Effort translates to success!
A lot of people struggle in this sport with the mental side and with being able to trick their minds into giving max effort on race day. There are a lot of reasons for these struggles and it can be very difficult to stay stuck in your mind. However, if you practice mentality in training and in races leading up to your goal race, you will be ready to dominate on game day. In our experience, we have seen solid runners struggle because of external factors outside of running itself. Nerves can do a lot to us and simple things like announcing your goals to the world can be an easy way to psych yourself out. If you know you are someone who doesn’t thrive on the feeling of “fake”pressure from the outside world, then, do your best to keep your goals to yourself, your coach, and focus on your journey. Strava can be a beautiful place to share but it doesn’t have to be the place where you share everything! The pressure we think exists simply doesn’t.
Other reasons for runners to struggle on race day is the fear of blowing up! That’s a super normal thing and we hope if you can take anything away from this message it’s that, it’s okay if you go for it and it doesn’t pan out. You can’t be successful without putting yourself out there. Some days it’s going to pay off and other days we fall short. That’s life and racing in a nutshell. However, you have to get over the fear of failure. You have to be willing to be okay sending it (in a smart fashion) and making the goal of your race more about executing and taking risks, as opposed to being obsessed with time or perfection.
Don’t put expectations on how the race is supposed to feel. Some races you will feel bulletproof and others you are going to feel like you are fighting for your life out there. Great competitors are willing to find out on race day what they are made of. They are willing to walk away from the finish line knowing they gave 100%. It’s not a talent. It’s a skill that is practiced in training and racing for many many years. So don’t beat yourself up if you aren’t all the way there yet. Just make it a goal in your next race to truly give your best. #spewaktraining #runstl #onlinerunningcoach
