Marathon Runners / Endurance Athletes - How do you win the mental game?

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  • robertw486
    robertw486 Posts: 2,390 Member
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    @rankinsect

    I've asked myself this question before, and never really come up with a "one size fits even me" answer. I think for me the how I get past the mental game is less important to me than the "why" I find a way to beat the mental game.

    I like to push myself, and I think most of this was fostered during military training type stuff, when surrounded by people with the group mentality and high fitness levels. And I realized after getting out of the military that it just fueled the same mentality when working out alone, but using my own goals as my measure of how far I can push. I have times I kill a workout and am disappointed that I could have dug deeper, and I have times that I don't kill that workout but I know it was my 100% on that day, so I'm satisfied.

    And either way, if I stay goal focused I really mostly block the pain until after the fact. I reach a point where the endorphins, small goals, pace, etc just remove my mind from most of it. From there it's all about being fair to myself how far I pushed, or if I slacked off some. I guess to some extent I revert to that expression of "it's the things you do when nobody is watching that define your character". When I've reached the point of a hard push, I really don't care if anyone else things it was great or if they think it sucked, it's my personal motivation that really matters in my head.


    And having seen you mention this climb a few times over the last year or so, I hope you summit with energy to spare! I think it's an awesome goal, and I'm sure the view will last in your memories for many, many years to come.

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