The most common way people do this is with music, we put our head phones in and we choose to listen to the words and the beat and we hope it drowns out the cries from our legs and lungs saying please can I stop now. I ran with music for a long time and could never understand people who ran without it, how did they manage an hour on the road with nothing to distract them, with no hard beats to drive them up the hills or flowing indie rock to take them through the long stretchs of flat road. Somewhere in the midst of training for my first triathlon last year I realised that what I needed wasn't a distraction, I needed to realise that my mind and body are working together, to find a peaceful state of mind where I could work through each physical wall that my body hit and simultaneously work through mental ones. Once I could do that distance and time seemed less of an issue.
THE PHYSICAL WALL- My friend Jess had started running with myself and some other friends, but every 1km or so she would stop and walk. One day just the two of us I told her we were going to run side by side the whole way. I spoke to her from the start and told her what her body would be saying, when we hit a hill mid-way I would say your legs are tired now, you need to run through this wall so your body can release endorphins so you can keep going, I cheered her on, I put words to what she was experiencing physically and somehow this allowed her to overcome physical boundaries. I learnt to acknowledge how my body felt, know when I was almost at a limit and realise my body would give me what I needed to continue if I could just push through that physical wall.
THE MENTAL MARATHON- running is a release for me, after a very stressful day a run somehow restores me to a happy mental state (thank you endorphins). Innitially running with music I found calmer music actually helped me keep my heart rate down so I could run for longer, and it calmed my thoughts. Then learning to run without music I realised that I could treat a route as a sort of mental sorting system- the first little hill is mostly physical, my body wakes up and I'm aware of each muscle, my heart beat, the air in my lungs. Then as we start to hit a long stretch I relax, instead of trying to escape I work through things, I use the quiet to put things in perspective, to realise what is important and what isnt, the up hills pushing my muscles I work through the hard stuff and somehow the down hills lift my soul and remind me I'm strong and capable. Not only does this process help me clean out the mental clutter but it allows my body to get into rhythem and the pain seems to dissapear and the emotion drives me. With a clear quiet mind I can see the sunset and notice the trees, I'm no longer bound by mind or body.
I may seem like I've over thought this but seen such a difference in my running when I got mind and body to work together, I need to feel in control of both to push myself harder, further.
How do you overcome the physical and mental boundaries and walls you face?
XX CAz
oh my gosh, yes!! getting out the door is always the hardest part of running. with the first bit of the run being a close runner up. :/ i am doing my first 5k in a couple weeks. here goes nothing. :)
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Thats awesome Nicole, distance, atleast the smaller distances also seems so mental to me- once you can do 5 you can do 6 or 8 or 10:)
DeleteGood luck, let me know how it goes:)