Four Marathon Mental Reframes

How to train your mind along with your aerobic engine

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The first rule of marathon training is that marathons don’t train for themselves. In order to complete a successful training cycle, runners need to embrace the daily grind. Day after day and week after week, those runs accumulate more than miles. They represent hard work, effort, and sacrifice. 

Making a commitment to show up every day is at least half the battle, but not nearly all the fight. Your mere physical presence isn’t enough to reach your potential. For that, you need to be mentally engaged as well. When you run with an open mind, you give yourself an opportunity to explore your boundaries and test your limits. That’s where growth happens. 

Of course, manifesting an open mindset can become difficult when training runs get repetitive and rote. Throughout the marathon process, injuries, illness, and bad weather can do a number on your psyche. There’s no end to the amount of mental minefields one has to navigate to see a training program through to the end. Beyond the paywall are a few ways to think about reframing some common mental roadblocks.