My Mental Nugget

I received such great feedback from yesterday's post, Burnout and Mental Toughness, I wanted to share a mental nugget that I used in the marathon.

This idea was shared by one of the Marathon Training Team coaches during a clinic (I couldn't find who this idea originally came form so if you know please share it here so I can give them the appropriate credit). The concept was to dedicate each mile in the marathon to a different person. You prepare a sheet of paper with their names and at some point during every mile you dedicate a little thought/prayer to them. For me these were 26 people that had affected my life in one way or another, some of which have even passed. It was a pretty powerful experience. At mile 22 I recalled my late grandmother and all the love she provided me over the years and it gave me the emotional boost to push on forward.

Like all things running, this motivational tool isn't strictly restricted to running and prayer. Is your day dragging at work? How about have a sheet of inspirational quotes to pull out for every hour of work (or every 30 min if its a Friday)? What about that habit of smoking you've been trying to kick? Why not pull out a picture of the loved ones who are pushing you to quit each time you have a strong urge?

The key is to have a plan. Zen Habits even describe a similar concept in their The Habit Change Cheatsheet (for brevity I've only included a couple of the summary points):

• Write it down
• Make a plan
• Know your motivations

Be creative. Figure out areas where you might need this kind of positive reinforcement. Got your own mental nugget or strategy for staying mentally strong? Share it in the comments!

Burnout and Mental Conditioning

A couple of months ago I experienced a couple aspects of burnout; I was mentally drained and even caught a small cold. The guys over at Marathon Training Program have a thorough description of overtraining and burnout but for me, their following phrase seemed to encompass the entire feeling:

When running is no longer a joy for 90 percent of the miles, the rest of your life is probably affected.

JOY! It all comes down to this simple aspect. Just like most things running, I've found that this quote is applicable to all aspects of life: training, work, etc. Try it for yourself. Just replace the previous quote with a life activity.

For me, the burnout occurred on a swim. I have never been a strong swimmer and have had some bad experiences growing up. So right off the bat, it was evident that if I had any joy from swimming it was no where close to 90%. Plus Master Swim classes aren't exactly easy. Check out what Ate Joy has to say about them:

I was already beat between the warm up and those drills, but he was just getting started. I couldn’t keep up with the rest of group, but it really wasn’t about keeping up. It was an eye-opener to get pushed like that though. On my own, I never would’ve pushed that hard for that long until my arms felt completely limp.

Needless to say I burned out. It was in the middle of the swim and I hit a point where I just couldn't finish mentally and physically (a sensation that many people have described to me as bonking). The days following I felt bummed out and even got a little sick. I had it set in my mind that I was doing too much and gave up swimming completely until after the marathon.

Since then, I've finished a marathon and learned quite a bit about how much our mental conditioning plays a part in our training, racing and daily lives. One thing that was helpful was this I clinic attended several weeks before the Richmond marathon. It was entitled "Running With Your Head" and given by a Dr. Ferguson (sorry I couldn't find his first name, but he was an olympic qualifier so his information is credible).

In the clinic Dr. Ferguson described the mental aspects concerning preparing for and racing a marathon. One of his key emphasis was that there are countless things that you cannot control (weather especially) on race day, BUT one of the most important things you can control is your mind. In the weeks leading up to the race I practiced mentally by envisioning how I would run, the feelings I would go through, and how to stay positive and push through when my body wanted to quit. And it helped out a lot during the marathon because even though I bonked physically, I never quite thought that I could not finish mentally.

For me this mental conditioning has applied through all aspects of my life. If I'm having a bad day, I'll close my eyes and find several positive thoughts to help pick me up. Its even helped out a lot with swimming! If you stay mentally positive or joyful then you can accomplish great things. Besides whats the point of doing what you're doing if its not at least 90% joyful.