Long Distance Training

After a couple of hard weeks effort, I'm beginning to feel the benefits of the intense training that I'm putting myself through for Barcelona 2012. When you take on the effort of a full marathon you make a pact with yourself on how you're going to approach training. This can change as 'life gets in the way' during the training cycle. 

If I look back at the 4 marathons I completed over the past 4 years, I can identify those where I was fully prepared, and those where I could have done more. In hindsight, I don't think I was anywhere near ready for two of them, and they are (unsurprisingly) the 2 races where I've been less satisfied with my time and performance.

I'd go so far to say that I've known from the beginning of training the races where I knew I'd have a good performance. Almost as if doing well was pre-ordained. In 2010 I was determined to improve significantly on the previous years marathon, where I felt I'd sold myself short. As was, I shaved off 25 minutes from my finish time and felt great at the end. Last year, training started really well, but I had to move city for work half way through training, and the change disrupted my training schedule, so that I was doing less, and didn't fulfil my potential come the end of the race. I was too distracted.

Sr Casarrubios & me in Llangollen

This year I've buddied up with my friend Enrique who is based in London (I live in Manchester) and we're training 'together' -  doing the same schedule at least, with the occasional run in person! After my spring marathon last year, I opted for the first time to really push on and keep my fitness up by conditioning my half marathon skills over the summer. I was caught out by the heat in last years London marathon (it was unseasonably warm) and having trained only in cold weather/not pushed myself, I got found out come race day. 

I can't do much about the winter weather, but having trained a lot with Enrique over summer, I know that both he and I are of similar ability. We ran two handicap races with our club, Victoria Park Harriers. Both times he was only a matter of seconds behind me. Come September, we both ran a half marathon - he the Royal parks, me Bristol. Results wise there was only 15 seconds difference! 

With a bit of cajoling I persuaded him to upgrade from the half marathon distance to full marathon. I've known Enrique for 5 years and know his character well enough to know he'd apply himself fully to getting ready for his first marathon. I promised that I'd help with a training plan, tips and would follow whatever training he would do so that come race day we are equally prepared. Of course I'm aware that two people can do exactly the same training but due to different biology, end up with different times. But having been running equal times for the past year, we're both confident we can match each other toe to toe come the marathon at the end of March. At the very least we'll give it a good go!

Training wise we're both nerds updating our stats from the end of each run and so far times are mirroring each other. This weekend we had a training camp up here in the North. Some hard running was done - a hill session and a long 18 miler. Pleased to say we both felt great and pushed each other on. 

Having said our goodbyes he's back to London to train with VPH, me with Salford Harriers, until we do it again and I return to the capital in a fortnight to see how we're getting on! As Simon Freeman put in his post on training with others it really does keep the motivation up, whether its in a group or just with one other person - theres no slacking off (I don't want him to see blank spaces on my schedule where I should have run!). Its a healthy rivalry, even if its just egging each other on. Come race day we'll put ourselves in the best position possible having done this training. I've not felt fitter/as prepared for a race as I do this time, Enrique says the same. Here's hoping our little experiment pays off and we can cross the line together. It'd cap a great training cycle and effort put in together. Buena suerte tio!!

Fuelling to the finish

It’s been a while since I wrote but I’ve been busy getting my head down for work and my feet pounding for racing, getting the mileage up for the Barcelona marathon in 10 weeks time. It’s been so long since training started that I can’t remember life before ‘marathon training’

As the miles go up I find myself getting up indecently early on the weekend to shovel (healthy) fuel to ease digestion a few hours prior to going out and tackling the next big distance on the plan. I’m eating & downing the morning cuppa before heading back to bed to catch a precious few more minutes sleep and put off the wintry elements in the North.

So why is a trainee sport psych (admittedly a marathon nut) writing about nutrition? Where’s the relevance? Well, without doubt, a healthy body leads to a healthy mind. If you’re not properly prepared before a race, whether physically, or mentally, then its my belief this will impact your thinking and mental performance in the race. Come race day, you want to be in the best frame of mind to tackle the gruelling challenge ahead. And I also think the kind of food you put in you has an impact on how you perform. You could put the cheapo petrol from the supermarket in your finely tuned vehicle, but its not going to do give your car the best performance, so its worth valuing the high grade fuel in your tank, enjoy it and feel good for race day.

Last year, my friend Monica completed a great post on what are the best foodstuffs for runners to help them cope with the long slow Sunday runs, for when you’re getting over half marathon distance in training.

For breakfasts, she suggested the usual suspects of oats, wholemeal toast and egg based recipes.  I put it out to my running community of friends on Twitter (@stuholliday) to see what people ate and most actually seemed to go for toast with honey as this was cited as being easier to digest than porridge. As ever bananas were popular (a great superfood), along with tea or coffee and maybe a bit of juice.

I always find breakfast is a tricky one (as does @nickersan) before a race, as the nerves can suppress your appetite. So your body says ‘don’t feed me’ but you really have to, to ensure you don’t suffer late on in the run. Coffee can be a blessing or a curse. It’s enema like properties may be wanted to dislodge nerves, or not risked at all!

Fundamentally, I’d say that whatever dietary habits you get into for fuelling before your long runs in training, keep when it comes to race day.

When I’ve run best I’ve done this. Eating the same breakfasts, at the same time, and following the same routine, so my body can know what to expect. Similarly, for taking on carbohydrate gels, get into the habit of trying them out early in your training so that if a brand disagrees with you, it happens on a training run when it doesn’t matter, rather than in a race situation. I think my slowing down during a run this Sunday was in part caused by a new gel that was as thick as treacle and put me off my stride. Go with what you know!

Which leads me to the big meals in the days leading up to your long runs. Monica’s post has loads of different delicious dishes. Paul Martelletti (@marders) makes the point that your big meal the day before a race should be eaten at lunch to allow digestion, and best avoid red meat. My straw poll of followers gave their favourites:

I was surprised to see so many opting for brown rice! Stephen Hitchcock (@egreenfitness), Linda Byrne (@alphabetbyrne) and me all swear by the stuff. When I suggested to Charlie Dark (@rundemcrew) that brown rice was a super food last year, I initially got a bit of grief, but making him try it with green broccoli actually got a positive reaction! The most common food that people reported having though was pasta and chicken the night before a race. A good mix of protein and carbs, though a few people said that they ate white pasta. Unless I’ve read all the wrong research, I’m 99% certain that us runners should keep it strictly brown to get the carbohydrate benefit. Bleached white pasta, from what I’ve seen is criticized heavily from having little nutritional value. I know I don’t want to come a cropper at 20 miles, so I always go with the brown stuff.

I like to make a tomato-based sauce to have with my pasta. According to Science Daily, “tomatoes are the biggest source of dietary lycopene; a powerful antioxidant that, unlike nutrients in most fresh fruits and vegetables, has even greater bioavailability after cooking and processing. Tomatoes also contain other protective mechanisms, such as antithrombotic and anti-inflammatory functions.” I also like how a good tomato pasta sauce tastes!

However, according to @mrtstephens he cooks spaghetti with pesto, a chicken breast and pine nuts, after seeing it recommended by Michel Roux Jr. For me, Michel is a hero, both in terms of his cooking, mentoring and running. The Masterchef star has run over 17 marathons in his life, as well as a Michelin starred restaurant. Naturally I recommend whole-wheat pasta for his recipe.

As a rule of thumb for portions I’ve always been told that you should use (roughly) a quarter of your plate for proteins, a quarter for carbs and half for veg. Though as your carbo loading increases with your weekly mileage, more carbs should also be added. The rule of thumb is to allow between about 8 to 10 grams of carbs per kilogram of body weight.

Most recently I’ve started working with a personal trainer who is getting me into the habit of adding whey protein into my morning smoothie – this also helps me manage to also digest my morning banana more easily, along with healthy berries, a dollop of honey, and a few oats that help with slow energy release. I’ve never previously topped up on protein shakes but my PT is quite vehement I should, as well as having a recovery drink after training to top up carbs and proteins that get taken out through hard work. I’ve only just started this regime, but I’m finding I’m less sluggish after my runs, though I’m keeping a watching brief as this is all new to me.

As well as that I also take a couple of gels with me for the long runs, some water and an electrolyte drink as I sweat out so much salt during exercise.

All of this is specific to me, but its worth thinking about or talking with the staff in your local running store who can better advise on different kinds of supplements, gels, etc. better than I can here. The watchword is to keep things to routine, and ensure that everything you’ve tried has been tested prior to the big day, and don't forget that you should keep well hydrated with plenty of water throughout your training. Good luck in your fuelling. Feel free to add your favourite meals for keeping body and mind together in your training and races, and advise if any of the points in here need amending.

The influence of others on sporting performance

Kenyan athletes training in a group

Having taken an extended break from writing whilst working this summer, I have been training and running aplenty. In London I had to fit in a big training schedule with work and commuting. I got fitter and set some PBs at a time when normally I'd be putting my feet up after 4 months of winter training. Having not made a PB for the first time in four marathons, I wanted to up my game and ran with Simon Freeman and runningwithus in my limited free time. Having a personalised schedule was great to help chart progress, but as with my training with Victoria Park Harriers in London and Trafford AC in Manchester, running interval sessions on the track every week helped improve my time and in turn, my confidence.

Simon in particular was a great influence, both on a friendship and athletics level. He encouraged me on and off the track with training. We share a love of endurance running and the mental side of sport, so it was great to be asked to help with an article on the benefits of running in groups.

Since my return to Manchester from London, I've taken a break from the running after setting a PB in the Bristol half marathon, and am head down in study mode for Sport Psych exams with the BPS. Once I've finished the first of my exams completed in early November, I'll be hitting the track as part of my goal to improve on last years Marathon time in London, and to achieve a Boston Qualifying Time (the famous and frankly scary BQT!).

In the meantime, I'll leave the virtues of running as part of a group and the benefits it gives you in training and races to Simon. 

RDC, Charlie D and me

I can't sleep. My mind is racing with the thoughts of the race in a day and half's time. I'm adjusting to the end of the week and trying to focus on being as relaxed as possible for when I wake, eat and hit the start line at 9.45 on Sunday. It's been an exciting week. Punctuated with meeting the finest female marathon athlete of my generation, having the fear, losing the fear, and talking shop with my housemates, work colleagues and club buddies. Now I need to turn that noise off. Get some quality sleep and focus at the task at hand.

I've moved into weekend mode. Had a massage, eaten good food and caught up with stuff. All thats left is prepare the kit and try to move much slower than I normally do to be at the most clear headed I've been since my last long run to put in a performance I'm happy with. This is where it becomes my domain, my race and whatever I imagine it to be.

The last day though has been exhilarating and this is where I put it to bed. I've been trying to get an interview with Charlie Dark for a month or so. We met a few years ago at Nike's 1948 store in Shoreditch where he started his Run Dem Crew running community, when I was doing my masters in Sport Psychology and proving a point to myself about my capabilities as a runner. I knew of him from friends and old Attica Blues records I'd bought in the early 90s. What I met was a man reinvented and re-invigorated with a love of athletics and what it could give him. I think I made a remark about how it seemed a home for 'ex-ravers who now run'... but over our runs round London I found him a charming character, more shy than the outwardly he appears, but great at goading 30 or 40 people of differing levels of ability to run through London's city centre and sites. Amongst other things Charlie delivered poetry by county hall to the group, gets people to plaster the city in magnetic lights and gives out awards to people who have improved in races and their running.

Finally, a month or so after first discussing it (and after a few missed opportunities) I got told to go to Niketown last night to get the interview. Oh, and "you might get to meet Paula Radcliffe and Steve Cram." He wasn't kidding:

Their talk and Q and A did give out some helpful hints to those running on Sunday. Both Paula and Cram mentioned about using smaller distances in order to disassociate to get through the hard parts of the race. They mentioned making deals with yourself, to your next mile in order to keep the pace up and manage pain.

As the article in the telegraph recently said from her Alberquerque training camp, Paula uses visualisation to see herself finishing strongly up the mall in next's year London Marathon. Its her favourite race and the one she needs to excel in, to qualify for the 2012 Olympics. As the article stated: “I try to imagine that I’m in the closing stages of the marathon in London and that I really need to knuckle down and put the work in." Great advice for anyone running tomorrows race. Good luck to all taking part and I hope you get the performance you wished for.


So on to the interview... I wanted to find out about his journey, how Charlie and the runners in RDC had prepared for the race and how his view of the mental aspects of the discipline have changed over time. My hunch was right. Having started out running as a means to get fit, it is now a lifestyle choice and something that most runners who have stuck at it for a couple of years have found; it gives meaning to achievement and success (if that doesn't sound too far reaching or pretentious) and he sees the significance of the mental aspects of running and training your brain.

Early on, Charlie talks about he motivates himself pre-race by watching a duel in the sun. To him this shows how important the mental aspects of running competition are. The duel between Dick Beardsley and Alberto Salazar rightly goes down as a classic. A race that pushed both runners to the limits of their respective capabilities.

Later (at 4 minutes), Charlie mentions how he stopped using running as thinking time and now has trained to clear his mind, to focus on each run as it unfolds. This nicely ties into what Dr Tim Holder was outlining as the possible coping strategy of Mindfulness which I've written about previously. If you want to know a bit more about mindfulness, then I've provided a link here. It's not the best video by any means, but gives you a primer to get started with. I've tried it at a local meditation centre and thats a good place to start to understand more about what mindfulness is all about before you incorporate it to your training.

We mention later about Flow - a peak experience often associated with 'being the zone' when all your skills meet the appropriate challenge level to hit your target time. The flow state allows you to be completely involved in an activity for its own sake. I'll be writing in more depth about this after the marathon.  Charlie talks about encouraging others to fulfil their athletic potential - to be the best they can be. A great example of humanist principals which I use to guide my practice!  I've included a TED talk on positive psychology by Martin Seligman here. In there, he talks about flow experiences as well. As you can see, hear and read, its great to see so much sport psych practice and discipline informing the run dem crew, performance and now philosophy. Cheers Charlie. Now go get that 3.30!

Mental Toughness for endurance training

Today's post is written by my friend and sport psych colleague, Carlos Taboas on the topic of mental toughness. Though he comes from the world of cycling, the principles regarding mental toughness apply as much to marathon and other endurance running events. Thanks Carlitos!

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My name is Juan Carlos Taboas an ex-pro cyclist and now Sport Psychology graduate. I am writing this guest entry because Stuart asked me to share my knowledge and experiences on mental toughness, which I wrote about in my thesis on team mental toughness in a professional cycling team.

The term mental toughness is often used by athletes, coaches, sport psychologists and the media to describe why some athletes may achieve or are the best in the world in their discipline. It is debated amongst the aficionados that marathon runners Evans Rutto or Paula Radcliffe or cyclists Lance Armstrong or Nicole Cooke are the best ever in their sports. One thing that is agreed by these commentators though is that they all demonstrate exceptional mental toughness.

Marathon running and road cycling share one thing – that they can be considered some of the most grueling tests of human athletic endurance performance. During training and competition, marathon runners and cyclists have to deal with different types of terrain and weather conditions and spend huge amounts of time above 70% maximal oxygen uptake (VO_2max). These athletes have to learn how to cope with the physical and mental demands training and competition place on them. In other words, they have to learn how to be mentally tough. But what exactly is mental toughness and how can we improve it?

When asking athletes what mental toughness is, they describe it as “doing whatever is necessary to get the job done”, “not letting anyone break you” or “not being affected by anything but what’s going on in the race”. However, these descriptions do not offer us much light to the understanding of mental toughness.

Jones and colleagues (2002) were the first researchers to address mental toughness using empirical methods. They defined mental toughness as a natural or developed psychological edge that enables mentally tough performers to generally cope better than their opponents with the demands and related pressures that occur in sport. Their study identified 12 essential characteristics of mental toughness. These are self-belief, desire and motivation, focus, coping with anxiety, and dealing with pain and hardship.

So, as with physical fitness, mental toughness is trainable. We also know that in order to have outstanding marathon performances we need to train different aspects of our fitness such us endurance, power, strength and flexibility. Equally, in order to improve our mental toughness we should develop several mental attributes.

Mentally tough marathon runners have an unshakable belief in their ability to achieve their targeted time. As Stuart suggested in this (Self belief) article and as Tim Holder stated in the blog post about goal setting, self belief can be enhanced by undertaking mental training. Try starting by reflecting on past goal accomplishments to your enhance your confidence. Visualisation is another useful tool that can be used to enhance self-belief. Taking some time to imagine yourself achieving your goal, has been shown to improve sporting achievement. Used in conjunction with positive self-talk, a repertoire of positive self-statements relevant to you during training and/or competition (to convince yourself that you are capable of performing well), can assist in developing the required psychological edge.

All of us have a zone of optimal functioning and being in your optimal zone has a positive impact on your confidence. You need to recap past performances in order to find the levels of arousal that are optimal to you. Once these are identified, you can use techniques to ‘psych you up’ or ‘calm you down’ depending on what best suits you. Finally, knowing yourself is vital. Developing self-awareness will uncover the unique qualities that make you better than your opponents, that can be used to your advantage.

All of us have internal and external sources of motivation. Try to identify which are your internal sources of motivation and how they match the achievement of your goals. Remember that mentally tough runners have an internalized motivation to succeed. Reframing your goal setting as performance evolves, is useful to enhance your motivation during setbacks. Step back and set goals that will help you to recover from your ‘toughest times,' however incremental or small during difficult parts of your runs. This will help you to bounce back with increased determination to succeed.

Another important aspect to work on is your focus. Being mentally tough is about remaining fully focused on the task at hand in the face of competition-specific distractions. You should create a list of cues that allow you to regain focus. Use those cues in situations that negatively affect your concentration on the task in hand. Pain affects our focus and one important characteristic of mentally tough runners and cyclists is their ability to push back the boundaries of physical pain. There are several techniques that will help you with this. Authors in this blog have suggested us the use of mindfulness, association/disassociation strategies and emotion-focused coping. I would say that no one is better than the other. Try them out and keep whichever it works for you.

The final aspect of mental toughness is our ability to handle pressure. Mentally tough runners thrive on the pressure of competition by stepping into the moment and accepting that anxiety is inevitable in competition. Think about it, how would you feel in a race that does not mean anything to you? Are you going to feel anxious? Most likely you won’t. Feeling anxious is not a bad sign. The important thing is to be able to use that anxiety to your advantage. The use of goal setting, self-talk, and imagery are mental strategies to help you to interpret your anxiety as facilitative to performance, especially when they are used in combination. This does not mean that the use of relaxation techniques is wrong, but such techniques may not be appropriate for the activation and arousal demands of some runners. Again, I would say that knowing yourself and what works for you is vital to having the confidence that you possess the ability to handle pressure when it counts.

To conclude, I would say that in order to improve mental toughness we need to work on the presented aspects as a whole. Mental toughness is multidimensional. Mastering one or two of these aspects is not enough. To become mentally tough you need to improve all of them. And, as it happens with the different aspects of our fitness, it takes time and dedication. Remember that mentally tough athletes are determined to make the most of their ability by taking advantage of whatever mental resources they can. So, take heed of this advice and if you want to develop your mental toughness, contact me, Stuart or any other Sport Psychology practitioner that can assist you develop your mental edge.

As ever, any feedback is welcome. If you're participating in a Spring race, have a good run!!!

Fuelling up for long runs & endurance activity

Today I've got another guest blog. This time from my friend @monicashaw from the smarterfitter blog who has been inspiring me with delicious recipes for over 4 years. Former neighbours in Stoke Newington, she is now based down in Wiltshire as a freelance writer "specializing in science, technology, food and fitness." So an ideal contributor to this blog, particularly as any of you in training for London or Paris marathons should be appropriately fuelling up for your killer 20 - 22 miler in the next few weeks. I owe Monica a lot - she encouraged me both to start blogging and to get swimming lessons, both of which provide me a lot of happiness. Anyway, over to Monica. Please stop by and check smarterfitter in more depth if you like what you see here!

Beyond Bagels: Fueling Up for the Long Run

If you're training for the London or Paris marathons, then you're already well-acquainted with "the long run", that blissful time of the week (usually Saturday or Sunday) when you give up hours of your life to put in those crucial miles that are fundamental to finishing the race. And with marathon day fast approaching (in just over a month? crikey!), those long runs are only getting longer, and more challenging, with each passing week. But you can make those runs a whole lot easier by making sure you feed your body good prior to putting in the miles.

What should I eat the day before a long run?

We've all heard of "carbo-loading" before a big workout, but this doesn't mean eating a massive plate of pasta for breakfast lunch and dinner. Here are a few basic guidelines:

The two days before your long run (and marathon):

• Aim for at least 65% of calories from carbs
• Stick to carbs with a low glycemic index (GI) - these are processed more slowly by your digestive system and will make a handy source of fuel during the run
• Avoid gas-forming foods - do I have to explain why?
• Stick to low fiber foods - high fiber foods absorb water in your gut and swell, not ideal for a long run
• Go easy on fatty foods that are hard to digest, such as peanut butter or anything fried
• Drink lots of water and avoid the booze!
• Stick to familiar foods that you know will agree with your tummy

Timing is everything - avoid eating solid foods at least three hours before a run. This article in Runner's World offers a few good ideas for people who run at various times of the day:

http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/nutrition/eating-and-training-how-to-time-it-right/250.html

Food Ideas That Won't Make You Cringe

Here are my favourite low-GI carbs to fuel up on:

• Root veg - Carrots, yams, sweet potatoes
• Whole grains - Pearl barley, rye, wheat, brown rice, bulgar
• Whole grain products - bread, pasta, cereal, pizza bases, pita bread
• Legumes - lentils, peas, soy beans, kidney beans, chickpeas
• Fruit - bananas, apples, pears, grapes, apricots, peaches, plums and grapefruit
• Vegetables - Broccoli, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, green beans, lettuce, tomatoes, zucchini

Meal Ideas

I don't know about you, but I'm tired of articles recommending bagels and energy bars as ideal running foods. Bagels have their place and all (usually under a thick layer of cream cheese), but it's not exactly the kind of thing to get you excited about food. Life is short. Runs are long. Here are a few meal ideas to make both a little better:

For breakfast:

Oats (jumbo oats or steel-cut) cooked with pear and topped with toasted pecans (or any other fruit / nut combo)

Bircher muesli with low-fat yogurt and banana

Eggs on wholemeal toast with avocado, roasted tomatoes and steamed spinach

Boiled egg with wholemeal toast soldiers and fresh fruit

Buckwheat crepes (vegan or not) with fruit and low fat yogurt or cottage cheese

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/37996594610@N01/3512548232

For lunch or dinner:

Baked butternut squash stuffed with puy lentils

Jacket sweet potato topped with veggie chili or ratatouille

Ploughman's lunch with wholemeal bread, a bit of cheese, lots of veggies, pickles and apple

Hummus with wholegrain pita bread, tabbouleh and veggies

Veggie-loaded pizza on a wholemeal pizza base (go easy on the cheese, or skip altogether!)

Do you believe in healthy pizza?

Everything salad of veggies tossed with whole grains, lentils, toasted seeds and a good vinaigrette

Lentil & quinoa salad with basil and lemon

Minestrone soup with good crusty bread

Any combination of lentils + grains + greens (i.e. puy lentils cooked in stock served with boiled brown rice and sauteed kale)

Indian dal with basmati rice (a staple in my household) - photos

Sweet potato and black bean chili - photos

Roasted root vegetable salad with butternut squash, beets, carrots and parsnips

Veggies stuffed with veggies and grains - try roasted red peppers stuffed with smoky chickpeas or stuffed tomatoes

Farinata - a chickpea pancake you can use as a pizza base

Red beans and rice - a creole classic, great with steamed greens like kale or chard

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Great stuff from Monica, I'm sure you'll agree. What are you favourite pre-run meals? Please add in the comments section and link to any recipes if you can recommend.

Building self belief to help endurance performance

In Andy Preston's post last week, he proposed emotion focused coping can help change our responses to the immense mental and physical challenges experienced during races to help develop your resilience to successfully negotiate marathon races and other endurance events.

I wanted to dwell a little further on mental strength as it is both required in endurance and is a much researched subject in Sport Psychology currently (under the title 'mental toughness'). Given that a lot of readers are competing in European spring marathons and will be undertaking some of their longest runs in training at the moment I'm going to explore self belief this week. Next week we'll touch on mental toughness. We'll explore what sport psychologists do to help build improve these characteristic with clients. My colleague Juan Carlos Lorenzo (a former pro cyclist on the Vuelta de Espana) will guest blog on how mental toughness relates to endurance competition.

Self belief (in sport psychology literature most often referred to as self efficacy) relates to the task at hand in performing within your discipline, as opposed to your general overall confidence as a person. As most sport psych students would be taught in year 1 class Self efficacy is defined as “belief in one's own ability to perform a specific task.”

In my MSc research I investigated the psychological skills needed for successful marathon running. As well as excellence in coping, self efficacy/belief was a crucial factor with the runners I interviewed before and reviewing their performance after the race. Of my sample, one runner had unshakeable belief in their abilities for race day, and achieved the time they wanted. The other runners said they had belief before the race and then afterwards said in hindsight, they knew deep down that they would not achieve their target time.

It would seem therefore, that excellence in self-belief is also required to excel in a race. As a psychologist I'm interested in knowing how an athlete can prepare in such a way that as they get to the start-line they know that they will achieve optimum performance (or be able to negate any barrier that may interfere with achieving it). If you'd asked me after my pre-race interviews whether I thought that all runners had self-belief, superficially I'd have said 'yes'. What was most interesting, listening back to the tapes for transcription and analysis, was that after multiple listens, I could make out the doubt in the voices of the runners who didn't hit their targets. You may say, well that was achieved with the benefit of hindsight! but listening closely, I think I can pick out 1 or 2 instances where I can hear their belief wavering prior to running.

So how was self-belief achieved prior to racing by the most successful of my participants? (and by elite athletes). Unsurprisingly, prior performance gives us a very strong indication for potential achievement. Chris Evert Lloyd famously said that having achieved success at an early age built her confidence in her abilities as she progressed in her tennis career into her adulthood. In the case of my runner, he had an ever improving record in races and a healthy way of framing his progress in his running 'career' even though he only started running at 28.

His goals were achievable each time he raced, never trying to take huge chunks off each event. Instead, he had steadily chipped away at his times, so now he is down to a projected finish time of 2 hours 45. In my study, he had previously just missed out on his first sub 3 hour marathon (by a minute). So for London 2009, he 'only' had to take a minute off to achieve his target time. No mean feat, as the margins for that kind of difference are much smaller as race times come down. However, he had assessed his previous race data and performance meticulously and worked with his coach to work out where this difference could best be overcome through his 16 weeks training.

Having a structured plan from the off, he barely missed a run or other training, but really built in rest time as well. He made sure that when he had a rest day, he properly rested. No little 2 or 3 mile runs. But horizontal, relaxed, REST! Its so tempting to always do 'a little bit more'. I find with friends and clients, building in proper rest is a tough challenge. Everyone always wants to cycle, swim or do something when they should be putting their feet up!

The other main point I found was how this runner also framed prior negative results, i.e. those races which had been painful or where they had just missed out on a pre race goal. He hadn't obsessed about what went wrong, or that it would happen again. He carefully rationalised the situation on race day and took steps to ensure the same mistakes or situations didn't occur in the race being prepared for. He put that to bed, focused on the task at hand and given he had trained to the best of his ability on race day, was confident enough 'to know' he'd finish in the desired time. But what worked for him won't work for all. We're not all carbon copies of each other!

Its an inexact science, and if I could give you a formula, I'd be the most successful practitioner! Hopefully this has gone some way to help you. But additionally, if you haven't done all your training and fear you may miss out on a time, don't take that as read! It's all about the quality of the work you do (and life gets in the way!). Ultimately, we sport psychologists can work with you on confidence, but once you're at the line its up to you and how you perform and cope on the day. The training runs are the place to experiment and go through the pain, but through collaborating together, sport psychologists and athletes can work to minimise those naughty distractors and inhibitors. This won't guarantee you'll definitely achieve your desired result, but its more likely you'll be nearer to getting it.

Any tips you care to share about how you build your self-belief, please add in the comments section or get back to me. What I've covered is by no means exhaustive, and it'd be great to hear what has inspired or worked for you.