The Brighton Half marathon was fun. But it took a lot of mental energy to make it that way. A few days before with Storm Dennis on his way they decided there would be no finish barrier or infrastructure that could be blown over but other than that all was going ahead. The day before I went for my shake out run and it was 17 minutes out, 13 minutes home. Strong winds.
Race day was fab. Decided if I was going to run in 40mph winds I may as well enjoy it. Forgot to charge my watch so no pace to follow and no time goal – just to try as hard as I could and to feel proud of my efforts afterwards. I smiled lots (it is an official psych strategy – I promise) and actually felt like I was having fun. 6 miles of running into the wind was hard work but all good practice for Paris – especially if there happens to be a storm! Our best friends had snuck down from London to give some high fives which was a fantastic boost and despite the weather there were still supporters out cheering and brilliant volunteers marshalling which was awesome.
One of the first things I did after the race (after playing on the 2p machines on the pier to warm up my three-year-old and eating hot sugary donuts by the beach to warm up myself) was top up my training diary.
I’m a bit geeky about using training diaries – they are ace. I ask all the athletes I work with to keep one. There are lots of reasons why. A big one is that we get robust confidence from knowing we have the skills required to excel and having done all the training required. A training diary is an easy way to be reminded of this.
Ideally in this diary we log our physical training, fitness sessions, physical or mental skills we are working on, any niggles or injuries we are feeling, the types of training we enjoy and how we are feeling about our training. If we fill it in every day when we get to our race we have a huge amount of information at our fingertips to help us prepare effectively. I do mine before bed each night so it becomes a habit.
While online training diaries are great for convenience, many restrict athletes from adding in that extra information so a paper diary, with lots of space is best. A paper diary means as well as keeping track of what our body is doing, we can also keep track of what is going on in our head. I was in a rush when I set up my programme so printed some pages out via calendarpedia.co.uk but my partner on the Sporting Brain Box, Sarah at Art of Your Success sells a great training diary if you want something much more professional and full of lovely tips too.
Things you could add into your diary are
- My goal for today’s session was ….. and I…..
- Physically I did…
- My fitness levels seem…
- The skill I mastered best was…
- What I did well in this session…
- Any niggles or cramps?
- The negative thoughts I had were…
- What I have gained by doing this session?
- How do I feel?
- How tired am I?
- Is there anything in my life right now causing me mental fatigue?
Mine is fairly simple at the moment with just what I’ve been doing and how I’m feeling but I’ve also been adding my Resting Heart Rate (once it goes over 55 I know I’m getting poorly so it is a good way of keeping an eye on my health) and my Peak Flow level as I’m trying to get on top of my asthma so this is a good prompt to do so.
The next race is the Big Half. I’ll be using it to practice my mental toughness in a race, my nutrition strategy and whether my mantra is strong enough. The race starts on Tower Hill in London and finishes in Greenwich. I’ve asked my husband to strategically stand our daughter at the end of Tower Bridge (7 miles in) as my incentive to work hard and get a high five and a cheer from her half way through. Apparently Storm Jorge is on the way but I think we are all pretty good at running in storms now – if the weather gods are reading I’d love some practice running in the sunshine. Please….
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