Mind Games - Fartlek for the Brain playfullness

I've had a wearing week, it's been non stop and I'm knackered - bet you all know exactly what I mean. All I wanted to do was sit still for a while and rest, maybe sleep. But I knew that I had to go for a run and to try and make it a long one or I would regret it. Punchline - I dragged myself out for 10 miles and I feel so much better. That's all because I now believe me when I tell myself I will enjoy it and the hardest bit is just getting out of that front door.

 

So much about running is not really about your legs - you just put one foot in front of the other as fast or as far as you can.  Simples.  The big challenge about running is your head and what goes on in there.  All this stuff about mental discipline and toughness that the serious althletes talk about (and which sounds so scary to us ordinary folk) is at the heart of running, it's what it's all about. The best runners are the ones who put their heads down and just get on with it

I've never really had to think about mental discipline. I'm one of these folks that is a bit of a butterfly. I tend to follow what interests me with great passion and enthusiam.  Of course like everyone, I have to be disciplined every day from the moment I get out of bed to the moment I fall back in again. But I never thought this was about discipline, you just do it and get on with it. And that is the secret - you just do it.

Running is teaching me all kinds of stuff about what you can do if you really put your mind to it. It's teaching me that if I can take control of what goes on in my head, I can achieve things my aforesaid head thought I couldn't do.  

In running there's a range of techniques you can use to get better and to help you take on challenges that you once thought impossible. My favourite is 'fartlek'. Right, stop sniggering at the back! It's Scandinavian for 'speed play' and it's made for butterfly big kids like me.

Fartlek is really simple, it means that when you're out for your run, you play around with your speed and see what happens. You speed up till you reach the next lampost, or sprint as fast as you can until you get to the end of the beach. You play around with how fast you go in your burst, whether you run up a hill, how long you leave between bursts, whatever you want, you're in control.  It's all about trying things out and seeing what happens and it works.

The magic happens for me because it's playful, experimental and the pressure's off. No shame if you only sprint for a minute, no blame if you stop when it hurts. You can't help but learn a bit about yourself and as you push that little bit harder,  the penny drops that you can do a bit more than you thought you could and you up your game.

I was out very early the other day for a run. A lovely sunny morning on the beach, a perfect morning. The Bass Rock was white against a blue sky; the sand that lovely red colour that goes so well with the sea, the sky and the grass.  But my legs were like lead. My body takes a while to wake up, not for me the #4.44 alarm favoured by the mighty Pyllon!  So I was kind of split between euphoria at the beauty of the day and misery at having to run when I should be in bed. And I'd not had any breaklfast - Mrs Grumpy, bad mental attitude.

As I trundled along, I thought with all this going for me, why didn't I just buck up and get moving. I remembered the advice of my lovely mentor Jill about how acting as if you're confident or happy can make you feel that way. I put a big grin on, I lifted my face to the sun and got my posture good and strong, I lifted my feet and before too long I began to feel good. As I felt better, I got stronger and speeded up and my legs began to enjoy themselves. My head seemed to have caught up too, I was starting to feel good.  I started a bit of mindlek - playing around with my thoughts. Positive thinking made my legs work, negative thinking made them heavy and unwilling. I twigged that my brain and legs worked together and kept each other on the right path - or indeed the wrong one!

I'd always say I was never built for speed, I'm a long distance gal who likes the steady slog and my natural bent is to focus on running longer and longer distances.  But you have to build speed up for distance work and I don't always have time to run for hours, so I played with the speed workouts in Women's Running magazine. Well a few months later, I'm speeding up and my 5k time is getting quite respectable and my 'natural pace' has increased too. I'm beginning to enjoy 5K!

Playing about has made me challenge my own beliefs about what I am capable of and improved my performance in ways I couldn't have imagined.  I have shaved a chunk off my time and got my little legs moving faster than I thought I ever could. I don't run fast? Well I do sometimes!

I shouldn't be surprised, play is how children learn, so that means it works.  So much of being a grown up means that your ability to play gets restricted and labelled as irresponsible, but play is one of the most powerful ways of learning and getting better at what you do. Play opens up your mind and makes you prove yourself wrong.

So, if you're like me and a bit tentative about believing in yourself, try a bit of play and see where it takes you. You have absolutely nothing to lose and a massive amount to gain.

Take care

Sue