We were in the middle of a long weekend morning run while training for spring marathon when my ears perked up at the conversation I was overhearing. They were all talking about how they had been half dreading the run that morning. For them it was 22 miles. I was going 18. But, coincidently, I had been feeling the same way just the night before. And after talking about it during the long run, I'm convinced it is a pretty common feeling for a lot runners.
I'm talking about the nerves many of us battle on the eve of a big race, or hard training run. Many of the friends I was running with from the Elmhurst running club have been running for several decades. It is not a new concept to them. Some are former college athletes. Yet several said they could barely sleep the night before, because they were so anxious about running the 22 miles they had planned.
On this surface, this is fascinating, because most of them have done dozens of 20 milers in their running careers. It is familiar territory, and they should be confident in their ability to do it. But the funny thing to me was that I have also done plenty of 20 milers in my running career, and have logged plenty of miles in general over the last few decades, but the prospect of running that long still weighed heavily on my mind for a couple days before getting out and doing it.
I tried to think about it logically, and realized that I don't get nervous about doing weekend long runs in general, up to about 13, or 14 miles. So I think it's only when I step out of the routine and go longer than normal. It makes no sense. It should be nothing to be nervous about. The the last few miles are the only difficult part. But it's gotten so I just try to repeat to myself that it's just running. A couple hours of running. Nothing more than a couple hours out of my life. Right?
It reminds me of the feeling I had in high school and college on the days of track or cross country meets. My stomach would be in knots all day until the starting gun went off. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing. It's good to be keyed up for events you have worked hard to prepare for. I felt the same way before the first hit the day of a high school football game. It's natural.
But it doesn't seem to go away even with years of experience. Runner's World magazine recently had an amazingly candid story about Kara Goucher, who is arguably the best female distance runner in the U.S. right now. She talked about the issues she has had over the years with lack of confidence, despite running some amazing races and times.
When she hooked up with runners from the Nike Oregon Project, and coach Alberto Salazar, she also started working with their sports psychologist, Dr. Darren Treasure. Here is an excerpt from the story:
"I have a lot of negative chatter in my head," Goucher tells me in a
recent interview. "If I don't rein it in, my mind will tend to obsess
about what everyone else is doing in the race around me. I'll start
comparing myself to everyone else." When she does that, she says, she
saps the strength from her own legs. She morphs from great into okay.
When she can block out the critical self-talk, she runs like a champion."
If you'd like to read the rest of the story you can find it online at:
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-243-297--13431-0,00.htmlGoucher talks about how with the help of Dr. Treasure and Salazar, she has overcome a lot of her self-doubt, and run with confidence. It's helped her make the most of her ability, and I believe some of the methods she uses can apply to most of us regular runners also. At the very least, it's reassuring to know that elite runners face the same human challenges as the rest of us.
Few of us are going to run in the Olympics any time soon, but many of us are training for some race in the future, whether it be a marathon or a 5k. And our goals for those races and the workouts leading up to them are important to us, which is where the anxiety comes from.
That's part of the reason I also try to remind myself at every turn that I run because I enjoy it. It's supposed to be fun, not work. That may not help us get much sleep before the next 20 miler, but once we leave the starting line, at least we can relax and make the most of it. And after a couple hours or so of running, we'll have proven to ourselves, once again, that we can do it!
See you on the roads....
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