One of the phrases I rely on time and again with my Athletes is “if you can run a 10k without stopping, you are physiologically capable of running a half marathon - and if you can run a half, you can run the 26.2”

What do I mean?

I am a strong believer that running is 70/30 psychological: 70% of the work you do in training relates to strength of mind.

How you respond to challenges during a run. How you break down the full distance into smaller, more manageable chunks in your head. The degree of self-belief you have in your ability to complete the task at hand.

So, in the same way as you would implement stretching sessions, strength training and recovery protocols to improve the PHYSICAL aspect of your running, I am going to explore some psychological tips that I implement in my own training in an effort to explain some of the mind tricks I use to get from A to B…

#01 - “Just Keep Swimming”

If I were to say the word ‘mantras’, it probably conjures up images of a satanic cult standing in a circle chatting breeze in some ancient script; or maybe even the classic scene from Hot Fuzz…

Although traditionally associated with more alternative corners of society, having a mantra in my head to use when entering a Pain Cave on a run has been a game-changer - a 3-4 word phrase that you can repeat to yourself in your head to lift you up and out of a hole.

In doing so, you divert your attention away from the growing physical discomfort, and bring the mind back to the body and the breath. It may take a while of repeating yourself, but trust me when I say it works eventually!

Depending on how far gone you are in Ultra, I know many people (myself included) even end up saying them out loud - a good indication of the questionable mental state someone is in after god-knows-how many hours on the trails.

Now social media will have you believe that the most effective mantras come straight out of the Daily Stoic, or an inspirational quote from Goggins - but the truth is, it can be whatever works for you.

That may well be the ticket for you, but personally I prefer something a bit less profound and a bit more memorable: ‘Just Keep Swimming’ 

Yes, in the middle of the hardest grinds of my running life, I find myself quoting Nemo over and over again - but the thing is, it keeps me going. It keeps me grounded, and refocuses my brain when needed.

Having a mantra in your back pocket is one of the easiest and most accessible weapons to have in your Psychological Armoury when it comes to running - so have a think and find one that works for you.

#02 - Feelings > Metrics

One of the first things I ask my Athletes (and not just the runners) is why?

Why did you seek my help? Why do you want to achieve XYZ? 

After a bit of digging, we always come across emotions and feelings that underpin their goal - feeling more confident, more resilient, more capable of doing cool things in life that gives an individual purpose.

Same applies to running.

I always attach some form of emotion to my sessions and races.

Before, how do I feel? Anxious? Low in mood? Overwhelmed?

And after, how WILL I feel? Proud. Relieved. Uplifted. Clearer of thought.

That way, you provoke an emotional response from your sessions as opposed to just simply being ‘Running 5km’ - instead, it becomes a form of psychological relief from the stressors we experience every day.

You begin to look beyond the Strava Kudos, and understand just how positive an impact running can have on your headspace and general emotional state.

In acknowledging and learning the emotional transformation that happens when you run, you will find yourself in a mindset whereby you don’t give training sessions a second thought - even when you’re slightly lacking in motivation.

Simply by attaching emotion to the activity itself.

#03 - Vary Route Selection

To paraphrase an old saying, I believe that when it comes to where you run, boredom is the thief of joy.

Bashing out the same old route, session after session, becomes a safety net that people hide under - without exploring other parts of your local area and, subsequently, different elevation profiles to challenge the body.

Think of it like strength training. You like to bench press, so you include it as part of one of your sessions every single week. Eventually there comes a point where progress will stagnate, you’ll begin to lose your love of the movement, and ultimately become less motivated to train.

Same applies to running.

Although having a few regular routes to help standardise progression at a particular distance (eg 5k, 10k etc) - we want to keep a nice variety of routes in the tank to help keep yourself engaged with your training.

My advice is to use your weekend long run (where time isn’t necessarily an issue) to go and explore different roads, trails or footpaths in the hope of discovering somewhere new to plod on the regular…

..Or go full Old-School and grab an OS Map, plot a route, transfer to a Strava GPX File and off you go! 

#04 - Chunking (C2C)

If you’re wondering, C2C stands for ‘Clump to Clump’ - one of the ways in which I approach running up hills, born out of a particularly nasty incline on the South Downs between Rathvinny and Firle.

When running up said hill one day, 35km into a 100km loop, I felt a little more overwhelmed than usual at the prospect of 800ft of climb for the next 2 miles.

Up the hill, there are clumps of grass at disturbingly regular intervals (100m or so) all the way up to Firle Beacon - so I used these as psychological waypoints for going full Kate Bush on that hill.

I tick each one off in my head, move onto the next and crack on. I’ll walk between two clumps, and then decide to run the following 100m to the next clump before cranking it down again.

By diverting attention from the big task of getting to the top (the outcome), and focusing on achieving the much smaller tasks of getting from clump to clump (the process), before you know it you’ve reached the summit and can begin the descent.

Day to day, ‘chunking’ can be a great way to make an overwhelming session seem 10 times more achievable.

If you’re running in a town, do something like Postbox to Postbox - or Traffic Lights to Traffic Lights - to divvy up your run into smaller runs. It doesn’t necessarily mean you have to stop between landmarks, but it just means you can work towards smaller targets and chip away at the overall distance for that particular session.

Try it next time you lace up for a session!

#05 - Conscious Breathing 

Your breath, your mind and your body are more closely connected than you think.

One of the best ways to improve your running generally, but also one of the best tools for regaining control and focus when hitting a wall during a run, is breathing more consciously.

Breathing is the first thing to go when you’re not feeling it during a run - whether it becomes quicker, more erratic, or just irregularity that causes you to panic, it is a good indicator of how well you’re getting on.

This usually runs concurrent with a spike in heart rate that doesn’t help the mid-run anxiety in the slightest…

Counteracting this with some sort of conscious breathing pattern - be that nasal-only, in for 2 out for 2, or nasal-in/oral-out - will not only help manage physiological stress by bring the heart rate back under control, but more significantly will calm the monkeys down who are having a party upstairs.

It will reengage your thought processes, and bring you back down to a state of relative rationality and clarity - and reinstate your self-belief in completing the task at hand.

Conscious breathing has got me out the Pain Cave on countless occasions - and I can confidently say it has spurred me to the finish line on EVERY single Ultra I have ever competed in.

If its one thing you take away from reading the above, make it this - practising conscious breathing is one of THE most powerful weapons a runner can have in his/her armoury.

The Final Word

Running is a Psychological Game.

From training to the finish line, how you approach things in the Upstairs Department will make or break success in the game.

By implementing just one or two of the 5 above, hopefully you will start on the road to the Bulletproof Brain required to achieve your true potential on the roads and trails.

Don’t underestimate the power of the Human Mind - take it from someone who ran their first every Ultra following 3 months of no running, and relied solely on mindset to get over the line…