Just heard this line while listening to Mofro. While this is not true in all situations it sure seems to be a useful mantra for someone like myself. When I start to feel tired in the later stages of a long run or when doing intervals I have often thought something similar: If it doesn't kill me (or cause serious injury) it should make me stronger. Sometimes it is so amazing how the human body can adapt to stress. If you train the body correctly it will no doubt be able to perform that specific task. The trickier task is to train the mind to continue on when the motivation is no longer there.
Although I am definately not in the best shape a bigger problem is that my training attitude has changed. Without some tangible racing goals I definately have a hard time putting in the hard miles: the long or fast road miles. So I guess this means I am going to have to start setting some running goals again. But this time I am going to be careful to allow for enough rest and downtime.
I found this old photo from last year's Seattle Marathon. I forgot that this guy raced me to the line over the last 100 yards. Boy was that a rush, pushing as fast as I could after 26.2! Almost makes me want to run the marathon this year. NOT!!
2 comments:
I've yet to figure out exactly how I'm supposed to train my mind for the last part of a race or long run. Usually, it's just telling myself to "suck it up and get over it" or "do you know how many people can't run?" which is motivating but not altogether positive. It would be nice to have the energy come from a more positive place.
3:08, very nice.
Justrun response: I'm not sure you can really train for that. This might be negative, but sometimes I think the will to succeed or at least improve may just be a result of many agonizing defeats. It took me a couple years to lower my marthon pr from 3:14 to 3:05 to qualify for Boston. Although part of the reason was that my body wasn't trained enough. I know that some part of my success in the end was the frustration I felt everytime I failed. Nowdays I am more into setting some reasonably small goals and enjoying my races, whether or not I blast out a new pr.
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