how not to be scared of tough training

learn to love the pain. no way around it man.

maybe you're digging too deep into the well or muscling it. relax more, you'll probably run faster too.

Your fear is trying to tell you something. You can listen to it and improve or not. Your hardest efforts need to be saved for races.

Probably just a form of nerves. It is normal to feel abit "edgy" prior to a hard interval workout ; after all, the effort is pretty similar to that put out in a race and so the discomfort (aka pain!) is pretty similar. These things have to be as you are trying to prepare the body and mind for the stresses of racing. Perhaps you could try to rationalize things a bit ; after all, if a training session goes badly it's not the end of the world - always do another one in a couple of days time! If you find that the session is on your mind all day to the detriment of your everyday existence you could try doing the session in the morning if this is practical instead of late afternoon or evening??

Just tell your self before every tough workout that if you finish it then your just a step closer to your goal.

I don't know why but it works for me when I get nervous before a tough workout.

You need to not dwell on it, and you need to do this kind of training and racing more often. When you get used to it, and it's familiar, you realize that it's actually not that bad, and the fear or panic you experienced earlier was far worse than the pain itself.

Also, you shouldn't be going to the well in most of your training sessions. True 100% efforts should be very rare, as they're physiologically and psychologically too taxing. With practice, however, you can routinely get close to the edge and feel quite comfortable there. Then, when it's time to really put it all on the line, you know it's just one notch beyond something that you're used to.

Another way of thinking about it that may prove helpful is to tell yourself that training to psychologically deal with pain is one of the most important things you do as a runner. I realize the central governor theory doesn't get much love on these boards, but at some level it is undeniably accurate. The advantage to thinking consciously about it when you're training is that you can get excited about hurting. You can tell yourself, "great, this is exactly where I'm supposed to be."

sounds like you are going too fast. when you are doing a speed workout, yes, you are supposed to give a good effort. don't give such a hard effort that it is mentally taxing every time you are scheduled for a workout. learn your body and when you've had "enough" during your workout, and call it off. lydiard discusses this in his book(s). you are just trying to move the sticks and advance your aerobic threshold. if you are trying to run 5x1k at 3:00 and its so taxing, back it off to 3:10 or so. don't try to bite it all off at once. come back the next time and do the same workout. if you find it easier, then move on to running 3:05's and so on. its like in football, you dont need all 10 yards in one down. 3-4 yard runs are fine too, just moving the sticks.

0/10

You're a p***y if this isnt a troll attempt

Im not a troll . But thanka for the replys

I did the session

3.11

3.14 head wind

3.12

3.11

3.16 didnt go out as hard didnt really commit

why was the headwind a factor on only one rep?

How can I improve mentally on this session as now I fear if I dont hit theses times again or improve I have failed or wasted a session how do I over come this mentally im scared of doing this session as I went through so muh pain.

Big gust of wind that hit me head on thats all. Windy day. But im not here to blame the wind. Im blaming my mental aspect.

My pb for 5km is 17.20

I want to break 16.30

Long term goal is to break 15mins if im every capable of it.

M- 50mins

T- hard reps 5x1km

W- 40mins

T- 10x300. 5x200

F- 30mins

S- 30-40mins tempo

S- 80mins

I like to try and keep fresh for hard workouts

Before and After every speed session I do 20mins warm up and 20mins cool down

Just run baby

It looks like your training is pretty straight forward. When doing workouts that primarily emphasize the aerobic system, set goal paces for workouts based on what you can currently do. For shorter, faster stuff, with bigger rest intervals set goal paces based on near term goals in races. You can also mix the two with the initial reps/intervals at date pace and later reps/intervals at near term goal pace.

Usually when you're worried about workouts, you're trying to run faster than date pace on longer intervals throughout the workout.

Thanks

Also keep the long view. Don't stress about one workout, one week, or even one month of training. Meaning, don't feel like you have to hit specific times or the workout is a failure. This is a major trap that can result in a negative spiral.

Instead, relax and focus on appropriate effort levels. This means that sometimes you will be beat from weeks of hard training and your times might slip a bit in a workout. That is ok, because when you are fresh your body will recover and your training will push you faster than ebefore if you have a good coach writing your workouts.

I wish somebody had told me this when I was a freshman in college. I became more and more terrified of ruining my trainjng that was going so well by not hitting increasingly impressive (for me) times in workouts.

I ended up pushing way too hard as the season went on and it resulted in me running 1:57 in every month from december through may wheni had been sure I was on track to run 1:52 that year. If I had just relaxed and not pushed myself into overtraining in the mid season, I probably would have hit my goal instead of burning out that season

Same philosophy applies to somebody specializing in 1500/5k too of course, just let it happen and let your times in workouts be whatever you have that day, not what you "need" to run. Our bodies aren't a machine, theywill have good days and bad days, but ultimately the training oays off at the end of the year if we let it.

Thanks for the response, really do appreciate it. I must admit I have a habit of ruining myself on every speed session to the point were i can just barely run the next day. Will definitely try and back off and run to my current time not goal time.

I train solo and have no coach so I just hope I'm doing the right training.

I agree with most of these comments, relaxed speed sessions are much better than smashing yourself and being physically and mentally sore for the rest of the week. I have a 16.18 5k PB and I keep my 5x1k reps at 3.15s so your doing really well mate.