Serious question. There are a ton of articles and YT videos that talk about mental strength. So, how do you know if you can really push harder and farther then you think you can? Going into the “pain cave†can only get you so far. Not matter how hard I push and go into the pain cave, I’m not going to beat the best pros in the world. Heck, I’m not going to beat the best amateurs in my AG (yet, I’m new at training and newer at racing). But it’s just a thought I have about when do I call myself just a whimp for not being able to hit my race run pace or whatever.
What do you do or how do you decide that you’ve done everything mentally and physically possible in your race?
This is a good question. After a race I often wonder if I could have gone deeper especially when I see the pros. Look at Hoffman and Dietlev at IMTX last weekend, both collapsed at the finish. One sign for me is my last mile. I always assume that once I get inside a mile that I will find a way to finish; we can all hang on when we see the finish line. Therefore, I try to go really hard on my second-to-last mile. If the penultimate mile is faster than the last, I figure I probably didn’t leave a lot on the course.
When you don’t remember the last 5-30 minutes of the race and you ended up in the med tent…you went half a percent too hard.
But in all seriousness, if you’re wondering if you could have gone harder…you certainly could.
Everyone I know who pushes to the max, just knows. You go til your body literally fails against your will. And that’s that.
It’s not painful, it’s just really uncomfortable.
Source: I’m the first recipient of the losing end of a Hoffman sprint at the end of a multi-sport race…18 years ago.
If you don’t know, you either don’t have it or haven’t been tested.
I tend to think the most mentally tough athletes are the ones who are constantly questioning if they could have gone harder, and are full of doubt over close losses. It’s never enough.
If the penultimate mile is faster than the last, I figure I probably didn’t leave a lot on the course.
Solid assessment strategy.
Being unable to increase pace in the final mile, 400m, or 100m of a race is a good sign that you left it all on course.
If you lie to yourself and just choose not to increase pace, you’ll know it immediately.
If you do increase pace, you could have pushed harder in an earlier mile somewhere. Maybe lots harder.
My advice akin to this, for pacing, is make the 3rd quarter of every race where you spend the most energy. It’s where there is still no light at the end of the tunnel and the suffering is strong. If you can push the third quarter, you’ll find a way to finish in the 4th quarter because you’ll be proud of the effort that you’ve put forth so far. If you blow up and fade, you learn. If not, you stand proud of your effort.
To OP:
I know that I’ve pushed as hard as I can when I *never ever *want to think about making that level of effort again. If I don’t have some level of trauma-induced stress from an effort, then I didn’t go all-in.
Good news: you don’t have to go truly all in, all the time, (maybe never) to be proud of your efforts.
In college, I could muster that level of effort twice a year, maybe three times. Post-college, maybe once a year. Now, I prefer maybe twice a decade.
This is an interesting question, but I think there may not be one right answer, even for a specific individual. For example, my best race in college, an indoor 3k, left me throwing up uncontrollably afterward. During one of my best road races, a half marathon, I felt remarkably controlled and almost comfortable the whole way. Some might say that means I didn’t push hard enough, but I’m not sure that’s correct. I felt like I was right at the red line the whole way, but just didn’t ever go over. Also, some very successful endurance athletes have reported dissociative experiences, in which they didn’t feel much of anything at all, during their best performances. All that to say, I think we should be cautious about using perceptions of effort or pain to determine how close we’ve come to reaching our potential in a given event.
All that to say, I think we should be cautious about using perceptions of effort or pain to determine how close we’ve come to reaching our potential in a given event.
I agree. A lot of finish line drama and histrionics makes for compelling entertainment and often gets remembered as heroics. But I agree lots of great performances don’t have all that drama.
I tend to think the most mentally tough athletes are the ones who are constantly questioning if they could have gone harder, and are full of doubt over close losses. It’s never enough.Those athletes know who they are, though. They just know. It has become innate though past experiences.
The question I asked is because I always want to do more and finish a race with - “could I have gone harder at this point?†I recall one of my first “long runs†when getting back to running after decades off. I think it was only 8 miles. Around mile 6 two dogs, of the unfriendly kind, showed up. I maxed sprinted, which I’m sure wasn’t fast, for 30-40 seconds until both dogs quit. I was definitely spent after that. But in the last 5-10 seconds I was thinking to myself, “how much more do I have? Can I hold out long enough†At Augusta 70.3 last year I had to sit for 30-40 minutes at the first medal tent, because I was spent. But I did keep thinking to myself, could I have gone harder?
Could I have stayed away from the dogs for another 10 secs if I had to? Could I have gone another mile at Augusta if I had to?
I’ll read that article after my ride and brick this morning. I’m looking forward to it.
In our A races, I’m sure we all want to perform at the best level we can. That’s what I’m asking. How do you check to see if you whimped out? I like the penultimate mile pace test. Any other tests, practices, etc?
In our A races, I’m sure we all want to perform at the best level we can. That’s what I’m asking. How do you check to see if you whimped out? I like the penultimate mile pace test. Any other tests, practices, etc?
As much as I believe the mind/body are not disconnected, there is a definite disconnect in sport. The top level athletes consistently are able to race at 100% of possible physical effort. Not that they always do, but if needed, they are able to draw on it. Once you’ve done it a bunch of times, it’s less of a “I’m gonna die” and more of of “that was a really hard effort”, especially as the events get longer.
How do you know if you’re mind if failing before your body? You need to push your body to failure a bunch of times. Once you know what it feels like to fail hugely, barely fail, barely make it, you’ll have a good idea of how hard you’ve gone.
Serious question. There are a ton of articles and YT videos that talk about mental strength. So, how do you know if you can really push harder and farther then you think you can? Going into the “pain cave†can only get you so far. Not matter how hard I push and go into the pain cave, I’m not going to beat the best pros in the world. Heck, I’m not going to beat the best amateurs in my AG (yet, I’m new at training and newer at racing). But it’s just a thought I have about when do I call myself just a whimp for not being able to hit my race run pace or whatever.
What do you do or how do you decide that you’ve done everything mentally and physically possible in your race?
If you do something you never thought would be possible. A couple of years ago, i should run togethers/compete for the glory with a collegue. Was late, thus I didn’t find him. Started 30 sek/km above target race pace to find him. Never found him… but kept pace to end (13 km), and beat both him and expectations by 6 minutes… the feeling was exhausted and great at same time
I actually find for myself that the race-day-mental-toughness is hugely overrated.
I’ve been racing for 20 years now and I find I have to dig and push a lot harder the less prepared I’ve been for the race. For the races where training has been great, high volume, etc., race day is just ‘going hard’, not killing myself, even though the result seems like I should have killed myself.
I prefer reconfiguring the thought process to have the mental toughness part of it being highly required for TRAINING. Meaning especially consistency in training over long periods of time. Anyone can save up for a ‘hero day’ workout where they gut it out and it seems super hardcore. But that doesn’t mean squat if your next 2 weeks of training consistency are crap. Whereas you can just go to ‘80-85%’ which seems total wussdom for intervals (meaning you likely can do 2 entire more intervals) on your hardest day, but doing that all year on a structured program is pretty tough when life gets in the way.
And for sure, I’ve found that if you’ve got the mental toughness get in that consistency in training, race day will not be a problem whatsoever. You’ll be able to gut it out when it counts.
That was a great article and exactly the thoughts that are going through my mind. There’s definitely something there that “turns off†the body at some point. On one hand mentally you can hurt or help yourself. On the other, you may have energy still in the body, but the muscles are completely spent.
Digging deep is overrated. Consistent training, preparation, and execution far outweighs any ability to dig deep. It’s much more beneficial to have mental toughness in getting up early to work out, figuring out all the equipment details, and racing with intent and discipline than any amount of time spent in the pain cave. I could go on and on about real mental toughness. It has nothing to do with losing your ability to stand 100 m from the finish line.