This post is a follow up to the earlier post about not giving up. This is about how your attitude shapes your performance. Sports psychologists talk about this issue a lot, and commonly use the 4 minute mile as an example. Before Roger Bannister broke the barrier, everyone had said that it wasn’t humanly possible. Then once he broke it, there was a flurry of other runners to break it that year. All because they now believed that it was possible. “Well if Roger can do it, so can I”
I have had my best road marathon, when I prepped by doing 1 mile repeats and using a HR monitor to keep a steady pace. So when I got to the race, is ran it in sections of 6 mile units and let my HR return to normal at end of each unit. Then at mile 25 I felt good and believed that the last mile would be no different than the 1mile repeats in practice. I turned on a sprint for the mile and finished with my best time.
Of course, the opposite is true as well. When I ran my 1st Ultra in the desert mountains and was caught unprepared for the loose scree and rocks on the trail (and family ‘s nagging of “don’t get hurt”), I ended up much like my 2 clients who gave up on a drill because they thought it was too hard at the 1st try. I slowed down to a miserable pace. Then I dug a deeper mental hole by thinking I was completely out of my hoped for time and just plodded towards the finish line. BUT when I met another runner, at mile 28 and learned that my goal time was not that far off, I had a miraculous 2nd wind and was able to sprint to the finish line-all because of mindset.
That is why training smart is better than just training hard.
No comments:
Post a Comment
What do you think?