Thinking about thinking

"Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired in the morning, noon, and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired."
- George S. Patton, U.S. Army General, 1912 Olympian

I came across this quote as I was doing some research on run training and it got me thinking about thinking. Endurance athletes are faced with many lonely hours on the bike, on the road or in the pool, and many times it’s hard to keep focused each second of every training session. I began to look at some of my long sessions, whether it be on the bike or during the run. Often times during a long run, I will find myself drifting off mentally, thinking about things that have happened in the past or random things that I have to do in the future. I am quite guilty of running mindlessly at times, almost becoming robotic. When I begin to lose focus during training, I find my mind playing tricks on me and I think that the quote above really does hold truth. As your mind wonders during your training sessions and you lose focus on the task at hand, it becomes easier to be reminded of how tired you are. When you focus your thoughts on your training, such as your running cadence or having a forward lean and good form, you don’t allow your mind to tell the body it is tired. When you get miles into a long training session, keep your focus, let the body run things and don’t let the voices in your force you to slow down. All for now, stay focused!!


SJI