How to coach mental toughness and encourage someone to dig more?

Tougher intervals, either faster or shorter rest. Once he sees that he can do it and not die, his confidence will grow. Confidence is a lot in this sport.

If they are willing to hit intervals at exactly the pace you specify, then try giving then a too aggressive workout, where they are almost sure to die by the end. Maybe 3x800 @mile w/2:00

Or, if the person has never sprinted before, give them a sprinter workout so that they can feel what it is like to run all out. Like 200-180-160-140-120-100 @fast.

55YO wrote:

Tougher intervals, either faster or shorter rest. Once he sees that he can do it and not die, his confidence will grow. Confidence is a lot in this sport.

There are good suggestions above. thanks.

I started giving tougher intervals. He's so disciplined at following everything set to the letter in workouts. I set him a time trial yesterday and a time goal I knew would actually be within his grasp so set him up with the confidence to do well in his target race in 2 weeks time but he ran slower than what I suggested and that was already a conservative target.

Interesting thread. I always found the opposite to be true. Teammates who ran within themselves in workouts often had more grit in races. Workout warrior type guys would often blow up in races. In fact, I remember a race where one of our "workout warrior" type guys was able to run an 8 mile tempo run on a Tuesday faster than his 8k race that Friday.

You need to yell at him for being such a lazy weak willed time wastin loser.

Rather than "Harder" intervals try doing some race pace ones. Drill the goal pace into him & then on race day take his watch away.

Mental "toughness" comes by increased self- confidence which in turn is created through smart training, just enough to develop.

Firsttimecoach wrote:

I’ve been coaching a friend who’s a dedicated hobby jogger using what I’ve learnt from my training and books etc.

He’s doing fantastic in workouts and isn’t pushing too hard in those but completing sensible goals.

The problem is, he races or time-trials very conservatively. He seems very afraid of blowing up and going too hard so I feel he’s really underperforming when it comes to race day.

Other than cultivating the belief that he can finish a race if he goes out at X pace, how do I help him with this? Any thoughts?

You’ve told us nothing about his goals…. Why is he running?

local sheep wrote:

Interesting thread. I always found the opposite to be true. Teammates who ran within themselves in workouts often had more grit in races. Workout warrior type guys would often blow up in races. In fact, I remember a race where one of our "workout warrior" type guys was able to run an 8 mile tempo run on a Tuesday faster than his 8k race that Friday.

Former workout warrior here. This is pretty true. Obviously I'm remembering things that occurred between 14-20 years of age, but our coaches had this default mentality that all of us were "wussies" that could run much faster if we tried enough. For workout warriors like myself, this led to a lot of redlining on long and easy runs while racing workouts. Then we'd get crushed on race days, but it was because we were wussies who couldn't push hard enough.

Race on lead the race on race day.

Race more frequently.

Race shorter distances. Put him on the 4x400.

More intense workouts, shorter with shorter rest. 800m workouts once a week.

Have him watch Pre. Show him Komens 3k world record.

It’s a process, a learned skill. It takes time to develop. Have fun with it. Set specific goals in different workouts and different races. The athlete is the student and you are the master.

Teach Your Athlete wrote:

Race on lead the race on race day….. ……The athlete is the student and you are the master.

Calm down sensei, he’s coaching a friend.

local sheep wrote:

Interesting thread. I always found the opposite to be true. Teammates who ran within themselves in workouts often had more grit in races. Workout warrior type guys would often blow up in races. In fact, I remember a race where one of our "workout warrior" type guys was able to run an 8 mile tempo run on a Tuesday faster than his 8k race that Friday.

I had teammates like this in HS. They ran everything hard, even runs the day before a meet. This is not what I am suggesting. I am saying that a harder workout should lead to a better race, but only if the day before is not ridiculously hard.

OP, how does he do the day before a race? Is it moderately easy?

55YO wrote:

local sheep wrote:

Interesting thread. I always found the opposite to be true. Teammates who ran within themselves in workouts often had more grit in races. Workout warrior type guys would often blow up in races. In fact, I remember a race where one of our "workout warrior" type guys was able to run an 8 mile tempo run on a Tuesday faster than his 8k race that Friday.

I had teammates like this in HS. They ran everything hard, even runs the day before a meet. This is not what I am suggesting. I am saying that a harder workout should lead to a better race, but only if the day before is not ridiculously hard.

OP, how does he do the day before a race? Is it moderately easy?

The day before a race is normally 20 mins easy and some strides to open up the legs. Maybe 4-6. Pretty standard stuff.

And to the other poster, he has been doing race pace intervals. I believe in the philosophy of training within your ability and only racing all-out.

Yes, we're both hobbyjoggers. I'm not training a sub 14 guy here. He wants to get under 18 minutes. Right now he's at 18:51. I want him to PR in his race in 2 weeks. He ran a 5 mile TT yesterday which he ran just over 31 minutes for. I believe and told him to go out at 31 pace knowing that should be a safe bet based on how he's doing in workouts.

Tell him he has the biggest ass on the starting line, and make snide remarks about his moobs, which will make him either want to give up or kill you, but if not, he’ll run with so much track rage that he’ll be tough AF.

blah. wrote:

Tell him he has the biggest ass on the starting line, and make snide remarks about his moobs, which will make him either want to give up or kill you, but if not, he’ll run with so much track rage that he’ll be tough AF.

+1

Tell him you saw his girl smooching _____ from _____ high school (the best school in the state) before the race. I don’t care if he’s 16 or 45 just do it.

Running some negative split workouts and races are a good confidence builder and can teach you that you can go faster than you think. If he can conservatively run 18:50 for 5k then have him go out at that pace, pick it up a smidge at 3k and hammer the last kilometer.

local sheep wrote:

Interesting thread. I always found the opposite to be true. Teammates who ran within themselves in workouts often had more grit in races. Workout warrior type guys would often blow up in races. In fact, I remember a race where one of our "workout warrior" type guys was able to run an 8 mile tempo run on a Tuesday faster than his 8k race that Friday.

This is true. A workouts purpose can be for toughness but should be more for development. Sub max efforts in training should be a major part of the schedule.

It is hard to train grit. Some will never have it. I have had a lot of success just figuring out ways to make them care. They are all different. For some it might be impressing their mom or dad, for others it might be making the varsity squad.

The other thing we do is to “work down” on each race. For example, if an athlete is hitting their quarter last on the track during a race at 76’s, the next time out we are looking at 75’s as the goal. Both athlete and coach are always looking for more.