5 Mental Tricks To Run Longer - Overcome the Pain Cave

5 Mental Tricks To Help You Run Longer. These tips will help you in overcome the pain cave by increasing your mental toughness, your resilience, and your discipline.

Long distance running such as marathon and ultra marathon requires specific training to increase endurance, but beyond fitness, running is also about having a strong mind. A will to push further, challenge yourself and achieve the impossible. Ultra running is really about normal people doing incredible things!

So today, I wanted to share 5 mental tricks that have helped me run longer, both for marathon and ultra marathon. These mental tricks or mental tips will help you on your long run and on race day, when everything hurts but you still have to keep going.

Now let’s be clear, there's no magical solution, but these mental tricks are tools that you need to practice until they become second nature. Some will work better than others for you, and you'll have to find the right one for the right situation.

As always - Thanks for watching and remember -

Work Hard!
Believe in yourself!
Push your limits!

Simon

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How to Run an Ultra Marathon series:

My Favorite Race by Distance – Have a look at the race recap to be inspired!

[eric-running-to-chamonix]

1) Be prepared. I create and print-out a race plan in Ultrapacer using aid stations and elevation peaks as milestones and research the terrain and elevation of each segment. I train for the same. I practice fueling, including emulating aid station food. Train in bad conditions and nighttime. 2) I remember that I have two brains: one is for self-preservation and a "meta" brain that knows I'm not going to die and has to laugh off the first one 3) When things get hard, I count to 4 in time with each step. 5) Never stop on a steep incline. 6) When weariness sets in, eat and try to pick up the step cadence 7) I remember that the race doesn't start until there is 20% of the course left to go.

[SeeChadRun]

My tip, which you touched on, is to express gratitude. Things don't need to be perfect in order for them to be perfect. Gratitude helps us reframe our perspective and allows us to appreciate what we have, not what we don't have.

[Go_Irish]

Something I've been doing lately when hitting the pain wall is forced laughing. There's some science behind it. When the pain builds up, just force yourself to laugh out loud. Sometimes I'll point at whats hurting (foot, knee, etc.). I promise when you start, you'll probably start laughing for real because it seems so silly. Seems to really help break the negative mental loops.

[ArcaneSpells]

Watching this again before my first marathon tomorrow. Thanks Simon!!

[JonathanHopwood]

You had me with "Who's going to carry the logs, and the boats!"

[DS-vfvj]

This was very helpful! The mental aspect that works best for me is #1-Break It Down! I think the more you break it down it gives you "power", like knowledge is powrer! It is like bashing the wall of intimidation to me when you have an understanding of what is next. Thank you for a great video

[TraceeBeebe]

“Get to the chopper“ is going to be my mantra for my first ever ultra next month! Lol

[dougmetcalf]

One trick is to lie to yourself. Say "I will quit at the next aid station". Then, lie again and don't quit when you finally get there. The relief from thinking you will quit soon sometimes gets you through. It is a dangerous game though!

[srikanth-qxcc]

Short goals-- aid station to aid station--- that's a perfect one. It's so helpful . Thanks in tons.

[mmg]

Congrats on 10k subscribers!!! My wife and I have been enjoying all your videos for the better part of a year. At first we were like who is this guy?? But we totally love your sense of humor and 90s throwback clips. Keep ‘em coming!

[Erickolcin]

Get to the choppa….. ha. Love it. Love your videos. Ran my first 50miler this summer in tough conditions. The mental game was the most important for me
In that run. Looking forward to “starting” next month to train for my first 100miler

[robertclarkson]

I think another good mental trick is to cheer on other runners as they pass you etc. it gets your mind off whatever issue you're dealing with (including monotony) and helps inspire your fellow runners.

[leifpederson]

I was going through this during the out and back 4 mile section of the black canyon 60k two weeks ago (blew up my quads around mile 32). Thankfully I didn’t reach the pain cave until the last part but it’s motivated me to improve strength in my quads and really want to give the black canyon 100k a go next year.

[Kelly_Ben]

Omg, stop, you're painting ultras as roses and sunshine!! 😂😂 Holy crap, that was funny. My non running husband walked by, shaking his head, as you said "sure, I'm bleeding out my ass, but..." 😂😂 This was fantastic, I always wondered what got you through some of your extreme struggle fests. I've always counted on mantras, but sometimes they just don't work. Now I have some other tools! I'm so excited to see you do the 4x4x48! I've been very interested in that... and congratulations on 10k!! I'm thinking at least 25k by the end of the year!

[fjhidalgog]

Excellent video, Simon! Your experience is helping us do things better. Thank you! 👍

[douwe]

Did a 50 mile’er today (first ultra) this help enormously! Thanks man

[iterato]

Good stuff! One thing I've noticed over the years is that visualizing the finish too much during a race actually can be counterproductive and goes against the idea of focusing on the current segment -- be it a mile a time or getting to the next aids. But yeah, can still be helpful, and actually in training thinking about why I want to finish and visualizing the finish helps me get the preparation work in.

[PatrickMartin-lwtu]

Another great video and great advice. Getting from point to point makes things so much more manageable. When I did Silver Rush for my first 50, had a moment of panic at the turn almost getting overwhelmed with 25 more miles to go. Did a reset, reminded myself I already did half, was ahead of my personal schedule, and just went from point to point on the course.

[StixandStonz]

Good stuff! I did one 50K, Hootenanny. My mantra was, "It doesn't always get worse." I finished; come back from both hip replacements and lifestyle changes. I hope I'm a better role model for my two kids. Thanks, new sub.

[dombaker]

Great channel, it deserves to grow. Excellent video - was a bit sulky after running out of shits to give on a 30k training run today so this was perfect antidote. I think this advice + doing planks + learning how to get Garmin off laps will help in future.