Embracing the Long Run for Mental Fitness
The long run, it’s a time honored tradition amoungest us endurance athletes. The long run has a whole host of physical benefits; increased mitochondria, improved joint and fascia resilience and not to mention cardiovascular health as a whole!
However, I would like to think the biggest and most important benefit that the long run gives us is mental fitness. But what is mental fitness?
Mental fitness is a term I first heard used by Simon Sinek it’s more commonly described as “mental health”, however, I much prefer Simons version as he describes in the linked clip. It’s all about psychological resilience; the ability to deal with life’s challenges and hardships without being overwhelmed and burned out by them.
So, how does this fit in to the long run, I hear you ask?
That’s my favourite part! While working on your physical fitness by hitting the trails or the pavement for that weekly or bi-weekly long run you’re actually getting a double benefit. You’re building mental fitness along the way and that mental fitness will pay more dividends than the physical benefits alone could ever hope to.
But why do I believe this?
Well, if you’re an athlete who competes in races, takes part in fun runs, is an endurance sport junky like me or just a human living in the 21st century; mental fitness is often the defining trait of those who succeed in realising their ambitions and dreams over the long term. Not only do those with great mental fitness achieve great things, they are able to do it in a sustainable way. You could argue that they are in it… for the long run!
Ok, ok… We get it Steve, you love this mental fitness stuff, how does it work?!
I’ll bet, whenever you’ve been out on a run that’s even 20% longer than your usual running sessions you start to feel uncomfortable. A little bit more fatigued than usual? Maybe that pace you’re so proud of starts to feel like way more work than it would on your typical 5K run? Maybe your brain starts to suggest that you should stop running. Maybe it’s even more simple than that, you’re just bored… Remember that old friend from childhood? Boredom. Such a rare thing in this modern life we lead.
If any of those things have ever plagued your long run, hell, even if they’ve plagued your 30 minute pre-breakfast jog you’re in good company. That’s the exact point at which you can start to build mental fitness, those moments that feel tough and uncomfortable. Not intolerable, but just enough outside of your comfort zone and the norm that you need to consciously make the effort to continue.
It’s when you start overriding that subconscious urge that you get, the one that tells you to stop and slow down because it all feels a bit harder than it did 5 minutes ago. That’s when you’re building mental fitness and a type of fortitude that will have you completing 10Ks, half marathons and maybe even marathons. That ability to tell your own mind & body that you, the human sentient version of you is the one in the drivers seat. You set the rules and the body and mind have to obey.
Now, I know this all sounds great, there is a bit of a catch. It’s hard work.
In my experience and the experience of others I have encountered who enjoy running long, you have to run without distraction for this to work. Yes, that’s right… No music, no podcasts… nada. You have to be fully present, you have to feel that burn in your calves, that elevated respiratory rate, that dryness in your mouth. You need to be fully in it and still feel all the feelings, revel in the discomfort almost, pay close attention to what’s going on mentally & physically.
Take my experience at the London Marathon this past month. I was shooting for the lofty goal of the sub 3 hour marathon. No easy feat. When I hit 35KM of that race I started to feel pretty uncomfortable, by Kilometre 40 I was in agony, nothing could have prepared me for how I would feel at that point in the race, I was past what I knew, fully into the unknown. But I did it, I pushed through that discomfort, that fatigue. Not in a stupid way, I know my body well enough to know what is dangerous & what is just painful because of fatigue. And that, that’s the magic of being present in training!
My mental fitness that I had built up in all my long runs by being present, feeling the burn, feeling the discomfort and revelling in it allowed me to once again be present. Assess how I truly felt, keep adjusting my plan for the race. Asking myself the right questions, the ones I needed to answer honestly. Things like — “is this pain in my legs fatigue or a potential injury?”, “Have I hit my nutrition targets for each hour?”, “Have I been drinking enough?” — I was able to keep calm, understand how I felt and ask the right questions of myself in that moment. Ultimately I could answer honestly, the most important question of myself; “is what I’m doing hard, but safe? Am I wanting to quit because it’s dangerous or just tough?”.
I would have never been able to do this without building my mental fitness to a point where, I could push through what my brain was telling me to do… Stop. I knew my fitness was in the right place, I had hit all my training runs and pace targets on those runs. I knew I could do it physically, the real question was could I endure the event mentally? Thanks to my long runs, I was able to answer that question on race day and push beyond my psychological limits. Which in turn built even more mental fitness!
Not only does mental fitness translate into hitting your sporting and fitness goals. It improves your life immeasurably, think of all the times you succumb to the Facebook algorithm and spend an hour of your day doom scrolling? That’s the same mental system that lives and bides its time in your subconscious during long endurance runs. It’s the voice that wants only comfort and distraction. It’s the voice in your head that stops you doing things that you really value in life.
If you can learn to notice and be present when your subconscious or “default” thinking patterns try to hijack your brain, because what you would rather be doing is a little uncomfortable. That’s the first step in winning the battle to live the life you want to be living. Maybe it’s the first step towards your marathon finish line? Maybe it’s the first step towards building that business you always dreamed of running? Maybe, just maybe… That next long run could be the first step in changing your whole life trajectory!
I hope I’ve sparked your curiosity enough to give the long run a try, or maybe even better, change how you view your long runs! I truly believe running long and being present for it has improved my life in ways I could never have imagined. I hope it can do the same for you!