There are many excellent books about pushing personal boundaries, visualizing goals, and overcoming perceived limits. These ideas are valuable to explore and can serve as helpful mental tools for keeping motivation strong and managing negative self-talk.
Reaching your full potential in the marathon is not always about imagination but rather about the lack of practice, familiarity, or understanding of running very fast over short distances, such as 100 to 800 meters. Amateur marathoners rarely focus on this area, though elite athletes often do, and it can be the key to unlocking more power and improving turnover.
Even if a runner’s body is well-prepared in terms of tissue balance, range of motion, and explosive strength, an all-out 800-meter effort still feels uncomfortable for most marathoners. The mechanics are unusual, and the type of exertion is very different from the gradual fatigue of long-distance running. Many runners can begin an 800-meter interval at a strong pace, but the final 200 meters often challenge their ability to stay focused and composed. This final stretch, however, plays an important role in conditioning the body, making marathon pace feel easier and more sustainable.
One way to train the body and mind to handle this acute fatigue is through controlled strength work like push-ups. Start by working to about 90% fatigue twice a week for one or two weeks, then push to 100% fatigue, where each rep slows down significantly and the last rep becomes impossible to complete despite several seconds of effort.
Learning to stay calm and focused while pushing the muscles to complete exhaustion is not something that should be practiced frequently. Done every two to three weeks during a period outside of marathon training, however, it can make a significant difference.
By the time the next marathon build-up begins, the runner may feel stronger, sharper, and more capable of stepping up to a faster pace group.
