Showing posts with label mentality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mentality. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Losing Motivation
Does anyone else ever lose the motivation to keep running? Sitting at my friend's house on Sunday afternoon, I just couldn't get out the door to run. I began questioning why I even run in the first place, and pushed all of the things I love about it out of my mind. I have never really enjoyed the actually act of running- I like the feeling of accomplishment afterward, and I like seeing my improvements. I also love the camaraderie of our team and following professional running. I was actually pretty close to quitting (or at least taking a long break). I didn't end up going out for a decent run that day, nor the next. I was pretty down on myself and on continuing running competitively. The constant worry and commitment can get very tiresome. I guess I needed that two day mental break, because yesterday and today I was ready to go again. The break revitalized my mind and my body. Anyone have any other similar thoughts or situations to share?
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Race mentalities - response to Sambo
Sambo, it's really cool to hear how geared up you are for this year of running. I thought I'd dip into my penseive and see what I could find about race mentality.
Ever since I started running pretty well in high school, I've prided myself on being absurdly consistent. Part of that was our mileage. Low mileage distance programs generally = never feeling flat or bad on race day. That's not helpful though. Let me take you on an exciting little journey through my best races in college. On a side note, Edwar Ramirez just got Manny to pop up and end the inning. Tight.
Open NE's - Hot as balls out, ran the JV race coming off a calf injury. A fair amount our top-7 had rough days but Nick came up to me after the varsity race and said something along the lines of "Don't worry about what happened to me and the varsity guys. Run your race." Striding out before that race I was so fucking pumped. I'm pretty sure I was growling at the people around me. I didn't run Keene State the week before, so I was chomping at the bit to get after it. I took Nick's advice and thought about nothing but how good I felt and how bad I wanted to start crushing people. Billy, Alander and I hammered the whole way until we broke apart a little before 4 miles. Time was slow as hell for a short course, but I was really happy with how aggressively I ran every second for all 28 minutes and change.
ECAC's - Williams. Luckily the only time I ever felt like I had to race against teammates. This would decide who the 6 and 7 guys would be for Conn. My back was up against the wall. I either had to throw down the 8k of my life or go home and call it a season instead of spiking up at regionals and eventually nationals. When I started falling apart a little around mile 3.5, I kept saying to myself "no regrets" which was something Rod and I had talked about after NESCACs. Leading up to and including the hill the last time, I kept saying "no regrets, no regrets" just like in fucking finding nemo. (Know how I know I'm gay?) I guess it worked, I ran my second fastest 8k of the year on a pretty fucking hard course. I really was running for my life, or so it felt.
Husky - Robinson Cano just came up big with a 2 run double. This was probably my best track race ever above 800 meters. Warming up with Lena, Hutch, Tony, and Brunnquell was cool. It felt like we were more of a team out on a mission to run fast than it usually felt in cross. I guess it was because not everyone was running 3k. This was another case of being really pumped to run after a while without a race. Anyway, the strat was to get out hard the first 150 meters and hang on for as long as possible to whoever was near the front. I got out in the lead of the stagger and once we got to the end of the second turn, it was absolutely awesome. We broke from the stagger, I was striding right next to the leader (who was a nasty runner from the school just north of my hometown once upon a time), and just about the whole Tufts team was up on the rail at that split second. Wham. My first college race on the oval, I'm knocking elbows with would-be D-I Jesse Kearns and my whole team's yelling for me instead of running ahead of or behind me. Ended up PRing by 9 seconds over 3000.
Stonehill - first real race back from epic injury indoors. Toed the line in the 1500 with no fucking clue what kind of shape I was in. We went through 1000 at probably 68-70 second pace the whole way. With 500 I was like "wait, I've been here before. I feel amazing. Let's change gears and try to win." Went by a few people from the bell to 200 to go until I was in a healthy second and instincts totally took over. At that very moment when we went into the turn, I suddenly had no doubts whatsoever that I would win, and I had total faith in my ability to go back on the offensive once we hit the straight. Did it, came up on the leaders shoulder at the end of the turn and just felt like I was running him into the ground. Crossed the line almost on a lean in first and felt like I had just won Olympic Gold (by the way, I'm pretty much ready to go with my filthy-good picks for the Olympics pool. anyone else?). Closed in 62.
Fourth of July 5k Freedom Run - Unfortunately none of you were there for that. I have no doubt that I went into this race more excited, more confident, and more mentally geared up than I have ever been before. Warming up, everything was perfect. Breathing was slow, legs were strong, stride was enormous. Basically everything I did felt nothing short of dominant. My body had never felt that good. Ever. That's what a well-structured down week will do, Jerzy. Standing on the starting line with random people from my town, I seriously felt like a God. The race was over 400 meters in. No one was touching me. Ran 15:49 on what was probably a big negative split and won by a minute and a half.
I guess the majority of my best races come in one of 2 situations. Intense, unyielding confidence, or absolutely scared-shitless desperation. No matter what, I've always raced well if I'm just out there having fun and doing what I love. I suppose the only situation we have under control though is the confidence aspect. If you can keep your mind off of what you have to do over the next 5 miles and just focus on your body, your preparation and your execution, great things will happen. Always have faith in your training. Never doubt your preparation on Saturday morning. And as Ethan has said, "Just fuckin' have fun. That's why we do this, right?"
Ever since I started running pretty well in high school, I've prided myself on being absurdly consistent. Part of that was our mileage. Low mileage distance programs generally = never feeling flat or bad on race day. That's not helpful though. Let me take you on an exciting little journey through my best races in college. On a side note, Edwar Ramirez just got Manny to pop up and end the inning. Tight.
Open NE's - Hot as balls out, ran the JV race coming off a calf injury. A fair amount our top-7 had rough days but Nick came up to me after the varsity race and said something along the lines of "Don't worry about what happened to me and the varsity guys. Run your race." Striding out before that race I was so fucking pumped. I'm pretty sure I was growling at the people around me. I didn't run Keene State the week before, so I was chomping at the bit to get after it. I took Nick's advice and thought about nothing but how good I felt and how bad I wanted to start crushing people. Billy, Alander and I hammered the whole way until we broke apart a little before 4 miles. Time was slow as hell for a short course, but I was really happy with how aggressively I ran every second for all 28 minutes and change.
ECAC's - Williams. Luckily the only time I ever felt like I had to race against teammates. This would decide who the 6 and 7 guys would be for Conn. My back was up against the wall. I either had to throw down the 8k of my life or go home and call it a season instead of spiking up at regionals and eventually nationals. When I started falling apart a little around mile 3.5, I kept saying to myself "no regrets" which was something Rod and I had talked about after NESCACs. Leading up to and including the hill the last time, I kept saying "no regrets, no regrets" just like in fucking finding nemo. (Know how I know I'm gay?) I guess it worked, I ran my second fastest 8k of the year on a pretty fucking hard course. I really was running for my life, or so it felt.
Husky - Robinson Cano just came up big with a 2 run double. This was probably my best track race ever above 800 meters. Warming up with Lena, Hutch, Tony, and Brunnquell was cool. It felt like we were more of a team out on a mission to run fast than it usually felt in cross. I guess it was because not everyone was running 3k. This was another case of being really pumped to run after a while without a race. Anyway, the strat was to get out hard the first 150 meters and hang on for as long as possible to whoever was near the front. I got out in the lead of the stagger and once we got to the end of the second turn, it was absolutely awesome. We broke from the stagger, I was striding right next to the leader (who was a nasty runner from the school just north of my hometown once upon a time), and just about the whole Tufts team was up on the rail at that split second. Wham. My first college race on the oval, I'm knocking elbows with would-be D-I Jesse Kearns and my whole team's yelling for me instead of running ahead of or behind me. Ended up PRing by 9 seconds over 3000.
Stonehill - first real race back from epic injury indoors. Toed the line in the 1500 with no fucking clue what kind of shape I was in. We went through 1000 at probably 68-70 second pace the whole way. With 500 I was like "wait, I've been here before. I feel amazing. Let's change gears and try to win." Went by a few people from the bell to 200 to go until I was in a healthy second and instincts totally took over. At that very moment when we went into the turn, I suddenly had no doubts whatsoever that I would win, and I had total faith in my ability to go back on the offensive once we hit the straight. Did it, came up on the leaders shoulder at the end of the turn and just felt like I was running him into the ground. Crossed the line almost on a lean in first and felt like I had just won Olympic Gold (by the way, I'm pretty much ready to go with my filthy-good picks for the Olympics pool. anyone else?). Closed in 62.
Fourth of July 5k Freedom Run - Unfortunately none of you were there for that. I have no doubt that I went into this race more excited, more confident, and more mentally geared up than I have ever been before. Warming up, everything was perfect. Breathing was slow, legs were strong, stride was enormous. Basically everything I did felt nothing short of dominant. My body had never felt that good. Ever. That's what a well-structured down week will do, Jerzy. Standing on the starting line with random people from my town, I seriously felt like a God. The race was over 400 meters in. No one was touching me. Ran 15:49 on what was probably a big negative split and won by a minute and a half.
I guess the majority of my best races come in one of 2 situations. Intense, unyielding confidence, or absolutely scared-shitless desperation. No matter what, I've always raced well if I'm just out there having fun and doing what I love. I suppose the only situation we have under control though is the confidence aspect. If you can keep your mind off of what you have to do over the next 5 miles and just focus on your body, your preparation and your execution, great things will happen. Always have faith in your training. Never doubt your preparation on Saturday morning. And as Ethan has said, "Just fuckin' have fun. That's why we do this, right?"
Friday, July 25, 2008
My training and questions on race mentality
Hey Guys
I'm bored at work, so I thought I'd give this running blogging thing a shot. First of all to echo what a lot of posts have said before, I think this blog is a really good idea, and well done to j-rags/nick/whoever else was part of putting it up.
So here's where I am with my summer training: I went abroad in January and got back in early May. I didn't run once while I was there-a combination of needing a mental break and the fact that Cairo's overflowing streets, dense air pollution, and lack of any free public green space aren't really that conducive to running. I also had done some serious thinking over there about whether I was even going to run this year or not. I had not taken off more than a month from running since my freshman year of high school, and for the first month or two I didn't miss it at all. I walked around a lot, so I still felt like I was getting exercise, and the lifting of the burden of having to find a time to run every day (and the guilt if I didn't run) felt kind of liberating. However, as my trip came to an end and I started thinking ahead about the next year back in the US, I slowly came to the realization that I both wanted/needed running to be a part of it. Up to this point, my college career has largely been a disappointment to me. This has stemmed both from my inability to train consistently over the summers and from doing a poor job preparing for races mentally (which I want to talk about later.) So, when I came back to the US, and made a list of 3 simple summer goals for myself, which may seem self-evident for most of the guys on this blog, but were a step forward for me. They were:
1)no unplanned days off
2)eat healthy-i.e. cut the andreas out of my life
3)stretch and abs every day
I also made 3 goals for the xc season:
1)Sub 17:30 at alumni run
2)Sub 28:00 in a 8k
3)make ECACs
So far this summer I've accomplished goals 1 and 2. I took only one unplanned day "off" (really a 2 miler at the beginning of this week-the rest of the low mileage you see for me this week yesterday and probably today is the result of a stomach bug) and eaten healthier than I have maybe my whole life (thanks to 139 College's excellent cooking.) Goal 3 I've been slacking on, probably because my mind doesn't see the immediate link between abs and running (I know, I know, it's there, just bear with my irrationality.) And the plan is paying off because I definitely feel like I'm in close to the best shape of my life. I've been doing training runs at a faster pace than normal, without it feeling that fast (if that makes sense) and I felt stronger in last Tuesday's tempo than I have since I can remember. I still haven't hit the weekly mileages I'd been hoping for, but it's definitely been a large improvement over last summer. I also attribute that to having people to run with every day. Assuming I can get over this stomach thing, I'm feeling ready to put up a strong last month of training before xc (which for me would be hitting the 65-70 mile range/week.)
On a different note, I had some questions for anyone who reads this. As I mentioned above, in the past I've had trouble with race-day mentality. Looking back on past experience it feels almost as if its dumb luck whether I have a good race or not. Obviously this is not true, but let me try to explain what I mean. Going into a race I'm always going to put in a full effort, but some days I can cruise along at 5:45s pretty effortlessly in an 8k, while other days I come through the first mile at 6 minutes and feel atrocious (obviously you guys can readjust these times so they make sense for what you run-My prs 28:45, if that puts them into perspective.) This can happen in back to back races, with no clear difference in training difficulty, diet, sleep, etc. Course and weather could play a role, but it happens variously enough, (and in track) that I don't think it's one specific course, or one specific weather condition, which of course leads me to falsely attribute to how I feel, and hence run, any given day to luck. This leads to over-analyzation and as Brunnquell mentioned in an earlier post, often at least for me, self-over-analyzation often leads to failure.
So I guess what I was wondering is, what are people's general strategies towards dealing with the variability in racing and race mentality in general? For guys who have had runs like Sorensen or Brunnq, where every race seemed to be a big pr, what felt different then from other times in your running careers? Was it confidence? The benefits of additional training? I'd like to hear people's opinion on this. Sorry if this question/topic is kind of basic/irrelevant to summer training, but it's something I'm curious about.
Finally some closing thoughts:
1) Hutch should definitely create his own blog
2) Working in this library has taught me why people in the post office and DMV always have such attitudes, when you become accustomed to doing nothing all day, every small task out of the ordinary seems like a major annoyance
3)I had to take a shit on a run the other day. When emerging out of the woods, right in front of me on the road was this grungy looking guy, wearing a brown leather trenchcoat, black boots, and looked like he was hopped up on something. It was the most scared I've been in a while.
4)Bloom looks skinny in his recent pictures on facebook. It's kind of disappointing.
5)T-29 days to camp
Sam(bo 1)
I'm bored at work, so I thought I'd give this running blogging thing a shot. First of all to echo what a lot of posts have said before, I think this blog is a really good idea, and well done to j-rags/nick/whoever else was part of putting it up.
So here's where I am with my summer training: I went abroad in January and got back in early May. I didn't run once while I was there-a combination of needing a mental break and the fact that Cairo's overflowing streets, dense air pollution, and lack of any free public green space aren't really that conducive to running. I also had done some serious thinking over there about whether I was even going to run this year or not. I had not taken off more than a month from running since my freshman year of high school, and for the first month or two I didn't miss it at all. I walked around a lot, so I still felt like I was getting exercise, and the lifting of the burden of having to find a time to run every day (and the guilt if I didn't run) felt kind of liberating. However, as my trip came to an end and I started thinking ahead about the next year back in the US, I slowly came to the realization that I both wanted/needed running to be a part of it. Up to this point, my college career has largely been a disappointment to me. This has stemmed both from my inability to train consistently over the summers and from doing a poor job preparing for races mentally (which I want to talk about later.) So, when I came back to the US, and made a list of 3 simple summer goals for myself, which may seem self-evident for most of the guys on this blog, but were a step forward for me. They were:
1)no unplanned days off
2)eat healthy-i.e. cut the andreas out of my life
3)stretch and abs every day
I also made 3 goals for the xc season:
1)Sub 17:30 at alumni run
2)Sub 28:00 in a 8k
3)make ECACs
So far this summer I've accomplished goals 1 and 2. I took only one unplanned day "off" (really a 2 miler at the beginning of this week-the rest of the low mileage you see for me this week yesterday and probably today is the result of a stomach bug) and eaten healthier than I have maybe my whole life (thanks to 139 College's excellent cooking.) Goal 3 I've been slacking on, probably because my mind doesn't see the immediate link between abs and running (I know, I know, it's there, just bear with my irrationality.) And the plan is paying off because I definitely feel like I'm in close to the best shape of my life. I've been doing training runs at a faster pace than normal, without it feeling that fast (if that makes sense) and I felt stronger in last Tuesday's tempo than I have since I can remember. I still haven't hit the weekly mileages I'd been hoping for, but it's definitely been a large improvement over last summer. I also attribute that to having people to run with every day. Assuming I can get over this stomach thing, I'm feeling ready to put up a strong last month of training before xc (which for me would be hitting the 65-70 mile range/week.)
On a different note, I had some questions for anyone who reads this. As I mentioned above, in the past I've had trouble with race-day mentality. Looking back on past experience it feels almost as if its dumb luck whether I have a good race or not. Obviously this is not true, but let me try to explain what I mean. Going into a race I'm always going to put in a full effort, but some days I can cruise along at 5:45s pretty effortlessly in an 8k, while other days I come through the first mile at 6 minutes and feel atrocious (obviously you guys can readjust these times so they make sense for what you run-My prs 28:45, if that puts them into perspective.) This can happen in back to back races, with no clear difference in training difficulty, diet, sleep, etc. Course and weather could play a role, but it happens variously enough, (and in track) that I don't think it's one specific course, or one specific weather condition, which of course leads me to falsely attribute to how I feel, and hence run, any given day to luck. This leads to over-analyzation and as Brunnquell mentioned in an earlier post, often at least for me, self-over-analyzation often leads to failure.
So I guess what I was wondering is, what are people's general strategies towards dealing with the variability in racing and race mentality in general? For guys who have had runs like Sorensen or Brunnq, where every race seemed to be a big pr, what felt different then from other times in your running careers? Was it confidence? The benefits of additional training? I'd like to hear people's opinion on this. Sorry if this question/topic is kind of basic/irrelevant to summer training, but it's something I'm curious about.
Finally some closing thoughts:
1) Hutch should definitely create his own blog
2) Working in this library has taught me why people in the post office and DMV always have such attitudes, when you become accustomed to doing nothing all day, every small task out of the ordinary seems like a major annoyance
3)I had to take a shit on a run the other day. When emerging out of the woods, right in front of me on the road was this grungy looking guy, wearing a brown leather trenchcoat, black boots, and looked like he was hopped up on something. It was the most scared I've been in a while.
4)Bloom looks skinny in his recent pictures on facebook. It's kind of disappointing.
5)T-29 days to camp
Sam(bo 1)
Friday, July 18, 2008
a lot of thoughts from a non-thinker
wooo im a blogger. I feel so hip and modern. oh... the ninety's are over... damn.
Nice post Nicolas, and Jeffrey, thank you for creating this and adding me and such.
I guess my first post will just be a mini-mantra of my approach to running. Jeff and Nick seem to be thinkers when it comes to running. Jeff is never short on thoughts as to strategy, mechanics, and plans. and, is not shy about expressing those thoughts, as evidenced by the twelve minute video of him talking on this blog. This style seems to be very popular, or maybe its just the vocal nature of it.
My approach, or at least what i aim for in my approach, is not thinking. I've always found that thinking about running can only complicate it and make it worse. I'm sure everyone has had the experience of dreading a run either in the few minutes before it or all day leading up to it, but immediately after you start you feel so much better. You get the "this isn't so bad" felling for at least a few seconds. Then of course there's the misery that is miles 2 and 3 of any run where you just feel miserable before you get into a rhythm. My best times have come during races that I didn't overthink. I went to the line of the 10k at DivIIIs with no expectations of myself and with a plan of running as fast as i felt like i could sustain for 25 laps. It was the same case in my fastest 5k. I had no intention of breaking 16 that day, I just ran as well as I could. On the other side, some of the worst races I've run have been those that i overthought. I attempted the first tempo this summer one morning after planning for it and worrying about it for a good amount of time the night before and during the time it took for me to do a long warmup. I made it one mile before i had to stop. I was mentally shot before i even started. That night, I mapped out a new 5 mile route, did a three minute warmup, and hammered out a 28:40 relatively easily. I stopped worrying about being exactly on pace and just ran. I guess I'm just a runner, not a thinker.
Anyway, thumbs up for the fartlek long run. Anything that can distract me from the thought that i'm doing a long run is definitely a good idea. I'll probably try it next long run.
I'm not injured. I'm sick. I'll run again next week.
Chris
Nice post Nicolas, and Jeffrey, thank you for creating this and adding me and such.
I guess my first post will just be a mini-mantra of my approach to running. Jeff and Nick seem to be thinkers when it comes to running. Jeff is never short on thoughts as to strategy, mechanics, and plans. and, is not shy about expressing those thoughts, as evidenced by the twelve minute video of him talking on this blog. This style seems to be very popular, or maybe its just the vocal nature of it.
My approach, or at least what i aim for in my approach, is not thinking. I've always found that thinking about running can only complicate it and make it worse. I'm sure everyone has had the experience of dreading a run either in the few minutes before it or all day leading up to it, but immediately after you start you feel so much better. You get the "this isn't so bad" felling for at least a few seconds. Then of course there's the misery that is miles 2 and 3 of any run where you just feel miserable before you get into a rhythm. My best times have come during races that I didn't overthink. I went to the line of the 10k at DivIIIs with no expectations of myself and with a plan of running as fast as i felt like i could sustain for 25 laps. It was the same case in my fastest 5k. I had no intention of breaking 16 that day, I just ran as well as I could. On the other side, some of the worst races I've run have been those that i overthought. I attempted the first tempo this summer one morning after planning for it and worrying about it for a good amount of time the night before and during the time it took for me to do a long warmup. I made it one mile before i had to stop. I was mentally shot before i even started. That night, I mapped out a new 5 mile route, did a three minute warmup, and hammered out a 28:40 relatively easily. I stopped worrying about being exactly on pace and just ran. I guess I'm just a runner, not a thinker.
Anyway, thumbs up for the fartlek long run. Anything that can distract me from the thought that i'm doing a long run is definitely a good idea. I'll probably try it next long run.
I'm not injured. I'm sick. I'll run again next week.
Chris
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