If the weekend debrief is a little later than usual today, blame my rather fatigued state. Turns out that doing a pilates reformer class at 7.30am the day after a 20-mile run might not have been the most brilliant idea I’ve ever had. On the plus side, my muscles are definitely stretched. On the other … pass me another cuppa, please.
My long runs are starting to reach a peak as I’m training for the New York marathon. Anyone who has done it, top tips below please, including how to survive what I hear is an epic wait in a field before the start.
On these long runs, I’ve been thinking about how much of them is in the head, and how much in the legs. My legs were definitely feeling the effects of a hard week and a track session the day before, but for me, the first half of the run is always a mental battle. You feel like you’ve been running for ever and you haven’t even hit the halfway point yet. When I ran London marathon in the spring it was oddly the first 10 miles I found hardest. Not on the legs, but mentally. I remember passing the 10km mark and thinking “Oh good, 10km down” then about one second later: “Dear GOD that means I’ve still got 20km to go.”.
So today can we share our top tips for positive thinking during a run – how do you silence the demons? I know some people swear by mantras, others by counting. How do you silence the voices in your head that whisper that the sane thing to do would just be to stop for a little rest?
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