Running the 800 on pure hate

I think about the guy I love who doesn't return the feeling. Unrequited love gradually turns into a loathing as the race progresses and I've PR'd almost every time.

depends on your psychological profile.some guys run on hate some guys do better running on love.be honest with yourself and discover what you run best on.

Purifier wrote:

I am a junior in highschool. My previous pr in the 8 was 2:06, at the end of the season. Well it's been a year, and of course I'm planning on training hard as hell. Yet, during the race, my strategy is focusing on pure hatred for those around me. My question is, what is the best way to channel this hate effectively?

Just pretend that there is a big throbbing cock at the finish line and only the winner gets to suck it off. You are sure to win every race you enter!!!

What a F***TARD!

You want to get aroused? Think of the race as sex.

Hours of anticipation, joy when it starts, tension building up gradually, then a massive lactic orgasm as you power off the last bend and down the home straight.

Works best for 1500 and 3000 where you actually kick at the end. My 800s resemble my worst sexual failures.

Excellent thread. However the 800m has a way of bringing the Berserker to his knees in the last 200m. Methinks you'll be crying like a school girl after crossing the line having gone out too hard. "Mommy...why does it hurt so bad, Mommy?"

Or just listen to Iron Maiden's "Run to the hills.." before the race and then destroy from the front.

Dude listen to some Lamb of God or Hatebreed before the 800m and have a solid strategy going in. At your explosion point (I like the 500m mark), start thinking of the music as well as beating down the people in front of you.

Drink some coffee beforehand.

Not a fan... A realist. wrote:

Just pretend that there is a big throbbing cock at the finish line and only the winner gets to suck it off. You are sure to win every race you enter!!!

What a F***TARD!

Wanna know how I know you're gay?

Ohia wrote:

Dude listen to some Lamb of God or Hatebreed before the 800m and have a solid strategy going in. At your explosion point (I like the 500m mark), start thinking of the music as well as beating down the people in front of you.

Drink some coffee beforehand.

hahahahah funny that you bring up hatebreed.

I used to be a big hardcore fan and a fan of theirs back in the day.

A lyric of theirs still really stands out in my mind whenever i start to hurt or question myself in a race or workout.

it actually helps and is the only thing to have ever mentally pushed me beyond what I thought I could do.

"there's no fear in my heart...no cause worthy of my respect.."

the second half is not really applicable in a race but the first part of that....OHH MAN. it doesn't sound all that great in text but listen to the song "Prepare for War" and you'll understand.

Nothing like a hardcore breakdown to get me going. And I don't mean the mainstream slipknot ish.

Have no fear in your heart, go for it, bonk or succeed, you tried and gave it your all..

Son, the wistful remembrances of some hardcore song do not push you to greater feats when you go anaerobic and your legs are lead and your lungs are burning. That comes from somewhere deep within. Most probably one's balls... which is problematic for letsrunners since 99.9% of them are still waiting for their balls to drop.

This is still my favorite thread title of all time. Just the idea of anyone running an 800 "on pure hate" is so funny to me--so if anyone ever does muster up enough hatred to run an all out 800, please get it on video. I would very much like to see it.

OP has been watching waaaaaaaaaaaay too much Dragonball Z.

such a great thread

nicely wrote:

Fake or recalled anger and hatred doesn't work reliably in my experience. True rage works well for races under a mile, but it has to be something infuriating that happened recently before the start of the race. Restricted to things that you can control, I'd say good-ol' cheesy positive thinking and reinforcement both before and during the race works better than trying to make yourself angry. Doesn't sound as badass, but it works better.

This is true. After I ran a pretty easy mile at the start of the season (something bad like a 4:49) this one guy on my team talked crap on me and said I shouldn't be in the 800 because I wasn't fast enough. He said that he would win because everyone else was all tired from the mile, and because he was fresh. So it turns out during the race I stayed in last the whole time, just staring down his back with hatred. With 400 to go, I pick it up, pass 1 guy. Last 200, eyes still on him, pass another guy. First place is way too far ahead for either of us; last 100 comes and I kick his ass down and outlean him for the finish. Turns out my anger/hatred was so great that I pr'd by like 8 seconds, a time that took me 2 months to beat at my finals.

You should do everything, and I mean absolutely EVERYTHING, off of pure hate.

can anyone teach me how to do this?

Purifier wrote:

I am a junior in highschool. My previous pr in the 8 was 2:06, at the end of the season. Well it's been a year, and of course I'm planning on training hard as hell. Yet, during the race, my strategy is focusing on pure hatred for those around me. My question is, what is the best way to channel this hate effectively?

I think this method can work very well. I used it in college. Seriously, grandiose beliefs about yourself, also known as arrogance, can work well too. I remember winning a couple of indoor 800m races in college on hatred for my opponents. Of course I was projecting onto them, but I didn't know nor care at the time. One of the women runners told me that my face looked vicious like the devil during one of those races. I had envisioned myself as a bulldog, but the devil works.

During outdoor that year, I ran with outright arrogance. At the starting line, in my best race (1:53.9) I looked down my nose at the other athletes and would have had to restrain myself from spitting on them had one of them walked past me when I was on the starting line (staggered start). My teammate commented after the race that he noticed I had this huge smile when coming around the first bend and he had never seen anyone smile like that before in a race, especially an 800m. What he saw was a smug smile. I was saying to myself, "Look at these idiots taking off ahead of me. They don't know how to pace themselves. I'm running the perfect pace and I'll pass them on the second lap." I even splitted and all but one of them faded away. It was fun to dominate all of those runners and prove that my belief that they were inferior to me was true.

That said, I have conquered my narcissism since then and I do not use hatred or an inflated sense of self as a race tactic or as a tactic in life in general anymore. Now I get passed at the end of a 5k and even though I know I have great kicking ability I can't even get myself to undergo the pain of kicking from 400m out. Without grandiosity, it is tough to compete. PATHOLOGY LEADS TO SUCCESS IN THINGS THAT REALLY DON'T MATTER IN THE BIG SCHEME OF THINGS SUCH AS SPORT.

This thread needs to be resurrected. PURE HATE

This should be Galen's strategy for the OG. It's the only way he can beat Tariku. Of course, TB will have all sorts of rage at being the slightly slower younger brother...