Disclaimer: I’m not a psychiatrist or a doctor, and the advice here is general - not specific to individual circumstances or needs. If you are struggling with your mental health please please speak to a professional!
When training for an endurance event, you’ll often find yourself alone with your thoughts with little to distract you. The creature comforts are gone, you’re restricted to a certain area (the race course or training route) and it could be a long time before things are back to normal. To stay on track, there are a few mental tricks and tactics we can use to make it through a multi hour slog - and with the current lockdown in progress they may be of use to those feeling a bit stir crazy cooped up in the house.
Left to right - a cycle to Berwick and back, a long indoor bike session, and hobbling around a golf course with a bum knee using the tactics below. The first and third expeditions were done alone, without music or podcasts, and entirely optional (*unnecessary).
Mindset is Everything - A Foreword
“Where focus goes, energy flows” - Tony Robbins
“Mission got cancelled? GOOD. We can focus on our other one” - Jocko Willink
“It’s a self fulfilling prophecy, whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re probably right” - Will Smith
When you look hard enough, you will find what you’re looking for. This is especially true in our minds, where we can think at a million miles an hour and from any perspective we want. If you look for problems and reasons to get angry or sad, you’ll be able to find problems and reasons to get angry or sad. If you look for opportunities and reasons to be happy or grateful, you’ll find opportunities and reasons to be happy or grateful. If we were purely logical beings, that would be enough - but we’re not, we also have emotions that will burst in and try to hijack our thought process.
We feel how we feel, and there’s nothing we can do to stop emotions popping up. However, this isn’t about silencing or hiding emotions, it’s about making good decisions in spite of them - how to keep moving forward despite wanting to give up. Instead of focusing on what we can’t control (our emotions), we focus on what we can control (our thoughts and actions).
By all means, acknowledge what you're feeling, where it's coming from (I care about this person/thing), and whether it's helping you or not. If it’s helping you - great, use it to take positive action! If not, thank it for reminding you how much you care about this person/thing and find a way to take action to improve the situation. Caring for someone, your family or an endeavour is a good thing, but becoming a ball of rage/tears is unlikely to help. There is a time to vent, and there is a time to act - these mental tricks and tactics will help with the latter.
Endurance Tactics
Mantras - “calm now, wine later”
These are short, simple, positive affirmations that help us to keep going. These need to be short and simple so that they’re easy to repeat - out loud or in your head - and think about in the face of the mounting reasons to give up. They need to be positive (encouraging or praising) so that you're always steering yourself in a positive direction (finishing the race, getting through the time, etc) instead of letting something negative distract you and steer you off course.
This is why “keep moving forward” is better than “don’t stop” - they both essentially mean the same thing, but as the second mantra has “stop” in it, we might start to think about stopping, which can lead us to actually stopping. It’s like being asked to not think of a pink polar bear - once the seed has taken root it’s hard to kill. Just make sure you’re planting positive seeds and not negative ones.
Visualisation
If mantras aren’t your cup of tea, we can also visualise what we want to happen to help us keep on track. However, while it might feel good for a moment to imagine crossing the finish line, this can be counter productive as we realise how far we still have to go. Instead, the best course of action is to visualise ourselves using great form at the task at hand - thinking about the process and taking each step with care and purpose.This keeps us in the moment and on track with what is actually going to get us to the finish line - moving forward step by step.
At home, this can be visualising how we’re going to approach a task or taking a step forward (literal or metaphorical), and then doing it. See yourself doing what you want to do, and do it.
Small Goals and Reward
How do you run a marathon? One step at a time. Trying to run the whole thing at once - planning every detail and outcome - is overwhelming and a strategic pain. Keep things small and manageable, build momentum through consistently hitting the small steps and you’ll be on the way to victory. To help with consistency, we can give ourselves a wee reward. On the road it needs to be something light that we can carry - so is often a quick walking break or a tasty treat (maybe a few chocolate raisins or M&Ms) we can have upon completing a block of time, distance moved or obstacle reached (crested the hill, made it to the lamppost before Steve, etc).
In isolation, we can set up a few small goals throughout the day and a reward after completing each one. This doesn’t have to mean finishing something - it could be to sit and read a few pages of a book, make notes on a project you want to pursue, try out an exercise or recipe we saw on social media. Upon completing the small goal, treat yourself to a wee reward - ideally something inexpensive and that won’t impact the rest of the day (so no absinthe shots at 11am).
For creating new habits using small steps, check out my blog post on Micro Habits and the Pareto Principle (clicking the link will open the post on a new page)
New Direction
We’ve got our route map and we’re making good progress - until there’s a fallen tree or a muddy bog blocking the way. We can try to power straight through (adjusting our running technique), or just go around to continue our general forward progress. Staying where you are and cursing the gods will just waste time and energy.
With government enforced restrictions in place, many of our interests, social and work endeavours have been “blocked” from moving forward. However, as long as we have a destination in mind, we can always take an alternative route - whether that’s a new way to approach your interest (I’ve switched to bodyweight movements I find challenging in place of barbells and weights), or a new direction altogether (trying out painting or brainstorming ideas for a side hustle). When used wisely, the internet can be a great tool for finding new approaches or sparking creativity - just watch out for the rabbit holes that ultimately lead to nowhere.
Reflection - An Honest Appraisal
None of us are perfect, and we all have our weak points. As we bob along the track we can take some time to reflect and see what parts of the run we struggled with and what parts we did well at. For the parts we struggled with, we can plan how to work on in the future (or not, it’s a free country) or reflect on what we can learn from them. For the parts we did well at, we can reflect on why it went well for future reference (what parts of training helped, why they helped) and say “good job”. Even if the only thing we’ve done well is to stay in the race and keep moving forward, that’s a good thing and there’s nothing wrong with a bit of positive encouragement.
At home, we can reflect on a number of things - as long as we do so honestly. What have we struggled with? Why did we struggle? Is this something we should work on? If so, how? What did we do well? What can we learn from it all? This is not an excuse to bully or put yourself down, this is a time to be honest and find a way to grow. We’re trying to move forward, not get further stuck in the mud.
Explore the Feels
On the road there will be many aches and pains, negative thoughts and moments of panic and despair. Fortunately, we have a lot of time on our hands so we can delve into these feelings and see what’s at the root of them instead of reacting, becoming even more panicked and flying off the handle. Many times what we’re feeling is discomfort, something that we can endure and maybe grow from, and then we let our emotions take over - magnifying the original concern and taking us off course. Instead, if we sit in our emotions, just pause and take a look around at what the facts are, what we’re feeling, and where our thoughts are taking us, we might find that it’s not as big a deal as we first thought.
Here are two scenarios: my first muscle cramp vs my latest one. One I was reacting more emotionally, one more logically.
What’s that pain in my leg, it’s getting worse - a stitch? A torn muscle? This is so unfair, I’ve only just started running! Will I be able to do any exercise with a torn muscle? What if I can’t walk? How am I going to get home? Or work? If I can’t work I can’t buy food or pay bills… (time passes without much getting done, eventually I figure out it’s just a muscle cramp).
Oo ouch, that doesn’t feel good. Let’s see what’s going on... oh it’s a muscle cramp. Slow down, stretch it out, and carry on. Had me worried there leg, right back to it. (off I run).
At home, take a breath. Step back and look at what’s happening, recognise what emotions you’re feeling and why. Acknowledge them, and find a way forward. Yes, this is easier said than done - especially when all the sh*t hits the fan at once. But with practice, we can improve and retain a bit more control of ourselves.
This links in to overthinking - or the loop of catastrophe, where one negative thought leads to another. This is a pretty common loop to get into, and there’s two main ways to get out of it: the first is to recognise what’s happening and taking control of your thoughts (changing the topic or thinking more positively, i.e. the Jocko Willink GOOD), and the second is to take action. Figure out a small action that can improve your or someone else’s current situation (even if it’s only a little) and go do it. This can be anything as long as you have to physically do something (so you can get out of your head and into your body) and it positively impacts you or someone else (exercise, starting to work on a project, tidying/organising something).
Get Back Up
These are just a handful of tactics that I have found useful out on the road and within the 4 walls, there are certainly plenty others and different ways to use them. As with all things, it takes practice to make them more natural and easier to implement - so don’t beat yourself up if you stumble or fall off the path from time to time. We all do it, and even after practising them, believing in them and writing them out, I too will get overwhelmed by emotions from time to time and become a little rage nugget or tear machine. The important thing is to realise what’s happening, pick yourself back up, and find a way to keep moving forward.