So the Warsaw Marathon is just 3 days away now (well actually 2 days with this edit) !! Wow where does the time go?... I was wondering just the other day how I would get through the next two week taper. But it seems to have vanished without so much as a trace of a niggle or imaginary faux injury. I'm feeling well rested and have used the last few weeks not to run hard or focus on any further physical improvement (the training is in the bag after all) but to focus on all the mental aspects of preparing and running a marathon.
The timing of 3 recent books I have been reading couldn't have been any better. Huge inspiration has come from reading about US elite marathon runner Deena Castor whose book which details her whole running career from high school to elite marathoner provided huge nourishment and practical tips on the mental approach to marathon training, preparation and racing. It's a really good read and highly recommended.
The timing of 3 recent books I have been reading couldn't have been any better. Huge inspiration has come from reading about US elite marathon runner Deena Castor whose book which details her whole running career from high school to elite marathoner provided huge nourishment and practical tips on the mental approach to marathon training, preparation and racing. It's a really good read and highly recommended.
Two clients also recently gave me books as gifts ~ Mark Beaumont's 'Around the World in 80 days', and the South African running and sport scientist Tim Noakes 'Challenging Beliefs'. Mark's amazing 78 day world record cycle ride was astonishing in every sense and provided a real moment of clarity about the goals that we set ourselves and how we should pursue them no matter how audacious they may appear. You have to believe with 100% utter conviction in what you are doing otherwise you will fall at the first hurdle. Similarly anyone familiar with Tim Noakes and the Lore of Running, and his more recent book will understand about the huge importance of the mental aspects of running in attaining your goals. But many will never have heard of him so let me expand further as no runner should be without this information.
I find the mental aspects of running absolutely fascinating. There is no race distance quite like the marathon to really test your mental aptitude, your metal, nerve, grit and determination. The Central Governor theory first presented by Tim Noakes in the Lore of Running in the mid 80s was the first time someone had presented evidence and causation about the links between the brain and running performance. Not just a few casual links but a hard wired programme where the brain is in absolute control of your output and performance. Before Noakes it was believed (and still is in some circles) that slowing down during running was simply and purely a direct physical reaction to the stresses of exercise placed on our bodies and heart when we run. In 1923, a renowned researcher 'Hill' theorised that we fatigue in running (or any sport) when our bodies reach an oxygen plateau (an absolute limit) where our heart has reached maximum capacity and has no choice but to slow down and pump less blood to our oxygen starved muscles because it can't keep up with demand and so we slow. Muscles need oxygen to operate and the heart provides that oxygen to them. So it sounds fairly reasonable that fatigue and ultimately failure of the system occurs at this point based on the inability for the body to physically carry on at the same pace. Sounds reasonable, but it's totally wrong!
Neither the heart, or any of our primary organs for that matter which are working equally hard whilst we run, reach a maximum limit of oxygen debt or anywhere near it as theorised by Hill (even though this was widely accepted for the next 80 years!). The body and mind is far too complex and clever for that to happen. Hill had never even considered or contemplated in his research that the brain might have a key role to play in managing our output.
Neither the heart, or any of our primary organs for that matter which are working equally hard whilst we run, reach a maximum limit of oxygen debt or anywhere near it as theorised by Hill (even though this was widely accepted for the next 80 years!). The body and mind is far too complex and clever for that to happen. Hill had never even considered or contemplated in his research that the brain might have a key role to play in managing our output.
And that is what Noakes discovered and has since written extensively about in the Central Governor theory. The brain is the Central Governor ~ an in-built safety mechanism that protects all vital organs and does everything it can to reduce the body's output if it senses an unsustainable pattern of exercise BEFORE it reaches anywhere near its limits. And that ladies and gentlemen is the key difference between what Noakes has identified and what Hill had suggested. In Hill's model the runner reaches an absolute physical limit (oxygen plateau) and has no choice but to slow. To carry on would be suggest certain death is almost eminent. We know that isn't true even though most sports science is still based on that physical limits theory. BUT the mechanism that is controlling us (the Central Governor) which is very powerful and also VERY cautious will try every trick in the book to slow us down by sending signals to recruit less muscles (e.g. slow down) and thus reducing the strain put on the heart.
Let's come back to that feeling of fatigue you feel when running. I'm not even talking about a hard effort or the end of a marathon but just general feeling of fatigue when you starts to tire. Would you be surprised to learn that that feeling of fatigue is not even a real physical feeling. What you are feeling is NOT actual physical fatigue in any of your muscles. It might feel like your legs are screaming to slow down, or your lungs are gasping for air and you can't possibly continue. BUT fatigue is purely an 'emotion' created by the brain. Fatigue is exactly the same as feeling happy or sad. They are real feelings and feel damn real especially in the latter stages of a marathon BUT all the same they are just emotions. And emotions can be controlled. And that changes everything!
When you consider how you are feeling in a marathon when fatigue sets in during the second half and especially those last 6 miles the brain is sending you all sorts of signals to slow down, to say enough is enough, but you don't have to listen. Your muscles have NOT reached their physical limit. Your true physical capabilities are way higher than the safety net provided by your brain to control your outputs and protect itself. Understanding this is a huge eye-opener and provides another option when it unleashes the hurt locker and throws everything at you.
When you consider how you are feeling in a marathon when fatigue sets in during the second half and especially those last 6 miles the brain is sending you all sorts of signals to slow down, to say enough is enough, but you don't have to listen. Your muscles have NOT reached their physical limit. Your true physical capabilities are way higher than the safety net provided by your brain to control your outputs and protect itself. Understanding this is a huge eye-opener and provides another option when it unleashes the hurt locker and throws everything at you.
What follows from this theory though is a whole host of tools and techniques available to you to better equip oneself to prepare for a marathon before and on race day. Deena Castor's coach and her training was all centered around gaining that mental edge. The last two weeks for me have all been about gaining that edge too ahead of the marathon. Visualising the course, visualising how I'm going to feel at each mile, at half way and in those last 6 miles. Imagining myself running with a smooth and powerful stride and hitting every mile split without overexertion or over reaching. It's about being confident in the last 5 months of training since Brighton (where I ran 3:00.05) that my fitness has improved further. It's about taking huge confidence from recent race results and PBs set that all point to being on track. Confidence is everything in marathon running because as described above everything links back to the brain. The brain will determine what it thinks (and to a large extent knows) you are capable of before you even run a single stride. Standing on the start line the brain has an innate ability to set your allowable work rate (your pace) based on all your build up (physical and mental). Based on past results, how you are feeling on the day, the conditions, the heat, the wind, how you slept, recent illness, injuries etc, everything is taken into account. And the pace you set out at will quickly be determined by the brain with little, if any, conscious need to set the pace yourself. It's automatic. It's in auto-pilot. You can try to override that pace but you will know instantly if you have and your brain will send back signals pretty swiftly if you try and over cook it. Noakes mentions that for every step you take (in fact every second or milli-second) the brain has four choices: slow down, speed up, stay at the same pace or stop. It is making these calculations every millisecond with every step taking into account everything that is happening around you, the environment, the support, the conditions, internally assessing and adapting every stride accordingly. How amazing is that! What I read into that is that you have to be both totally in tune with everything that is happening whilst also getting into the zone and almost feeling nothing at all. The two seem at polar opposites but in that zone where everything just flows, you feel the effort but it feels good and mind and body accepts it and the Central Governor allows you to continue. That is the state I hope to achieve on Sunday. BUT if it fights back it had better be ready for one hell of a fight.
If you want to understand more about the science and a far better explanation than my attempt here then please do go and look up Tim Noakes.
If you want to understand more about the science and a far better explanation than my attempt here then please do go and look up Tim Noakes.
This blog has not gone in the direction I expected it to at all!! It wasn't by intention to explain the theory but what is driving me forward with such focus and positivity but I'm glad I did. I think a Part 2 is necessary to talk more about the practical plan ahead of Sunday... about the actual pace I plan to set and maintain, and how I'm feeling about heading to Warsaw, how I'm feeling to run my first marathon at the age of 40! Can you tell I'm a wee bit excited about this one! 🤣
But for now I will leave it there as I really need to get some sleep!! (well that was last night!)
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