Building a training plan, part 5: The mental game
In which I finally get back to the training plan
Part 1: What am I thinking??
Part 2: Sources
Part 3: Principles
Part 4: Elements of training
One thing a lot of people talk about is building your mental strength along with your physical abilities. Makes sense - I'm sure all of us are familiar with those times in the middle of a race where it feels
really hard and you
really don't want to do it anymore. Your body is capable of continuing, but your brain says, "This sucks," and tries to convince you that you can't even. So while I would not say mental fortitude is exactly one of my strengths, here I am thinking about it because it's
probably important.
Why?
I guess the place to start is why I'm doing this in the first place - this being both marathon training and running in general. I will start at the beginning; many of you have probably seen my running journey already, so feel free to skip ahead. For completion's sake, let's review:
- Played a lot of softball growing up.
- Tried slowpitch in high school and hated it.
- Needed an excuse to quit slowpitch so joined cross-country.
- Ran cross-country for three years but wasn't very dedicated.
- Ran on and off for years afterwards.
- Gradually started running farther when I was living in Korea.
- Came back to the US and started thinking about doing a half marathon.
- "Trained" for a HM in 2017 and enjoyed it but then got busy again.
- More on-and-off running for a few years. Signed up for a few more races but didn't train very well.
- Registered for the 2023 marathon at Disney and had minor panic.
- Found the DISboards and learned about training and racing.
- Have been training semi-seriously for ~1 year now and have seen great improvement.
In summary, I have been running on and off for many years but only started taking it seriously in the past year or so. I suppose there are a few reasons I'm still doing this even after finishing the marathon. I like feeling strong and...endurance-full? (endurable? enduring? I don't like any of those words though.) I like feeling strong and like the Energizer bunny.
I like having a goal outside of work to strive for. But most of all I like how straightforward running is: for the most part you get out of it what you put into it. Yes, bad weather or illness or injury can mess up your actual race, which can be frustrating for sure, but you still know about where you are fitness-wise and can see improvements regardless of whether they come through in your actual race time. And now that I'm actually putting effort into my running, the improvements are a lot of fun.
Eventually (though hopefully not for some years), my ability to improve will plateau and then drop off and I'll have to fall back on the Energizer bunny reasons and shift some of my goals. But for now, getting faster is cool and I want to keep doing it. Races are a good check-in, but it's the training that really matters.
ID: One Rottweiler with a blue ball in his mouth looking Very Serious. Bol is lyfe.
Goals
That's running in general; now let's focus on marathon training specifically. Now that I've run one marathon, why do it again?
Basically as soon as I crossed the finish line in the Epcot parking lot, I said to myself, "Just think how much faster I will be next time!" And to be faster, there has to be a next time.
For this next marathon, I'm hoping I can finish in under 4 hours. All the calculators say, "Sure! You can totally be faster than that, too!" but it seems like the longer the distance, the less reliable the calculators become, so I'm not counting on those predictions. I'll take any finishing time that starts with a 3.
Someday I'd love to qualify for Boston (which would take at least a 3:35 now), but that's definitely a "several years of work down the road" goal rather than a "this fall" goal. This-fall goal: sub-4.
ID: Rottweiler licking a peanut butter spoon. His goals: all the food.
When the going gets tough
As I'm writing this, in the background I'm watching Sally McRae's documentary about the 250-mile ultra she ran last month where she totally ripped up her heel near the beginning of the race and then ran in immense pain for days. It is impressive and also insane, and if I am in that much pain when during a race I will be stopping, thanks.
So we're not talking
that tough. Just the normal occasional misery of running as fast as you can over a significant amount of time. What do I do when I want to be done but I'm not there yet? Previously I have not really thought about this in advance, but 3 hours and 59 minutes is a long time to push yourself and it is probably a good idea to plan for the moments when it will suck the most. From my limited theoretical knowledge, here are some strategies:
Mantras. I am not really good at mantras. During a race I mostly just tell myself to suck it up or that I can't quit now, which I think is exactly the opposite of what you are supposed to do. But I also haven't found much in the way of "correct" mantras that work for me. The only one that has resonated so far is "Relaxed running is fast running". So I'll keep that one, but I'm still working on others. I'm also working on actually remembering mantras when I'm running. I might be using a Sharpie on my arms on race day.
Body scan/senses check-in. Another thing that I like but rarely remember. Tina Muir always does these at the beginning of her Together Runs, though, and I appreciate them. It's another check that I'm staying relaxed. I'd like to be able to remember to do this a few times throughout the marathon, so I'll need to practice doing it on my own, without Tina's guidance/reminder.
Smile. I tried to do this during the 10K, but it's hard to smile when you're putting all of your effort into something! It seems like it does help, though, so I will keep practicing.
Music. I like to start my races with podcasts and then switch to music to pump me up when it starts to get hard.
I know there's lots of other aspects of mental training I could talk about, but I'm going to stop here for now. However, if you have strategies that have worked for you, I would love to hear them!
ID: My dog feeling extra comfortable on the couch, lying on his back with his feet in the air.
Mini-update
One more thing before I finish this post! As you all know, I signed up for the Marine Corps Marathon on October 29 and was planning to build my training plan for that. However....a friend I've known for many years is getting married on October 28 in Orlando
Since I would like to go to her wedding, I'm thinking I might defer MCM to next year and aim for Space Coast instead as that was also on my list. That's the Sunday after Thanksgiving, so I have an extra month or so to work with. I'm thinking I might do a short training block focused on my mile time before then to fill the time. So that's where we are now!
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