The spring marathon season is kicking into full-swing, which reminds me that this race depends on mental strategizing (for success) more than any other popular race distance. You can burn a 5K without thinking, but in the marathon pensiveness is always going to come to the fore at some point, and it can hurt you or help you as you negotiate those 26.2 miles. The right mental mind-set for the marathon revolves around what I like to call FFRR & DSD – Focus, Fatigue-Relief, Relaxation, and Doing Something Different.

 

            Focus: There are times during the race when fatigue seems overwhelming and thoughts are turning negative. At these points, total focus on the act of running becomes paramount. Yes, running becomes one foot forward, then the other, then the other, and so on, and the only conscious thoughts permitted are the ones associated with controlling gait. Thinking about how far you still have to run is verboten. Thinking about how bad your muscles feel is arrested in its tracks. Thinking about how terrible your chest is feeling is ended. The mind becomes totally transfixed by the process of controlling movement in a smooth and coordinated way. One step, then the next, then the next, and one continues to cover ground without any worries about how fast one is going, how far it is to the finish line, how soon one will get to the next rest stop, etc. You become an animal out there, an animal in motion and nothing more. You suddenly are thrilled that all thoughts are completely purged from your mind and that you are exhilarating in movement and nothing else. Your mind is totally pure for the first time in a long while, with no distracting thoughts, no doubts.

 

            Fatigue-Relief: We have entered a blessed time as runners, because exercise physiologists have discovered that fatigue during running is usually caused not by a crisis in the muscles or heart (or respiratory system). Tiredness is in fact very often simply a protective mechanism created by the nervous system to prevent us from straying too far away from “equilibrium,” from physiological homeostasis. Fatigue is like a mother lurking in our brains, telling us not to do too much. It is our nervous-systems’ way of saying that running farther or faster might be risky. This is very important for us to know, because when fatigue strikes we are now no longer locked in to thinking that our muscles simply can’t work anymore. In fact, when fatigue strikes our muscles are usually quite fine. If you doubt this, think about your interval workouts on the track, for example 8 X 400, where you begin to feel really fatigued during the middle intervals of the session but then – “magically” – uncork your best interval of the day on the very last (eighth) 400. Given that common scenario, is it really possible to contend that the significant fatigue you felt during the workout was muscular in origin? If so, wouldn’t the muscle mayhem have blocked that really fast eighth interval?

 

            What actually happens in such cases is that your nervous system unlocks your muscles for that last interval because it recognizes that there is just one interval left to complete in the workout – and thus little risk for the “organism” (i. e., you). In the marathon, it is important to keep that unlocking process going on throughout the race. To keep opening up the “padlock,” talk to your brain (with another part of your brain), saying “Thanks for the warning, but I’m OK – I’m going to keep on running!” Combine that response with lightness, making your feet feel lighter and making your strides a little quicker than before. Couple the response also with the simple command – “Go!” And combine it also with ……………………….

 

            Relaxation: Muscles which are too tight make the ankle, knee, and hip joints hard to move (and you’re going to need proper function in those joints to finish your marathon). Overly tight muscles also provide incorrect levels of springiness, foiling your running economy. Tight muscles decrease stride length. Tight muscles feel bad. And so, when fatigue strikes, the correct response is not to become anxious and thus to tighten up – it is to relax even more than usual. As in “Ah well, my old friend fatigue is here, guess I’ll just have to relax and run!” Relaxing every tight spot in the body, starting from the head and working down, and focusing on lightness and speediness, is a proven fatigue-fighter.

 

            Doing Something Different: Have you ever had the experience of being out for a long run and suddenly feeling beaten-down and fatigued, so beaten-down that you had to stop, nearly stop, or at least slow your pace significantly? When this happens, have you ever tried doing something different? One of my running friends recently had to stop during a long run (because of fatigue) and was feeling extremely dejected. Impulsively, he started doing some jumping jacks by the side of the road in order to “loosen up.” After about 30 jacks, he was fine again – and resumed his run at goal pace. Talk about proof that fatigue is not the result of a crisis in the muscles!! By changing from running to jumping, he had given his nervous system a break, got it thinking about something else, and proved to himself that he was not really wiped out after all (if he was truly wiped out, after all, how could he have performed the jumping jacks so explosively?). To his shock, he was actually not done for the day, even though his old-maid nervous system had tried to convince him of that fact moments earlier. The change in activity, the jumping jacks, were all that was necessary to get him going again, and he was absolutely fine for the duration of the run. In effect, as fatigue struck he had let his nervous system beat him down and order “Better get home to that rocking chair, fellow!”

 

            As a runner, you should fight back when your nervous system becomes an old-timer. When this mental construct called fatigue strikes, run fast for 100 meters! Get relaxed. Lighten your strides. Make your run an adventure instead of a slog. Enjoy being an animal for a change, instead of a carefully controlled body under the strict dictates of the cerebrum. Enjoy the purity of the experience, with just you and your running shorts out there. Rejoice in the pain – and your ability to deal with it: Without pain, would pleasure be possible? Become playful, courageous – and whole. You simply can’t ask for much more from running than this.

 

            Mental strategies – and much more – will be fully developed at my running camps this summer. Three camps are available for you – June 20-25 in Vermont, July 4-9 at the University of Oregon, and July 18-23 in Los Angeles (at beautiful Loyola Marymount University). Attending one of these camps will make you fitter, faster, and more injury free. I’ll personally help you develop a training program which is just right for you. To sign up and work with me on making your running so much better, please go to http://www.educatedrunner.com/Camps.aspx