Let\’s start by stating something basic that even veteran runners tend to forget: The Marathon is a 99% aerobic event. Yes, even Ekiud Kipchoge and the East Africans who run around him run the marathon as an aerobic endeavor.
Having a solid aerobic base to sustain continuous action for 26.2 miles is one of the keys to a successful marathon. And when I state \”successful,\” I don\’t mean setting a PR; I mean finish. Sure, we all know someone who has finished a marathon without training, but those are outliers, and most of those go through a sufferfest during their race. So, don\’t take any cues from them.
Race at 100% but only train at 80% (Photo Pexels)
Your aerobic base is the cornerstone of your long-distance running journey. Think of it as a pyramid\’s broad, solid foundation, supporting the peak over which speed and performance are built.
Developing an aerobic base requires time, work, and patience. It covers hundreds, if not thousands, of miles and comes from years of engaging in activities that keep your heart rate elevated for long periods of time. Many runners achieve this base through previous activities in sports like soccer or swimming, while others have honed it just by running over the years. A strong aerobic base is essential to improving your speed and excelling in endurance events.
Running beyond the correct rate of perceived effort, performing all your long runs at race pace every single week or running your repetitions and intervals with all your might are not conducive to developing a solid aerobic base. It is counterproductive and not only won\’t make you faster in the long run, it may lead to injury.
The aerobic base can be developed by: • Running consistently • Learning where your conversational pace lies • Accepting you must go slow to run fast • Trusting the process
As your aerobic base develops, you will: • Become a more efficient runner • Become a faster runner • Improve the rate of lactate removal • Improve muscle and energy output
Train at 80%, Race at 100%
Running every rep at max effort is not conducive to sustainable running (Photo: Caique Araujo, Pexels)
I firmly believe you shouldn\’t go all out on your training runs, drills, and reps. Since your body needs to recover to realize the adaptations of your efforts and still keep the training moving forward, ending a rep or a training session on the verge of collapse is not the best practice. When you do so, you put your body through extreme stress, which will require a longer period of recovery. It would be best if you ended the rep knowing you could have gone even faster. Finish the workout knowing you could have gone an extra rep or two is a better strategy.
When you train for a race, that effort is in the future; you are working towards that goal. This means you train at today\’s fitness level, not at the level you expect to be at race time. Focus on the prize.
Once race day is here, after a tapering period during which you are recovered and ready to go, you give it your all on race day. You are not saving anything for tomorrow. You invested your mind, body, and resources through a test of fitness and will. Then, you cross the finish line at the edge of your endurance limit.
In Conclusion
Running slow is counterintuitive. It feels weird when you know you could be running faster. It takes practice to go slow. Anyone can run itself to the ground by sprinting every day and racing their training runs. There is no merit in that. What takes guts is to accept that you must be patient, play the long game, and be willing to defer your gratification so you can enjoy your running for a very long time.
Sure, these are fundamental concepts for most runners, but we all need to be reminded of the obvious at one point or another to remain grounded during a difficult training cycle.
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During the last month or so of my usual readings about running, one theme has popped up repeatedly. Unavoidably. What at one point I felt was cotton candy psychology, I decided to test on one run the immediate results still amaze me.
Overcoming negative thoughts while running by identifying them immediately and replacing them with positive thoughts has resulted in an instantaneous difference in my running. It may help you too if you give it a chance.
It all started when I bumped into a story by Jill Diaz in the book Running for Good, from the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. She talks about setting a BQ goal but her mental confidence not being there. So, she experimented on identifying and replacing negative thoughts during a 5K. This was her experience with positive thinking in running:
I am at least 20 years older than these girls —> Yup, and you have 20 years of experience on them. They don\’t stand a chance.
My heart start to pound and my legs get shaky —> Good, use that energy.
Well, there goes my lead. I knew it was too good to be true. —> Don\’t just give it up, you pansy! You can stay with her! You got this!
My legs are dead —> Correction: They are alive.
Who did I think I was to actually win a race —> You are a fast runner, that\’s who. Stay with her.
Slow down, second place is still really good —> First is better. You know you want first.
My body feels so heavy —> I feel like a feather.
What if somebody is right behind me —> So what if they are? They can\’t catch you.
I can\’t do this —> You ARE doing it.
They seem like too many bad thoughts for a short 5K, but that is how we operate. Right after reading this story, I went out for a run in the South Florida Summer heat, and I started identifying my negative thoughts. I was surprised by how many and how fast they came. Immediately I set on overcoming them. Selling them to myself. By the end of my 6-mile run I was feeling like a million bucks. “This really works”, I yelled through a smile. “The body does respond to what the mind tells it.”
A week or so later I started reading “Let Your Mind Run,” by Deena Kastor. And since the first few lines in the prologue, she expresses how when she became a professional runner she thought the hardest part would be the physical training, to quickly realize the real issue was “wrestling with my mind.”
“I had no idea running would be so mental,” she states. “No idea that the most important aspect of my success would come down to how I thought. Replacing negative reactions with positive ones infused me with energy and offered a boost in motivation. Focusing on positive emotions further increased my drive and self-belief, powering my training. I became fitter and faster and began reaching goals I\’d originally believed were improbable. So, I set new ones.”
And throughout the book, during the peaks and valleys of her storied career, she narrates how often she caught herself thinking negatively and then finding a positive alternative in which to focus.
“Thought after thought and action after action showed me I could get to the top of that hill, I could finish a workout faster, and I could barrel past the competition. By identifying a thought that was holding me back and replacing it with a new one to help me move forward […] I built better mental habits that not only propelled my success but also prepared me to handle setbacks and challenges.”
And then there is Eliud Kipchoge. The legendary marathoner often smiles during races as a deliberate tactic to manage pain and enhance performance. A 2017 study by Noel Brick supports this approach. He tested 24 runners who completed four 6-minute runs while either smiling, frowning, relaxing their hands and upper body, or thinking usual thoughts. Results revealed a 2.8% improvement in running economy when smiling compared to frowning, an improvement typically achieved after months of plyometrics or weight training. This translates to a 1.4% reduction in race time, meaning a 10K run in 60 minutes could be cut by 50 seconds, and a 5K in 25 minutes could be reduced by 20 seconds through smiling. Are you sold yet?
Initially you will feel like a phony, but after a few little triumphs, it will flow more naturally (Photo: Donald Tong, Pexelx)
To cap the theme of today’s post, I bumped on Instagram into some tips on performing under pressure by Coach Steve Magness.
Reframe Your Narrative: Shift your focus from external validation and achievement on internal growth and self-improvement.
Embrace your imperfections and vulnerabilities as part of your journey”.
Cultivate Self Awareness: Learn to differentiate between productive and unproductive emotions.
In conclusion. Always remember that nobody is forcing you to run. You can stop if you want to without sacrificing your livelihood. But sacrifice and personal growth are part of the journey. Embracing the mental aspect of running can unlock new levels of performance and joy in our runs. So next time you\’re out there, pay attention to your thoughts, replace the negative ones immediately, and see how far you can go.
Try implementing these mental strategies in your next run and share your experience in the comments below!
AUTHOR’S NOTE: . As I kept reading throughout the week of publication of this post, I found yet another great quote about the subject, which I want to share wit the readers:
”You\’ve done it before, and you can do it now….Redirect the substantial energy of your frustration and turn it into positive, effective, unstoppable determination.
As the subtitle of this book clearly defines, this is the story of \”the incredible journey of Kenya\’s legendary coach Patrick Sang and the fastest runners on Earth.\” Author Sarah Gearhart had unprecedented access to Sang and his Global Sports Communications training camps, located in Kaptagat, a small town nearly 8,000 feet above sea level in Kenya\’s Great Rift Valley. From there, she reports through short chapters, kind of small essays, about what happens there and how some of the best runners the world has ever seen train and interact within and outside those walls.
Patrick Sang may not be a household name to most running fans. Maybe a handful of the most knowledgeable historians remember his steeplechase silver medal in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics when Kenya swept the podium. But for sure, most casual fans must have heard about some of Sang\’s top trained athletes: Geoffrey Kamworor, Faith Kipyegon, and the one and only Eliud Kipchoge.
When Eliud Kipchoge broke the marathon World Record in Berlin, the first thing he did was hug Patrick Sang
Sarah Gearhart goes into detail about Sang\’s life story, from his early days in rural Kenya to his Olympic glory, going through his competitive years as part of the University of Texas and then his years competing in Europe. Then, his beginnings, establishment, and apotheosis as a running coach.
The book reviews a handful of Sang\’s top pupils. The likes of Victor Chumo, Laban Korir, Jonathan Korir, and their triumphs are well-detailed. But she centers Sang\’s impact on three of the top runners ever. There\’s Geoffrey Kamworor, a two-time winner of the NYC Marathon, 3-time half-marathon world champion, and former world record holder in the distance, who overcame a nasty injury after being hit by a car during a training run to return to the top of his game. He finished 2nd in the 2023 London Marathon.
There\’s also Faith Kipyegon, who, after winning gold in the 1500 at the Rio Olympics in 2016, had a daughter and had to juggle motherhood and world-class athletics to repeat the feat in Tokyo 2020. Her sacrifices in family and parenthood, and her determination to succeed where few women of her origin can, become inspiring through Gearhart\’s pen. As a corollary, which comes after the book was published, in June 2023, she broke 2 world records (1500 and 5000) at the Diamond League Meeting in Paris.
After motherhood, Faith Kipyegon came back to win olympic gold and set new world records
And then there is this skinny teenager who once approached Sang asking for workouts. He graciously gave him a couple of weeks of work and forgot about it. The teenager kept returning for more and, through constant and hard work, became the Eliud Kipchoge we all know and who needs no introduction.
There are no earth-shattering revelations in this book. It is not about what gives Kenyans the edge in long-distance running. It is an intimate look inside the walls of the Global Sports Communications camp, which happens to have the best in the world. It is about a running unsung hero and the essence of what it takes to be a member of his elite Global Sports Communications running group, which happens to bring out the best of the best out of the most talented Kenyan runners and has produced some of the top runners, of both sexes, the world has ever seen. It is about Patrick Sang\’s personality and kindness. Can you imagine what would have happened if he had not been kind to Eliud Kipchoge when he approached him?
I don\’t want to finish this book review without sharing the introduction to Chapter 23, titled \”Pushing.\” It is not attributed to anyone, so it is not clear to me if this was written by the author or picked up from someone else. Regardless of its origin, there is not a wasted word. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
\”He can quit anytime. When his muscles tighten, leaving his body uncomfortably numb. When his lungs plead for more air. When cramps pinch with arresting tension.
He can quit anytime. When a blister balloons on his feet, the friction a piercing pain. When his body boxes with his mind.
He can quit anytime. When his competitor pulls ahead, the speed unmatched. When the finish line seems to stretch. When the last mile is more punishing than the others.
He can quit anytime. When his legs begin to lose the fight. When his goal slips out of sight.
He can quit anytime. But he keeps going.\”
NOTE: Since the writing of this article, Eliud Kipchoge is no longer the world record holder in the marathon. Kelvin Kiptum broke the record in the 2023 Chicago Marathon.
It wasn\’t too long ago when completing a 20-mile-long run, overheated, dehydrated, destroyed, and borderline injured was considered a badge of honor. The \”no pain, no gain\” mentality taken to the extreme. This outdated machismo has cost many careers and even lives. Thank God that science and collective thought have evolved, leading to an updated concept that is not only more humanitarian but also safer.
I don\’t know how it works in other sports, but runners, please adjust to the new way of thinking.
We\’ve all heard the stories of football players collapsing with heat strokes under the misguided direction of coaches teaching toughness. We\’ve heard of runners ending up in an emergency room rather than at the finish line of a race because they refused to \”show weakness.\” The story of an athlete ending up overtrained or injured because they refused to take a day off is all too common. Surprisingly, most of this could have been avoided by understanding what mental toughness is not.
Toughness is laudable, unless you will get injured because of it. Always live to run another day (Photo Sukh Winder, Pexels)
In a recent podcast interview, I heard Dr. Justin Ross state that mental toughness could mean different things to different people, making it difficult to define. Dr. Ross is a licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in health, wellness, and human performance psychology. He has spent the bulk of his career in mental health and wellness initiatives for those performing in stressful, high-demanding environments, including athletics.
Ross defined what mental toughness is not: \”Mental toughness is not running when you are injured. It is not running when you are sick. It is not ignoring your body because your mind wants to reach a certain volume for the week, thinking that missing a workout would hinder your success. That\’s not what we understand mental toughness to be.\”
I look back at the training of great runners like Emil Zatopek, who is known to have done 50×400 workouts several times per week. Sure, he won five golds and a silver in the 1948 and 1952 Olympics and set a bunch of world records, but the peak of his career was compressed into those five years. These days, runners like Eliud Kipchoge have a peak lasting 15 years. For us mere recreational runners, if we want to run until we meet our maker, we should regulate our intensity and make sure we see the big picture while we train.
Listening to your body is a mental exercise where you must overcome the optimism that hip pain will magically go away if you keep running. Or that completing this last mile repeat, despite running on empty, is the difference between a personal record and a mediocre race. If you fail to recognize the warning signs, most likely you will end up overtrained or, even worse, injured.
\”Optimism holds a place in the mental toughness conversation,\” says Dr. Ross. \”What doesn\’t hold a place is irrational optimism.\”
Coach Steve Magness has a great quote that I often cite to my trained athletes when they refuse to take a day off: \”It is better to take three days off now than three weeks off three days from now.\”
You can apply mental toughness by being overcautious and playing it smart rather than pushing through when we know it is not advisable. Doing the right thing takes massive amounts of willpower, especially when you really don\’t want to. A running friend once walked to the starting line of an important 10K when he realized the tightness in his calf was going to be an issue. So, he turned around, sat it out, watched all his friends finish, and lived to run another day. A few weeks later, he beat me in a half marathon. Now, this is mental toughness.
Sleeplessness is no badge of honor. It is assuring you won’t be able to recover from your physical activity (Photo: Cottonbro Studio, Pexels)
Don\’t confuse this updated concept with complacency or laziness. Uncomfortable and/or painful moments are inevitable in running. And normal. We must learn to recognize and overcome them. At the same time, we need to be aware of what is expected and what is our brain turning on the engine check light and signaling that there is a problem to be addressed.
Ross defines mental toughness as: \”a psychological set of resources and skills that you can apply when you are challenged.\” The more challenges and uncomfortable situations you face and overcome, the more mental toughness you\’ll build. Just as in mastering a second language or solving the Rubik\’s Cube. It takes time and dedication to build up, just like a long run.
\”While mental toughness is often equated with perseverance,\” says Coach Jason Fitzgerald, \”it also requires you to be in tune with your body. Pushing through illness or injury is not mental toughness. But challenging yourself in a workout, or not giving up on a tough long run, walk the fine line of being able to dig deep while finding the internal resources to do difficult things. You may not want to lace up because it\’s early, dark, cold, you are tired, or you didn\’t sleep well. Yet, you overcome that obstacle and go anyway. That is developing mental toughness.”
I hope you find these insights helpful as you navigate the concept of mental toughness in running. Remember, it\’s essential to listen to your body, recognize the signs of overtraining or injury, and find the balance between pushing yourself and knowing when to rest and recover. Mental toughness is about applying psychological resources and skills to face challenges, and it grows stronger through perseverance and self-awareness.
Keep running strong, and may your journey be filled with both physical and mental resilience.
The most recent print edition of Runner’s World Magazine (2023/3) was Eliud Kipchoge centered. It had 8 stories that told us from his humble origins to his monastic lifestyle to a dissection of every detail of his record-setting running shoes to Evans Chebet as his most likely successor. It is the most detailed account I’ve seen of Kipchoge related info in one place.
Runner’s World magazine cover for the issue with the 8 Eliud Kipchoge related stories
The story that caught my attention is titled “Train Like Kipchoge (Sorta)”, by Sarah Gearhart, in which she shares five key aspects of Eliud’s training. My first thought was: how can we transfer them to us, simple mortals, to improve our running results. The article talks about how the greatest of all time (GOAT) does it, which doesn’t mean we must apply it in the exact same way. The key is to harness the key lesson of each one and make it part of our current circumstances.
These are the five principles, as per Runner’s World, with a personal commentary on how to apply it to our recreational runner training repertoire:
1 – Sleep like your run depends on it: Kipchoge sleeps 9 hours a night and takes naps. Most of us don’t have the time for that, but neither we are professionals, nor do we run 120 miles per week. The point is to be purposeful about your sleeping habits. Sleep as much as your body needs and don’t brag about your lack of sleep as a badge of honor. Our body recovers and rebuilds while we sleep, which is more valuable than all other recovery tools in your arsenal put together.
2 – Revive Sore Muscles with an Ice Bath: He takes 10-minute ice baths twice a week “to aid his post run recovery.” As recreational runners we may not have the facilities, the time or will tolerate this uncomfortable activity. But the point is that it works for him and despite the pain and inconvenience, he does it anyway because he works diligently on his recovery. Remember that you don’t become a better runner just as you finish your hard workout. You become a better runner once your body has recovered and adapted to the stress it just went through. So, be as diligent as Kipchoge in your recovery.
3 – Upgrade Your Diet with Protein: Kipchoge’s high-carb diet is essential for his training and performance, yet in 2017 he upgraded his protein intake “to aid his recovery as well as help to build and maintain his lean muscle.” The point here is that diet is key to training, performance and recovery. It is not a matter of how many calories we take in but the quality of those calories. If we fuel with a dozen donuts and a pint of ice cream, our weekly milage or our daily nap won’t really provide the benefit they should.
Stationary biking is one of the multiple options to enhance your aerobic capacity without overtaxing your system (Photo: William Adams, Pexels)
4 – Meditate to Build Mental Strength: Kipchoge is a “mindful runner” says his coach Patrick Sang. “While training and racing, he focuses on his breath and his movements, and aims to minimize outside distractions.” While not all of us can or want to live Kipchoge’s spartan life nor we have the will to perfecting the art of mindfulness, we can separate 10 minutes for daily meditation, we can read a book on mental toughness or practice the visualization of our goals without becoming Zen masters.
5 – Build Bonus Endurance on a Bike: Interesting to note that to add to his training volume “without increasing his risk of a running injury, Kipchoge rides a stationary bike for an hour twice a week after his runs.” For mere running aficionados like us, this is what we call cross training. Participating in a non-running activity once or twice a week to enhance our strength or aerobic training while resting our muscles and soft tissues from the pounding of running. Biking, rowing, weight training, yoga, elliptical, etc. Make sure you do something other than running to complement your training.
If these techniques work for the GOAT, scaling them down to our level would be beneficial. Don’t just think about it, do something about it and don’t take too much time getting started. Marathon season is around the corner.
![\"\"](\"https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2e49f525bf02ce9657df92/1a6a642f-8592-4de4-b54c-4abc28477cd8/Running+for+Good+Cover.jpg\")
It all started when I bumped into a story by Jill Diaz in the book Running for Good, from the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. She talks about setting a BQ goal but her mental confidence not being there. So, she experimented on identifying and replacing negative thoughts during a 5K. This was her experience with positive thinking in running:![\"\"](\"https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2e49f525bf02ce9657df92/f8c772bf-cda5-4007-a07d-518eb039ec5d/DK+-+book+cover.jpg\")
A week or so later I started reading “Let Your Mind Run,” by Deena Kastor. And since the first few lines in the prologue, she expresses how when she became a professional runner she thought the hardest part would be the physical training, to quickly realize the real issue was “wrestling with my mind.”
![\"\"](\"https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2e49f525bf02ce9657df92/1521163e-aae2-4e5d-bc39-9e80fb93f244/pexels-sukh-winder-5611633.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2e49f525bf02ce9657df92/062d7f04-37b5-4aa2-883a-81cbd3b2162b/pexels-cottonbro-studio-6944004.jpg\")
