Chasing That Elusive PB
Chasing that elusive PB is something the majority of runners have done, and continue to do. When you first start out, new PB’s can be relatively easy to acquire as you make bigger jumps in progress.
The trouble starts when you plateau. That’s when the real work starts. Your training needs to be increased and/or improved and more importantly, you need to break through the mental barrier that can so easily hold you back.
Breaking through
Breaking through the mental barrier is key to breaking through the pain barrier to push those times down. When it starts to hurt during a race, that little voice in your head is instantly telling you to stop or slow down.
Your mind plays tricks on you. It starts trying to convince you, you aren’t capable of achieving your goal so you might as well give up trying.
Pushing your body through the pain barrier is the easy bit, but only after you’ve convinced your mind that you can do it. That it’s worth the suffering.
If you can silence those voices for long enough to keep going then who knows what’s possible.
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”
It’s putting aside the self doubt and truly believing you are capable of achieving your goals. Imagine how much more you can achieve by believing, by visualising yourself smashing your goals. Self belief and visualisation can be powerful tools.
Making it a reality
Last night I finally achieved the 5k PB Ive been chasing for a long, long time. Hampered by work commitments, marathon training and then injury, I haven’t had a shot at it for well over a year.
I knew I had it in me a year ago, I just didn’t have a chance to prove it. Last night, I finally did.
The conditions were good, my training has been great and I was convinced I could do it. But was I fit enough to maintain the speed I knew I had? Oh, hello self doubt…
I shook those negative thoughts aside and tried to focus on the positives and visualise myself crossing the line in under 19 minutes.
Those moments of self doubt I thought I’d silenced, well they came back with a vengeance during the final lap. It was starting to hurt, a lot. My legs wouldn’t turn over as quickly as they were before. That horrible sick feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you’re really pushing yourself was also rearing its ugly head.
All I could do was keep going, keep pushing myself forward. I tried in vain to up the pace but told myself that I had to leave everything out there on the final sprint to the finish. And that’s exactly what I did.
As soon as I saw the time on the clock was still under 19 minutes, I ran as hard and fast as I could. I just, by the skin of my teeth, snuck in at 18.59.
To be honest, I was starting to doubt whether I could do it. So early in the year and I have broken what I believe to be my toughest distance PB.
I couldn’t have done it without the mental strength and self belief. So next time you’re on the start line and have a PB target in mind, take that leap of faith and believe in your ability to get it done no matter how tough it will be.
What’s next
Next up is the East London half marathon. I was very lucky to win a free entry into the race thanks to Eric Keeler and Run Through Events. It’s held in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park so should be a fun route.
Its only a training run though as the next goal race is Newport half marathon on 3rd March. What the target will be for that race will be decided closer to the time. I am however, hopeful that it could be another half marathon PB but we’ll see.
