12.5 easy ways to screw up a marathon

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12.5 easy ways to screw up a marathon

It is exactly one week since I ran the Illinois Marathon in my slowest ever (uninjured) time. Age grading the result in the Yale Run Age calculator (aka The Runner’s Time Machine) confirmed that I performed as my 75 year-old self. In short it was a ‘stinker’.

Recalling the interview with the eminent sports psychologist, Dr. Jim Afremow, a winning mindset looks at a defeat as a learning opportunity. Dr. Jim advocates “Win or Learn” rather than the more typical Win-Lose mentality.

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Improve focus and motivation

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Improve focus and motivation

Our guest expert this week is Dr. Jason Selk; considered to be one of the premier performance coaches in the United States. He helps numerous well-known professional and Olympic athletes, as well as Fortune 500 executives and organizations develop the mental toughness necessary for high-level success.

Dr. Selk’s book 10-Minute Toughness explains how to be mentally prepared for competition. Targeting tools for mental toughness, it is designed to help athletes identify what it takes to be successful and to improve focus, concentration, confidence, and motivation requiring just 10 minutes of practice per day.

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Two hours: The quest to run the impossible marathon

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Two hours: The quest to run the impossible marathon

Two hours to cover twenty-six miles and 385 yards. It is running’s Everest, a feat once seen as impossible for the human body. But now we can glimpse the mountaintop. The sub-two hour marathon will require an exceptional combination of speed, mental strength, and endurance. In this episode, award winning journalist, Ed Caesar is sharing a section of his fascinating book: Two Hours – The Quest to Run the Impossible Marathon. 

Ed traces the history of the marathon as well as the science, physiology, and psychology involved in running so fast for so long. And he shows us why this most democratic of races retains its brutal, enthralling appeal—and why we are drawn to test ourselves to the limit.

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I think, therefore I am a runner

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I think, therefore I am a runner

As a runner, your biggest asset (or sometimes your greatest enemy) is your brain. What you think and feel on and off the road also has a huge influence over how you perform once you lace up. In his latest book (The Runner’s Brain)…Dr. Jeff Brown - the psychologist for the Boston Marathon medical team and member of Runner’s World magazine’s scientific advisory board, outlines how you can literally rewire your mind for a lifetime of athletic success.

Full of fascinating insights from runners of all abilities-including champion marathoner Meb Keflezighi and other greats….the book includes key information that's been proven to work both in the lab and on the road. We are therefore delighted that Dr. Brown, Liz Neporent, Rodale Books and Runner’s World have agreed to share an excerpt.

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Matt Fitzgerald: How bad do you want it?

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Matt Fitzgerald: How bad do you want it?

In his fascinating new book How Bad Do You Want It?, coach Matt Fitzgerald examines more than a dozen pivotal races to discover the surprising ways elite athletes strengthen their mental toughness. Each chapter of How Bad Do You Want It? explores the how and why of an elite athlete’s transformative moment, revealing powerful new psychobiological principles you can practice to flex your own mental fitness.

Matt and his publisher Velopress, have kindly given us permission to republish a section of the book focused on mental preparation for races.

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