Fab Fun Feb

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

[serious thought mode engaged]

I'm really interested to hear about cognitive fatigue playing a part in performance when running...

My personal experience tells me that I find it very hard to keep up a running routine when I am mentally overtaxed, despite knowing I'd benefit from the physical exertion. 

This is a topic fairly frequently discussed in these fora, and a problem many of us recognise all too well... Running: when we most need it, it is often also the time that we least feel like doing it. This is the conundrum I and others have utterly failed to solve. It's also the subject of my most recent book (still available from Amazon of course, with all proceeds going to JDRF)* and will also play a significant role in my forthcoming tome (Volume 2 of The Diaries), which is now a little over half complete.

I've been through the wringer with my work over the last two years, and the two forms of therapy required to tackle this have been mindfulness, that modern panacea for many 21st century aspects of mental anguish, and running, which if anything has been touted by the medicos as even more beneficial than mindfulness and definitely better than medication. And yet, despite the fact that I fully recognise the truth of it, I found it extremely difficult during the dark times to lace up my shoes and knock off a few kilometres, and I am at a total loss to explain why. That was absolutely a 100% mental problem. Physically I was in more than fine enough form to pound out a few gentle kilometres, yet there were lengthy periods where I could not drag my sorry arse out the door for even the shortest of jogs. And I wasn't even seriously depressed (although my psychologist wanted to argue the case): I was still functioning OK; going to work, eating (yes, and drinking), talking with my family and so on, but sleep was the big problem, with work preventing it, and when I did sleep, I would dream about work which would wake me again and compound the problem.

The relevant point here is that much of that anguish could have been avoided, or at least improved significantly if I had run more often. When I did run it was difficult, which was purely a mental problem as we've been discussing, but the answer is, of course, to not give up, but to continue. Although I doubt this is unique to me, I have another particular problem with my mindset, in that just one bad run tends to destroy my confidence and motivation, which if I am not careful has me postponing my next run, and then I'm on that tricky downhill slope where the problem snowballs into a major cessation of running altogether. And I can never remember quite why, which only makes it all the more depressing thus furthering the depth of the funk I find myself in .

And that is why the next volume of my running diaries will be titled The Desperate Years, because if I don't find an answer to this conundrum, my running days are numbered, and just at that stage of life when I need them most.

I guess this is why we talk about discipline and focus so much because all too often that is the only thing that keeps us going. When we can't articulate or even remember well enough why it is that we run, at least discipline will get us through. And then you hit that magical moment when, out of the blue, in the middle of a run somewhere, you suddenly get it. It's just a feeling, perhaps, but it's a transcendental one. It's hard to explain, and even harder still to remember when you're all tired and a bit down later on, but it's life-changing, life-saving, and, of course, bloody well worth the effort.

I don't think I'm overstating things here. Running, as we keep saying, definitely is the answer. You just have to experience it to understand why. But keep at it, or you'll forget!

*Sorry for the plug, but it is for a good cause.