon, tiring the legs out the day before an LSD (while you're still building endurance) is a good way to get injured.
And I also don't like the idea of fast-finish long runs for a first-time marathoner. Most people will get lots more benefit by doing these runs at an aerobic endurance pace.

I do agree that these types of runs are good for someone with a good base who is trying to improve on their marathon times. And I plan to do some race-pace training while training for my first marathon, but not on Saturday before a Sunday LSD.

I like the rest of your advice in that post, though. (we're not going to start arguing again, are we?)

[dgrant]

I have to agree with Dr J. High-fatigue training is definitely beneficial, but is very risky for a first-time marathoner still trying to teach their body perfect form. It may create a mentally tough, injured runner. I know it worked for you DStew, but you were already a veteran marathoner before your big breakthrough race.

My biggest advice from the mental standpoint is to go into every race with a 'Plan B' in your back pocket. Hopefully you'll never need it, but in case it's just a bad day for you, you have to have some motivational or coping strategy in the back of your mind. Don't let yourself be caught off guard by a bad day on the streets.

[Dstew]

I cannot disagree that there are not some risks with the type of training I did - although it was only my second marathon where I had my break through so veteran???

For my first marathon I did a gentler and kinder version of that kind of training. To be more specific, a medium length slow run followed by a long slow run - but with the option of being able to cut off the long run - did a circle eight so I could have made it two slow medium length runs. The first time I did that, the Long Slow Run was run 10 minutes, walk 2-3 or to complete recovery. I did that once, maybe twice a month - just enough to get a taste of running fatigued. Of course another alternative is a tempo run after a long day at work.

More to the point, one should run with some fatigue just so that they can learn to develop the mental toughness and coping strategies but of course, that does not do any good if it causes an injury or overtraining. So for the first marathon, less of this type of training is better, but again, a small taste may help one get through the last 5 K.

Always a tricky business because the best results are achieved through stressing the body and forcing it to adapt. Some go closer to the line of overtraining and fatigue than others.

[jacob42.2]

I think that what needs to be said here is that anyone willing to tackle the marathon isn't a newbie. And anyone who says they want to attempt the distance have been running long enough to know what they can, and can not do. To run a BQ, for the most part takes a lot of hard work. You need to train your body to know what fatigue is and press on. Doing his workouts would do this. And although, I do different training, as you can see, different training works for everyone.

While I don't condone this kind of training for newbies, I DO support it for the seasoned runner. Something that hasn't been looked at. We tend to forget about this group. Am I wrong?

[Jwolf]

While I don't condone this kind of training for newbies, I DO support it for the seasoned runner. Something that hasn't been looked at. We tend to forget about this group. Am I wrong?

Actually, I just want to make sure we don't forget about the newbies and those aiming for finishing marathons in long times. Some of the advice is just not appropriate for everyone, and I don't want people to feel like their training is somehow indadequate if they're not incorporating all these techniques.

[jacob42.2]

And yet, I see the other spectrum, where everything here is tailored to newbies, or novice runners.

[Jwolf]

And yet, I see the other spectrum, where everything here is tailored to newbies, or novice runners.

Everything? I think we just have to be specific to who is asking the question.

[jacob42.2]

Fair enough.

[runJrun]

I agree to some extent with all of you. Whilst I am running my first marathon this coming Sunday and have not yet completed the full 42.2 km, I have been running a long time and find it good to push my body and practice running while i am tired. The farthest I ran in my training was just over 35km and I am glad I did it, it taught me a lot about how I may deal with things mentally and also gave me a taste of what the adrenaline rush will be on marathon day. I was more exhausted than I thought I could be, but knew in the back of my head that I could keep on going. I hope that made sense I am also the type of person however that really pushes myself, sometimes too much maybe?

Jocelyn

[Dstew]

I agree to some extent with all of you. Whilst I am running my first marathon this coming Sunday and have not yet completed the full 42.2 km, I have been running a long time and find it good to push my body and practice running while i am tired. The farthest I ran in my training was just over 35km and I am glad I did it, it taught me a lot about how I may deal with things mentally and also gave me a taste of what the adrenaline rush will be on marathon day. I was more exhausted than I thought I could be, but knew in the back of my head that I could keep on going. I hope that made sense I am also the type of person however that really pushes myself, sometimes too much maybe?

Jocelyn

You make an excellent point - you only need to run long enough so that you KNOW that you can run the full 42.2 K. Some programs have a 30K run as the longest, others go the other extreme and have people run 45K. Or you can run for three hours, whatever it takes to get you through the psychological barrier of being able to KNOW that you can run a marathon length. Our bodies can run 20 miles, over and above that takes training and belief.

One of the best quotes I read is that any program that guarantees a result is not worth doing.

[La]

Hmmm, I don't think we can simply make a differentiation between "seasoned" and "novice" runner. There's also the issue of naturally fast runners (like Jacob) and those of us who plod along and are happy to run a sub-5 marathon. BQ is not even in our vocabulary!

I'm a seasoned runner (have been running for 8 years) and have done race distances up to the Ironman, but I would never train the way that Jacob and Dstew are suggesting as I would only get injured. Not that there is anything WRONG with their plan, just that it doesn't suit my abilities.

But to answer the other (mental) question, what I would suggest is not to look too far ahead in the training schedule that it starts to freak you out. Knowing what you have on the schedule for the coming week (or a second week out in case you are trying to plan real life around your training) is plenty. Take each week of training as it comes. But I would still highlight a taper week on my calendar so that I have something to look forward to.

[HCcD]

Terry Orlick's "In Pursuit of Excellence" (audio cassette or book) is by far one of the best mental training resources on the market, for all walks of life, and, in particular for sports training ...

In Pursuit of Excellence will show you how to develop the positive outlook that turns ordinary people into winners... on the playing field and off. You'll learn how to focus your commitment, overcome obstacles to excellence, and achieve greater overall personal and professional satisfaction. In Pursuit of Excellence is a must reading for athletes, coaches, and sport psychologists who want to cultivate a winning strategy; for business executives who want to apply to the marketplace the techniques used by winning athletes, and for parents who want to better understand and help their children pursue excellence in sport and balance in life.

http://www.zoneofexcellence.com/Books.html


Again, the common cliches ...

"Stay in the Moment"
"Believe in your yourself, your training, etc...."
"Stay Focus"
"Stay Centered"



andy Peace !!!!

[QuickChick]

To finish the marathon, it's necessary to follow a well thought out plan that builds up mileage and gives your body recovery time, as well as making it stronger. Mileage doesn't necessarily have to be high (I think the RR program maxed out at a little over 65K a week, give or take). Also the RR program doesn't really incorporate too much in the way of speed training- I think my clinics did it for 3 or 4 weeks, once a week. I trained this way for 3 marathons and finished just fine- in a very average time.

To get faster, I pushed my mileage up a bit to include a midweek long run, and I've been doing speed workouts since my recovery from Ottawa. I think if I had done this when training for my first marathon, I would've been injured for sure. My body has adapted quite a lot to running distance, and I recover a lot faster now than I did when I first started.

However, I look at what some of the elite runners do- over 100 MILES a week, and running 10 miles the day after a 20 mile run, multiple speed workouts in a week... and I know my body wouldn't be ready for even a fraction of that intensity now.

I think it takes time to adapt to the strain and impact of running for most people. Some like Jacob and dstew can do a lot more than most of us without getting injured. I figure, if you can do it, go for it. For the average runner though, who is likely to get injured by doing a lot of mileage and intense workouts right from the start, a conservative training program will allow you to finish the marathon healthy. Once you know your body can handle more, then push it.

[Nicholas]

Ther are definitely varied training methods. You can have the John Stanton way of finishing "upright & smiling" or my preference for "bent over & puking".

The "new way" seems to favour the first philosophy. It all depends what you want, why you are out there and what punishment (aka training) your body can take. Lots of newbie runners simply cannot take the physical stress of two speed sessions a week plus an intense long run. At least not without severe breakdown and injury.

It takes time to know what your body can take, what you are willing to suffer to meet your goals and what it all means to you. And all of these are changing ovr time anyway.

The mental aspect is crucial, especially when doing maraton training and racing. You are out there for so long your mind starts to play games. The last 10K of a marthon can drive you nuts if you let it. How many people have given up or started walking in that last 10K just because they weren't mentally prepared for it???

I agree that if you want to squeeze the maxiumum performance out of your body you have to push the limits...pick up the pace at the end of some long runs, do tempo and speed work each week and learn to push the envelope. And have a good medical team behind you!!!

I'm finding now that when I do that my body can't take it any more (the age thing). I know what I have to do to meet my goals, it's just whether it's worth the pain to get there. Luckily for me a BQ is still no big deal if I can only get my damn body to the start line of that qualifying marathon.....

[Run26.2]

It takes time to know what your body can take, what you are willing to suffer to meet your goals and what it all means to you. And all of these are changing ovr time anyway.

The mental aspect is crucial, especially when doing maraton training and racing. You are out there for so long your mind starts to play games. The last 10K of a marthon can drive you nuts if you let it. How many people have given up or started walking in that last 10K just because they weren't mentally prepared for it???

I agree that if you want to squeeze the maxiumum performance out of your body you have to push the limits...pick up the pace at the end of some long runs, do tempo and speed work each week and learn to push the envelope. .....

Right....for me, getting faster was learning how to push through pain, discomfort, mental fatigue, and the inner demons telling me that it was ok to slow down or to walk...everyone has their own precipice and the key is to get to the edge of it without going over...