How to Get Back to a Marathon Mentality

Three tactics you can use to mentally prep, push through hard workouts in your Irish Dublin Marathon training by Sports Performance Psychologist Jessie Barr.

Break the workout down

Sometimes the hardest part of a big workout is the thoughts of doing it! When you know you have a particularly challenging workout coming up, look at how you could break it down into smaller more achievable steps. Thinking about the workout as a series of small steps, rather than as one whole and daunting workout might help you feel more confident about being able to complete it. For example, if you know you have a 90-minute run to do today, maybe break it down into 3 blocks of 30 minutes runs. Or if you have 20 x 400m on the track, you could break it down into 5 sets of 4 400s. Although it is the same volume of work, breaking it down into chunks like this will make it easier to focus on just one part at a time. So, when you look at your watch and see that you are 20 minutes into your run you won’t feel deflated thinking “I still have 70 more minutes to do”, you will think “only 10 more minutes of this set left”, which will hopefully sustain your motivation.

Set small, achievable goals

Often for tough workouts, our only goal is just to finish it! Of course, that’s perfectly fine, but it isn’t the most motivating approach! Even when the workout has been broken down into chunks, it can still seem overwhelming. To help maintain motivation throughout, consider setting some smaller “process goals” to focus on throughout the session, that will help you to achieve your overall “outcome” goal of finishing the workout. These process goals could relate to specific aspects of your running technique such as improving your arm drive or your stride length throughout the run or maintaining a mid-foot strike as you start to fatigue. Or the process goals could refer to hitting pre-determined times for specific phases of the workout or maintaining your heart rate at certain level. Having smaller goals to focus on can help maintain your effort by giving you something to focus on other than just finishing the workout. Having these process goals also means that you have other things to reflect on, even if your workout outcome wasn’t what you hoped for, which can give you a confidence boost. For example, “I didn’t hit the time I wanted for that run, but I noticed my running stride felt more consistent throughout”.

Learn to switch your attention

During a hard workout, what we pay attention to can either increase the perceived difficulty, or else can cause a welcome distraction. For example, if you are already feeling fatigued, focusing on how heavy your legs feel, how your lungs are burning, and your heart is pounding probably won’t make you feel any better! Think of your attention as a spotlight that you can move around, that you can make wider or narrower, depending on what you need in the moment. If thinking about internal factors such as how your body feels is not helping, move the spotlight to outside of your body to things in the environment, such as picking a point ahead on the road to run to or just paying attention to what you see around you. Similarly, if the external environment is demotivating, such as running laps and laps around the same track, or you’re on a long straight stretch of path, bring your attention internally to technical aspects such pumping your arms, staying light on your feet etc.

Jessie Barr is a member of the Irish Life Dublin Marathon Runners’ Support Squad, helping you to harness the power of support to achieve your goals. Olympians Catherina McKiernan and Mick Clohisey who have developed training plans for all races in the series and the marathon using their vast expertise and knowledge. They are joined by nutritionist, Olivia Keenan, and physiotherapist Mark Kenneally. To find out more follow the Irish Life Dublin Marathon social media channels.