Great advice from Jason Fitzgerald: "When Having a Big Head is a Good Thing" Nothing can tear you down quicker than yourself. 40 miles into my first 50 mile ultra marathon I was tired, dehydrated, and mentally unfocused. In a matter of 2 miles I went from feeling strong and confident to worthless and ready to quit. I had no mental toughness. I quit believing in myself, and I was dangerously close to ending my race 10 miles short of the finish. Thankfully, a running buddy was pacing me at the time and felt my negative energy flowing like Niagara Falls. He looked me in the eye, grabbed my arm, and assured me that I could press on. He forced me to believe that the bad time would pass and I would regain strength soon. It was confidence that carried me to the finish line. Throughout your training, you have the golden opportunity to spend weeks, often months, doing nothing but building yourself up and turning yourself into a confidence machine. ◾Write down the distance, goal time, and race date on several pieces of paper, and hang them in places you frequent, like above your dresser, bathroom mirror, or next to your computer at the office. Every time you read those words, tell yourself that you will hit that goal time on that date. ◾At the end of your long runs, begin visualizing yourself approaching the finish line with time to spare. On a recent podcast, No Meat Athlete’s Matt Frazier discussed using this technique leading up to his BQ race. It was so effective it would often bring him to tears while he was running, as he visualized years of hard work paying off. ◾Begin telling others what you are doing and the goal you are aiming for. Don’t view this as bragging, but owning all the work you put into your training. It may go something like this, “I’ve been great. I’m training for a marathon, where I’m finally going to break 4 hours!” The key to believing is seeing, right? Well, the same goes for doing. When your see yourself as a confident runner, achieving all the goals along your path, you’ll be that much closer to actually doing.
Posted on: Wed, 31 Jul 2013 15:46:19 +0000
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