Focus

One of the hardest things to do with running is maintain focus.  I think the difficulty derives from most of our busy lives.  I work as a teacher, coach, and I have a wife and son at home.  Finding time to run is difficult, but I am able to do it with the support of the people I care about.  I think the most important part of focus is trying to remind yourself why you are doing what you are doing.  I recently ran my first marathon in Des Moines, IA and finished in just under Boston qualifying.  I remember hitting mile 16 and looking to the guy running with me and saying, "Can't believe we still have 10 miles left."  He replied, "trying not to think about it."  Those miles from 16-22 were rough, I was separated from the pack, very few people were out sheering that far away, so the only way I was able to continue was focus.  I reminded myself that I couldn't give up, I had gone too far, I had worked too hard to give it all up with only 10 miles left.  All the training, all the hours, all the sweat, blisters, pain.  It all came down to this moment.  I continued on and my second half of the marathon was just as fast as the first half.  I surprised myself, all because I controlled what my mind was telling me.
I don't know if there is a set recipe to follow to stay focused.  Some people repeat words in their head of motivation (family members names, quotes, etc.).  I've tried that and to a certain extent it works.  The one thing I do that works for me is train my mind to believe that the pain is good, the exhaustion is good.  Your body and mind will start to believe it if you keep telling yourself it's true.  One method I do, and I don't recommend this to everyone based on ability level, but it keeps my mind and body trained.  When I go out for a run, I always map my run out based on my training schedule.  When I go out for my run I always find ways to extend the run by adding distance on.  If I go out on a 6 mile run, I typically come back doing 8 miles.  This trains my body to always want more, and if I do less I don't feel it was sufficient.  In a sense I am disappointed with myself if I stick to my training schedule strictly or if I do less.  Some days this doesn't work as my body and mind just aren't up for the task, those are the bad days I talked about in a previous post.
I also always go back to my purpose.  Right now I am training for my first ultra marathon of 50 miles.  I think innately many times our minds try to talk us out of running as far, or at all.  Many times we give into what our minds tell us.  Think about it this way: Your mind tells you to run one less mile, and you decide to give in, after all it's one less mile.  Now what if you did that everyday?  That's 30 miles in one month and that could equal a whole week of training that you gave up on because your mind took control.  Train yourself to take control of your mind.  Find purpose in your running, don't give in to your mind.