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Tim Hutchings, who is in a far better position than I to comment, wrote an article in Athletics Weekly last week in which he lamented the fact that many of today’s better runners are under-raced compared with the runners in the ‘80s. I think this is partly down to a fear of being found out. A lot of people tend to only race when they’re in really good form now, rather than using races as a way of finding form. Charlie Spedding writes about not being scared to race in his book ‘From Last to First’, much of which is concerned with the mental approach to running. Rather than attempting to avoid racing people who are better than you, or being scared to compete, he advocates seeing racing better runners as an opportunity rather than something to be feared.

The ‘focus’ Charlie refers to requires a bit more time. It means deciding what you want to do and then getting on with it. It means deciding to run twice a day, and accepting that running will become the punctuation to your day, the two bookends between which everything else fits.

This is an exercise anyone can do (you don’t have to be in a pub, but it helps). It makes you accountable to yourself, and it gives you something to refer back to. And it’s pretty simple. Get yourself a pad of paper and write “What do I want?”, “Why do I want it?” and “How much do I want it?” If you don’t know the answers to those questions, Charlie reckons, you’re unlikely to get the most out of yourself competitively. I’ve done my own version for this summer, but it’s not going on here. It’s one thing being accountable to yourself and quite another to make yourself accountable to eightlane message board posters! Having target races doesn’t mean that you don’t run other races, or that you don’t run the other races hard, but that you aim to really put pressure on yourself in the races where you want to get results.

As one of the Costorphine AC runners put it, ‘I don’t want to hear of any example of anyone being able to remember their own name within ten minutes of finishing a leg!’

This is kinda what bothers me about it

Bodyweight(AM): 82.1kg (23 dec)
Diet compliance: 0/0 days
Daily Squat: 36/36 days
Daily Run: 36/36 days
Basketball skill work: 

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Morning:

 TM Run 6km, 36:15  

Noon:

BS 3x135, 2x137.5, 1x140, Belt BS 7x130
Back Xtn 16x(40kg, bands) 

Evening:

Run 5.5km, 32:15, 05:48 pace (PR; distance) 

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Notes:
Sadly that's two squat workouts ruined by  'couples who train together'. They end up RIGHT next to me and i just feel self conscious cos i dont want to demasculate the invariably weak little dude who is with his woman and you're just trying to hit a PR and need to be mentally dialled in and aggressive.

I have no problem being aggressive if the dude is training alone, or if it's two women, or a strong dude and a woman, but something about the combination of a weak guy trainer with his gf just kills my mood. I feel like if i act aggressive i'll be making him look bad infront of his woman so i just lose the mental battle out of politeness. Sucks cos before they showed up the gym was practically empty, as soon as i get to my last warmup before the first workset, (both days) the couples show up and then i gotta watch the weak guy balance plates around me in my peripheral because he's not respecful enough to wait for the guy lifting heavy to finish his set.

Might say something next time, like you girls are killing it.

Quote from: maxent on December 22, 2018, 08:14:01 pm

Bodyweight(AM): 82.1kg (23 dec)
Diet compliance: 0/0 days
Daily Squat: 36/36 days
Daily Run: 36/36 days
Basketball skill work: 

---

Morning:

 TM Run 6km, 36:15  

Noon:

BS 3x135, 2x137.5, 1x140, Belt BS 7x130
Back Xtn 16x(40kg, bands) 

Evening:

---

Notes:
Sadly that's two squat workouts ruined by  'couples who train together'. They end up RIGHT next to me and i just feel self conscious cos i dont want to demasculate the invariably weak little dude who is with his woman and you're just trying to hit a PR and need to be mentally dialled in and aggressive. I have no problem being aggressive if the dude is training alone, or if it's two women, or a strong dude and a woman, but something about the combination of a weak guy trainer with his gf just kills my mood. I feel like if i act aggressive i'll be making him look bad infront of his woman so i just lose the mental battle out of politeness. Sucks cos before they showed up the gym was practically empty, as soon as i get to my last warmup before the first workset, (both days) the couples show up and then i gotta watch the weak guy balance plates around me in my peripheral because he's not respecful enough to wait for the guy lifting heavy to finish his set. Might say something next time, like you girls are killing it.

Change your attitude brother! Instead of feeling sorry for someone for being weak and not wanting to 'show them up', you should lift even bigger to inspire and motivate them.