The summer and fall edition of Race Pace Training Diaries follows Jess D, a Race Pace Runner, training for the 2014 New York City Marathon with the goal of becoming a faster runner and setting a new Personal Record. Learn more about Jess and her goals here.
The past few weeks of training have had a lot of ups and downs. After a few tragic tempo runs I started feeling really down & was being very hard on myself. This negative mindset started affecting my other runs as well. I began taking unnecessary breaks during long runs and basically convincing myself that my tempo run would be doomed for disaster before I had even started it.
As runners, we all know how it important it is to train your brain in addition to all the hard work you put into training your body. Some days, your legs just aren’t up for a 10 miler, but with the right thinking, you can push yourself through.
Jess passed along this article from Runner’s World and it was really helpful. Give it a read if you haven’t already. I related to so many parts of it- especially being too focused on results and not the process.
Shortly after reading this article and realizing it was time to give myself a little kick in the rear, I began feeling hamstring pain in my left leg which resulted in two unplanned rest days and needing to skip a long run. CRINGE. Maybe taking that time to rest is what I needed though, because during those days I remember thinking to myself “what if you get injured?” and you wasted all those training runs mentally attacking yourself when you could have been savoring every minute of them and focusing on the good.
After this mini break, I feel like I came back to my training plan with a whole new outlook. Not to say that every run has been perfect since then, but I’m ok with that now.
Last weekend I set out on an 18 miler with the NY Flyers and when we hit South Williamsburg, Brooklyn I remember looking up and seeing this street art sign “BELIEVE,” and I felt like it was there for a reason. We can be our own worst critics sometimes and we need to believe in ourselves. No one but ourselves are capable of pushing through those crappy runs when your legs feel dead your body feels tired and you can think of 100 reasons to stop. That’s when this matters the most. So the next time you’ve dug your own hole before even starting your workout, remember that the body achieves what the mind believes. I firmly believe that now!
Allie says
I believe this 100% and it’s one of my favorite mantras! I love that the “believe” was there, just when you needed it. So awesome!
www.scatgirls.info says
Very good blօg post. I definitely love this website.
Stick with it!