Jul
21

Finish Strong to Boost Running Confidence

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Finish strong to boost your running and race preparation confidence

“Finish Line” by Flickr user jayneandd, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 license.

I’m a big believer that the mental aspect of running and race preparation is every bit as important as the physical.  Building confidence in your ability to complete your tougher runs or meet your goals in racing (even if that goal is simply to finish) is critical to finding success.  Fear and doubt are as draining as poor hydration and nutrition, or as devastating as blown quads and tight calves.  Therefore, a key part of your training cycle is designing and executing on runs that help you achieve this confidence.

However, this post isn’t about the “big picture” approach to training that can help you simultaneously build confidence and fitness.  There is plenty of information and advice available on that, from those who design and offer training plans.  Maybe I’ll summarize some of this advice in another post.  What I want to talk about today is how to build a confidence-boosting element into each run, and that is by finishing each run with strength.  Just like the golfer who hits a great approach shot on 18 to salvage a horrible round (as an aside, that never really happened for me, and that’s why I gave up the game to focus on running), leaving your run with a finish you can be proud of motivates you to get back out the next time, no matter how tough that workout may look.

Here are some ways you can finish each type of workout with a confidence-building tour de force.

Long Runs – While many coaches advise that pace doesn’t matter on the long run, I still find it helpful to be able to test out your fitness by taking the 3:1 approach on several, if not most, of the long runs each cycle.  You do this by taking the last ¼ of the distance (5 miles in a 20 mile run, for example) at something approaching your target race pace. An improvement on this approach is if you can make the mile splits “progressive,” where each split is faster than the one before.  This can be challenging, but also helpful in that it forces you to conserve some energy early, keeping the overall pace manageable.

Intervals – Many coaches advise making your intervals (or repeats) progressive as well.  Frankly, this can be very challenging to do.  What I prefer to do is to keep them steady, and then really try to have the last interval meet the target time.  If you’re going to have a “bad” interval, make it the next to last, so that the last one feels (and looks) even more impressive, as if you were able to recover some strength.  Also, run a decent cooldown, slowly picking up your pace once you recover from that last interval (even if you have to walk the first bit of your recovery to do so).

Hills – If making your intervals progressive is challenging, doing it on hills is nearly impossible.  Therefore, after your last hill interval, try to squeeze in a flat or, even better, slightly downhill closing interval, maybe a longer one like an 800 or 1600, and relish in how fast it feels after having slogged numerous repeats on the hills.  You may remember that blazing close instead of the tough hillwork.

Tempo Runs – These are designed to be progressive, so make them that way, bracketing a pace around your 10K pace.  Depending on the length of the tempo portion, start with a pace 10-15 seconds slower than target, and try to finish with one 10 seconds faster.  In addition, there’s no reason you can’t run a decent cooldown after a bit of a recovery on the tempo runs; they are not designed to completely drain you the way intervals may.

Pace Runs – These are perfect runs to make progressive in nature, bracketing your race pace by starting 20-30 seconds slower and finishing 20-30 seconds faster.  Steady pace runs also help boost your confidence, as it proves you ability to maintain an aggressive pace without draining yourself.  I like to mix up the two approaches through a training cycle.

Easy or Recovery Runs – Just because it’s easy, doesn’t mean it can’t be progressive.  In fact, targeting a progressive run may make it easier to go out at a slow pace, thus allowing for increasing it without reaching a point where you feel you need to push it.  You can also finish with some strides (anywhere from 10 second to 100m bursts of speed, with a few repeats) to get the legs moving without taking away from the recovery aspects of your workout.

If you find yourself dreading your next run after you finish a workout, or are just looking for that extra mental edge, try applying one of these approaches and see if it makes your attitude change.  Does anyone have other mental tricks they play to help build confidence and motivation during a run?

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Posted in Training
21 Comments Posted by Greg

  • http://c2boston.blogspot.com/ Brian

    Great post! On my long runs, I have a bad habit of starting too fast and having to gradually slow down as the run progresses. I guess it’s the opposite of a progressive approach. I get tired as the miles add up, and my heart rate gradually climbs, forcing me to slow down. So I guess in order to make my long run progressive, I would need to really start much slower so I have the energy to speed up as the run progresses. Do you have any advice on how to set your pace early in the long run so that you can speed up towards the end?

  • http://c2boston.blogspot.com/ Brian

    Great post! On my long runs, I have a bad habit of starting too fast and having to gradually slow down as the run progresses. I guess it’s the opposite of a progressive approach. I get tired as the miles add up, and my heart rate gradually climbs, forcing me to slow down. So I guess in order to make my long run progressive, I would need to really start much slower so I have the energy to speed up as the run progresses. Do you have any advice on how to set your pace early in the long run so that you can speed up towards the end?

  • http://www.runnerspassion.com Runners Passion

    This is great advice. I usually try to do this on my most of my runs except for the interval speed work. But for my easy recovery and longer runs I always try to pick it up and run a bit faster towards the end.
    I agree 100% with the confidence factor in training. I recently read Matt Fitzgeralds new book “Run” where he discusses planning your training progressively where you actually hold back a little in workouts at the beginning of the training cycle so you can beat those times as you progress through the cycle giving you more and more confidence as you go along. It’s a great book that you should check out.

  • http://www.runnerspassion.com Runners Passion

    This is great advice. I usually try to do this on my most of my runs except for the interval speed work. But for my easy recovery and longer runs I always try to pick it up and run a bit faster towards the end.
    I agree 100% with the confidence factor in training. I recently read Matt Fitzgeralds new book “Run” where he discusses planning your training progressively where you actually hold back a little in workouts at the beginning of the training cycle so you can beat those times as you progress through the cycle giving you more and more confidence as you go along. It’s a great book that you should check out.

  • Greg

    Brian, thanks for your comment. Most “experts” advise running your long run at 45-90 seconds/mile slower than your marathon pace (I disagree, but more on that later). If you do use that approach, then starting at the slow end of that range and allowing yourself to move to the faster end (or beyond) should allow for a good progressive run without getting too winded. If it doesn’t, then the goal pace may need evaluated. My long runs have tended (until the humidity and hills I’ve tackled of late) to be about 10-20 seconds slower than race pace, with the last 1/4 averaging a bit faster. I generally go out steady in the 7:25 range, then try to finish by climbing down 5 seconds per mile or so.

  • Greg

    Brian, thanks for your comment. Most “experts” advise running your long run at 45-90 seconds/mile slower than your marathon pace (I disagree, but more on that later). If you do use that approach, then starting at the slow end of that range and allowing yourself to move to the faster end (or beyond) should allow for a good progressive run without getting too winded. If it doesn’t, then the goal pace may need evaluated. My long runs have tended (until the humidity and hills I’ve tackled of late) to be about 10-20 seconds slower than race pace, with the last 1/4 averaging a bit faster. I generally go out steady in the 7:25 range, then try to finish by climbing down 5 seconds per mile or so.

  • Greg

    Thanks for the comment and book recommendation. That does sound like a good training approach; one concern I always have is hitting a “plateau” in the middle of the training cycle and not feeling the improvements beyond that, so starting slower would help overcome that. It’s probably not just a mental improvement but a physical one as well; a full marathon ramp can be pretty demanding if you go at it hard from the beginning. Have you tried the approach yet?

  • Greg

    Thanks for the comment and book recommendation. That does sound like a good training approach; one concern I always have is hitting a “plateau” in the middle of the training cycle and not feeling the improvements beyond that, so starting slower would help overcome that. It’s probably not just a mental improvement but a physical one as well; a full marathon ramp can be pretty demanding if you go at it hard from the beginning. Have you tried the approach yet?

  • http://www.irunnerblog.com Scott

    Great post! I like to play with goal pace time during my long runs when training for a half or full marathon. I feel that if I can hit goal pace during a run it gives me a mental edge on race day knowing I sustained it for a long training run.

  • http://www.irunnerblog.com Scott

    Great post! I like to play with goal pace time during my long runs when training for a half or full marathon. I feel that if I can hit goal pace during a run it gives me a mental edge on race day knowing I sustained it for a long training run.

  • Greg

    Thanks Scott, I agree with “trying out” the marathon pace during long runs, I just don’t buy that running 20 miles at an 8:00 pace (like would have been recommended for my last marathon) gives the same mental or physical results as doing it at 7:15. I understand the concerns about overtraining or injury, but I don’t really here a lot of incidences of that actually happening.

  • Greg

    Thanks Scott, I agree with “trying out” the marathon pace during long runs, I just don’t buy that running 20 miles at an 8:00 pace (like would have been recommended for my last marathon) gives the same mental or physical results as doing it at 7:15. I understand the concerns about overtraining or injury, but I don’t really here a lot of incidences of that actually happening.

  • http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com AndrewENZ

    Great advice. I’m trying to incorporate a bit more speed/pace work in my marathon training and I’ll definitely be trying the 3:1 in my long runs.

  • http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com AndrewENZ

    Great advice. I’m trying to incorporate a bit more speed/pace work in my marathon training and I’ll definitely be trying the 3:1 in my long runs.

  • Greg

    Thanks Andrew, I like the 3:1 training approach on the long runs, it really does help make them more productive and encouraging.

  • Greg

    Thanks Andrew, I like the 3:1 training approach on the long runs, it really does help make them more productive and encouraging.

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  • http://twitter.com/FoCoRunner Mark C., Ph.D.

    I’d say that I often thing of progressive in terms of effort rather than pacing. Particularly on a hilly route, where terrain can make progressive splits unlikely at best. On a speed workout, this might often just result in even splits, but I find it is helpful to at least give a workout a perceived progressive effort, psychologically.

  • http://gregstrosaker.com Greg Strosaker

    Mark – that is a fair point. I know you recently posted on the difficulty (and, often, counter-productivity) of running a race in negative splits and I commented that I agreed with your points. If I really want to do a progressive run (say a tempo run peaking at 10K pace), then I seek out a relatively flat course to do so. The same is true for intervals, though I generally seek even splits in interval training (and mentally adjust to account for hills).

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