This morning I thought about something I often think about when running:
It’s all in your head.
I thought about this as I traveled the 1.5 mile loop I was running for the third time.
Long ago, when I first started running, I would have never been able to do this – run three times plus some around the same loop. I would have grown bored and frustrated. Upon hitting the start over mark yet again, I would have wanted to stop.
Now I realize:
It’s all in my head.
People think running is all in the legs, the back, the hips, the knees. It’s not. Running takes place in the head.
If you don’t have it in your mind to do it, you won’t. End of story.
Do we have to train our bodies? Of course. But we also must train our minds. There’s no way to remain on your feet for hours, pounding pavement, if your mind is not trained.
There is no way to continue along the same track, over and over, seeing the same scenery, if your mind is not trained.
One thing I always tell people who are starting out in running is this: Don’t get yourself in a habit.
Habits and running aren’t good. When we rely on something during running, and that something is taken away, we can’t run. Our mind becomes fixed on having that one thing. And if we don’t have it, we stop.
I wrote the other day about my friend training for her first half. She listens to music every single mile of every single run, and she’s getting bored now. I told her to take the music off in the beginning, so she has something to look forward to.
This isn’t a physical trick, it’s a mental one. You see, her body will continue to run if she trains it correctly; but her mind is going to shut down if she doesn’t train that part of her.
For me, learning that you go internal when you run was a big step from being a jogger to a runner. For me, that is the key — learning that running is more than where you are and where you are going and what you are seeing or listening to.
Running is about breaking through those mental barriers so you can keep going.
If you say you can’t run on a treadmill, you haven’t trained your mind to understand that you can run anywhere.
If you say you can’t run 5 miles after running 3, you are training your mind to stop you when you get to 3.
If you are saying you can’t run without music, you have not trained your mind to run without music.
It’s all about understanding that as you train your body to go the distance you must also train your mind to do the same.
How do you train your mind?
- Understand the mental block you are having (can’t run on a treadmill, can’t run without music)
- Break it into baby steps – turn off the music for the first mile only, then the first two, then the first three; run on the treadmill one day a week for a few miles
- Appreciate each accomplishment. Celebrate the fact that you went three miles without music!
- Then understand you can do anything – believe me, once you hit 26.2 you will know this instinctively!
You can do it! You just have to believe that you can -
Happy weekend running!
I totally agree with your thinking. I used to have a hard time running even a half mile until I put my mind to it. I no longer taught about how much I needed to run, but concentrated on other things while running. I quickly was able to run 2-3 miles a day within a month.
I remember my running days when I had to imaging chasing something in front of me. I felt like a horse being led by a carrot. What worked for me that time was trying to imagine my girlfriend right in front of me. I focused solely on that picture.
This made me run hundreds of miles that would have instead been impossible. Its actually funny that running is all in your mind.
I agree, it is ALL in your mind! I love that about running, but its even funnier that most people don’t understand this.