Marathon and Half-Marathon
Page 10
To prevent unwanted weight gain, yet maximize your recovery, avoid adding extra calories to your day to meet your recovery needs. Instead, rearrange your daily snacks or meals to accommodate a post-run snack.
In addition to carbohydrates, include some protein to aid repair of muscle tissues. Some examples of good post-workout snacks are:
• Flavored yogurt and fruit
• Dried fruit and some nuts
• Flavored milk and a banana
• Peanut-butter-and-honey sandwich
• Fruit juice and soy nuts
• Cereal and milk
• Sport drink and bagel
• Sport energy bar and fruit
Simple Nutrition Tips
• If you are experiencing more cravings for sweets than usual, try adding some protein to your snacks, such as low-fat yogurt with a few tablespoons of cereal, or almonds and an apple.
• Drinking full-strength juice within 30 minutes before running may contribute to side stitches or abdominal cramps. If you need some liquid calories, try diluting juice with an equal amount of water or drinking a sport drink.
• A skim-milk latte is a great way to celebrate a long run with your partners, satisfy your caffeine fix, and boost your recovery. Order a water to go with it.
Runner’s diarrhea is an embarrassing and frustrating condition that can really put a damper on long runs. If you suffer from this, these hints may help:
• Run hydrated. Try drinking 11/2 cups (350 milliliters) of water 11/2 to 2 hours before you run.
• Drink a quarter cup of fluid (two or three gulps) every 15 minutes during your long runs.
• Don’t eat within an hour of running. You may even need to give yourself 2 hours to digest food.
• Eat low-fiber foods such as breakfast cereals (less than 3 grams of fiber per serving), English muffin and jelly, pretzels, saltines, flavored yogurt, or pancakes with syrup.
A multivitamin and mineral supplement daily is a good idea for most runners. If you think you need additional supplements, talk to a registered dietitian or physician. Choose a high-quality, reputable brand, and look for one that provides a little extra iron and calcium.
If you’re feeling unusually tired during workouts, you may be dehydrated. Try stepping up your fluid intakes, and monitor your urine output. You should empty a full bladder of clear or pale-yellow urine every 2 to 3 hours.
Are there foods I should avoid before running?
Yes, but individual tolerances must be considered. Foods that tend to cause problems for runners include spicy seasonings, full-strength fruit juice, whole grain breads (more than 4 grams of fiber per slice), high-fiber cereals (more than 6 grams of fiber per 30 grams), prunes, figs, cabbage, broccoli, onions, nuts, beans, candy, or high-fat snack foods.
6
The Mental Side of the Marathon
DIAL IT IN; FOCUS; DIG DEEP. THESE ARE JUST A FEW expressions used to motivate us to reach within ourselves and discover our full potential. For the marathon runner, often the mental barriers are the greatest obstacles to overcome. As with most things in life, whether it’s your career, education, or personal relationships, achievement in distance running does not come easily.
Early in your training program, you will realize that a fit body won’t travel far if there isn’t a fit mind traveling along with it. Sometime during your training—probably on a cold, rainy, windswept day—you may find yourself staring out the window and discover that you have a remarkable capacity for making excuses. At this point, you will understand the adage that marathon training is as much mental as it is physical.
Staying on track with any kind of fitness program is a challenge for most of us. But the ability to stay focused and motivated for the duration of a 6-month training program is a huge challenge. Your body and mind will benefit, but the action of run/walking itself will be laborious even for the most motivated individuals. There are bound to be days or even weeks when you just don’t feel like running. It’s important to know that all athletes dip in motivation; you are not alone in this. Everyone gets tired, and everyone has other areas of life that can interfere with training. This chapter offers clear strategies and practical suggestions on how to push through those difficult days and overcome the mental roadblocks, waning motivation, and nagging uncertainty familiar to most distance runners.
Seeing Yourself as a Runner
Before you can learn about the mental side of distance running, you must believe you can become a distance runner. Seeing yourself in a new way is not easy, especially if you have not been involved in sports in the past or if you’ve gained some weight over the years and feel you are some way away from feeling like your old, sporty self. To this point we have talked only about how, with the right training and a graduated approach such as the distance-running programs in this book, you can make it to the start line of a half or full marathon. However, training and completing one of these events is an amazing goal. For many of you, this might be the most difficult undertaking you have ever attempted. You want to become a runner and may even dream about it, but actually seeing yourself going from a sedentary person to someone who is up in the morning and walk/running for 45 minutes is another story. How do people do it? How do people change their patterns and lifestyles? Others have done it, and so can you.
How to change old habits
You’ve heard it before: couch potato turns marathon runner; a pack-a-day smoker climbs Mount Kilimanjaro. Some people change old habits with seemingly little effort, whereas others talk about the same troubles for weeks, months, or even years but are still stuck in the same insufferable spot.
Everyone has one or two—or three—maddening inclinations that we call bad habits. Whether it’s merely a foible familiar only to family and friends or a more serious pattern like smoking or overeating, change is not easy. You have only to check the shelves of your local bookstore to recognize that changing patterns is an industry in itself. Besides “self-help” books and videos with the principal goal of helping people achieve the life they desire, there is also an increasing demand for hands-on courses and training programs.
Research on changing behaviors
American social science researchers J.O. Prochaska and C.C. DiClemente created the “transtheoretical” model of change. The model, originally conceptualized for problem behaviors such as alcohol abuse, supports the belief that change is made through a process of small, incremental adjustments. Central to the transtheoretical model are its five stages of change, which describe how people alter a problem behavior or acquire a positive routine. The theory suggests that everyone travels through several common stages when they are attempting to change a pattern or behavior.
Stages of change
1. Pre-contemplation: At this time there is little or no desire for change. A person may not even recognize that there is a problem. For example, someone at this stage could be content with walking to work as daily exercise, and, although he passes runners on his walk, he is not interested in beginning any sort of running regime.
2. Contemplation: At this stage people are aware of a problem and are giving serious consideration to change. In other words, they have started to take responsibility for the habit or pattern. For example, our walker in stage 1 above may have been told by his doctor that he needs to develop a healthier lifestyle that includes aerobic exercise. He continues to walk to work and finds himself wondering what it might be like to join one of the runners that breeze by him.
3. Preparation: This is the point at which individuals are getting ready to take action. They have decided to address a problem, and they are taking concrete steps toward that goal. Our walker has been fitted for running shoes and has bought other gear. He has talked to a friend who also wants to begin running.
4. Action: During this stage people are altering behavior and environment in order to tackle their problem. They are taking action. The individual and his friend sign up and attend a local running clinic for beginners.
Belief in oneself
When a person decides to become a marathon runner and thus puts the stages-of-change model to the test, it’s important to believe in one’s ability to effectively control specific events in one’s life, which is an important component of changing behaviors. Researchers and mental health counselors think this belief is what separates people who change successfully from those who remain in chronic contemplation mode. Research supports belief in the power of positive thinking; it suggests that confident people generally have optimistic thoughts about being able to cope with a large variety of stressors. In contrast, people who have difficulty in believing in themselves are more prone to depression, anxiety, and helplessness. These individuals often have low self-esteem and hold pessimistic thoughts about their accomplishments and personal development.
Cheerleading from friends and family is great, but improving one’s belief in oneself requires action. A strong belief in your ability to overcome problem situations needs more than positive self-talk. Building that belief is a slow and gradual process of experiencing and acknowledging accomplishments. As a result of incorporating incremental changes, people are more likely to experience success and ultimately achieve their goals. Unfortunately, a common problem in building confidence is taking on too much, too soon. The result is often feelings of failure or, worse, reversion to old habits.
Believing in oneself has a strong correlation to successful change. If we are confident in our ability to change, we generally will succeed. For example, studies show that people who think they are the most creative turn out to be the most creative. For most of us, confidence is something built over time by way of small, incremental accomplishments. These accomplishments are the building blocks that make the foundation of our system of belief in ourselves.
The importance of small and timely changes
Experiencing small successes is key to moving through the stages of change. Failure to change usually occurs when people attempt to change too quickly or before they have committed themselves to a systematic and sequential plan. This can be damaging, as it reinforces low confidence and the belief that one cannot or will not change. Others may have intervened at the incorrect stage—for example, a running coach may have distributed a workout schedule without realizing that not everyone in the room was at the same stage of change.
The dangers of negative feedback
Evidence indicates that humans are most sensitive and responsive to the negative. You have only to watch the television news to realize that disaster stories are far better at drawing our attention than feel-good stories. Based on this reasoning, the stages-of-change model incorporates numerous processes to teach readiness skills that slowly and gradually guide individuals through each of the five stages of change.
The model indicates that during the process of change, negative feedback more easily undermines one’s confidence than encouragement builds it. Self-doubt can often lead to not trying or to tentative efforts that quickly and easily confirm negative self-evaluation. For example, when a beginning exerciser starts an overly aggressive running program without a strong support system, he or she rarely experiences success. Feelings of failure arise when the lone runner is forced to walk parts of a 20-minute run. If that same person joins a friend or running group and uses a slow, gradual, walk/run approach, he or she has a greater likelihood of experiencing feelings of success. And don’t forget to acknowledge the small and large achievements along your marathon pathway. Acknowledgment of your achievements solidifies your success and in turn helps to formalize in your mind the idea that you are improving. All of these elements are part of the process of building confidence and inner strength.
The challenge to change is a daunting process for even the most strong willed. As we have learned, willpower alone is not enough to shift our patterns. In order to rid ourselves of a habit, we need a systematic and sequential plan that provides us with the opportunity to experience success and in turn build our self-confidence. For people who want to complete a half or full marathon, it all begins not with poetry but prose: one foot in front of the other. One step and then one stride.
Positive self-talk
• Congratulate yourself. After a good run, or even a so-so run, stop and think about how good you feel at having completed your running goal for the day. Remember the feeling of accomplishment, so that the next time you lack motivation to get out the door for your run, you can remind yourself with confidence that exercise makes you feel good!
• Talk to yourself. Remind yourself that the farther you go in the training process, the easier it gets. There is always a reason not to exercise, but the reasons to exercise are almost always better. As your fitness increases, so will your self-esteem and confidence. Both are key to making it through the training program and to the marathon finish line.
• Think positively. Focus on what feels good, not on what hurts. At the beginning of your marathon program, you are bound to experience various aches and pains that develop as your body begins to adapt to the new stress levels. This is especially true for your long run. Be patient; this is all part of the longer process of becoming a distance runner.
Train your mind for the marathon
“The amount of physical training required to complete a half or full marathon is substantial. The time commitment required to prepare and ultimately compete is perhaps not fully understood until you’re actually living it! Then there is the challenge of your mental training—when your mind and thoughts wander during actual runs,” says Vancouver sport psychologist Dr. Whitney Sedgwick.
Adults have the ability to mentally “multitask,” which can be both efficient and distracting. When running, you may find your thoughts jumping from topic to topic. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It would not be realistic to attempt to focus only on your running technique, muscle aches, the course you’re running, your competitors, et cetera, during a run. In fact, some runners separate themselves from these types of thoughts in order to distract themselves. There are accounts of runners mentally building a house and decorating every room in their mind while running. Others have conducted lengthy, detailed conversations in their mind in order to pass the time of the run. Most runners combine the strategies, sometimes thinking about bodily sensations, at other times separating themselves mentally from the event. So, recognize that maintaining a continuous focus is difficult and may not be sustainable, particularly for longer distances.
The importance of what you say to yourself is crucial to effective performance, as is having a plan for mental success.
Finding the motivation
We all know that on some days we’re more motivated than on others. Motivation fluctuates and shifts in all areas of life. Some days you feel energized to tackle a list of chores; at other times, lounging around the house seems much more appealing. Dr. Sedgwick, who works with all levels of athletes, points out that within almost any relationship there are moments when you are giving more than you are receiving, and vice versa. She says the same is true for physical training: “As long as we understand that it is almost impossible to be 100 percent motivated to train and compete all of the time, then we can be more realistic in the expectations we put on ourselves.” By using some of the tips outlined in this chapter, you can set clear and realistic goals that should keep you highly motivated most of the time.
RUNNER PROFILE
Kari
Kari is a 40-year-old outreach worker and mother of two. Before moving back to Canada and adopting her twin daughters from Honduras, she was a program officer in Yemen, working toward the joint goal of strengthening and expanding democracy worldwide.
Kari gained valuable experienc
e and, as a girl from a small Canadian mining town, she traveled to places she had only imagined in her dreams. Many of the countries she worked in or visited were politically unstable, and for the most part there were very few opportunities for her to exercise. Fitness facilities were difficult to find, as were safe places to jog or walk. She found herself putting her health on the proverbial back burner.
When her daughters were tiny, she would take them for long walks in the stroller. Once they started to get older, Kari realized that if she wanted to keep up with the lively little girls, she would have to increase her energy level. This would mean losing a little weight and beginning a regular exercise program. She cut down on sweets and started to walk/jog several times a week, a good way to gradually improve her fitness without getting hurt. Eventually, she found her jogging time to be significantly longer than the time she spent walking.
Today, Kari mostly jogs on her own, but occasionally her friend Marcy joins her. Marcy is a sport psychologist and an amazing athlete who was on the swim team in college, and she now jogs to stay fit. Marcy has been trying to persuade Kari to train for an upcoming half marathon in the fall. “Even though I would love to, I have convinced myself that only true athletes like Marcy run marathons, and I’m definitely not an athlete,” says Kari. “I’ve always been smart and good at school, but I was never picked for any of the teams at school.”
Marcy is certain Kari can run the half-marathon distance, but her friend has to first see herself as an athlete. Kari has agreed to volunteer as a course marshal at this year’s half marathon, and Marcy believes seeing all the different ages, shapes, sizes, and abilities of the participants will be Kari’s first step toward viewing herself as an athlete capable of completing a half or even a full marathon.
Running, like all sports, is an opportunity to enjoy pleasure and excitement that are sometimes hard to find. Once we discover a sport that suits us, often passion and meaning come with the ongoing process of overcoming challenges. Whether you’re a downhill skier hoping to master a black diamond run or a runner wanting to complete a marathon, the pleasure of anticipation is the same. Regardless of the challenge, in order for an athlete to be motivated to train and compete he or she must find meaning in the endeavor. Without a commitment, there is little motivation to pursue a goal. Training week in and week out over the course of several months is not a task for the weak at heart. The half or full marathon cannot be something you “should” or “have” to complete. Ultimately, to be successful, it needs to be a dream you “want” to fulfill.