How do you deal with your demons?

shels4ever

Following the interview with Cragg yesterday got me thinking of a few chats I've had with people over the last number of months.

The general view is that there is usually a point in ever race where you are really tested both physically and mentally.

I think all my better runs have come in races where i've just put doubts aside and worked really hard,

How do you deal with your doubts if any during a race?


http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/235030-iaaf-world-championships-in-athletics-2009/199368-alistair-cragg-5000-semis-2009-iaaf-world-track-and-field-championship

OuterBombie

Just watched the interview, jaysus, if there was a man that needed a beer and some good times...

I hope he comes good again, he's a solid runner.

As for doubts/daemons, has to be the number 1 thing to master if you want to race well. Physical pain breeds negativity, after all your body is pretty much giving out to you, begging you to stop, doubts/daemons (i think) are just the psychological result of that.

I focus on a mantra, "don't have to feel good to do good", repeat while experiencing pain :rolleyes:

tunney

Here Shels, take this Suck-it-up pill, I suggest you wash it down with this glass of Shut-the-Fcuk-up and just HTFU.

Rusty Cogs 08

tunney wrote: »

Here Shels, take this Suck-it-up pill, I suggest you wash it down with this glass of Shut-the-Fcuk-up and just HTFU.

being particularly blunt this weather tunney.

I'm sure your a dear in person tough.

tunney

Rusty Cogs 08 wrote: »

being particularly blunt this weather tunney.

I'm sure your a dear in person tough.

I was aiming for humour but obviously failed.

RoyMcC

Everyone needs a mantra. Mine is 'Oh God, Oh God, Oh God...etc'.

gerard65

tunney wrote: »

I was aiming for humour but obviously failed.

Yep.

thirtyfoot

Mantras are good. I use "I am calm and I am strong". My two weaknesses when I come to the business end of the race are that I panic and I feel weak. The mantra reminds me that I don't need to panic and that I am strong. Works for me. Also, practice playing with the demons in training. Put yourself in situations in training that are uncomfortable. Training can be mental too. Its good sometimes (not all the time) to have a competitive cut to training in my opinion.

gerard65

Tingle wrote: »

Mantras are good. I use "I am calm and I am strong". My two weaknesses when I come to the business end of the race are that I panic and I feel weak. The mantra reminds me that I don't need to panic and that I am strong. Works for me. Also, practice playing with the demons in training. Put yourself in situations in training that are uncomfortable. Training can be mental too. Its good sometimes (not all the time) to have a competitive cut to training in my opinion.

Agree with this. We can be guilty of training within our 'comfort zone'. Sometimes you've got to make in hurt, a tough hill session, hard intervals, I think these type of sessions train the mind to accept discomfort and push what you 'think' are your limits out a bit further. Remember a some point its not going to get any worse;)

dna_leri

gerard65 wrote: »

Agree with this. We can be guilty of training within our 'comfort zone'. Sometimes you've got to make in hurt, a tough hill session, hard intervals, I think these type of sessions train the mind to accept discomfort and push what you 'think' are your limits out a bit further. Remember a some point its not going to get any worse;)

Also if you hurt in training you have got a reference point that you can come back to during a race. For example if you regularly do 10x400's, then during a race the effort required can feel like #8 where you need to dig deep to keep on track. And you know you have done that in training so you can do it again.

Also the thought of all the hours of effort put in during training which I don't want to go to waste, keep me going in a tough race.

shels4ever

tunney wrote: »

Here Shels, take this Suck-it-up pill, I suggest you wash it down with this glass of Shut-the-Fcuk-up and just HTFU.

does that one work Had to google HTFU there.

RJC

I had a 5 mile race last wednesday and I had a major crisis at mile 3 (after the hills). The panic monkeys had escaped from their cage and were running riot in my head. I was looking at the footpath and telling myself to sit down on it! I then started a mantra 'I am running, just breath and run, breath and run'. I knocked out the 2 fastest miles of the race and caught about 10 - 12 people in the last 2 miles with a killer kick at the end. To ignore the pain you have to totally associate with the act of running.

I had an injury and as the pain kicked in this was the mental key the panic monkeys needed. The fact that my leg was so sore at the end I couldn't warm down was the stupid proof I needed to show my will power had won out.

HTFU - good one.

aburke

dna_leri wrote: »

Also the thought of all the hours of effort put in during training which I don't want to go to waste, keep me going in a tough race.

I'd say its over 2 years ago now, but I did one training run in THE most inhospitable conditions ever. It wasn't that long, 8 miles maybe, but it was blowing a hurricane, driving rain and hail, real end-of the world stuff.

It was along the prom in Salthill and back, and traffic was a complete standstill. I even got hit by a wave crashing in over the rocks.

People took over 2 hours to cross the city that evening. I remember talking to people and explain that I was out training in that - and the looks were more incredulous than usual.

To THIS day, in a race, when I'm going through a bad patch, I think back to that day, and say to myself that I didn't train that day to ease off in a race, or not to suffer a little.

I bank all the hard tempo runs or track sessions where you have to be peeled off the track in the back of my head. They're needed on the bad days too.

Later
Alan

RJC

http://www.hardenthefup.com/

Mickeybags

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EY7lYRneHc

Hey Tunney

Can just imagine Chopper Reid coming up to you in T1 in Austria, you with blood gushing down your leg, he puts his arm around you, squeezes your broken collar bone and tells you to HTFU :D:D

tunney

Mickeybags wrote: »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EY7lYRneHc

Hey Tunney

Can just imagine Chopper Reid coming up to you in T1 in Austria, you with blood gushing down your leg, he puts his arm around you, squeezes your broken collar bone and tells you to HTFU :D:D

You mean and then make me go out and do the bike anyways even after cutting an artery and loosing alot of blood and then not letting me stop until I collapsed and fell off my bike a third of the way into the bike course? Something like that?

shels4ever

Tingle wrote: »

Mantras are good. I use "I am calm and I am strong". My two weaknesses when I come to the business end of the race are that I panic and I feel weak. The mantra reminds me that I don't need to panic and that I am strong. Works for me. Also, practice playing with the demons in training. Put yourself in situations in training that are uncomfortable. Training can be mental too. Its good sometimes (not all the time) to have a competitive cut to training in my opinion.

I know a guy who talks to himself during the race, never actually heard what he says but it's usually mid race.

silverside

Have a mental image of something and keep focussing on it. It doesn't really matter what it is, could be a keepsake, a place, a loved one... a simple image is best. For example, a lucky pebble. Then just grind through trying to keep an even pace... think about your breathing and your heart rate. If you physically have the lucky pebble it can help to reach for it.

It's the same idea religious people use with rosary beads.

edit: On the physical side, tempo runs help hugely in getting used to running on the pain threshold without external motivation.