What went right
Mindset is the hardest aspect to train for in running. It’s the focus of most of my posts here. I constantly have to remind myself why I do it. Why do I get out there, explore new trails, participate in new races, and keep showing up? This was my mindset going into the Philadelphia Trail Marathon.
Except from the book “Do hard things”:
Lower the bar. Raise the floor. When trying to improve, most of us go for the lift-the-ceiling approach, judging ourselves by our best performance ever. In track, we would define ourselves by our personal best for an event. To get better meant running faster than we ever had before. Brian Barraza, a professional runner, sees performance in a different light. “My goal is to raise the floor. Being confident that whenever I step out on the track, I’m going to be able to run a certain time.” Instead of going all in for the massive breakthrough, Barraza sets a minimum expectation. “When you raise the floor, it allows for those days when everything is clicking to exceed expectations. It’s not that we are lowering our ceiling or playing it safe; it’s that we’ve developed the confidence to know that X performance is repeatable. That as long as we do what’s in our control, we can achieve a certain standard, no matter the circumstances,” Barraza told me one day after practice. As I watched this idea percolate through the athletes, I came to notice a trend. Those who raised their floors had an inner confidence about them. What once seemed crazy to contemplate was now the norm. Brian Zuleger, a sports psychologist out of Adams State University, taught me an exercise to reframe expectations. Instead of aiming for our best performance, something that we can only accomplish rarely, shoot for improving your best average. When we judge ourselves against our all-time best, we inevitably fall short more often than not. Instead, averaging out our five most recent performances gives us a still tricky but achievable goal. The aim is first to be consistent. Don’t lower your expectations just so you can become confident. Understand what you are capable of, and set a standard that falls within that realm or just a touch outside of it. Embrace reality. Understand that a breakthrough doesn’t come from creating a false sense of confidence; by developing the belief that you can achieve a certain standard, you free yourself up to take risks when the opportunity presents itself.
I would not try for my BEST performance, but one in the top 10-20% of what I was capable. I realized that running a PR can’t happen every single time, but that’s what our minds want. I had a 3:53 and a 4:13 in previous years. Goal was 4:03, but I felt that my training, weather, and nutrition warranted a sub 4 performance. That’s what I had set as my target, but would have been happy with a 4:05. Note, the big change this year was I haven’t had any alcohol, but that’s a post for another day.
Clothing
I tested shorts with large pockets that can hold poles! They allowed me to skip all but 1 aid station. They held my phone, 8 SIS gels and 8 mint Oreos. The downfall is no support for men, so I wore a compression under them.
Nutrition
Constant fueling and WAAAY more carbs than in training. When intensity goes up, so does nutrition. I was hitting around 60-70 carbs per hour and that seemed to be a sweet spot with the cold weather. If it was hot, it could have been higher. I carried no water and didn’t take any on the course. I used only isotonic gels and only 1 cup of soda near the end. DISCLAIMER: This was tested in a half marathon a few weeks before so I knew this would work. Please don’t go and run a marathon with NO hydration except a 1 cup of soda.
MORE gels and More cookies next time! I could have had more Oreos and SIS gels per hour. They went down easy. I had zero GI distress. Will that same thing happen if I ate them for 24 hours? No idea, but for 4 hours they worked well. My test for the upper limit for fuel consumption has still not been hit.
Shout out to Alex Takacs and John Berry, they cheered me on at the start, and its amazing how much a small act like that can make a difference in your performance and mental state.
What went wrong?
I took the first half too fast, but it was a risk I knew I was taking. I was eating WAY more than I normally do in a race and I intentionally pushed intensity. While I would say this worked to a point, I would have run an even faster time had I ran a negative split. If you negative split then you tend to run your fastest time capable that day. At least that’s what I have found with my training in the past.
Pacing – The race kicked off, and I went out too hard. I met Bill Durante, no relation, when my running group, the EYB runners, decided to meet up with Bud Wilson and his crew. He was going HARD off the start and we went back and forth all race. Bill was having a tough run, he said he didn’t have any contacts left, and resorted to wearing glasses in the race that kept fogging. The dude fell 5 or more times, but he still kept pushing the pace. That in turn triggered me to push the pace, I do know better and still ran my own race, but it was a plus to run with him.
What would I do differently:
More food, slower first lap, and letting my ankle heal properly after I had injured it. I was so concerned about missing training that I kept running on an injured ankle. I did a lot to rehab, but didn’t give it enough time to heal. There wasn’t that much I would change with this event.
There was a shift in mindset about anyone who passed me. I just finished the book “Let them” by Mel Robbins, and I will say that I kept repeating that to myself. Let them pass you, and LET ME focus on my feet, fuel, and breathing. I can’t control others in a race, and 99% of pain in life is caused trying to control what we can’t.
When we lack control, our stress spikes. When we have sense that we can impact the situation, our cortisol response is dampened. Control doesn’t alter just our hormonal response but also the experience that accompanies the stress response.
I can’t control who shows up on race day, how much they train, and how much of a natural athlete they are. I can control my thoughts, barely, but most of the time as I have written about automatic negative thoughts. I can keep repeating to myself core principles when I race, that the current moment may feel tough, but it will pass. Races are a huge reminder of that topic. When you are surrounded by hundreds of people with the same goal, but wildly different backgrounds and how they got there. No single person comes to trail running with the same goals, or training. Each one of them is trying to run “the best they ever could”, but how ridiculously is that? Stop thinking you will run your best, and try for something that’s more attainable. Raise the floor, shoot for a performance in the top 20 or even 30%. Have a hard look at your training and see if it matches your expectations. Did you put int he work to warrant the performance you expect? That’s where most people shoot themselves in the foot, unmatched expectations.
Each race this year will be a different mindset that won’t put as much stress on this idea to perform “better than I ever”. That’s an idea that no longer serves me. I hit my 44th birthday tomorrow. I am getting older, and not to say that my best days are behind me, I know that I need more compassion for myself and my expectations. That’s a question I would put out to anyone who ran this race. Did you goals align with the performance you achieved, or were they mismatched? If so, you might have been fighting an uphill battle the entire race. Thanks for reading!
Patrick is an ultrarunner and coach from Philadelphia who loves documenting his running career. His mission is to provide useful tips and tricks to assist others along their ultra journey. You can find his coaching services at https://ultraruncoach.com.
