Forums >Running 101>The mental challenge part of the race
Does anyone know of a good book that deals with the mental challenge of "pushing" yourself that last part of a race? I'm talking about the mental skill of overcoming pain and the voice in you that says "Quit, quit!"?
Ricky —our ability to perform up to our physiological potential in a race is determined by whether or not we truly psychologically believe that what we are attempting is realistic. Anton Krupicka
Your toughness is made up of equal parts persistence and experience. You don't so much outrun your opponents as outlast and outsmart them, and the toughest opponent of all is the one inside your head." - Joe Henderson
Runners run
Why is it sideways?
...there is always the tendency after the fact to think that you could have gone faster, even when in reality you had nothing more to give...
21:00
The Bible.
I think experince helps alot as well!! I stil have problems with going outside my comfort zone for too long. But the more races I do the more I'm learning how too!
Michelle
For the "just relax" story - all true. Seb helped me with a lap to go, to focus on relaxing, rather than becoming tight. Floating is an art - ask Ray Flynn (Ireland, 3:49 miler). It is about looking at the guy's back in front of you, letting them do the work, and not concerned about time. Detaching yourself from the race, and just running for a feeling. I know - it sounds too simple. But, it is focusing on the person in front, and down the track, rather than how you feel at the moment. It is like looking at the tree, or the next turn in a cross-country race, and not how you are feeling where you are at. Maybe the way to explain it, is when you drive somewhere, or start a paper, you have an end in sight. You know what the paper will look like when you finish, or you know where you will be when you get there. By focusing on the outcome, rather than the present, you can relax and do what you need to do. Ray called it being in the Hoover vacuum. Pulled along. Running in Oslo, with 26,000 on top of lane 6 in the back stretch, yelling, pounding on the adverts of metal on the sides of the stands, clapping - you cannot hear yourself breathe. All you can do is see the track, and the people in front of you at 57.0 pace. If you slow down, you get out of the vacuum, and then you realize how hard you are breathing. Effortless floating. I think that is why Coe's first book was entitled "Running Free." js
Good Bad & The Monkey
I'm running somewhere tomorrow. It's going to be beautiful. I can't wait.
Poor baby
I've got a fever...
Running a PR often has more to do with running relaxed and letting your body do what you've trained it to do than with conjuring the sensation of giving your all or "pushing through the pain."
On your deathbed, you won't wish that you'd spent more time at the office. But you will wish that you'd spent more time running. Because if you had, you wouldn't be on your deathbed.
What book/chapter/verse?
Here's a few good ones : Hebrews 12:1 - ...and "let us run with patience the race that is set before us". James 4:7 - "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you". And by sig. verse below.
Vim