Mid Cycle Blues

I'm no doctor, but I think that is
supposed to be on the outside

This isn’t a post about “becoming a woman”. . . . promise

I’m sure that most everyone has heard the ubiquitous Yogi Berra quote: “Baseball is 90% physical - the other half is mental”.  The mind is capable of very powerful things. (Side note, I think my mind must be busted.  I’ve been trying to move stuff with it all afternoon and all I have now is a headache.  Although, I can still picture people naked! So, it must not be 100% broken.) Particularly in baseball, but also in most other sports if the mind feels like it is going through a slump, the body will follow.  Ask Tiger Woods, he’ll tell you that I’m right.  He’s been ‘slumping ever since he bumped uglies with that Denny’s hostess.

Of course, not only is the noggin used for baseball, the same goes for running.  Most of us are guilty of mind-F’ing ourselves out of a good run.  We say things like “wow, that Coach Boring is a real handsome, witty, modest bastard, there is NO WAY that I can run that fast!” and then going out, sputtering a bit at the beginning, and then self doubt talking your way into giving up, slowing down, and feeling bad about it all day. Fortunately, it goes the other direction with happy thoughts too!  Think you can and your mind will block out the throbbing, tingling, and burning in your privates lungs.

I’m certainly guilty of letting my head get in the way.  Right now, I’m 2/3 of the way through my marathon training cycle and feeling rather BLAH.  I’m far enough in that I’m putting up massive mileage numbers, but not close enough to the end that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Right now, I’m putting in tons of work without line of sight to the reward.  A few weeks is fine, but after a while it gets to be draining.

To be sure, I’ve probably posted about this phenomenon approximately 13 times – one time for EVERY SINGLE marathon training cycle I’ve done.  Like Taco Bell from mouth to toilet, it is predictable in when it arrives as much as it is predictable with when it disappears. It isn’t burn out per say, it is more falling victim to the monotony of the toughest marathon weeks.

For me, the solutions are to make the light at the end of the tunnel as bright as possible:  Remind myself of my goal race, review the course, read some race reports from the previous year – essentially do ANYTHING that tells my head “Hey dummy, you’re working so hard for a reason (look good naked), keep plugging away!”  Fortunately for me, it usually works.  After a few days I’m back on the straight and narrow, running fast and hard and making inappropriate comments the entire time.

How do you snap yourself out of a training cycle rut?