Marathon Mind Games | 3:53 To 3:30 Marathon Attempt Ep4
And making that kind of a goal in your race. So it might be,
I'm going to smile every mile, trying to go for a mile mark-up, some really
cute mantras to use. Smile a mile, ooh I like it. Yeah.
Welcome back to Quarantine to Qualifier here on The Running Channel,
the series following my training
as I try to achieve my biggest running goal to date - running a Boston
marathon qualifying time at Berlin marathon this autumn.
So with the help of adidas and a team of experts in nutrition, sports,
psychology, strength, and conditioning, and a running coach,
I will be trying to run under 3 hours 30 in Berlin.
So last time it was 10 weeks to go and I had a very
disappointing long run.
But after a pep talk from Adidas athlete and team GB
marathoner Charlotte Purdue - try
to make everyday count. Um, so even if it's just the smallest thing,
like a good warmup before a session, or just a good final K of a run -
plus a confidence boost from my coach, Andy Hobdell, I picked myself up,
dusted myself off and got ready to hit training hard again,
but not before a catch-up with sports psychologist Josephine Perry.
There's two, two tricks you can use there.
The first one I love for marathon running
cause it just works so well. It's called chunking.
So for any of us standing on the start line of 42.2 K
yeah, that face says it, all right. It's, it's a scary thing of like,
that's a really long way to run. How do I do that?
What I find can be really helpful is thinking actually it's not 42
K it's 8 and a bit 5Ks.
We all know we can run a parkrun,
we all know we can do that without worrying about it, without getting anxious
[inaudible] without all of those nerves.
And so it works really nicely to break it down like it's 8 park runs
and I know I can do a parkrun.
And the other thing that can be helpful is being
really proactive with the conversation you have with yourself
in your head. And so if your self identity is as a runner,
anytime there's a risk to that,
your brain is going to be on super high alert, oooh, this is a threat.
And so anytime you do any race in the build-up, anytime you do one of those big,
scary, long runs,
your brain would much rather you didn't do it because if you fail,
you're proving to yourself, you can't do it. You're not really a winner.
So you actively have to take into consideration that your brain might be working
against you when you go out and do a 30 kilometre run.
Also, not only
are your legs tired and everything else,
but also your brain's working against you as well. Your
brain would much rather you were sitting on the sofa.
Yeah, I can understand that. That's um,
that's so interesting because since that long run, so with the chunking stuff,
I did my long run on Saturday, just gone. Um,
and it was run to parkrun,
do parkrun and run back from parkrun, which was 25K.
So that was actually 5k, only 5k shorter than the previous one.
But at no point did I feel anything like I did during the previous long run,
because I was focused on getting to park run.
It was a new parkrun that I'd done, that I was doing, sorry, so, um,
that was new and exciting and interesting.
And there were different people and different paths to look at.
And then I was focused on getting home because I was staying away with my
girlfriends. And so I wanted to get home for breakfast. So yeah,
that's definitely worked a treat.
You chunked it up perfectly. Then you had a goal for each of those chunks. Yeah.
Get there. Run the parkrun. Get breakfast.
So we do max out our motivation to get to that point, at that point we're like, okay,
there's not much more I can push here.
So what you're trying to do at that point,
when you've maxed out motivation is reduce the perception of effort.
Either so you can go faster or that you can do it with kind of less discomfort.
And so there are different tricks we use for that. Okay.
One of those that's really lovely and really simple and people like,
look at me a bit strangely, but it's smiling.
Yeah. So when we smile,
it reduces the perception of effort in our brain about how much we're working.
There's some research that shows actually it improves your running efficiency,
but I don't know the mechanics behind how that would work,
but it definitely be really effective. Yeah.
And there's a lovely piece of research on- that they
actually did the cyclists in a lab and they stuck them on turbo trainers and
they were getting them to cycle to exhaustion.
For half of the cyclists, they showed smiley faces,
but far too quick that they would actually know that they'd seen them,
they flashed up on the screen. The other half they showed frowns.
And those that saw the smiles were able to cycle 16% longer.
And those who saw the frowns... Oh wow. So, if,
when you're doing your marathon,
look for the people in the crowd that smile at you, and making that kind of a
goal in your race. So it might be, I'm going to smile every mile, I guess,
for a mile marker. It's really nice cute mantra to use. Smile a mile - I like it.
Yeah.
So it's eight weeks to go until race day
and I don't know if you can tell by the sound of my voice,
but I've hit a bit of a snag. I'm ill,
I've woken up this morning feeling, ah, I've got the worst sore throat,
I'm really hot and achy,
I just have absolutely no energy at all.
So I've done a couple of COVID tests and a PCR and they've
all come back negative. So fingers crossed
this is just some virus that will clear up on its own pretty
sharpish because I'm just, I'm really frustrated.
I was really getting in my stride with training, really enjoying it. Um,
but sensibly coach
Andy has prescribed rest and recovery,
no running for a few days now,
I suppose actually it's really important to show this side of training because
you're very lucky if you can get through an entire training block without
getting ill and without getting injured.
And I know that we have got a bit of leeway built in with the training
block that we're doing.
So I'm on week 12 of a 19 week buildup since coming
back from my calf injury.
And so I know I've got a solid base behind me,
so a few days off to prioritise rest and recovery to get better
isn't going to be the end of the world.
And you may have had to have adapted your own training because of illness
or injury as well.
And it's a really important thing to bear in mind when you're giving
yourself time to train for a marathon.
So for me now time to prioritise rest and recovery,
I feel like I could sleep for a week, uh, because yeah,
next week it's seven weeks until race day.
So I had a bit of time off training last week.
I did manage seven miles across two days. So not an entire week off,
but still feels like a bit of a setback,
especially as things are going so well. So this week,
Andy's easing me back into training,
I've got a 30 minute easy day and touch wood so far everything
feels all right. And then I've got a 10K easy to study tomorrow.
Um, yeah, so I'm out running this one in my Boston 10S. My
adidas Boston 10s and if you would like a pair of these boots too,
all you have to do is like this video and comment below as well.
Are you training for a marathon?
Let us know how your training's going or whatever you're training for,
just let us know how your running is going in general.
And you could be in with a chance of winning your very own pair.
well that didn't actually feel too bad. It felt alright, actually.
I was able to consistently manage a 9 minutes per mile pace,
which is about my easy pace. Um, but looking back at the stats,
my heart rate looked and felt a little bit high actually for the effort I was
putting in.
So it could be a sign that whatever it was that was making me feel poorly last
week is still hanging around a little bit. So I've got an easy to steady
10K tomorrow, and then a rest day, the day after that.
So Andy is then going to plan the rest of my week based on how I
feel.
I have just finished a session for the week,
which felt really good to get the legs turning over quickly again.
So I did 2K warmup followed by 3 lots of 3 minutes, 2 minutes,
1 minute at hard effort,
60 seconds recovery in between and 3 minutes between
sets and then a jog cool-down. So yeah,
it felt really good to get the legs going.
And speed work is so important in marathon training,
which some people might sound a bit odd because marathon running
isn't always really fast sprints. Well, it's never really fast sprints,
but speed work can improve your running economy and efficiency,
which can save precious minutes off your pace during the marathon.
And it's important to train at paces above and below your marathon pace because
then come race day, you really have a feel for what your race pace feels like.
And the other thing as well is that it breaks up the monotony of marathon
training. So rather than getting stuck in the ruts of running sort of slower,
longer stuff all the time, doing those chunks,
like what Josie said in our sports psychology chat about chunking,
it just breaks it all up. And before you know it,
you've done the session, and also come race day
it makes your marathon pace feel easier.
Cause it's not as hard as the eyeballs-out hard efforts that you've been doing
in the speed work in training too. So, it's six weeks to go until
Berlin marathon, where I try and run a Boston qualifier.
And I've just woken up to the loveliest message from my coach.
And it just said six weeks to go. You can do this by the way. And honestly,
it just makes such a huge difference knowing that you've got a cheerleader in
your corner.
So I've been asked quite a few times how I'm feeling about the challenge and
about whether I feel ready and how the training's going. And in all honesty,
it kind of flips from one day to the next or one week to the next,
because at times I really think, yeah, I can do this.
And then there are other times where I just think I'm so far away from being
able to hold this pace for as long as I need to across a marathon,
how on earth am I going to do it? But then again with six weeks to go,
I shouldn't really be ready at this stage because I know that I've still got a
lot of training to do. And it's that process
that means that you kind of know when you're going to be ready because you
should be peak at race day and not before. So yeah,
it kind of, it,
it gives me a nice confidence boost getting messages like this from Monday.
