The 30 day challenge - Day 7. Rest and relaxation

After much haring around to get life stuff done in the last 10 days, I'm finally able to unwind into a lovely Sunday evening. Just this post to write, cook a nice meal and have a glass of wine to wind down with my good lady. Whilst writing this 30-day challenge, I've given myself another task to keep my mind 'on' each day when I know deep down the benefits of rest, both for sport and life in general. Perhaps without following them to the letter :-)

It got me thinking about how to build in 'active rest' to an athletes schedules. In endurance, whether running, cycling, triathlon or whatever, there is always a taper period to let your body recuperate after a punishing training schedule before your main event. Keeping athletes to stick to cut back hours of exercise can be problematic for coaches and psychologists with certain individuals, as they don't know quite what to do with themselves when they've ordinarily 'built up' for the previous few months.

My friend and running partner Enrique recently put me on to this article in Runners World that  advocated cutting down miles but throwing in some more quick bursts of speed to the final week before races, which I adhered to prior to Bristol. I liked it as it felt like I was ticking over and could feel how good the benefits of training had been, so pre-race I knew I could deliver. But as I said in Day 4 of this challenge (putting yourself in the best mental state), its really important to try and relax the body and brain with more sleep. As a night owl I naturally fight against this but know it does help the body repair and helps with producing better performances.

But what I want to put out there to readers is how long should you allow for recovery after races? There is a general rule of thumb that for a marathon to leave running for a month. I definitely like a fortnight off, but find a month gets me too twitchy. Equally for a half marathon, does the recovery time halve? I don't necessarily feel that myself, and know that the body is not pushed anywhere near to the same level of effort as when a full endurance race is run.

Generally I find that its best to ease yourself back to different exercise that allows you to experience the nice feeling of a workout without the same pressure on joints, sore muscles and the like. So this week, one full week after a half marathon and a couple of lightish 6 milers, I will be swimming, cycling and doing yoga and stretches. As a trainee sport masseur I really feel I need to know this information in more depth, but know that what the 'right advice' is will differ from person to person.

However, for those of you who may push themselves hard across the different endurance disciplines, what do you do? How long do you leave exercise?/breaking back into less intense workouts?
Do you have tips and advice (preferably evidence based!) that you want to share? Thanks in advance.

S

The 30 day challenge - Day 6. Testing the Governer

This post was meant to go out yesterday (Saturday) but due to a Hugh Grant-esque dash to a wedding involving being sent to the wrong ceremony, being held up by a classic car club drive and almost running out of petrol, I wasn't able to write and upload what I was aiming to get out! This means that late, with a bit of a hangover, after a fantastic do, I've got to stay true to the spirit of my challenge and now write 2 blog posts in a day! Easy! ahem...

I went out early yesterday in the Autumn sun and clocked what I call a wind-up run. This is a sort of stripped down tempo run of 5 or 6 miles, where you start at jog pace and then increase the pace at mile or time intervals. In this case, I did a couple of 7.5 minute miles then upped my pace ever quicker each consecutive mile home along one of my regular runs (see here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/230415686). I was mulling over  in those first few miles what I could write about, and thought about what I'd heard and thought about the 'Central Governer' theory that I'd discussed the previous day.

I focused in on what Noakes and the presenters on the first Marathon Talk interview had described in terms of the feeling of fatigue and what makes you slow and how endurance athletes have to 'fight against' this temptation in order to post personal best times. For the next couple of miles I decided that I'd try an ever increasing speed each mile and see how I felt and whether I could sustain the effort I was giving. Of course, in interval sessions this is normal behaviour, but I was looking to try and rate how I subjectively felt and just how uncomfortable I found it.

I know this was highly anecdotal and unscientific but given I was a bit sluggish yesterday and hadn't planned for the run, I thought I might find it tougher. In reality, it wasn't an absolute cakewalk, but it wasn't as bad as I imagined I'd feel, and I did feel great by the end of the run.

The best advice I implemented in my thinking came from Martin and Tom earlier in their Marathon Talk episode where they talked about techniques to push on when you feel that pace may be beginning to flag. Some are based on psychological research findings, others are just ones they adapted. What worked for me was:

1) Put on your 'Man suit' - This is a self talk strategy to really 'Zip up your mantra' to deliver the time you want to be running at. A call to 'man up' and not let the pain or fatigue affect your cruising speed. They mentioned how Bruce Tulloh had used a technique in his running where he would ask himself on a scale of 1 to 10 how he was feeling and whether he could continue. If the answer was anything less than the 10 where everything would be ok, he would push on! I tried this and it definitely made me realise near to home to keep at it. The logic that this approach takes is: Pain is temporary, deal with it.

2) Thinking ahead: (Or in Psychological terms: Visualisation). If you try and think yourself ahead of where you are currently running and seeing yourself achieve your goal, how will that make you feel? Think about the reasons why you're pushing yourself to do the activity you're doing. In both of my PBs for marathon and 10k, I've really spent the time the night before the race trying to visualise how I will feel. Usually, when I've come to run those races I can say that the reality of the running wasn't as bad as the visualised race I ran through in my mind the night before!

3) Tune in/tune out - Association again. Are you counting from 1 to 100? or in Paula Radcliffe's case 1 to 200? Also, are you wasting mental energy overthinking your performance? If you take a mindful approach to your work (staying in the moment; renegotiating non-judgementally your race with yourself), then you should actually end up thinking less about your race and actually just focusing on your running. This I definitely need to practice, and think it is very powerful.

Overall, I was trying to challenge how I felt physically and just saying to myself, "well this isn't as easy and comfortable as the first mile. But its not that hard," and in so doing was able to gently up the pace and relax into my run. Again, though I try and work on the mental side of performance, I think the take home I would say from the run is, practice more on the mental side. I've got the sessions per week in a regular routine now, in this off season before Christmas, I'm going to sit down and work on these and other mental strategies more methodically. I'll share these as I work through them and find out more from research.

The 30 day challenge - Day 5 - Tim Noakes

Apologies to readers of the 30 day challenge for leaving Day 5 till late this Friday. I was quite pleased with what I'd managed to get written so far, but with the best of intentions, I struggled to know what to write about till tea time and have had a busy day sorting out life stuff.

I think this post carries on what I've been writing from my review of the Bristol half marathon and my analysis of Simon Freeman's account of the same race. Early today I had the time to listen to Martin Yelling's Marathon talk podcast, where I sought out the 2 episodes with Professor Tim Noakes. I listened to the second episode first, which was informative and talked a lot about diet and the role of carbohydrates that Noakes is exploring in relation to endurance events. The first episode (number 47 in the series) that I then listened to was where Noakes discussed the Central Governer theory, which he is most associated with.

First of all, I'm glad I made the time to properly listen to Marathon Talk. I've been recommended by lots of other fellow runners to listen in, have followed them on Twitter, but till now not really followed their episodes properly. My mistake! One listen and I was hooked, and also inspired! How a running nerd lik e me, who chastises others for not making time to go running, can have not found the time to listen to Martin and Tom is beyond me! Secondly, hearing Noakes expand on his thoughts and research was great.

To those who don't know, the Central Governer theory is a "model of exercise in which the brain is the primary organ that dictates how fast, how long, and how hard humans can exercise." Further: "the (Governer) process in the brain... regulates exercise in regard to a neurally calculated safe exertion by the body. In particular, physical activity is controlled so that its intensity cannot threaten the body’s homeostasis by causing anoxia damage to the heart." In the first episode, Noakes clearly explains how (mostly) runners don't just drop dead at the finish of an endurance race after hours of exertion. The Governer can be imagined as a safety mechanism that the well trained runners/athletes can push to its limit to perform ever more quicker and personal best times.

Whilst I certainly wouldn't advocate pushing yourself to the point of exertion, I've been exposed to this theory previously, and Noakes' life in research has shown that running success isn't purely physiological and down to hours of endless training. At this point, I could understand what Simon was saying in his post about sheer bloody mindedness in determining running success, compared to strict adherence to a complex training plan.

Anecdotally, I know that I take comfort in my running from following a schedule closely. I'm definitely a runner who tends to perform better when I've put the hours in. At this point I feel challenged to answer, is this due to the fact I'm in better condition? (and thus perform better because I'm in the best physical shape); or is it because my self-efficacy (see yesterday's post to understand this concept) is enhanced due to doing all my training like a good boy? Would I have got the same time in one of my better races if I just believed in my abilities to the same degree?

The role of coping is essential to help address this. When you are on your game, you keep your pace up because you feel good, stimulated and know you can keep going. When the pain bites in such a race or run, you can bat it off. Obviously if you are out of shape, or haven't trained at all, it would be very hard to sustain the required levels of energy and stamina to succeed, but I am now piqued to investigate further.

I've not done full justice to Noakes findings or theories in this post, but if you want to know more, I advise listening to the two podcasts and I promise I will go into more detail in later posts. If you have any specific questions, please ask away or post in the comments section. Either way, I felt suitably inspired for my next upcoming runs! 

The 30 day challenge - Day 4. Psychological breakdown

No, don't worry! I'm not losing my mind or going crackers! I've called today's post 'Psychological breakdown' so I can frame some of the concepts used in Sport Psychology so they can be applied to real life, by reviewing some of the things discussed by me on Tuesday, and Simon Freeman yesterday. By sharing what research in the field has shown will hopefully inform you in your training, or investigate these further.

First of all I'll write a bit on anxiety. Simon wrote: "I started to wonder how I had come 62^nd out of 17,000 runners in a race that I was concerned I wouldn’t even finish" Before a race we all experience a rise in the symptoms of anxiety. This may be the butterflies in the tummy, or angst in your mind about whether you'll mentally 'turn up on race day' or maybe how you'll cope with the expectation you have set yourself for your performance. Research has consistently found that the best athletes embrace these cognitive and physical symptoms and turn them into a positive to psych themselves up (or down) for upcoming performance. I find this area of Sport Psychology fascinating, and really goes to show the power of a positive mindset. Some athletes already have the natural mental strength or fortitude that they know that a rise in pre-event anxiety is inevitable and naturally deal with it. Others need to work with their coach or a Sport Psychologist to restructure their thoughts to be more positive to have a performance best. Obviously, I'd advise in the first instance as a practitioner and coach that to be in the right mindset, you need to give yourself the best chance possible. If you're a runner, this means in the week before a race, get lots of rest. Make sure you've slept soundly in the couple of nights prior to the night before a race. On the actual night before an event you may not sleep well due to the expectation of the race has caused. You know that we all think better and more clearly if you're rested properly. If you're doing an endurance event, your mind needs to be as fresh as possible as the challenge will use up a lot of mental energy. I believe that eschewing drink during the last week is beneficial, as research shows that alcohol disrupts sleep, so you can't properly rest and recharge.

Simon also writes: "I think that to some extent I simply decided that I could cruise along at faster than six minute miles and catch the runner in front" Here, he is showing his 'self-efficacy' (or belief as normal people may call it!), in his abilities. The psychologist most associated with this concept is Albert Bandura, a leader in cognitive social learning theory. Bandura defines people high in self-efficacy as:

"People with high assurance in their capabilities approach difficult tasks as challenges to be mastered rather than as threats to be avoided.

To have a high level of self-efficacy, an individual needs to have successfully performed an act previously. Given Simon's previous race record, I'd challenge him that it is not surprising he can churn out a time within 3 minutes of his PB. He's been there before in a similar situation, ran the same race, knows whats upcoming in his mind that he has to face (whether anxiety, coping with pain, having to run faster, that everything will be ok) but fundamentally, that he is capable of putting in a great performance. In addition, I felt I had strong self-efficacy for my performance on Sunday as I had completed 3 months worth of training. I only missed one session and had completed a big plan of intervals, hills, long runs, core and took strength from the fact that I had done everything within my power to prepare properly for the race, which would result in me setting a new PB. That's self-efficacy.

By distracting himself helping out other runners, Simon also shows us a technique called 'disassociation' (I covered this a few years ago in a write up of a talk by Dr Tim Holder here). By taking his focus away from himself, wanting to helping others and avoid any negatives, he was dissociating. Simon didn't write about whether he 'associated', focusing on how his performance was going (whether mental or physical). I tried to associate to the pain I was going through in the latter half of the race, though it didn't help me a great deal with going faster! All it did was tell me my blisters were bloody aching!

Joking aside, I did use a trick of association where I broke down the remainder of my performance mile by mile, trying to stay in the moment, and not think too far ahead by saying 'get through the next mile and make it your best - don't worry about anything more than that.' It's an old running trick that we've all done, but in the heat of a race, easy to forget. And takes a certain mental strength to remember. If I get enough interest I'll write more on association and disassociation, as for runners and endurance cyclists/triathletes, I think its an integral skill to aid performance.

So - there we go. Anxiety, Self-efficacy, Coping strategies.  I'm merely touching on some massive Sport Psychology topics, and not fully giving each of them justice, but I hope you are beginning to understand how they fit together to account for how you can improve your performance in whatever sport you participate in. Please do ask questions and what you want to know more detail on.

The 30 day challenge - Day 3 - Running with will-power

Today I'm giving over control to Simon Freeman to guest blog for me with his report of the Bristol Half Marathon. He came 62nd overall and is one of the most driven individuals I know. He's always been interested in the mental side of training and competition, so I'm pleased to let him contribute to the Focused Mind. Tomorrow I'll write up what my take on 'what should be done' (from a Sport Psych point of view) in preparation for a race and compare it to what he and I have written for the past two days. Hope this helps to any runners of all standards. Over to you Simon...

***

Thanks! Since the London marathon in April this year, the opportunity to set up my own business (Freestak) has meant that I have had to make a choice between running as much as usual and working more than usual. In the interests of long-term happiness, I have opted for working more than usual.

As my training has taken a back-seat, the area I have tended to forego has been speed-work, partly because speed sessions at the track take longer than a quick 6 miles on the roads around where I live and partly because they are the hardest type of training to get motivated for.

In short I have done less training than usual. And a lot less speed work than usual.

So it was with some trepidation that I set off for the Bristol half marathon last weekend. Adding to my concern was the fact that there were a few of my friends and training partners who were suggesting that we could run together. They have been training much harder than me and I was worried I could fall to pieces at the sort of pace they were suggesting.

I will spare you a race report – Stuart has already written that here - but I will talk about a key moment in the race. Around mile five the course was heading back into Bristol along the Portway under the famous Clifton Suspension Bridge. I was running in a little group that had formed with me, two of my training partners and another chap none of us knew. 5min 45sec per mile. Into a headwind. And I felt fantastic.

Despite having missed masses of training and especially almost all the speed work that I should have been doing, I was dragging the three others along, acting as a shield into the wind and feeling great.

After the race – completed in 76:30 – I started to wonder how I had come 62^nd out of 17,000 runners in a race that I was concerned I wouldn’t even finish, let alone within three minutes of my personal best. And I realized that it might be down to my brain: a mixture of confidence and bloody-mindedness.

I cannot pretend to understand this from the point of view of a sport psychologist, but I think that to some extent I simply decided that I could cruise along at faster than six minute miles and catch the runner in front and help to pace one of my friends to a sizeable PB. Once I believed that I could maintain the pace, I simply did.

Do I think that I can run faster than I ever have before with less training? No! Do I recommend that runners throw their training programme in the bin and simply hope they’ll get faster? No! But maybe what I learned in Bristol at the weekend is that even if training has not been consistent or gone to plan, by having the confidence that you can do something and by giving it a go, you might find that you do better than you thought you would. Maybe that is what Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC-43 BC), ancient Roman writer and statesman, meant when he wrote:

“It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment”

Sounds about right to me! 

The 30 day challenge - Day 2 Bristol Half Marathon

For the second year in a row, I ran the Bristol Half Marathon this weekend. I'd entered the previous year on the advice of Phoebe Thomas, my coach at the time from Running with Us. I worked with her and Nick Anderson last year, improving both my running and attitude to training in the process. Having moved back to Manchester from London, I've been training with a different runners at Sport City and Ellesmere Port, taking the lessons learnt from last summer to push on from this year's Marathon in Barcelona.

I've been fine tuning my speed work and shaved a good couple of minutes off my PB for 10K and upped the intensity of my training. It's been a good summer and I can see and feel the progress in my running. It's given my confidence (or self-efficacy as its termed in Sport Psychology) a boost. Having goals based on time and economy to work towards, has had a beneficial effect overall.

Last year I came to Bristol, running the half marathon for the first time and set a PB of 1:39:21, which I was really pleased with. This year I was aiming to get somewhere between 1:30 and 1:35 based on training and races. Having already hit 1:37 during marathon training I knew this was realistic.

On the day I got to the race on time, felt good as I dropped off my luggage and took up position in the first wave of runners. The race was well organised and I felt good and thought the conditions were good. Not too warm, but not too breezy. As the course hits an out and back along the River Avon, headwinds are a concern to runners. It's no fun trying to run into that at pace.

Some complained that on the return leg the wind was up, but to be honest I didn't notice. Nick warned the runners at the start to avoid the schoolboy error of going out too quickly, and I was determined not to overcook it too soon. As the gun went off I hit the first couple of miles at 6:30/6:45 pace, which earlier in the summer I'd comfortably managed in 10k races. Over the past month I've been hitting ever faster times in my interval work, so felt ok at this pace and avoided keeping up with faster runners that passed me. I wasn't dropping back, but felt pretty comfortable. As we got past the out and back heading  towards town for the final half of the race, I began to feel a rubbing on the inner part of my right shoe. My lace had snagged, something I'd noticed as a design fault. I thought I'd got round it in the way I'd laced the shoe and chip, but for the first time wearing them during the month, it began to blister my foot and ended up bruising my ankle too.

My stride got put out and I was finding it harder to maintain the same pace as the first half. I thought I may be able to maintain going as fast as I had in previous races. I saw my splits were beginning to slow, but not to a point I was overly concerned about. I just wanted to maintain the pace I had slowed to (around 7 minute mileing) and see what I had left with 3 miles to go with a view to going quicker.

But to get through those miles, I was really struggling mentally. I kept telling myself, "just get through the next mile and make it the best mile you run." As a trick it worked, but my mind was wandering more than I'd have liked and bringing it back to the present was proving hard as the right foot rubbed ever more painfully. By the final mile I could sense the impending relief of the finish. In my head I heard my girlfriends advice 'Think of Mo Farah working hard in the Olympics,' but I knew I hadn't hit the 1:30 dream time I was after. I knew I'd be near to where I wanted to be for my original goal, given what I was seeing as I glanced at the watch. As was, I crossed the line in a very respectable 1:33:43, saw Nick as soon as I crossed the line, and felt pride in taking off a lot of time.

On the day I was cursing the schoolboy error of not ensuring my trainers weren't set up 100%. Next time I will go easier on myself mentally. I know I can go quick enough and only have to lose 15 seconds per mile. With a full season behind me, this is eminently possible. Speaking to Simon Freeman afterwards, I am confident about the kind of training I need to do on the track to make going at 6:45 pace more comfortable. Whether Bristol is the right race to go for another PB I'm not sure. There's a bugger of a hill to negotiate a few miles from home that I don't like. I'm keen to try something abroad or a different course for that, but I will be back to run this race.

Overall as a course I like it and its a lot of fun testing yourself in familiar surroundings.  And I'll go a bit easier on myself mentally next time too. Just because I help others with their game, doesn't mean that I don't go through the same challenges in competition myself!

The 30 day challenge - Day 1

After a lull for a month or two after the Olympics, I realise that as Summer turns to Autumn, I'm getting my head back into the study for Sport Psychology having finished my Summer job. I'm due to go and take some time out in November, so I've taken inspiration from Matt Cutts, and set myself the small (but achievable) challenge of writing 30 engaging blog posts over a month to make up for the lack of posting recently. Anyone can churn out *something* but I'm going to see if I can hold reader attention and help elucidate more about sport psychology and coaching and hopefully answer some of the questions you may have on the areas me and colleagues research and help athletes with.

I love Matt's TED talk and his motivation through challenging yourself to achieve small things that you've been putting off. When I think of this blog, I love it, but I also feel daunted about what I can add as content. By having to write and engage, I'm forcing myself to address this in a manageable timeframe. As Matt says:

"The next 30 days are going to pass whether you like it or not, so why not think about something you have always wanted to try and give it a shot for the next 30 days?” (Matt Cutts)"

I'm also inspired by blogs from other sources. I'm a big fan of designer Anna Dahlstrom's blog, where she has managed to write an entry every day so far this year. I recommend you check out her post on taking Fikas, which is probably my favourite on there, and a concept I really like. If Anna can manage it for 10 months, surely I can manage 30 days? Yes, that seems easy, but I probably overthink what I should put on my blog, so that I end up skipping days worth of content. I'm taking inspiration from Jerry Seinfeld's rule of productivity. I promise I won't try and write any gags. I'll stick to what I know best.

What can you expect? What will you see?

Well, I want to share what research on psychological skills for performance have shown. I want to outline the role of motivation as it is reported in Psychology; how you as an athlete or coach can stay motivated. I'm fascinated how the top athletes can harness their anxiety symptoms to obtain winning performances; how Individual Zones Of Optimal Functioning can help your performance, and the role of stress and emotion on performance - amongst other things. 

I've got guest blogs from sub 3 hour runner Simon Freeman, other Sport Psychologists in the field here and abroad who will offer their advice and guidance; interviews with coaches and special guests and my take on leading sport stories that will no doubt occur over the next month. 

If you have any questions or subjects you want addressed, or if you want to contribute, then feel free to write. I've got a lot of the topics worked out, but there's still room for more. Fundamentally, I want to articulate how I think Sport Psychology, and the findings that we know to be reliable, can help you or your athlete's sporting life. Contact me at stuartholliday at gmail.com if you have anything you want to communicate or ask.

Thanks.
(I'll also endeavour to try and write my blog posts in the morning rather than with one hour to go to the next day!)

S