Running: how to win the mental game

I discovered for myself what most experienced runner already knew; ninety per cent of running is - to paraphrase Yogi Berra - 75 per cent mental. What prevented me from being a runner in the first place was that I couldn't imagine myself as a runner. And if you can't imagine it you can't do it. Once I imagined myself running, I was already on my way to becoming a runner.

What prevented me from running a 10k or marathon or any other distance was that I couldn't imagine myself doing it. It wasn't my body that was keeping me from achieving my dreams; it was my imagination.

Even as the changes in my body were becoming more obvious, even after the weight had started to come off and I was running on a regular basis, I was still imagining myself as I used to be, not as I was.

We have training programmes to take our bodies slowly and surely to greater distances and faster paces. We have guidelines on how much to run, how far, how fast and how often. But sometimes our bodies will get weeks and months ahead of our imaginations.

If you are running, you are a runner. If you are running, you have a right to imagine yourself running the way you want. If you are running, you have the privilege of thinking like a runner.

When I was a musician, I encountered the world as a musician. I saw, heard and experienced the world as a musician. I heard the melodies of life. I heard the harmony and discord around me. I heard the world as a symphony in which I was playing my small part.

Now I encounter the world as an athlete and a runner. I see and experience the world as a series of struggles and recovery. I take my running and apply it to my life. I know that there are good days and bad days. I know that there are days when easy is hard and hard is easy. I think like a runner even when I'm not running. I have a runner's mind no matter what I'm doing.

I see effort, any effort, as a necessary element of growth. I see that I need a pattern of stress and recovery in order to get stronger. I experience my body as a tool to help me achieve my goals, not simply as a vessel in which I have to live my life.

I have become the shoe. I am travelling the road without thought and without concern. I am moving forwards one step at a time. The last step is behind me; I can't change it. The next step is yet to come; I am not there yet.

Jenny's journey through 10 days in the jungles of Borneo and Fiji in the Eco-Challenge expedition races had an incredible effect on her mental game. In her first attempt, she stood at the starting line like a deer in the headlights with competitors from all over the world, thinking, 'Okay, only 10 days to go.' Very quickly she realised that wasn?t a good mental plan and began to break down the distance to smaller, more digestible pieces. Days turned into minutes and checkpoints. She mentally took herself through the race from checkpoint to checkpoint rather than trying to digest the whole race at once. Suddenly, she was racing and feeling positive about the smaller goals she reached, which allowed her and her team to ultimately finish the race.

'How can I do this? How is my body going to run a 5k race if I can't even get down my street?' These are real questions that can float around in our heads. Most people think them - and if they don't, they are worried about something else.

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