Mental Training Tips for Endurance Athletes - Overcoming Pain & Distance

Mental Training Tips for Endurance Athletes - Overcoming Pain & Distance

by Kathleen Lisson

The Runners World article 'Raise Your Athletic IQ' provides tips on overcoming common obstacles to completing long, hard training runs. 

The article shares advice from Cindra Kamphoff, Ph.D., a sports psychology consultant and professor at Minnesota State University. Kamphoff discusses the different techniques that recreational and elite runners use to cope with pain, and shares the secrets that top runners use to avoid bailing on long, hard runs. 

I agree with the advice to take it 'one mile at a time' on long runs. I also used this advice while climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. I was certainly suffering by the midway point on summit night. Thinking of the fact that I had four hours until the summit was daunting. Instead, I concentrated on just putting one foot in front of the other until the dawn. Separating that hike into chunks of effort helped me to get all the way to the summit. 

Read the article here: http://www.runnersworld.com/running-tips/raise-your-athletic-iq?cid=socTP_20140823_30278386