Overthinking a Race

Posted by on Oct 12, 2012 in Motivation, Running | 2 Comments

Wow, this semester is flying by! Since I am a “long term professional student” (only 4.5 years left!) I still tend to organize my life into semesters. Anyways, this semester I have been training and rehabilitating my ankle to get ready for my next race, the Turkeys and Taturs 50km . I am actually pretty nervous about this race because it will be the longest distance I have gone, especially on trails.

With that being said, I am over thinking just about every little detail. Am I training too much, too little, too hard, not hard enough? Blah, blah, blah. It goes on and on. But all of sudden when I was running the OSU Cross Country Course today, it hit me…STOP DOING THAT. Maybe you are looking for a little bit more philosophical answer, but it all boils down to that.

Sometimes the distance we travel or the speed we aim for seem too great at times. But for a lot of us, this is just the beginning. We have many more races to run. So, if something doesn’t go exactly perfect for me at the Turkeys and Taturs, I will learn and adapt for my next race. ICEdot runner Ashleigh posted a blog about running mantras, she mentioned her’s is “There will come a day when you can no longer do this. Today is not that day.” I have stolen this mantra and have been using it when I start to over analyze my training. I instead focus on completing the runs as planned and having a blast while I am at it.

What do you do to stop over analyzing and just enjoy your training?

P.S. I know I have already posted this song, but I feel that it is appropriate to post again as we have a lot of races coming up in Oklahoma this fall!

Young the Giant



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2 Comments

  1. Chris Hayes
    October 12, 2012

    I don’t believe you can Over-Analyze an upcoming event or training for an event. But you can definitely Under-Analyze and not be prepared. Which I’m sure all of have at one point or another. But, it helps to set lower goals (I believe someone wrote about this in a previous post). If you set your goals too high for an event or distance you’ve never done, not meeting the goals you set could destroy your self confidence. Just remember that it is for fun, and it’s a stepping stone the next time you climb that same hill.

    Good Luck.

    Reply
  2. Ashleigh
    October 14, 2012

    It is a good mantra isn’t it?! I’m doing that race too. However I am just doing the 10k…you’ll do great!

    Reply

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