Why the Mental Preparation is as Key as the Physical Preparation for a Marathon

When it comes to endurance sports, the human psyche comes into play quite a lot. It is one way to guide the goal. The same concept applies to those who might be running a marathon. Most people who have run a marathon in the past would agree with this. Important roles, in addition to preparing physically, include mental hardiness as well as mental preparation. The question often arises, how do runners prepare for a marathon? This brings about a very interesting fact. You can prepare physically and this is a great way for you to go about achieving your goal. With that in mind though, you also need to prepare mentally. Mental fatigue happens much faster than physical fatigue.

This is an indicator that mental preparation is not good enough, or that the motivation itself is simply not high enough. When preparing for a marathon, or any other run for that matter, it is so important that you pay attention to mental training and that you also give some thought to the goal-setting process. You also need to put in the physical work.

This is key and it will help you to further your goals while also helping you to cross the finish line. At the end of the day, you can hear a lot about the training process but not many people know how important it is to prepare mentally as well. There are a lot of different psychological techniques that come into play and this is especially the case for your mental strength. This plays a useful part in training for a marathon. Mental preparation has to be incorporated into the process.

Controlling your Inner State

With the mental preparation process, you need to try and control your inner state. You also need to try and improve your tiredness and your uneasiness. Removing the feeling of pain from a mental standpoint will help you to have a longer running experience and this is especially the case when it comes to eliminating fear of failure.

When you accompany this with high anxiety before the competition in general, you will soon find that it is easy to increase your confidence while controlling negative, mental thoughts. If you want to run the best marathon possible then one thing you need to do is try and make sure you have the right kind of support.

If you are on the other side of the coin and part of an organising body for a mass participation sports event, to deliver an event, the best solution is to get in touch with a company such as We Are Massive. This company has a full event team, full of energetic, young staff who have worked with many leading brands such as from Nike to Adidas to cite just two of the most high profile. Make sure you click here to find out more about how their expertise could make your sporting event run smoothly for all stakeholders.

Controlling your Tension

It’s so important for you to know how to rest and to relax during the training process. A lot of people find that running a marathon is physically exhausting and that they forget how important it is to passively rest. As a runner, you can help yourself here. You can practice different relaxation techniques that range from autogenic training and even muscle relaxation. You can also practice different breathing exercises and hypnosis. By doing this, you can then make sure that you have a solid basis that will aid you with your mental training.

Controlling Thoughts

Secondly, you need to try and control any negative thoughts you may have. The mind is very perceptive when under stress and when youtube a marathon, this will put you under a great deal of it. You have to learn how to stop your negative train of thoughts and you also need to transform them into more positive ones. The dissociation technique can help you out a lot here, especially in critical moments. It can redirect your focus and it can also help you to break off and return to your original focus. This allows you to get through things easier and it also makes things feel less intense overall, which sometimes can be a major help when you are under a great deal of stress.

Why not take a positive step forward today to see if it’s possible for you to help yourself with your next marathon?