Running fatigue is one of the worst feelings a runner can experience while running a marathon. To the untrained mind of a runner, the instant that fatigue sets in, the runner loses all control over their body. The only thoughts circling their heads are “OMG!! I’m soo tired. I can barely keep up my pace…can I even finish this race anymore?”

These kind of thoughts are crippling for your confidence. As soon as you believe that these thoughts are true, you have just surrendered any ability to finish your marathon.

How to Take Fatigue Out of Your Running

photo credit: refractionless

There are many ways to deal with running fatigue and now, I will share with you 7 methods that I have found that worked for me:

1. Eliminate anxiety before running. When I begin a run, my goal initial goal is to run the mileage that I have been assigned based on my running schedule or a pre-determined mileage with the specific pace, heart rate, etc. But, when I finish my run, I want to feel ecstatic and be glad I ran so I can be super-energetic doing the rest of my tasks for the day.
2. Keep Your Body Hydrated. There are far too many runners that only hydrate during the race; this is a HUGE mistake. Your body needs to be hydrated before, during and after your race/training sessions because it will help the constant recovery of your body. To learn more of hydartion, here are two posts on the effects of dehydration and preventing dehydration with electrolytes.
3. Become Comfortable in Your Running Attire. The last thing you want is to be running a marathon and being bugged by that wierd bump in the shoe. Make sure you have on the right shoe, shirt, shorts, etc. for YOU! Everyone has their own preferences as we’re all different. Get comfortable clothing and shoes so that when you’re running, you’re putting all your efforts on finishing the race instead of trying to prevent from getting distracted by the annoying feeling in your shoe.
4. Get Racing Experience Through A Tune Up Race. Running your first marathon can be a little scary but with a tune up race, it makes the marathon much more pleasant. A tune up race is a shorter race that helps “break the ice”, if you will, and allow you to get comfortable with racing. There is a huge difference with your stress levels during your training sessions and on race day. Tune up races will help you get prepared mentally.
5. Becoming Aware. There are two schools of thought on this: either you prefer running being fully aware of your body and its signals while running or you completely zone everything out around you. I believe that being aware of your body and your surroundings is critical to your ability to increase endurance and prevent injuries. You might find this post interesting on meditating as you run: Body Meditation to Ease Stress.
6. Rest Your Way to the Finish Line. I took resting as a joke in the beginning because of my ego. I thought, “Meh, I’ll just keep going.” Needless to say, I got screwed. I became fatigued, naseaus and felt dizzy the week after because the mileage was too much for me to handle without the rest days necessary. Prevent yourself from running everyday, especially at the beginning. You want to run as few days as you can in the beginning to help your body adapt to your mileage. Resting becomes even more critical when you are into your high mileage weeks.
7. Use Running Logs to Prevent Feeling Overwhelmed. Running without the use of a running log is like running a marathon with a blind fold on. As fun as that sounds, you can be in a deep state of stress and faitgue on race day if you haven’t followed your running schedule leading up to the marathon and haven’t analyzed your running behaviour. You can use online or offline running logs. Here is a FREE one to get you started: Running Logs.

Remember, these are the methods that worked for me. Expirement with your body and your mind. Try these methods out during your running sessions and write down what worked and what didn’t. Fatigue is always going to be present.

Learn how to deal with running faituge and leverage it as motivation.

Racing without thoughts of anxiety is an obstacle that suddenly hits runners in the last week before the race. Runners usually face a level of uncertainty and a little self-doubt on their abilities to run a race. There are few reasons for why this happens and I will share some ways of getting rid of anxiety.

photo credit: cguille

WHY ME?!?!

When that wierd, uncomfortable feeling hits, it spirals out of control which can really mess with your head.  The common reasons for these feelings are:

• Self Doubt: When you believe that you aren’t ready to run your marathon or worse, you don’t believe you’re a runner, it can really damage your self image. You honestly have to believe that you are mentally and phsyically prepared to run your race.
• A Bad Run: If a runner has a bad run near the last couple of days before race day, it can hurt you mentally. The fact is that there are going to be some days where you feel like crap! Forget that day even happened and move on; you’re better than that!
• Getting Sick: There are runners who get sick during their training. It’s heart breaking to dedicate yourself to train for so long and all of it fall apart because of a cold. It depends on the severity of your sickness and how quick you recover.  This topic is sensitive because it depends on how badly you have fallen into a cold.

There are more reasons that creates a level of anxiety and I would like to hear what you think in the comments section below.

How Do I Get That Boost!

There are a lot of books, audios and videos to get yourself “out of the dumps” and get your mind focused on the task at hand: running the marathon to the best of your ability. Here are methods to cope with thoughts of anxiety:

• Learn to Meditate: there are a lot of activities that are going on around us everyday that every once in a while, we need a release. To let go of the built up stress, I recommend that you practice yoga. If you have never practiced yoga, you are really missing out because it helps strengthen your muscles while relaxing your body to state that you have never experienced before. If yoga is out of the question, practice deep breathing in a quiet environment and believe me, it helps.
• Run a Tune Up Race:  a tune up race is a shorter race that prepares you mentally to deal with all the hype and energy of a race. Once you run the tune up, you will feel you have a stronger ability to deal with situations where you would usually lose your cool.
• Consult Your Inner Circle: I strongly believe in expressing whatever is troubling you, you need to get it out of your system. I like writing in a journal to get my thoughts out and into the open. A better option that a journal is to talk to people who care and understand what you’re facing; this is priceless. Build a network around you where you can bounce questions off one another, deal with issues each person is facing, etc. What you’ll notice that your inner circle’s abilties as runners will increase dramatically.

If you have heard some of these tips before or think that you already “knew that”, ask yourself: how much of it have I actually put in practice? Have you tried yoga? Have you attempted deep breathing?

I had a belief that deep breathing not something I see myself doing but when I tried it, I have to say that it has helped me in situation where I would have struggled.

What’s Next?

Please, please, PLEASE put this into practice.

If you are still struggling to reduce your anxiety, I would recommend that you pick up a book to get a better understanding how to cope with your anxiety. To be truly transparent, I haven’t read these books but I hear positive feedback for these books through forums and their ratings on Amazon:

• From Panic to Power: Proven Techniques to Calm Your Anxieties, Conquer Your Fears, and Put You in Control of Your Life
• The 10 Best-Ever Anxiety Management Techniques: Understanding How Your Brain Makes You Anxious and What You Can Do to Change It

They couldn’t choose titles that were any longer? ;)

Look Nehal…I’M SCREWED!

If you are seriously having issues, I want you to do one thing: ASK ME!

Please don’t hesitate to talk to me because I’m here to facilitate. You are smarter than you think and I know you have knowledge to solve obstacles that you’re facing. I am here to help you find answers to questions that you already know how to answer. What you can do to get my attention is either leave me comment below OR if it’s private, you can contact me and share what you’re facing.

I Pass The Mic Over to You:

What kind of obstacles are you facing in terms of anxiety or any mental barriers? If you have already faced some obstacles before, how did you deal with them? New runners who are shy to comment will get value out of it! :)

Your training for your marathon is going well. You’re religiously following your plan, you eat nutritional meals throughout the day while keeping yourself hydrated and you even bought those Asics with the cool “gel thingy”; you are ready to go! Or are you…

Training for the marathon is only half the battle. There are a lot of influences race day brings that creates anxiety, nervousness and put pressure on you. Tune up races provide an experience that you just can’t get out of your regular training. A tune up race is used to create the same environment as race day to challenge you mentally as well as physically.

photo credit: miguel77

Pre-race anxiety is a big obstacle that prevents runners to run their best race. There is a level of uncertainty and the unknown prior to the race which creates a level of discomfort. By using a tune up race as practice, you can get a better idea of what kind of routine you need for race preparation to reduce as much of as that anxiety as possible. Learning what helps you during the tune up race will reflect what will help you on race day. Some things that you want to be aware of during the tune up race are how many hours you slept, stress levels, what you ate the night before, etc.

Three Reasons To Run A Tune Up Race

Pete Pfitzinger, exercise physiologist and a senior writer for Running Times, explains three benefits of tune up races. Tune up races:

“1) make you experience the nervous preparation for racing which helps reduce your anxiety before your goal race; 2) toughen you mentally and physically by taking you to your limit; and 3) provide feedback on your current fitness level.”

Tune up races illustrate how well a runner is conditioned based on their current fitness level. This type of race is not used as an “end-all-be-all” in terms of the results from the tune up. Instead, the tune up helps communicate how close you are relative to your own race day goals. For example, if a runner runs a tune up race that she is off her pace/mile by 2 minutes, she can make the proper adjustments such as reassessing her training goals as well as her race day goals to make them more realistic.

When To Do Your Tune Up Race

Pfitzinger recommends that you before you run a tune up race that you build a solid base through the first half of your training. An example:

“If you are devoting 16 weeks to preparing for a goal ½ marathon, for example, you might do an 8 week base training phase, and have your first tune-up race with 8 weeks to go.”

After the first tune up during week 8, running every other week is the best scenario that will keep your training fresh. A tune up race will challenge you mentally so when you arrive at the course with your head held high, the many influences on the course will have no effect to shake your confidence.

With at least two tune ups before your marathon, you will be prepared to brush off the pre-race anxiety and remain focused on your goal.

Don’t Be Mistaken By This Number!

The time you finish the tune up race isn’t going to be as fast as your race day time will. The reason is simply because you are in the midst of your training in the week of the tune up whereas you will be well rested through a taper on race day.

Don’t be discouraged by your tune up race result. The last thing you want to do is look at the race time and start to train harder than your schedule recommends. If you fall into this trap, you will begin to damage your joints and likely be stricken with an overuse injury.

Running in the rain isn’t the most popular time runners want to get out on the road. Most runners prefer running on a warm, beautiful, sunny day rather than a dark depressing one, me included. But, my mindset towards running in this weather changed after I said “You know, screw it! I’m gonna go for the run anyways!”

photo credit: rajeshkunnath

Let me back up a bit. Here in Toronto, there is a Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon going on. Walking around downtown and around the venue, I saw herds of runners nervous, excited and exhilarated for the marathon. For some marathoners, running in the rain can be intimidating because they might have not done it before.

It really is challenging IF (and this is a big if) you make it challenging. There are a lot of excuses we feed ourselves and confuse the mind to make it absolutely ok for you not to run. So instead of continuing to feeding your mind crap, I want to transform your perspective of running in the rain and why this will actually help your running.

Here are 7 reasons you should run in the rain:

1. You train yourself in challenging situations that allow you to overcome challenging periods of your marathon.
2. You will be physically more comfortable in different weather conditions as well as more layers (this is true for the  freezing, cold marathons early in the morning that transform into a beautiful day halfway through your race.
3. The relaxing shower after really feels like no other. At the end of the shower, you feel renewed.
4. It will clean your shoes so you don’t have to :)
5. There is no one else running – while everyone else is feeding themselves a buffet of excuses, you are “trimming down” and training to run your next PR!
6. You will become tougher physically and mentally – EXCUSES BE GONE!
7. If you get cold, there’s only one thing you can do to make yourself warmer: keep running!

There are literally hundreds of reasons why you should and will run in the rain and for every runner, there is a unique answer. Find the reason why you like running. Maybe it’s the beautiful sounds of the water or the feeling of tranquility when you run in a fall trail path.

Whatever it is, use your reason to get the most out of it as a motivator to get you out running in the rain.

To relieve the stress of a tiring day, a form of meditation, body meditation, will help your running in the long run. After a long day of getting the kids ready for school, working you @$$ off at work and coming home to, well…more work, there needs to be an outlet to reduce all the stress. This is why there are so many people who love running. After a long day of activities, they can go for a run to meditate by reflecting on their day.

photo credit: Stephen Poff

You can look back on your day and ask – what were the highlights of the day? victories? losses? regrets? situations to learn from? When you run, you pump more oxygen throughout your body especially the brain. With more oxygen in your brain, the brain performs at its best which is the perfect time for you to clear your mind and get yourself refreshed for tomorrow.

If you have never went out for a run like this, I hope you experience what thousands of runners feel daily to refresh themselves physically, emotionally as well as spiritually. To meditate, you must be aware while running.

Awareness While Running

This is easier said than done. Focus on body sensing (a concept from ChiRunning: A Revolutionary Approach to Effortless, Injury-Free Running) which really means to interpret the signals your body is hinting at as you’re running and making the right adjustments to relieve any stress or pain. Body sensing alone takes discipline and practice. But sensing the signals of your body isn’t the only thing I want you to be aware of to run for meditation.  There are two components that I want you to focus on when running to meditate: internal environment and external environment.

Internal Environment

Being consciously aware of your body alone will begin to make your running feel effortless. Ask yourself: have you ever been aware of where you are running, the feeling of the ground/trail you’re running on, the awareness of your aches and pains in your body and even the taste in your mouth? It might be a weird question but think about it. Even right now, you’re sitting in front of your desktop/laptop reading this but do you feel the sensations in your body? Do you feel the tingling sensation in your feet? Or an ache in your neck?

I have practiced conditioning myself to be aware of these feelings and instantly, I feel as if I have more control in my results in terms of distance, the intensity I run at and how I feel at the end of the run. I am nowhere close to mastering the awareness of my internal environment but I encourage you to do become aware and feel the effect it has on your running in the long-term. On your next run, start running and start focusing on your body: what sensations do you feel in your body?

External Environment

After you are consciously aware of your body and all the sensations, now take it another step to become aware of what’s around you? Have you ever been of aware of what is around you in terms of lights, types of homes, the different people, and the path you’re running on? What do you hear? What other sounds are there in your running environment? What scents do you smell in the air?

When you become more aware of what’s around you, you will find that you become more agile and receptive to any changes or obstacles you face while running. I noticed that I would recover much faster from a misstep or prevent it completely when I’m aware of my environment. Once you are mentally grounded and completely aware of what’s around you, you’ll feel as if running has changed for the better.

Each one of those questions are small components of creating awareness that might not have such a drastic impact alone but when those question are compounded and they work together, they have a noticeable effect that will benefit the quality of your training which will translate into your results on race day.

Questions to Ask Yourself

Next time you go out on your run, learn to be more aware of your internal and external environment. Focus on these five questions at 4-5 minute intervals:

1. What kind of sensations do I feel in my body?
2. What sounds do I hear other than my own running?
3. What do I see around me?
4. What taste do I have in my mouth?
5. What kinds of scents (smell) are there around me?

photo credit: h.koppdelaney

By going through the five senses, you become aware of your internal and external environment and run much more comfortably. Also, for those runners who are experienced with marathons, after becoming more aware of your environments, I’m sure that your training sessions will be much more effective in terms of what you will learn about your running habits, the good and the bad, and what you can do to make the bad habits into positive ones.

PS: Practice meditative running on your next run and come back to tell us what you experienced :)