Goal 9 - Train Your Brain

Marathon training isn’t just physical in nature. It is also mental. Some coaches, including myself, believe that mental, psychological and emotional training is just as important as physical training. Of all the race distances, marathon running requires the highest levels of mental toughness and training. No other distance places greater demands on your psychological, emotional and spiritual strength.

Mental training covers a surprisingly broad spectrum. It is not just a matter of will. There are also physiological aspects of brain training. Training your brain involves each of the following:

Mental toughness

Running 26.2 miles isn’t easy. That’s why relatively few people ever attempt it. There is no doubt that marathon running is physically tough, but the real challenge is mental. You need to develop a tough, no retreat, never surrender attitude. Building mental toughness is a gradual process, just as your physical training. Mental toughness is built during your long training runs. Every time you increase the mileage of your long runs you are pushing your body and your mind to a level that they have not reached before. Your body is getting tougher and so is your mind. The important part of your mental training is not to give up during your training runs. When your long runs get difficult you need to dig deep and keep going. That never say die attitude will build your mental toughness to a point that you will be determined to reach your marathon goal no matter what obstacles are thrown in your path.

Visualization

You may have experienced being in the “zone” in other sporting events. The zone is a mental state in which your mind it completely focused on the task at hand and your confidence level is at its maximum. A basketball player will sometimes describe the basket as seeming as large as a pond. A baseball player may describe the ball as moving in slow motion. For a runner being in the “zone” is usually called the “runners high”. A runner will feel like they are gliding smoothly along the ground while expending very little effort. Some runners say they don’t even feel their feet hitting the ground. When you are running in the zone you are mentally focused and physically strong. To achieve your runners high you should practice your visualization skills. Imagine yourself gliding smoothly forward. Some runners like to visualize gravity pulling them forward or a rope attached to their hips pulling them along. Whatever type of visualization you choose, practice it during all of your training runs. Your body will do what your brain believes.

Spiritual Strength

Your brain is in control of your body, but your spirit is in control of your will. A well trained brain will help your body perform up to its maximum ability but during most marathons and many long training runs you will reach a point where your brain and body insist on stopping. It is at that point that your spirit will need to take over. You can strengthen your spirit right along with your body and brain. Every time you refuse to quit when your body is screaming at you to stop you are exercising your spirit. You are strengthening your will to keep going. One of the great things about marathon training are the fringe benefits. This is one of them. A strong spirit will help you grow in every phase of your life, not just your running life. You train your spiritual strength every time you overcome the sometimes overpowering desire to quit during a hard training run or race.

Central Nervous System Control

Remember earlier I wrote about a relatively new theory of running fatigue in which your central nervous system (CNS) may interrupt the signals sent from your brain to your working muscles in an attempt to keep a level of homeostasis or balance in your body. It is believed that this takes place because your body is trying to protect your heart and possibly other vital organs from damage. While this theory is new it does explain a number of discrepancies in other theories of running fatigue. For example - if fatigue is completely physical in nature then you should not be able to continue running, much less increase your pace to a finishing kick, in the last miles of a marathon. Assuming that this theory is true, and I for one believe that it is, you should also be training your CNS. The best way to train your CNS is by high intensity running intervals, progressive long runs, goal pace running and lactate turnpoint workouts. All of those training runs will put your CNS in a position in which it wants to start decreasing the signals to your muscles to protect your body. When you practice running at those paces and distances your CNS gradually learns that you can keep going without putting your body in mortal danger and it “allows” you to keep running.

Continue to Goal 10 - Improve Your Adaptability

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