One of many intuitive methods I discovered to outlive a protracted distance race is counting.
It sounds dumb, however to do one thing huge, you typically have to interrupt it down.
Once you’re in a 56 mile race like Comrades, it will get actually laborious on your mind to even comprehend what sort of distance that’s.
So I typically discovered myself simply breaking it down into manageable numbers that I do know that I’ve carried out dozens of instances earlier than.
For instance, in case you’re a number of miles into the race, I’ll discover myself repeating variations of:
Solely 5k to go…
…Till you solely have a 5k to go…
…Till you solely have 10k to go…
And then you definitely simply have a half marathon left.
I shared this with a good friend they usually suppose it virtually makes issues worse (ha!). Nevertheless it works for me.
At first, it began off as a method to hold the mind busy. Once you’re in your toes for 8 hours, you’ve plenty of issues to suppose by means of (I often don’t put on headphones when working).
I believed I used to be a bit loopy to do that, however Michael Malice talked about that this was one thing Edith Bone used to do in her ebook “Seven Years Solitary” to maintain her thoughts at bay.
I believe partly this works due to the mathematics (extra on that in a second), however I believe it additionally simply retains your mind enthusiastic about one thing aside from quitting.
It’s humorous while you get into distances how a lot working turns into mentally defragging your whole mind. You’re principally spending time fixing issues & reviewing issues which have been floating round in your mind earlier than placing them neatly away into their compartments.
Usually, I’d overlook all of the issues I considered throughout a run, however end the exercise extra mentally “clear” than ever.
However because the distances stretched out, it additionally created a manner for me to truly comprehend the distances I used to be enterprise.
After you get previous 30 miles, I believe it’s laborious to consider the distances in larger single chunks than that.
So that you break it up into items you may perceive.
You are able to do a 5k.
You are able to do a 10k.
You are able to do the marathon.
They’ve all been carried out earlier than. Now, you simply must do them.
Once you break the unknowable quantities into identified portions, it doesn’t simply make it extra understandable, it makes it doable.
So in case you’re engaged on one thing that appears too huge to do.
Work it out in your head.
Then break it down into quantities you may perceive.
Then go do them.
Good luck.
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141 days left till Trial
