These past couple of weeks, I've been testing out some mental strategies for getting through the tough parts of my long runs. I've never been methodical about it, but this week I heard a great conversation on the KoopCast podcast about mental strategies for getting through an ultra. Jason Koop coaches some of the best ultra athletes out there including Dean Karnazes, Timothy Olson, Dylan Bowman and Stephanie Howe. He's such an awesome coach, that he also spends much of his time mentoring other coaches. Anyway, he had this great conversation with guest Karim Ramadan- they laid out the steps for mental training, so I wanted to capture these steps here before I forget them all.
Figure out what makes you run. This is pretty much the same as figuring out your "why" just said in a different way. If you can be motivated by an internal goal (e.g. constant improvement vs. winning races) then you're more likely to succeed in an ultra because you're doing it for yourself, not an audience.
Work on mindfulness. Be present, whether it be while running or any other task during your day. This doesn't have to be meditation. You can be mindful while doing mobility exercises, or stretching. You can just take a few minutes every day to scan your body from head to toe to see how you're feeling.
The mindfulness leads to imagery and self talk. So in a low point in an ultra, you can focus on your surroundings or just focus on the present and talk yourself into thinking you're ok. You can also do a body scan during the race to check on what you need. Maybe you need to hydrate or eat something. Maybe you just need to focus on your form because when you start to feel pain you get lazy with your form and your running becomes inefficient. You can check how you're landing, check your posture, your gaze and your arm swing.
If being in your head is too much, you can also try a dissociative approach- this would be trying to distract yourself from the pain. Karim gave the example of counting in a different language. Last weekend when I was doing hill repeats up Washington Rd in the heat and humidity, I had a playlist going in my head. I also had some self talk, but it's too embarrassing to mention exactly what I was saying to myself. I'm thinking that saying the alphabet backwards might work well. I do like the "playlist in my head" approach too though because I can just sing the song in my head to the rhythm of my footsteps.
Having confidence, anxiety control and arousal control. This basically means sticking to your own strategy and not getting swept in the excitement of the race. Not going out to fast only to crash and burn in the later miles.
Flow state- this is not always achievable, but they talked about how if everything prior has been accomplished, there is a possibility of achieving this flow state where the running feels easy and relaxed and you're just happy to be out there.
My last long run of this training block is in 2 days. Last chance to hone these mental strategies before the race. I'll have to write down which ones seemed to work the best. Of course, the tactical parts of the race are just as important- pacing, fueling, hydrating, but with an ultra, there will always be low points where you'll need to draw upon something deeper to get you through the pain. The strange thing is that things can and usually turn around. You just have to get through those low points and have these mental strategies prepared going into the race. Being mentally prepared is just as important, if not, more important, than having all of the physical training.
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