Festive running: makes sense when there's 3,289 calories in Christmas dinner

I’m feeling guilty, not just because I’ve just eaten five chocolate Santas in 10 minutes; I’ve also learned that Ireland and the UK are European champs when it comes to the average number of calories – a whopping 3,289 are consumed per person for Christmas dinner.

Many festive runners will redress their dietary imbalance at Galway’s Field of Athenry 10km road race, or Limerick’s 10km road race championships, or any number of popular St Stephen’s Day meetings throughout Ireland. Others, however, may feel they ought to run off some calories but they can’t overcome the mental challenge of getting changed and getting out. Ah, but you can.

Keeping motivated 
Author, ultrarunner and three times Triple Ironman champion Christopher Bergland says in his book, The Athlete's Way: Sweat and the Biology of Bliss (2011), that the so-called "reward molecule" dopamine – a hormone and neurotransmitter – is what " keeps people motivated to persevere and achieve a goal. You have the power to increase your production of dopamine by changing your attitude and behaviour."

Bergland says that expectation and belief can produce dopamine, suggesting that we should learn to associate perseverance and accomplishing a mission with feeling good. Someone who does precisely that is Ireland’s marathon-running Olympian and 2014 cross-country champion Mick Clohisey.

The Raheny Shamrock AC stalwart told The Irish Times: "The main thing about winter running is to realise that once you're out the door and running, it ain't that bad no matter the weather. It's a great feeling of satisfaction afterwards to know you've been out training in unappealing weather. Remember you'll always feel better in yourself afterwards than if you decided not to run!"

Cultivating persistence 
Can persistence, effort and perseverance be cultivated? The answer is Yes, according to Dr Daniel Gucciardi, associate professor at the school of physiotherapy and exercise science at Curtin University, Perth, Australia. Gucciardi (Twitter @DanielGucciardi) studies mental toughness in a range of areas, including work and sport. "We shouldn't underestimate the power of goal-setting in our lives," he says. "Goals are designed to focus our attention on achieving some standard, such as an outcome (perhaps winning a race) or a performance (perhaps improving a personal best time). Typically, outcome goals are largely beyond our control, but the old adage 'control the controllables' is worth emphasising. More often than not a performance goal will be self-referenced and therefore primarily within our control – but only if we put in the effort to achieve it."

Attaining the target
Goals, says Gucciardi, provide the target, but action and coping planning are needed to guide and direct one's efforts towards attaining the target. "The 'action' component," he says, "involves specifying when, where and how you will go about doing things to achieve those goals, whereas the 'coping' aspect entails anticipating likely obstacles or challenges that will prevent you from engaging in your action plans as well as detailing in advance strategies to overcome these difficulties."

So, applying Gucciardi’s approach to the challenge of winter training and helping to lose those extra Christmas calories, your “action” will involve reserving time, planning your run, getting your gear ready etc, and your “coping” entails accepting that it’s going to be cold and wet and that you dress accordingly. And as Clohisey points out, you’ll feel better afterwards.

Mental strength
What about the mental challenges once you're out the door? For an elite athlete such as Clohisey, mental strength is crucial for achieving high-quality training sessions and being a top finisher. "As with all races from 10k to the marathon," he says, "you go through bad patches, but that's distance running – it's not meant to be easy."

Clohisey’s mental perseverance particularly asserts itself when he hits the bad patches. His secret, he says, is being able to deal with the (temporary) pain and transform negative thoughts into positive ones. “When warming up before races or tough training sessions, I try to visualise positive outcomes and think back to all the hard work that’s brought me to this point.

“Also, I tell myself to be prepared for the rough patches, particularly during a marathon. Accept that they’ll come, but they’ll also pass as quick as they came. Sometimes when I’m hurting in the latter stages of a race, I tell myself I’m actually enjoying it and try to flip it on its head to be positive. Turn it into energy. Remember, as Schopenhauer said, ‘the positive nature of pain’.”

Positive nature of pain
Someone else who knows about the positive nature of pain is running coach, former Commando and legendary Scottish ultrarunner Donnie Campbell (getactiverunning.com ), who earlier this month set a winter record of 23 hours and six minutes for the epic Ramsay Round – ascents of 90km and 8,500m over 24 Munros (mountains over 3,000 feet), which include many of Scotland's highest and remotest – in sub-zero conditions and over 12 hours of darkness.

"To cope with this," Campbell tells The Irish Times, "especially the long, lonely night sections, I broke the round into three manageable chunks, concentrating on completing each section rather than focusing on the big picture. When things got really tough after 17 hours, when I was sick and with five Munros to go, I used positive self-talk, where I kept telling myself 'I can do this, just keep moving forward. Yes, I've no fuel in the tank but this is the challenge. I've been here before and I've survived, so let's keep pushing'."

“Donnie’s experience with self-talk is very relevant,” says Prof Samuele Marcora of the University of Kent’s endurance research group. “Our team has demonstrated that motivational self-talk improves endurance performance, but interestingly, we found that motivational self-talk did not actually increase motivation, probably because our participants, like most athletes, were already highly motivated.

“Our research suggests that at a psychological level, the mechanisms through which motivational self-talk improves endurance performance is by reducing perception of effort, ie the conscious sensation of how hard, heavy and strenuous exercise is. In other words, participants in the group taught how to use motivational self-talk during the endurance test perceived exercise to be easier.”

Underestimated skill
Mental perseverance, according to former British and South Africa international duathlete and triathlete Phil Mack, is an underestimated skill, but when done effectively, it can significantly improve performance. With a global reputation as an injury rehabilitation specialist – he was also strength and conditioning coach to the South African Springboks, Ulster and Leicester Tigers rugby teams, Mack now runs six sports injury and physiotherapy clinics (thephysiotherapyclinics.com ).

"For most athletes," Mack tells The Irish Times, "mental perseverance is something that has to be learnt and developed. It's not only about mental strength but mental focus, too. The key is to first identify the problem areas and experiment with strategies that may help overcome each challenge you're confronted with. While working with the South African Springboks we had to look after as many as 40 players, all with different personalities. Even at this level, some players struggled with confidence or nerves, and improving their mental strength and focus was essential to help them perform at their best."

Clearly, running is not only about physical challenges. Perhaps the winter months are the best time to help cultivate some mental perseverance.