Summary

• Most runners will experience a mental block on their "real" capabilities (and it's not just runners that do this, everyone does)
• How do you learn to push through that mental block and shift your mindset?
• You train your body hard, so why not do the same for your mind?
• Breaking through mental thresholds (barriers) is the same as pushing through your physical thresholds (such as your anaerobic and lactate thresholds)
• Pushing your body when your mind says no comes under the 7th Core Pillar of Running - "Mindset" which is always included as a key component of our Running Coaching Programs

Related Posts

Are You Self-Sabotaging Your Running?

5 Signs Lack Of Sleep Could Be Sabotaging Your Running

7 Core Pillars of Running - Hint: It's Not Just About Getting The Miles In!

6 Alternative Reasons You're Not Already Running At Your Best

Inspirational Quotes

Full Transcript

[The following is the full transcript of this episode of the BE Fit Coach "Let's Talk Running" show.  Please note that this episode, like all LTR episodes, is usually unscripted and unedited and features Barrie talking about a subject that we believe runners will find useful and interesting.]

As runners, we spend a lot of time on training our bodies to perform well and to develop as runners.

We’ll work with strength training, mobility work, we’ll be doing running training, different pace training, we’ll be entering races.  We’re constantly trying to develop our bodies to perform at their best.  But one of the things that’s quite often neglected by runners is the mindset required to be the best runner you can be, and that’s what I’d like to take a look at in this short video today.

Hi everyone, I’m Barrie Evans, the owner and creator of BE Fit Coach, where I work on developing high-quality running coaching programs and running assessment programs to help runners achieve the best they possibly can.  The work we do with running coaching is based around what we’ve called the 7 Core Pillars of Running.  So this is about your running training, your running technique, your strength training, your mobility training, your rest and recovery, your nutrition, and your mindset.  And that’s what we’re looking at in this video today is all to do with that mindset.  

In particular, about pushing your body when your mind says no!  

So, you’ve probably had this experience yourself where out on a run, it could be just a normal everyday easy run, or it could be a tough technical session.  Any type of run this situation can occur with.  What I’m talking about is where you’re running along and you get to that point where your body is saying “I can’t do this”, your body feels like its “I can’t do this” and it’s your mind that telling you “this is what the body feels like at the moment”.

What I find with runners is that’s the easiest point at which you can go “no, I’m stopping, I can’t do this anymore”.  You might stop to take a break and get to it, or you might start back at a gentle pace, or you might actually just give up and walk home from there.

It’s all to do with the mind, and when I’m talking about running training, when we talk about going out and doing all these different types of technical runs, whether it’s the work that I do with clients around your R-Pace, I-Pace, T-Pace, etc; or whether its just you’re doing laps of a track or your pushing yourself to a particular pace to try and train for your next half marathon.  

Whatever training it is, when you reach that point, it’s your mind that’s actually interpreting the body’s signals, and your mind is doing it’s job at that point, your mind is saying “hang on, there’s something doesn’t feel right in the body, I’m getting these signals that are telling me there’s discomfort, there could be pain, there could be anything that’s signalling back to the brain that your body is not in its natural, normal state.  

Your brains job in that case is to try to bring you back into balance, to try and return you to a point that feels comfortable.  

By doing that, what it’s doing is reading those signals and saying to you “hey, we need to slow down, we need to stop, we shouldn’t be carrying on like this, we’re struggling, there’s a problem”, and in training your mind, what you’re basically doing is the same that you do with any sort of training.  Whether it’s R-Pace where you’re pushing your anaerobic threshold, or T-Pace where you’re pushing your lactate threshold; it’s all about hitting that point where your threshold of your mind in this case, where your mind is saying “ah hang on something’s not quite right here”, and if you go beyond that it’s typically the point where you’ll go “nope, can’t do this!” and you shut down.  

What we want to do is to train our minds so we get close to that threshold and we’re just nudging at it, going “yeah I can feel that my mind is reacting and that my body is feeling uncomfortable but I’m okay, I can keep pushing through”, and you keep pushing that boundary.  

What happens over time is that you push that threshold upwards, same as if you were talking about your lactate, or your anaerobic or aerobic thresholds, it’s all about just gently nudging away at that so that you gently push that threshold up.  

So you know, and your mind learns, that you can actually push your body harder than perhaps you first realised.  In doing that, over time you improve your mindset, that you’re now able to push further, harder, cope with more discomfort in the body before you reach that point of giving up. 

Now, this is something that is quite fundamental to the mindset pillar in 7 Core Pillars of Running.  We also look at gaining clarity, whether that’s around your weaknesses, your strengths, etc.  Whether it’s about goal setting.  We also look at motivation, which I’ve covered in a previous blog post as well if you want to take a look at that.  

But today particularly I’m talking about that during a tough session where your mind is saying “No!  Your body is not able to cope” so your mind says “No!”.  It’s about taking that signal, about reading that value, that measurement if you like, or that indication your mind is giving you and saying “yep, thank you, I’m aware that you’re telling me this, but I’m just going to push that little bit longer, that little bit harder”.  

Be kind to yourself, its not about being able to blast through everything and run forever, it’s all about training that mind to push that little bit further, to know that its’ safe - and that’s a key word here - to know that it’s safe for you to push your body that little bit harder.  By doing that, over time as I’ve said, you’ll improve that mindset and you’ll be able to run furher, faster, harder, for longer.

So hopefully that was helpful and I’ll be back next week with some more useful information for you with another new topic, but for this week think about that mindset, think about how your mind is reacting to your body out on a run, and just look at “what can I do to just push that little bit further and just drive that little bit harder to get through this, do that little bit longer and achieve that little bit more?”.  Over time, those little changes will make a massive difference to your running.

Okay, I’d love it if you could leave any comments down below.  I’d love to hear from you.  I always love hearing about my runners' experiences so, anything you want to share, please do and I’ll speak to you again soon.  Bye for now.

How can BE Fit Coach help you?

We have a range of services that can ensure you are training optimally for you! We are all individuals, with unique and sometimes challenging lives, so choose a training solution that works with you, for you.

At BE Fit Coach, we are constantly working on developing new programs and courses. If you'd like to ensure you are kept up-to-date then I recommend joining our email list (below) as that is where all new announcements are made first!