{"id":7580,"date":"2018-04-08T06:56:16","date_gmt":"2018-04-08T05:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/healthylivinglondon.com\/?p=7580"},"modified":"2018-04-23T14:31:47","modified_gmt":"2018-04-23T13:31:47","slug":"mental-resilience-tips-for-endurance-races","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healthylivinglondon.com\/fitness-in-london\/mental-resilience-tips-for-endurance-races\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental Resilience tips for endurance races"},"content":{"rendered":"

The voices in your head are your worst enemy and your saviour, especially when it comes to long-distance, endurance races. Whilst fitness will get you part of the way, what will give you the strength to continue even whilst everything is hurting, is that mental strength. It’s your determination, your grit, your focus and it’s what makes the difference between getting to the end of a race and giving up.<\/h4>\n

With marathons, obstacle course races, triathlons and Iron Man becoming more popular, more and more people are pushing their body and mind to their limits. But what is the trick to getting through a particularly tough race? Especially when it’s something you’ve not done before? Take some tips from the experts!<\/p>\n

I spoke with several friends who are crazy enough to take on such endurance races (I call them crazy because once can be considered a mistake, rather like the time I ran the marathon, but to do it twice is definitely asking for punishment!) to find out how they spurred themselves on through the tough times. They all agree that building your fitness before your event is essential but your mental strength and attitude is what will drive you forward.<\/p>\n

Here’s their mental resilience tips for endurance races<\/p>\n

Rachel Austen<\/span><\/h4>\n

Rachel is the founder of Austen Advisory<\/a>, specialising in people assessment and leadership development. She is an expert in spotting signs of employee burnout and recently developed AURA<\/a>, a resilience assessment to help individuals and organisations understand whether they are under unhealthy levels of stress and point to practical actions to address the risk areas. \u00a0She divides her time between HK and UK and enjoys yoga and has completed several long distance trail races, most recently the 9 Dragons<\/a>, a 50km ultra marathon over 9 of Hong Kong\u2019s steepest mountains (total elevation was 4000m, more than twice the height of Ben Nevis) which she completed in 10 hours 23 minutes and came 6th in her category (despite getting lost and running an extra 5km!)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Rachel on her way to coming 2nd in the Nepal 100km Ultra Marathon<\/p><\/div>\n

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Rachel taking part in the Nepal 100km ultra marathon.<\/p><\/div>\n