Tag: Mental

Rule #4 – Set a goal – any goal!

By Al

On 4th January 2020

Have you ever noticed how your focus or intensity in training tails off when you don’t have a race booked in? Or maybe you had a race booked but you were just running it for fun and so you didn’t really take training very seriously?

Now I am all for enjoying running. Absolutely. If you don’t ever enjoy it then there better be another darn good reason for doing it! And you should definitely have some easy weeks built into your training to avoid burnout.

But I’m also a believer that you need to keep the horizon in your eye-line. You need to know and be thinking of the next big thing for your running. You need a goal that is going to keep you focused and motivated to maintain your fitness.

It could be a special race, a charity event, a faster time, a new distance, terrain or country. It might not have to be a race at all but it has to be something that is big enough for you to have a plan towards.

Planning out at least 6 months in advance keeps you focused on what you need to do to achieve your next target. It will prevent you going onto autopilot and potentially undoing the good work you’ve done up to this point.

Sign up to something today if you haven’t got anything planned. Tell your friends and family to make you accountable and start planning towards your next big goal.

Rule #3 – Past performance is not an indicator of future results

By Al

On 1st August 2019

In Habit, Mental, Running Rules

Investing in the stock market always comes with the warning above. However, it applies to running too. It is far too easy to focus on the past and let it cloud our judgement of what we do now. This can manifest itself in two ways: Reminiscent running and Rut running.

Reminiscent running is where we wish that we are as fast and as fit as we used to be. We may wish it so much that we actually believe it until we try running. We then come back to earth with a horrible crash leaving us demoralised and dreading running.

Instead of focusing on where we once were at some perfect point in time, we must be pragmatic and use ‘now’ as the starting point for where we can get to in the future. Start with realistic goals based on your current fitness and work up from there.

Rut running is almost worse. This is where we get stuck doing the same training and our levels plateau. We could see improvements but instead our potential is stunted by doing training that doesn’t work and doesn’t excite us anymore and leaves us feeling stale.

By constantly reassessing our goals and challenges and varying our training accordingly, we stay fresh and keep improving. We conquer new challenges and get the best out of ourselves.

If you are going to invest in the stock market then take the statement above as a caution. However, if you are running take it as a positive reminder not to compare yourself to a former you and that quite possibly your best running days are still ahead of you.

Rule #2 – The 3 Rs – Remember your Reasons for Running

By Al

On 19th July 2019

In Mental, Running Rules

Sometimes it’s very easy to forget why we run. The reasons are different for everyone but there are some common ones that many will share: lose weight; get fit; improve mental health; sense of achievement; meet new people; new experience; set an example to our kids; the list goes on.

However, there may be lots of times when we forget these factors: when the weather is bad; when we feel like we have a bad run or race or sometimes we just don’t feel like running. It’s at these times we need to remember the reasons we chose to do this, especially the most important one.

It may be that we’ve got caught up chasing PBs and we forget that the main reason we run is to be able to eat a few treats guilt free. Or it’s the middle of the winter training for a marathon and the elation of crossing that finish line feels so far off.

A visual or audio cue is a great way to remind us of our reasons for running. It could be a phrase or a picture. It could be before we run or even during the run itself. Pick a short phrase you can recite when things get tough or have a picture that epitomises your why in your kit bag.

If you can’t think of a single reason for why you run then it is possible it isn’t for you and you should think about doing something else. But for almost all of us our personal reasons for running are the single most important thing. They will get us past the toughest points and allow us to enjoy our running more.

Overcoming injury blues

By Al

On 27th June 2018

In Injury

How to get back to your best following injury

I was flying at the start of the year. I’d clocked my fastest mile ever in training and had my sights set on beating my shorter distance PBs. I ran a 5 mile PB in challenging conditions and had a 10k round the corner. I was about to start training for a marathon PB in the summer.

Then I decided to take on a half marathon fell race. It seemed sensible to get some hill training ahead of a mountain race in France I was doing at the end of summer. I’d been going about 5 miles; some steady up followed by very uneven terrain across the top and a rapid descent.

It was misty and I’d lost sight of the runners ahead but at least I could hear the traffic on the road down below. I wasn’t far away but the grass was wet and slippery. I made a split second decision to move onto rocks and stones over to the right to avoid sliding down the slope.

As I landed on my right foot it rolled out too far to the right as the rocks gave way and I let out a howl. After a few moments I got back to my feet and although the pain wasn’t too bad I knew something was wrong. I hobbled down to the road and contemplated hobbling round to the finish.

Instead, I decided to take my shoe off to inspect the damage more closely. I could immediately see what the issue was. I had a bruise the size of a tennis ball on the side of my foot. There was no way I’d be able to get the shoe back on even if I’d wanted to. Moments later my clubmate caught up with me, took one look at my foot and told me to get to hospital. My race was over.

I was lucky, or so I thought. I hadn’t broken anything but I had damaged the ligaments in my foot. I was given crutches and prescribed a course of PRICE (Painkillers, Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation – actually compression wasn’t mentioned in this case so maybe it was RIPE!) I would get physio on it in a week’s time.

After a week I barely needed the crutches and I had my initial assessment with the physio. My rehabilitation was going well. However, I’d been warned that initial progress would be much faster than subsequent progress.

Days turned into weeks with my question at every physio session – “When can I get back running?”. At first he pretty much laughed my question off as if I was joking then after a while started to set my expectation that I was still a couple of weeks off.

About 4 weeks after my injury I went back out for my first run. I intended to run slow and only a mile or so but I ended up doing 4k at a decent pace. The following week I did 4 miles and ran a decent 5k. I still had 7 weeks until the marathon I should have been training for. Maybe I could still make it?

Six weeks later I’m a week out from the marathon. I’m going to do it but seriously wondering if that was sensible. My foot feels ok when running but I can feel it niggle the rest of the time. I know I haven’t dedicated enough time to strengthening it.

My training program has been ‘designed’ to build up my long miles with plenty of rest days to try and recover. The result is that a lot of the shorter faster and hillier stuff has been left out which means I can’t compete at the level I want to.

If I’d sacrificed the marathon I might have been further down the road to ironing out the problems in my foot. I might have been able to compete better over the shorter distances. The problem is that we as runners are stubborn. We don’t like to be told we can’t do something. I’m going to do this marathon. But what am I doing it for?

In my defense, if it had only been the marathon I would probably have pulled out of it. 5 weeks after the marathon I take on the Canigou race in the Pyrenees in France. It is race I am completely unprepared for but it holds sentimental value for me and I need to complete it in whatever fashion I can (which for me will probably be walking large sections of it).

The idea of training for the marathon first was to get some distance into my legs ahead of that race. I didn’t feel ready to do hill training (though I will start if I get through the marathon in one piece). I’m now petrified of steep downhills. And the marathon is fairly flat. At least I’ll have some distance in my legs I thought. There is method in the madness. Somewhere.

The problem is that I see everyone else in tip-top shape for the marathon and wonder what my aim is here. I honestly don’t know what is realistic. I should be happy just to complete it in any time. But it would be nice if it wasn’t my slowest ever. Or if it was faster than my first. The mind sets goals that the body may not be capable of.

I’ve been very lucky; this is the first time I’ve ever been injured and it’s not been too serious. But it has still impacted my training for nearly 3 months now. However, I can empathise better how it can hit you mentally. It is difficult to accept that it will take time to get back to where you were. It isn’t easy to see others breezing past you. And I now realise how hard the work is that will get you back to where you were.

7 tips to stay or get injury free

Don’t race something you are not ready for

When deciding this, consider not only the distance and your own fitness but the terrain, altitude, climate and your health on the day. In my case this applied to the fell race especially. I hadn’t practised enough steep hill routes in training and was not cautious enough coming downhill. More training may not have stopped the accident but it would have made it less likely.

If you have an injury get expert medical advice

We as runners never want to hear that we are injured from an expert. That would make it real. That would stop us running. However, this is a short-sighted view because nipping an injury in the bud early will save a lot of downtime later on. Even if you are not sure, get it seen to by a physio or doctor. Don’t rely on a self-diagnosis from the internet or anecdotal stories from unqualified runners.

Do what your physio tells you

Your physio is going to tell you do stretches in many cases to strengthen the injured area. These are not exciting. They are not setting PBs on Strava but they are what will get you there faster. I know that my progress was quicker on the weeks I did more of the stretches than others. They shouldn’t take long, you just need to block off 10-15 minute slots to do them. Get them done, get back faster.

Cross-training is key

If you are unable to run for more than a couple of weeks you will start to lose the fitness you had built up. This is when you need a non-impact activity to do such as swimming, cycling or yoga. The problem is, if like me you don’t do any of these regularly, then it can seem alien to start doing these once you are injured. Pick a cross-training activity that you like and start it when you are fit once a week so that you have something should you need it. In any case it is beneficial within your training to give your legs one non-impact training day in the week.

Manage your body after training and races

There are a few things you can do here. Firstly, you should stretch after every session. 15 second stretches for your calves, hamstrings, quads, hip flexors etc will restore the muscles to their normal length and reduce the likelihood of tightness. After long runs, I find a cold bath works wonders to get the legs to recover faster. They are not pleasant when you are getting in but you do get used to it after the initial shock! You could also get a sports massage from time to time which will help any tightness and get rid of the lactic acid in the muscles.

Rest – don’t overtrain!

Giving your body an extra day to recover from time to time is not going to adversely affect your overall training plan. Rest is important especially if you are feeling a potential problem area. You should also rest if you are ill. A head cold is usually ok to run with but you should rest with anything chesty or more serious. If in doubt, leave it out. Overtraining can happen if you are trying to build up your training, possibly when targeting a new distance. Rule of thumb is no more than a 10% increase in weekly running mileage or long run mileage otherwise you run a higher risk of injury as your body is not used to the extra strain.

Stay mentally focused

If you suddenly get an injury it is easy to switch off and let it get you down. You quickly need to refocus and build towards a new target. The new target may just be getting back to fitness or it may be a more realistic running target. If you’ve had a very long term injury, try and focus on seasons’ bests rather than personal best. Stay in contact with runners who will check how you are, have recovered from injuries themselves or just generally give you a mental boost.

Being injured is the worst thing for a runner. If you are not prepared for the possibility, it can knock you for six both physically and mentally. However, taking as many steps towards injury prevention as possible coupled with a strategy to get back to fitness if an injury does occur should stop injuries derailing your running completely.

Running low on confidence?

By Al

On 7th May 2018

In Mental

Get your enjoyment back and see your performance improve

Some people say running is all in the head and they are for the most part correct. We all have physical limitations but they are not usually as restrictive as we think they are. The mind controls the body and has a habit of telling us what we can and can’t do.

But sometimes it doesn’t always know what we can achieve because it uses ‘sound reasoning’ based on previous experience. Worse still, it can make us doubt what deep down we know we are capable of. At these times you have to fight back against the voice in your head.

We can probably all recognise the times when the mind has a tendency to play it safe in terms of time or distance. Have you ever said to yourself “I’ll just take it easy today and try and pick it up halfway through” or “I was going to do 7 miles today but I’ll just do 5”?

Don’t get me wrong – there are times when you have to be sensible for instance if you have an injury or are genuinely unwell. But most of the time there is no rational reason to deviate from what we were going to do and it nearly always leads to regret and reducing confidence.

The effects we probably don’t notice resulting from low confidence is in our running form. If you think about a time you were running full of confidence, everything feels easy, it is more like a gliding motion. It feels like you can carry on forever; you’re in the zone.

Contrast that with when things aren’t going well. The head drops so you are hunched over, the legs feel heavy most likely from more excessive heel striking, your cadence drops enough to adversely affect your time and you keep looking at your watch every 200 yards. But unless you are injured or have not fuelled correctly, it’s only not going well because your head is telling you so.

You have to work to actively combat the negativity that can wreck running.

Firstly, forget about time for a week or so and try and get some enjoyment back into your running. Working on your form will help make running feel easier. Imagine you are walking into a room of people you don’t know. You may not be confident but they won’t know if you keep upright have smooth motion and look happy! This is how you should look when running. And don’t nervously check your watch.

Next you can work on speed. This will be made easier by two things; foot form and cadence. When low on confidence it is more likely that you are heel striking (you land predominantly on your heel). This is not easy to change and I don’t recommend a wholesale change overnight as it will take its toll on your calves, however, being aware of this and shifting more onto the balls of your feet, even for a short period of your run will instantly make you a little faster for the same effort. This is because you spend less time in contact with the ground. Increasing or even maintaining your cadence (how many steps you take per minute) will also have a big effect on time.

Once you’ve got some enjoyment back, set realistic goals and train properly with a plan to achieve them. But how do I know what is realistic? It’s a fair question. If you are returning from injury then you need to be cautious and take advice from the medical experts. Try not to think in terms of PBs (personal bests) but of SBs (season bests). I.e. don’t compare this year’s performances to last year’s when you were fully fit just try to improve on times from your injury.

If you are not injured but are struggling with confidence it may also be because you are comparing yourself now to you in previous years or against other people we know that are improving. Comparing ourselves to other people is not useful (unless you are an elite).

Just because our times are similar to someone else’s it doesn’t mean that we are at the same point in our running careers. People who are just starting out will improve much more rapidly and that can be demoralising for anyone they pass. You can’t affect what others do only what you do.

Unfortunately, as we get older we tend to overthink things more but we need to get back to the feeling that kids have when they run. They’re just trying to do the best they can at that point in time. So every once in a while go and do a short run with the aim of just going for it. Leave the preconceptions behind and try and clear your mind. Also leave the watch behind if it helps.

Really going for a 5k with confidence will show where you are at this point in time. Don’t be disheartened if the time is not where you think it should be – this is the base from where you will improve.

Running is all in the mind and so are all of the doubts. Control the doubting mind and you’ll remember why you started running.

Stop your PB envy and start working!

By Al

On 2nd April 2018

In Mental

Hang your head in shame if you’ve ever said or thought any of these things about X <substitute X with name of rival faster runner>.

“I’ll never be as fast as X”.
“X must be naturally gifted as a runner”.
“X never seems to work as hard in training yet always finishes ahead of me”.
“X’s PB is minutes faster than mine”.
“I hate X – in the nicest possible way”.

Ok – X-hating over? Good because I need to lift my head as well to write the rest of this article!

Running at our level is supposed to be fun and not overly competitive – right? Well I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t had some of those thoughts in the past. No matter how well you get on with your club mates, siblings, colleagues or whoever else you run with, you want to try and do better than them.

And why not? Running is essentially a solo sport and whilst we want to see those people do well, we are most interested in doing well ourselves.

It’s natural to see the results of others and then dismiss the work they have put in to get where they are. In business, Ramit Sethi calls this the iceberg effect but it applies to sport too.

Let me say again that we are most interested in doing well ourselves. So what are we really saying when we say the things above? We’re not really complaining about how good X is, we’re moaning about how bad we are. We’re really saying this:

“I’ll never be as fast as I want to be”.
“I’m not a naturally gifted runner so I’ll never be any good”.
“I feel like I’m working hard in training but it doesn’t seem to be paying off”.
“I want my PB to be minutes faster than it is”.
“I hate myself – in the worst possible way”.

Right – self-loathing over now? Good, we’ve changed the focus from other people to ourselves but we’re still far too negative. We’re using excuses to mask the real reason we’re not improving as fast as we’d like.

We need our training to be better. Notice I didn’t say “we need to train harder”. Many people’s answer to getting faster is just to train more. “You just need to up the mileage”. That’s simply not true. Whilst you may get some slow improvement from doing that it won’t be nearly as effective as 3-5 varied sessions in a week.

The specifics of these will depend on what you are training for. But essentially the sessions boil down to the same for most things. Long, speed, hills and tempo. These are discussed in more detail in the previous blog.

For now let me turn this on its head and ask you this. What would it feel like if someone said these things about you:

“I’ll never be as fast as you”.
“You must be naturally gifted as a runner”.
“You never seem to work as hard in training yet always finish ahead of me”.
“Your PB is minutes faster than mine”.
“I hate you – in the nicest possible way”.

It would feel pretty good – even if we didn’t say so wouldn’t it? And it is certainly possible. In fact I would go further than that. If you start focusing on improving yourself it will naturally follow.