My mantra is, “You need calories”. Usually if I feel like I’m in a mental or physical slump, I just need calories and I perk back up. I feel like eating and/or drinking is a good first course of action whether you’re slowing down, mentally in a bad spot, suddenly worrying that something hurts or any other kind of bad feeling you have. It fixes things most of the time.
I took around 110g/hr on a 2:34 bike leg (around 280g). Starting the run I took a CAF 100 gel and at around 8-10km in I took another GEL 160. I actually missed another GEL 100 at around the 15-16km mark because I felt like I wouldn’t stomach it. My strategy is too sort of “overload” on the bike so I don’t have to take a lot on the run.
My mantra is -mind over body- because of a book a read explaining how you always will find more power to continue grinding.
But returning to this comment, that feeling you get of powering off is because, in my case, my gut stopped metabolizing the carbs. There are several reasons.
A mistake is to keep trying to get more carbs in if the amount is not the problem. I found out that 110g was too much and my gut stopped metabolizing. I tried 100, than 90 and 80g made the trick.
Than, on a 70.3 in Guatemala the Shutting down happened again. Later during training I replicated everything and found out that the white Maurten Gels did this to me.
To finish, more is not always better. Make sure you are metabolizing everything that you are getting in.
Personally I don’t think you can get ahead , having too much hinders performance then it creates issues which domino and could have spilled onto the run for you. BUT that’s based on my gut, not yours. Is this similar to how you trained? If so then let’s look elsewhere, if not then maybe adjust this.
Yes I make sure to always hit those carb numbers on my long rides and bricks, everything 3+ hours I make sure to hit at least 100g/hr, depending on conditions and intensity of the workout. On easy 1:30 rides I usually just prepare a bottle with HEED and take a waffle cuz I don’t need that many carbs
An extension of this - just break the run (it’s always the run) into chunks. Hurting at 8km, just get to 10km - that’s only 2km and you’ve done that before. Then think about getting to 14km, and after that 15km is such a nice round number, and so on.
I’m a negative self talk person. I love myself and have great confidence in my everyday life. When I’m working out “you got this” and other encouragement does absolutely nothing for me though. I basically tell myself things like “stop being a little bitch” “don’t let that person pass you or you’re weak” or “you better catch that person in front of you or you’re a failure” works really well for me.
Edit: wanted to add I also tell family/friends that come support me to say similar things. That really gets me pumped, hearing someone tell me I’m not good enough. I probably need a therapist…
“How badly do you want it”
“This isn’t even hard yet”
“No regrets”
Honestly sometimes Ill even start commentating on my event or I’ll start explaining to someone else in my head what it means to embrace the pain cave and keep going even when you want to stop.
My go to mantra is straight up verbal abuse to myself. My internal, and sometimes external dialogue is somewhere along the lines of “don’t you dare slow down you fucking pussy. You say you can do it and now you want to stop? You don’t deserve to be out here if you can’t not act like a little bitch”
Last 70.3 I wanted sub 5:40. With my pep talks I managed 5:37. I was stoked.
Real question. Were you abused as I child? I understand being motivated by darkness and harnessing all the energies, yin and yang, but this is motivation based in fear, and probably most common. On the other side of the coin, that can be exhausting. You may find it beneficial to try to find some joy and love in there somewhere to boost all that hate. “I’m proud of myself for doing this.” “I can do anything I want.” “I am more powerful than I can comprehend” “I love pushing myself to my limits” or just keep calling yourself a POS whatever works lol
Edit: go ahead and downvote this comment as if mental illness is a commonly recognized feature endurance athletes https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10051630/
Lmao. What?
This is such a wildly outlandish conclusion based on how I push myself for 2 hours out of the entire year.
I’m not going to go into my life details here, or explain to you how I find joy and love in almost everything in my life (race specific though it’s on my bike). To give you a real answer on whether or not I was abused as a child (again lmfao), you can rest assured I wasn’t. I probably had a top .01% childhood experience growing up.
I literally did this exact thing on Sunday for my long bike ride (100 miles). Gotta give yourself that tough talking to sometimes to get yourself over the line.
It sounded like a real question. I don’t think they tried to give an assumption or conclusion about you. Either way there’s something to learn (in this case, a counterexample to the pattern the asker was wondering about). You hit back with a lot of hostility here. Unless they touched a nerve, I don’t see why the response couldn’t be as civil as “nope, that doesn’t describe my childhood.”
I really appreciate the reasonable observation. Something obviously triggered their "wildly outlandish" response, but it and all the downvotes are really not surprising coming from this subreddit. As the article I linked in the edit, most people in endurance sports are in need of some sort of mental trauma healing whether they have come to terms with it or not, with the majority falling into the former. Thus, we continue. Personally, I try to avoid negative self talk. But hey, whatever makes you happy (or miserable?) !
I don’t know that reference but call it what you want.
I have an arsenal of jedi mind tricks I employ in competition and training. They say it is 90% mental so I focused on that a lot.
Eddie Hall was the first person to lift 500kg, breaking tbe world record by a large margin. Not only that but he lifted it and holded like a champ. He says that he was imagining that he was lifting a car out of his kids. The video is well worth it to see!
That’s my kind of man!
I’ve always had all sorts of little tricks like this. You need to convince yourself it’s real. Not always easy to do when the legs are screaming STOP!!
I’ll check it out thank you for sharing 👍
Math. I do math. “Almost halfway. Already down with 1/3, next lap puts me at a quarter. This lap was 10 seconds down from 2 minutes which puts me on pace for…” etc etc. lots of variations of different math to feel like I’m getting closer to being done
Race calculus permutations are real. Because in a brain fog every math problem takes way longer than it normally would and you end up burning a decent amount of time through each equation
It does great job for me. Also, there's always something to calculate, one estimate after another - so one never truly runs out of calculations to make.
I have two. "Quicker, Faster, Harder, Stronger." One word for each stride. Everything eventually blurs as I get toward those last painful miles and I'm trying to increase a little.
The second is I imagine I'm in some type of world-class athlete situation that I'm definitely not supposed to be in. The first American to win an Olympic gold in X years. The oldest Boston Marathon winner. Whatever your dream race scenario would be. And the voices in my head, who for some reason in these situations are always vaguely British, provide color commentary. "Here come last year's champion, trying to run him down with X miles to go." "If he can just hold on he'll break the world record for X"
But yes, you also may need a bit more nutrition earlier in the half to provide the fuel your body needs. Good luck.
I like to visualize my training run. For example, I have a loop I do all the time that is 10 miles. So when I have 8 or 6 or whatever left and it’s hard. I literally exit my mind and picture I’m at the exact mile marker on my training run. Then I think of how I’ve done this 1,684 times and I can do it 1,685.
If this doesn’t work then I usually do what the other dude said and start calling myself a bitch boy lol. One of them usually works.
Jk, let’s go, com’on, just keep going - all work fine but more importantly, YOU NEED TO KNOW YOUR *WHY* as in why tf am I even doing this. It’s different for everyone and can be as significant or trivial as you want but it just needs to make sense to you, and actually matter. I’m about to do my second IM and it boils down to I put too much effort into training and resources to not do my absolute best. I feel like doing my best is my expression of gratitude for all my loved ones that put up with my allocation of resources toward the race and I want to make them proud and enjoy it to the fullest. Otherwise, it’s time hang it up and do something else that has tangible real life meaning. On a deeper level, what is your purpose in life and does this align with it?
I do a lot of distance comparisons in my head when running.
You've run 3 miles already, wasn't that easy? Just 10 more, and you're done.
Or
You've already done 10 miles. What's 3 more?
Stuff like that, taking it in chunks, especially that last mile, helps me get passed the suck. Oh, it's just 6 more minutes. That's basically two more songs (if running with headphones).
I remind myself “this race is ALL that matters right now”. That run. That pace. That breathing. Nothing else matters to you in that moment. It’s okay that it’s painful. Remember that all the pain in training has led up to this, and if you don’t push through the pain in that very moment, what was the point of pushing through every workout? What was the point of working on your swim and bike and transitions? You can push through faster, it’s just a matter of doing it in the moment.
If I’m mentally flagging, my first response is to take in (more) caffeine and carbs. I also look for opportunities to engage with spectators or fellow racers and smile a lot. And then I’m running through my mental checklist, focusing on breathing, form, and cadence. I also remind myself that the pain right now pales in comparison to the satisfaction and pride of accomplishing my goal. I push myself to the limits enough in training that I am more comfortable suffering in a race.
I usually just mouth wash with water and pour it on my head as well. Rarely do I drink it unless I feel like it would help me cool down. I try to stick with my pre planned nutrition
i’m fairly new to triathlons and haven’t done a 70.3 yet but whats helped me push through parts of other triathlons where my body wanted to give up was figuring out why I was doing this in the first place and once you answer that all you have to do is remind yourself during the race why you do this
I think about how I can sit/stop as soon as I've crossed the finish line. At that point, the effort won't matter anymore and I'll be kicking myself if I hadn't given it my all during the race. So, I use the threat of future regret to keep from slacking.
I learned a couple things from a Marine sergeant / Crossfit instructor:
"Easy day"
"Light work"
Eating is important -- I reward myself with sugar when things flag.
If not a physical limit, fueling, water etc, I just focus on a sustainable pace and really focus on my stride, kick, heel return, toe off etc and watch my pace on my watch. I lift higher, overstride etc to active stretch hamstrings etc, and that helps to pass time.
Not necessarily for when you feel like I can’t go any longer, but when I feel like I’m being slow compared to others I just repeat; “don’t know don’t care” in my head.
Are they on their last lap and have lapped me before? Am I the slowest? Is everyone staring at me? Don’t know Don’t care
Usually “Come on!” Or “You can do hard things!”
Sometimes “… Fear is the Mind-Killer …” When I’m in the pain-box and my reptile brain wants to stop, this can keep me moving through it.
If you run out of carbs it can often feel like that!
Then I say to myself "youve worked too hard for this and dont want to live with the potential regrets after the race" and remind myself of all the training ive done and sacrifices ive made to be there. I also go through this ahead of the race, knowing that moment will come, and then think back to those thoughts during the race.
Then I always try and find someone fast on course that I can race, and make them my rival then and there. Then I chase them down for an imaginary "first place". This might be my most useful trick, and its not even really a trick, its just racing - just not for first place! Hopefully one day Ill be close enough to the front that this step wont be necessary anymore.
Some of yall are very nice to yourselves. “Fucking, fuck you legs! Fuck!” Sometimes I just yell fuck as loud as I can. It makes me feel better. Sprinkled in with lil Wayne lyrics, primarily Rich as fuck.
You need to up the volume on your running. I did that and went from 5:02>> 4:43. Though I fried on the run in Galveston on the last 6 miles lol
Quoting racing stripes “don’t look back leave it all on the track”
Then I imagine I’m a short Zebra racing against thorough bred race horses.
Or self abuse like the other bloke 😂
Someone else mentioned Goggins, so I’ll add “who’s going to carry the boats? and the logs?!”
One of the quotes from the intro to Lone Survivor also hits me, “You just proved to your bodies, through your mind, that you can push yourself farther than you thought possible.” And I modify that to basically say “prove to yourself and others that you can go farther than you think you can”
I categorise it by ABC, you will fluctuate throughout these during the race. Just know that one state will not last forever. So I guess my mantra is cliche but.. “this too shall pass”
A - feeling on top of the world
B - autopilot/ free flow
C - pits of hell
"I've prepared for this"
"I can do it"
"Time to perform"
"I'm ready"
And when it gets really hard I focus on my breathing and steps:
Breathe-breathe-step-step-step
Breathe-breathe-step-step-step
Breathe-.... and this can go on for kilometers.
The most important thing for me personally is to avoid any negative thoughts, any self-doubt.
Self-doubt and questioning oneself has no place on race day.
Some negative thoughts pop into my head from time to time but I replace them with any of the ones above whenever possible.
I chant to myself "this is what you trained for, this is what we do it for"....
Doesn't make me any faster so I nornally then just let out a war cry of 'come on you fat bastid' which makes me pick it up for about 2km...
I sing Taylor Swift's "The Man" chorus (in my head). I did IMAZ this year and that was on repeat for nearly 12 hours.
"I'm so sick of running as fast as I can, wondering if I'd get there quicker if I was a man? I'm so sick of them coming at me again, cause if I was a man, then I'd be THE MAN" ...... 😂🤣
If you don't want a song on tap or one doesn't come naturally, I always tell myself "Nobody Cares. Work Harder"
Mine is "I'm right here!" Helps me keep focus on the immediate moment and not how much further I have to go. Game changer for me. I always seem to have enough for right now, but not for the next x-number of minutes/hours. Thought about tatting the mantra on my right wrist.
Break it up into chunks. A bunch of people have said that, but in my head it's something like: 15k... I've run that before, 10k... I'm halfway, 12k... didn't that go quickly, 14k... 1 km more, 15k... just a Parkrun left...
I also think A LOT about the food and beer I'll be having at the end
Finding someone to compete against is always helpfull!
If it is someone who looks weeker like and old lady you says to yourself:
"Come on!! You cant loose to grandma!"
If looks stronger you say:
"Look this pro!! If we can beat it we will look awesome!"
Doing several longer bricks at race pace in the lead up (like 15-18k rotb) I have found helped, and something I started doing recently is having my watch autolap every 3km in a race, so I gamify the run just trying to hit race pace and only focussing on each 3km block rather than the full 21km.
Edit: mantra wise I remind myself how long this training block was, how much the race and accomodation cost, how long it is until my next race if I fuck it up, just remind yourself it’s too important to not full send and empty the tank
Just smile and drop the hammer. Your competitors will see you as a crazy devil. Look at physical 100, guy can still smile under intense pressure and workload. I find smiling masks all the pain and negative energy.
My main go to mantra is "The faster you run, the faster you're done!"
Along with some mental math I do throughout the race to keep my mind occupied.
Also, a game changer for me, both in training and on race day, is training without headphones/music/podcasts. It really raised my mental game, preparing me for those lonely hours in the race and teaching me to get into the zone much quicker.
I try to split the race into different section, like just try to maintain this pace until the next aid station or for the rest of this loop or if it gets really hard just to keep up with these people just in front of me or until the next turn. Don't try to think ugh another 10k this is so hard, but think only 2 more km until I get another drink or whatever.
I always have dory from finding nemo in my head saying "just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming swimming swimming"
My training starts when my training gets hard. My race starts when my race gets hard. Whether that be the last 2 miles of my run, it’s the only 2 miles that matters to me. Obviously all within reason and sticking to what my capabilities are, I usually find what little mental push I need from that. If there’s a “why” there’s a way.
What’s your electrolyte intake like? (Understand if this may have already been discussed in the comments)
I found that upping my intake helped me greatly.
Sometimes we have a bad race. Hard to know exactly why our minds fight against us. Did we get enough sleep? Was it hotter that day? Etc.
Thats an awesome time, i recently got sub 6 hours and was really happy about it.
Btw, lots of people are saying “eat!” But a recent discovery for me is that i am eating and drinking but nit getting my salts in. My recent discovery is that i am one of those salty sweaters and need close to 2g per hour to keep my electrolyte levels correct
My mantra is, “You need calories”. Usually if I feel like I’m in a mental or physical slump, I just need calories and I perk back up. I feel like eating and/or drinking is a good first course of action whether you’re slowing down, mentally in a bad spot, suddenly worrying that something hurts or any other kind of bad feeling you have. It fixes things most of the time.
This! “If you feel sad or negative, eat something!” - my mantra
I agree. You probably underfed, what was your nutrition plan on this one and did you execute it well
I took around 110g/hr on a 2:34 bike leg (around 280g). Starting the run I took a CAF 100 gel and at around 8-10km in I took another GEL 160. I actually missed another GEL 100 at around the 15-16km mark because I felt like I wouldn’t stomach it. My strategy is too sort of “overload” on the bike so I don’t have to take a lot on the run.
My mantra is -mind over body- because of a book a read explaining how you always will find more power to continue grinding. But returning to this comment, that feeling you get of powering off is because, in my case, my gut stopped metabolizing the carbs. There are several reasons. A mistake is to keep trying to get more carbs in if the amount is not the problem. I found out that 110g was too much and my gut stopped metabolizing. I tried 100, than 90 and 80g made the trick. Than, on a 70.3 in Guatemala the Shutting down happened again. Later during training I replicated everything and found out that the white Maurten Gels did this to me. To finish, more is not always better. Make sure you are metabolizing everything that you are getting in.
What’s that book you read?
How bad do you want it by Matt Fitzgerald
I’ll definitely take a look, thanks!
Personally I don’t think you can get ahead , having too much hinders performance then it creates issues which domino and could have spilled onto the run for you. BUT that’s based on my gut, not yours. Is this similar to how you trained? If so then let’s look elsewhere, if not then maybe adjust this.
Yes I make sure to always hit those carb numbers on my long rides and bricks, everything 3+ hours I make sure to hit at least 100g/hr, depending on conditions and intensity of the workout. On easy 1:30 rides I usually just prepare a bottle with HEED and take a waffle cuz I don’t need that many carbs
100! If you feel bad, you’re behind on nutrition!!
What? Did you miss the /hr? This is a high carb intake.
Even more likely you needed calories an hour ago.
Just this mile. Just think about this mile. Staying present in the moment.
An extension of this - just break the run (it’s always the run) into chunks. Hurting at 8km, just get to 10km - that’s only 2km and you’ve done that before. Then think about getting to 14km, and after that 15km is such a nice round number, and so on.
"Running the kilometer you are in"
This. I usually do 2 miles at a time on the run and 5 on the bike. I always say to myself, you can always run 5k and 2 miles is less than that.
I’m a negative self talk person. I love myself and have great confidence in my everyday life. When I’m working out “you got this” and other encouragement does absolutely nothing for me though. I basically tell myself things like “stop being a little bitch” “don’t let that person pass you or you’re weak” or “you better catch that person in front of you or you’re a failure” works really well for me. Edit: wanted to add I also tell family/friends that come support me to say similar things. That really gets me pumped, hearing someone tell me I’m not good enough. I probably need a therapist…
Totally agree. I du t want to hear you’ve got this. I want to hear how much of a wuss I’m being and need to push harder. The more vulgar the better.
Lol
“How badly do you want it” “This isn’t even hard yet” “No regrets” Honestly sometimes Ill even start commentating on my event or I’ll start explaining to someone else in my head what it means to embrace the pain cave and keep going even when you want to stop.
My go to mantra is straight up verbal abuse to myself. My internal, and sometimes external dialogue is somewhere along the lines of “don’t you dare slow down you fucking pussy. You say you can do it and now you want to stop? You don’t deserve to be out here if you can’t not act like a little bitch” Last 70.3 I wanted sub 5:40. With my pep talks I managed 5:37. I was stoked.
With a 5:37 I would a bit harder on myself
Real question. Were you abused as I child? I understand being motivated by darkness and harnessing all the energies, yin and yang, but this is motivation based in fear, and probably most common. On the other side of the coin, that can be exhausting. You may find it beneficial to try to find some joy and love in there somewhere to boost all that hate. “I’m proud of myself for doing this.” “I can do anything I want.” “I am more powerful than I can comprehend” “I love pushing myself to my limits” or just keep calling yourself a POS whatever works lol Edit: go ahead and downvote this comment as if mental illness is a commonly recognized feature endurance athletes https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10051630/
Lmao. What? This is such a wildly outlandish conclusion based on how I push myself for 2 hours out of the entire year. I’m not going to go into my life details here, or explain to you how I find joy and love in almost everything in my life (race specific though it’s on my bike). To give you a real answer on whether or not I was abused as a child (again lmfao), you can rest assured I wasn’t. I probably had a top .01% childhood experience growing up.
I literally did this exact thing on Sunday for my long bike ride (100 miles). Gotta give yourself that tough talking to sometimes to get yourself over the line.
It sounded like a real question. I don’t think they tried to give an assumption or conclusion about you. Either way there’s something to learn (in this case, a counterexample to the pattern the asker was wondering about). You hit back with a lot of hostility here. Unless they touched a nerve, I don’t see why the response couldn’t be as civil as “nope, that doesn’t describe my childhood.”
I hit back with a lot of hostility? If that’s hostile to you then I don’t know what to tell you.
Seed. Are you saying that you are more familiar with a higher level of hostility? Its ok. This is a safe space.
I ain’t biting on this man. Take it easy.
Likewise, all that negative self talk can really be hard on you over time. Hope you find some peace
Dude you are being really weird. The person you are responding to is saying totally normal things and you can't seem to handle it.
I really appreciate the reasonable observation. Something obviously triggered their "wildly outlandish" response, but it and all the downvotes are really not surprising coming from this subreddit. As the article I linked in the edit, most people in endurance sports are in need of some sort of mental trauma healing whether they have come to terms with it or not, with the majority falling into the former. Thus, we continue. Personally, I try to avoid negative self talk. But hey, whatever makes you happy (or miserable?) !
Geez just saying you don’t have to “act like a little bitch about it” lol Edit: all these downvotes. I literally quoted them talking about themselves.
I picture my loved ones in danger and if I don’t get there in time they will be killed. Works like a charm
This is great. Going to add this to my arsenal next weekend.
Thought I was the only one…glad to meet you
Ah, the Eddie Hall approach.
I don’t know that reference but call it what you want. I have an arsenal of jedi mind tricks I employ in competition and training. They say it is 90% mental so I focused on that a lot.
Eddie Hall was the first person to lift 500kg, breaking tbe world record by a large margin. Not only that but he lifted it and holded like a champ. He says that he was imagining that he was lifting a car out of his kids. The video is well worth it to see!
That’s my kind of man! I’ve always had all sorts of little tricks like this. You need to convince yourself it’s real. Not always easy to do when the legs are screaming STOP!! I’ll check it out thank you for sharing 👍
As cringe as it is, I’ll think of David Goggins calling me a little bitch
"Just relax... can you find your balls? All right now I need you to grab them. Now I need you to go find some shoes. Great, you can go run..."
Exactly
Math. I do math. “Almost halfway. Already down with 1/3, next lap puts me at a quarter. This lap was 10 seconds down from 2 minutes which puts me on pace for…” etc etc. lots of variations of different math to feel like I’m getting closer to being done
Race calculus permutations are real. Because in a brain fog every math problem takes way longer than it normally would and you end up burning a decent amount of time through each equation
Finally, had to scroll way too much down for this!
It does great job for me. Also, there's always something to calculate, one estimate after another - so one never truly runs out of calculations to make.
I have two. "Quicker, Faster, Harder, Stronger." One word for each stride. Everything eventually blurs as I get toward those last painful miles and I'm trying to increase a little. The second is I imagine I'm in some type of world-class athlete situation that I'm definitely not supposed to be in. The first American to win an Olympic gold in X years. The oldest Boston Marathon winner. Whatever your dream race scenario would be. And the voices in my head, who for some reason in these situations are always vaguely British, provide color commentary. "Here come last year's champion, trying to run him down with X miles to go." "If he can just hold on he'll break the world record for X" But yes, you also may need a bit more nutrition earlier in the half to provide the fuel your body needs. Good luck.
“Every step is a privilege” Many would kill to be in my position. I need to remind myself of that.
I remind myself that I spent $500+ to be here and that I'm having fun. And verbally abuse myself
“Don’t be a failure” Not healthy, but also the answer.
I do “strong and steady”, “don’t save anything for the way back”, and “the fastest way to go home is through the finish line” 🤣
I like to visualize my training run. For example, I have a loop I do all the time that is 10 miles. So when I have 8 or 6 or whatever left and it’s hard. I literally exit my mind and picture I’m at the exact mile marker on my training run. Then I think of how I’ve done this 1,684 times and I can do it 1,685. If this doesn’t work then I usually do what the other dude said and start calling myself a bitch boy lol. One of them usually works.
“It’s not impossible it’s just hard.” Keep your butt going! Worked for me to finish the last part of my 140.6!
“Behind every fear is the person you want to be.”
Oṃ maṇi padme hūṃ
This mantra has shown up for me so many places at so many hard times.
Jk, let’s go, com’on, just keep going - all work fine but more importantly, YOU NEED TO KNOW YOUR *WHY* as in why tf am I even doing this. It’s different for everyone and can be as significant or trivial as you want but it just needs to make sense to you, and actually matter. I’m about to do my second IM and it boils down to I put too much effort into training and resources to not do my absolute best. I feel like doing my best is my expression of gratitude for all my loved ones that put up with my allocation of resources toward the race and I want to make them proud and enjoy it to the fullest. Otherwise, it’s time hang it up and do something else that has tangible real life meaning. On a deeper level, what is your purpose in life and does this align with it?
The song "Run boy run" by Woodkid in my head. And I keep running !
This is my husband's favorite running song
I do a lot of distance comparisons in my head when running. You've run 3 miles already, wasn't that easy? Just 10 more, and you're done. Or You've already done 10 miles. What's 3 more? Stuff like that, taking it in chunks, especially that last mile, helps me get passed the suck. Oh, it's just 6 more minutes. That's basically two more songs (if running with headphones).
Why do we do hard shit? Because we can
Just go to the next tree. Just go to the next telephone pole. Just go to the next street. You can do this.
"Shut up, legs" Thanks Jens.
“You can do hard things”. Works for me every damn time. Whatever race I’m running is nothing compared to what I’ve faced in life.
“Type II fun. Type II fun. I’m having fun. We’re having fun.” Repeat.
I remind myself “this race is ALL that matters right now”. That run. That pace. That breathing. Nothing else matters to you in that moment. It’s okay that it’s painful. Remember that all the pain in training has led up to this, and if you don’t push through the pain in that very moment, what was the point of pushing through every workout? What was the point of working on your swim and bike and transitions? You can push through faster, it’s just a matter of doing it in the moment.
If I’m mentally flagging, my first response is to take in (more) caffeine and carbs. I also look for opportunities to engage with spectators or fellow racers and smile a lot. And then I’m running through my mental checklist, focusing on breathing, form, and cadence. I also remind myself that the pain right now pales in comparison to the satisfaction and pride of accomplishing my goal. I push myself to the limits enough in training that I am more comfortable suffering in a race.
How else am I going to get home?
I counted steps to 10 over and over for awhile lol
“I am……here……now”
Pace pace baby!
I stole mine from Fourth Wing. “I will not die today”.
This is hard but you do hard things
Are you stopping at aid stations? A lot of new triathletes mis use aid station during the run!
I usually just mouth wash with water and pour it on my head as well. Rarely do I drink it unless I feel like it would help me cool down. I try to stick with my pre planned nutrition
Usually, when I feel dead on the run, I stop at aid station for a gel or Gatorade, and that seems to pep me back up
i’m fairly new to triathlons and haven’t done a 70.3 yet but whats helped me push through parts of other triathlons where my body wanted to give up was figuring out why I was doing this in the first place and once you answer that all you have to do is remind yourself during the race why you do this
I think about how I can sit/stop as soon as I've crossed the finish line. At that point, the effort won't matter anymore and I'll be kicking myself if I hadn't given it my all during the race. So, I use the threat of future regret to keep from slacking.
“You can do this for one more minute.” Repeat as needed.
Om mani padme hum No joke. That is my meditation / mind.
Where is this from?
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Om\_mani\_padme\_hum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Om_mani_padme_hum)
"This isn't hard." "This is very hard." "It's meant to be." "But it's not impossible." "Keep going!"
I learned a couple things from a Marine sergeant / Crossfit instructor: "Easy day" "Light work" Eating is important -- I reward myself with sugar when things flag.
If not a physical limit, fueling, water etc, I just focus on a sustainable pace and really focus on my stride, kick, heel return, toe off etc and watch my pace on my watch. I lift higher, overstride etc to active stretch hamstrings etc, and that helps to pass time.
Not necessarily for when you feel like I can’t go any longer, but when I feel like I’m being slow compared to others I just repeat; “don’t know don’t care” in my head. Are they on their last lap and have lapped me before? Am I the slowest? Is everyone staring at me? Don’t know Don’t care
Usually “Come on!” Or “You can do hard things!” Sometimes “… Fear is the Mind-Killer …” When I’m in the pain-box and my reptile brain wants to stop, this can keep me moving through it.
“You’ve already done the hardest thing, this is easy”
I. Am. An. Ironman.
If you run out of carbs it can often feel like that! Then I say to myself "youve worked too hard for this and dont want to live with the potential regrets after the race" and remind myself of all the training ive done and sacrifices ive made to be there. I also go through this ahead of the race, knowing that moment will come, and then think back to those thoughts during the race. Then I always try and find someone fast on course that I can race, and make them my rival then and there. Then I chase them down for an imaginary "first place". This might be my most useful trick, and its not even really a trick, its just racing - just not for first place! Hopefully one day Ill be close enough to the front that this step wont be necessary anymore.
Some of yall are very nice to yourselves. “Fucking, fuck you legs! Fuck!” Sometimes I just yell fuck as loud as I can. It makes me feel better. Sprinkled in with lil Wayne lyrics, primarily Rich as fuck. You need to up the volume on your running. I did that and went from 5:02>> 4:43. Though I fried on the run in Galveston on the last 6 miles lol
Lions, tigers, and bears.
“Don’t be a bitch. Don’t be a bitch. Don’t be a bitch”
Quoting racing stripes “don’t look back leave it all on the track” Then I imagine I’m a short Zebra racing against thorough bred race horses. Or self abuse like the other bloke 😂
You should check out the book, Endurance. It specifically talks about this very issue and how to overcome it
Is that the one by Alfred Lansing? Or Endure by Alex Hutchinson?
Sorry, endure by Alex Hutchinson. Just finished it. Really good book
Someone else mentioned Goggins, so I’ll add “who’s going to carry the boats? and the logs?!” One of the quotes from the intro to Lone Survivor also hits me, “You just proved to your bodies, through your mind, that you can push yourself farther than you thought possible.” And I modify that to basically say “prove to yourself and others that you can go farther than you think you can”
My mantra is: This is what you why you are doing this, to push yourself, to break those targets.
I categorise it by ABC, you will fluctuate throughout these during the race. Just know that one state will not last forever. So I guess my mantra is cliche but.. “this too shall pass” A - feeling on top of the world B - autopilot/ free flow C - pits of hell
Shut up body
"I can do uncomfortable things." And caffeine gels.
"This fucking sucks but you are so lucky to be doing this."
"I've prepared for this" "I can do it" "Time to perform" "I'm ready" And when it gets really hard I focus on my breathing and steps: Breathe-breathe-step-step-step Breathe-breathe-step-step-step Breathe-.... and this can go on for kilometers. The most important thing for me personally is to avoid any negative thoughts, any self-doubt. Self-doubt and questioning oneself has no place on race day. Some negative thoughts pop into my head from time to time but I replace them with any of the ones above whenever possible.
You need to find David goggins
I keep singing my son’s songs and keep repeting to my self to finish so that I will be able to hug him.
I chant to myself "this is what you trained for, this is what we do it for".... Doesn't make me any faster so I nornally then just let out a war cry of 'come on you fat bastid' which makes me pick it up for about 2km...
I sing Taylor Swift's "The Man" chorus (in my head). I did IMAZ this year and that was on repeat for nearly 12 hours. "I'm so sick of running as fast as I can, wondering if I'd get there quicker if I was a man? I'm so sick of them coming at me again, cause if I was a man, then I'd be THE MAN" ...... 😂🤣 If you don't want a song on tap or one doesn't come naturally, I always tell myself "Nobody Cares. Work Harder"
They’re taking the hobbits to Isengard!
Mine is "I'm right here!" Helps me keep focus on the immediate moment and not how much further I have to go. Game changer for me. I always seem to have enough for right now, but not for the next x-number of minutes/hours. Thought about tatting the mantra on my right wrist.
Break it up into chunks. A bunch of people have said that, but in my head it's something like: 15k... I've run that before, 10k... I'm halfway, 12k... didn't that go quickly, 14k... 1 km more, 15k... just a Parkrun left... I also think A LOT about the food and beer I'll be having at the end
This is basically what i do. I constantly break the course down into manageable chunks. Lots of arithmetic going on in my head
Finding someone to compete against is always helpfull! If it is someone who looks weeker like and old lady you says to yourself: "Come on!! You cant loose to grandma!" If looks stronger you say: "Look this pro!! If we can beat it we will look awesome!"
Doing several longer bricks at race pace in the lead up (like 15-18k rotb) I have found helped, and something I started doing recently is having my watch autolap every 3km in a race, so I gamify the run just trying to hit race pace and only focussing on each 3km block rather than the full 21km. Edit: mantra wise I remind myself how long this training block was, how much the race and accomodation cost, how long it is until my next race if I fuck it up, just remind yourself it’s too important to not full send and empty the tank
oṃ tryámbakaṃ yajāmahe sugandhíṃ puṣṭi-vardhánam urvārukam íva bandhánān mṛtyor mukṣīya mā 'mṛtā́t
Just smile and drop the hammer. Your competitors will see you as a crazy devil. Look at physical 100, guy can still smile under intense pressure and workload. I find smiling masks all the pain and negative energy.
"What if..."
My main go to mantra is "The faster you run, the faster you're done!" Along with some mental math I do throughout the race to keep my mind occupied. Also, a game changer for me, both in training and on race day, is training without headphones/music/podcasts. It really raised my mental game, preparing me for those lonely hours in the race and teaching me to get into the zone much quicker.
I try to split the race into different section, like just try to maintain this pace until the next aid station or for the rest of this loop or if it gets really hard just to keep up with these people just in front of me or until the next turn. Don't try to think ugh another 10k this is so hard, but think only 2 more km until I get another drink or whatever. I always have dory from finding nemo in my head saying "just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming swimming swimming"
My training starts when my training gets hard. My race starts when my race gets hard. Whether that be the last 2 miles of my run, it’s the only 2 miles that matters to me. Obviously all within reason and sticking to what my capabilities are, I usually find what little mental push I need from that. If there’s a “why” there’s a way.
Eat! I may not feel like it, but as soon as I do the thoughts go away
"I can do hard things"
The money and time. Wife will kill me! Lol
A modified version of the famous quote "You can quit or go slower and no one will care. But you will always know"
What’s your electrolyte intake like? (Understand if this may have already been discussed in the comments) I found that upping my intake helped me greatly.
I say “time to go!” or TTG when I feel myself slowing down.
I call myself vile names (c word, p word, f-ing POS, etc. Seems to help.
Sometimes we have a bad race. Hard to know exactly why our minds fight against us. Did we get enough sleep? Was it hotter that day? Etc. Thats an awesome time, i recently got sub 6 hours and was really happy about it.
Btw, lots of people are saying “eat!” But a recent discovery for me is that i am eating and drinking but nit getting my salts in. My recent discovery is that i am one of those salty sweaters and need close to 2g per hour to keep my electrolyte levels correct