17. 6 Mindset Shifts to Overcome Cutoff Stress
Cutoff stress can be the difference between crossing the finish line and dropping out of a race. It drains your energy, hijacks your focus, and turns what should be an empowering experience into something that feels defeating. The worst part? Most runners start feeling this stress long before they're anywhere near cutoff - sometimes before the race even begins.
In this episode, I'm tackling a specific type of cutoff stress that I call cutoff prediction stress. This happens when you imagine being close to cutoff at some future point, whether that's during training or miles before you actually reach that point in a race. Worrying about something that’s not happening yet feels necessary, like it’s preparing you somehow. But it's actually making things worse.
Through six powerful mindset shifts, I'll show you how to stop this pattern before it wears you out. You'll learn why being near cutoff doesn't mean your race is over, why perfection isn't required to finish, and how to shift from worrying about being fast enough to strategizing about how to be fast enough. These aren't just nice ideas. They're practical tools you can use whenever you catch yourself spiraling into cutoff stress.
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What You’ll Learn from this Episode:
Why worrying about cutoff ahead of time doesn’t help you prepare for your race.
How to interrupt cutoff stress early by focusing on what you can control.
How planning for pace changes throughout your race reduces panic when things don't go perfectly.
Why assuming you'll just get slower until you fail misses the full picture.
The difference between worrying you won't be fast enough versus asking how you can be fast enough.
Listen to the Full Episode:
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Full Episode Transcript:
If all the runners I talk with and coach could change one thing, it would be this: cutoff stress. It negatively affects every part of the process. It can make training feel futile, and it can make you abandon your race plan entirely and even talk you into a DNF. It can make the difference between having a peak race finish and a disappointing DNF. And honestly, it can just make the whole entire process feel defeating instead of empowering like you want it to.
Welcome to Unstoppable Ultra Runner, the podcast for ultra runners who refuse to let anything hold them back. I’m your host, Susan Donnelly, veteran of over 150 100-mile races, and a coach who helps runners like you break through mental roadblocks, push past doubt, and run with confidence. Let’s go.
Hey there and welcome to episode 17. Today, we're starting the conversation about cutoff stress. It's such a common problem and there are so many powerful ways I want to cover it that I'm going to be talking about different pieces of it in different ways over time in the podcast, probably forever.
So think of today's episode as the opening chapter, not the whole book. And what we're tackling today is a specific type of cutoff stress, what I call cutoff prediction stress.
It's when you think ahead and anticipate feeling cutoff stress even though you're nowhere near cutoff at the moment. You imagine what it's going to feel like in the race or at a certain aid station or 10 miles ahead in the race, and you start stressing about being close to cutoff when you aren't. In other words, you start stressing about that stress when you don't even need to.
Today, I want to help you stop that pattern before it wears you out. I want you to walk away from this episode not just feeling inspired, but with clear, powerful ways to let go of the belief that you have to worry about cutoff ahead of time.
So, let's talk about what's really going on here. Cutoff prediction stress shows up in two places. It shows up before the race when you're training and preparing, and it shows up during the race, miles before you're actually near cutoff.
In both cases, it looks like this. You're worrying that you won't be fast enough. That you'll get pulled, and how hard and stressful it will be to try and stay ahead of cutoff. And the moment you start imagining this scenario, the stress takes over. You feel it literally in your body even though you're nowhere near cutoff, maybe not even in the race yet. Your mind spins with what-ifs.
And worst of all, why we do this is that the worry seems necessary. Like it's going to make you more prepared. It's going to keep you safe somehow. You're ready for cutoff stress to happen. It's not going to surprise you. And if you brace yourself for how bad it will be, you're somehow going to be more ready for it and it will feel as bad.
But what actually happens is that you end up feeling worse because you're stressed when you don't even need to be. By worrying like this ahead of time, you're actually spending more time in stress about cutoff, not less. Crazy, right?
And the problem here isn't cutoff. It's not even being too slow. I'm going to say that again because I know that feels true to a lot of people, but it's not. The problem with cutoff stress, ahead of time, especially, isn't cutoff and it's not not being fast enough. The real problem is worrying about something that isn't happening. Worrying about something that might or might not happen in the future, but definitely isn't happening now. You're not behind cutoff now, but your worry about it is affecting you now.
When you worry, you're basically spending energy on a problem that doesn't exist and might not ever exist. And in doing that, you're feeding fear instead of building the resilience that will actually get you through tough moments in the race. You're draining your focus and you're wearing yourself down and burning yourself out.
You might be afraid of missing cutoff, but stressing ahead of time about it makes it more likely because you're pulling yourself away, you're pulling your brain away from the real work of running the race.
So, if worry doesn't help, what actually does? That's where we're going next.
The real solution is to look at what's making you feel like you need to worry. And that usually comes from the belief that you won't be fast enough to stay ahead of cutoff. Either you don't think you can run the course that fast or you believe everything has to go perfectly in order for you to have a chance of staying ahead of cutoff, and you're scared that you're going to make a mistake that will put you behind cutoff.
Those thoughts can feel really convincing, but that doesn't mean that they're true. And if you're willing to challenge what seems to be true, that's where your freedom starts.
So, let's walk through six better ways to think about staying ahead of cutoff when you catch yourself spiraling into stress ahead of time. Each one of these six is a mindset shift and each one gives you your power back. Now, one might really click for you and might be a total solution for you or you might need all six of these, depending on the moment. But either way, they're here for you.
And before we dive in, I just want to say these aren't just nice ideas to think about when you listen to the podcast and then walk away and forget. I want you to use these as mental shifts whenever you're tempted to worry about cutoff stress ahead of time to get you out of that and into thinking that gets you closer to your goal.
Here we go. And the first one I want to start with is: It's possible you'll be fast enough to stay ahead of cutoff. Yes, you might be too slow at some point in the race. That's a possibility, always, but it is also a possibility that you'll be fast enough, that you'll hit all the intermediary aid station cutoffs and that you'll finish. That possibility is not zero. And yet, so many runners dismiss the idea before the race even starts. They don't even let it be an option in their minds.
If you're having a hard time believing that it's possible for you to be fast enough to stay ahead of cutoff, here are a couple of questions I'm going to throw at you. Have you actually looked at the pace you need to stay ahead of cutoff? Do you know what the number is? And the next question is, have you compared it to your training runs on similar terrain? In other words, do you have any judge of how possible that's going to be for you?
And another question, do you know where you're likely to lose time on cutoff on the course and where you can gain time back? Don't make these emotional questions, make them logistical ones. Look at the numbers, look at the facts, step back and look at it all clearly. Because if you're going to anticipate something, at least let it be the full range of possibilities, not just that one possibility of missing cutoff that scares you most.
The second way to look at cutoff prediction stress is this: You might not slow down the way you think you will. Another trap I see all the time is the assumption that your pace is just going to slowly deteriorate across the entire race.
But here's the truth: races aren't linear. The terrain changes, the weather shifts, there's day and night, your energy ebbs and flows, you have lows and also highs. Sometimes a hard climb is followed by a downhill or a runnable section where you gain time back. Sometimes you pick up a pacer or get a second wind or surprise yourself. All of that can happen.
So, yes, you'll probably slow down at times, but it's not a linear straight line to zero miles per hour. You're not just getting slower and slower until you fall apart. That's not how ultras actually work in real life. I've seen runners actually pick it up in the final 10 miles of a hundred. I've done it myself. And that was after being close to cutoff earlier in the day.
If you're projecting your pace forward based only on fatigue or this assumption that you're just going to slow down linearly the whole entire race, you're missing the full picture. You're ignoring the good possibilities that can actually happen in the race.
The third thing I want to give you about cutoff stress ahead of time is that you can be near cutoff and still finish. This is a big one that follows right after that linear slowdown I just talked about. So many runners tell themselves that if they get close to cutoff, anywhere close, it's over. They might as well quit because they're just going to keep getting slower.
But it's not over. You can be mere minutes ahead of cutoff. You can feel that intense pressure and that stress. Your mind can be screaming at you to just give up and you can still finish.
In two separate hundreds, I've come into aid stations five minutes or less ahead of cutoff and still finished both. And believe me, the cutoff stress was very intense for a moment until I focused on the business of finishing and got the job done.
If you have some basic mindset skills like the six I teach, to stay focused instead of freaking out, being close to cutoff doesn't have to end your race. You can feel cutoff stress and control it all the way to the finish line.
Being close to cutoff and feeling that stress isn't the end. You have the chance to stay in the race and finish. And this moment, the one where you're feeling the cutoff stress, where you're really challenged, is something you can train for instead of worry about.
All right. The fourth thought I want to give you about cutoff stress ahead of time is that you don't have to be perfect to be fast enough to stay ahead of cutoff and finish. This one is for all you perfectionists out there.
I know some of you are thinking, but what if I make a mistake? Guess what? You will make mistakes, or at least you will do things imperfectly. You're a human, not a robot. You'll miss a turn, drop your last gel, forget something in the aid station, get behind on hydration. Something will go sideways, especially in the longer runs. And you can still finish.
I've coached runners who have thrown up at mile 70 and bounced back, who've sat in an aid station for 30 minutes and still crossed the line. You don't need to be perfect. You need to solve problems and keep going. The goal here isn't being flawless. Flawless doesn't guarantee you a finish. The goal is forward progress, the best you can do in the moment.
Cutoff stress often shows up when you think you need perfection, that it's required. And then you try to pre-stress about every single little thing that can go wrong. But the truth is, what gets you through a race isn't having a perfect race. It's your ability to recover and stay engaged with the process. The name of the game is adapting, rethinking, and solving. And think about it this way: mistakes don't disqualify you. Quitting does.
The fifth thought I'm going to give you about cutoff stress is that you can plan for pace changes and still finish. One of the most powerful things I do with clients is help them map out exactly how they expect their pace to change over the course of a race as part of their race plan. Not just hoping it stays even, but planning for the inevitable shifts in pace. Knowing where their cushion is likely to shrink and where they can build it back.
When you expect your pace to fluctuate and you have a plan for how to respond to that, you don't have to panic when something doesn't go perfectly. You already know what you're going to do. Instead of reacting to fear, you're adapting with confidence, and that keeps you in the race and ahead of cutoff. A good race plan isn't rigid. It's flexible. It includes space for things to go wrong and still end well.
And the sixth and last one is, instead of worrying, ask how you can be fast enough. This. This is the mindset shift I most want to leave you with today. Worrying that you won't be fast enough doesn't make you faster. But asking yourself how you can be fast enough, that leads to action. That leads to strategy. That leads to calm, useful thinking.
When you're stuck in worry, all you're doing is basically rehearsing disaster. But when you shift into curiosity and problem solving, you're building power. You're putting your mind to work in a way that's going to help you finish. And that's the biggest difference between stress and strategy. And you get to choose.
So, in conclusion here, cutoff prediction stress might feel necessary, but it isn't. It's not helping you and it's not required to stay ahead of cutoff and finish. What actually helps is seeing the full range of possibility, seeing how you can be fast enough and how finishing is possible.
Instead of worrying, what helps is actually doing the things that are going to help you stay well ahead of cutoff, like training your best, planning your race, learning how to navigate the lows, how to solve problems and manage pain and stay focused and control your negative thinking.
You can't worry yourself into being ready. You can't fear your way into finishing. And there are far more powerful tools at your disposal than fear and worry. When you stop spending energy on imaginary stress, you're going to have time, more time for the race itself. You're going to have more attention, more determination, and more strength to give it.
So, that's what today's episode is about, releasing the need to feel cutoff stress ahead of time. So the next time your brain tells you you have to worry about cutoff when it's not even a problem yet, pause and remember, you don't have to fall for that. You have other options to think, you have better thoughts, and you have real strength of mind.
Okay. This is just the beginning of our lovely conversation about cutoff stress and this piece is enough to change the way you run starting now. That's it for this week. Thanks for listening and share this with a friend who will appreciate it. See you next week. Bye.
Thanks for listening to Unstoppable Ultra Runner. If you want more ultra talk, mindset tools, and strategies for running with confidence, visit www.susanidonnelly.com. This podcast receives production support from the team at Digital Freedom Productions. That’s it for today’s episode. See you next week.
Welcome to Unstoppable Ultra Runner, the podcast for ultra runners who refuse to let anything hold them back. I’m your host, Susan Donnelly, veteran of over 150 100-mile races, and a coach who helps runners like you break through mental roadblocks, push past doubt, and run with confidence. Let’s go.
Hey there and welcome to episode 17. Today, we're starting the conversation about cutoff stress. It's such a common problem and there are so many powerful ways I want to cover it that I'm going to be talking about different pieces of it in different ways over time in the podcast, probably forever.
So think of today's episode as the opening chapter, not the whole book. And what we're tackling today is a specific type of cutoff stress, what I call cutoff prediction stress.
It's when you think ahead and anticipate feeling cutoff stress even though you're nowhere near cutoff at the moment. You imagine what it's going to feel like in the race or at a certain aid station or 10 miles ahead in the race, and you start stressing about being close to cutoff when you aren't. In other words, you start stressing about that stress when you don't even need to.
Today, I want to help you stop that pattern before it wears you out. I want you to walk away from this episode not just feeling inspired, but with clear, powerful ways to let go of the belief that you have to worry about cutoff ahead of time.
So, let's talk about what's really going on here. Cutoff prediction stress shows up in two places. It shows up before the race when you're training and preparing, and it shows up during the race, miles before you're actually near cutoff.
In both cases, it looks like this. You're worrying that you won't be fast enough. That you'll get pulled, and how hard and stressful it will be to try and stay ahead of cutoff. And the moment you start imagining this scenario, the stress takes over. You feel it literally in your body even though you're nowhere near cutoff, maybe not even in the race yet. Your mind spins with what-ifs.
And worst of all, why we do this is that the worry seems necessary. Like it's going to make you more prepared. It's going to keep you safe somehow. You're ready for cutoff stress to happen. It's not going to surprise you. And if you brace yourself for how bad it will be, you're somehow going to be more ready for it and it will feel as bad.
But what actually happens is that you end up feeling worse because you're stressed when you don't even need to be. By worrying like this ahead of time, you're actually spending more time in stress about cutoff, not less. Crazy, right?
And the problem here isn't cutoff. It's not even being too slow. I'm going to say that again because I know that feels true to a lot of people, but it's not. The problem with cutoff stress, ahead of time, especially, isn't cutoff and it's not not being fast enough. The real problem is worrying about something that isn't happening. Worrying about something that might or might not happen in the future, but definitely isn't happening now. You're not behind cutoff now, but your worry about it is affecting you now.
When you worry, you're basically spending energy on a problem that doesn't exist and might not ever exist. And in doing that, you're feeding fear instead of building the resilience that will actually get you through tough moments in the race. You're draining your focus and you're wearing yourself down and burning yourself out.
You might be afraid of missing cutoff, but stressing ahead of time about it makes it more likely because you're pulling yourself away, you're pulling your brain away from the real work of running the race.
So, if worry doesn't help, what actually does? That's where we're going next.
The real solution is to look at what's making you feel like you need to worry. And that usually comes from the belief that you won't be fast enough to stay ahead of cutoff. Either you don't think you can run the course that fast or you believe everything has to go perfectly in order for you to have a chance of staying ahead of cutoff, and you're scared that you're going to make a mistake that will put you behind cutoff.
Those thoughts can feel really convincing, but that doesn't mean that they're true. And if you're willing to challenge what seems to be true, that's where your freedom starts.
So, let's walk through six better ways to think about staying ahead of cutoff when you catch yourself spiraling into stress ahead of time. Each one of these six is a mindset shift and each one gives you your power back. Now, one might really click for you and might be a total solution for you or you might need all six of these, depending on the moment. But either way, they're here for you.
And before we dive in, I just want to say these aren't just nice ideas to think about when you listen to the podcast and then walk away and forget. I want you to use these as mental shifts whenever you're tempted to worry about cutoff stress ahead of time to get you out of that and into thinking that gets you closer to your goal.
Here we go. And the first one I want to start with is: It's possible you'll be fast enough to stay ahead of cutoff. Yes, you might be too slow at some point in the race. That's a possibility, always, but it is also a possibility that you'll be fast enough, that you'll hit all the intermediary aid station cutoffs and that you'll finish. That possibility is not zero. And yet, so many runners dismiss the idea before the race even starts. They don't even let it be an option in their minds.
If you're having a hard time believing that it's possible for you to be fast enough to stay ahead of cutoff, here are a couple of questions I'm going to throw at you. Have you actually looked at the pace you need to stay ahead of cutoff? Do you know what the number is? And the next question is, have you compared it to your training runs on similar terrain? In other words, do you have any judge of how possible that's going to be for you?
And another question, do you know where you're likely to lose time on cutoff on the course and where you can gain time back? Don't make these emotional questions, make them logistical ones. Look at the numbers, look at the facts, step back and look at it all clearly. Because if you're going to anticipate something, at least let it be the full range of possibilities, not just that one possibility of missing cutoff that scares you most.
The second way to look at cutoff prediction stress is this: You might not slow down the way you think you will. Another trap I see all the time is the assumption that your pace is just going to slowly deteriorate across the entire race.
But here's the truth: races aren't linear. The terrain changes, the weather shifts, there's day and night, your energy ebbs and flows, you have lows and also highs. Sometimes a hard climb is followed by a downhill or a runnable section where you gain time back. Sometimes you pick up a pacer or get a second wind or surprise yourself. All of that can happen.
So, yes, you'll probably slow down at times, but it's not a linear straight line to zero miles per hour. You're not just getting slower and slower until you fall apart. That's not how ultras actually work in real life. I've seen runners actually pick it up in the final 10 miles of a hundred. I've done it myself. And that was after being close to cutoff earlier in the day.
If you're projecting your pace forward based only on fatigue or this assumption that you're just going to slow down linearly the whole entire race, you're missing the full picture. You're ignoring the good possibilities that can actually happen in the race.
The third thing I want to give you about cutoff stress ahead of time is that you can be near cutoff and still finish. This is a big one that follows right after that linear slowdown I just talked about. So many runners tell themselves that if they get close to cutoff, anywhere close, it's over. They might as well quit because they're just going to keep getting slower.
But it's not over. You can be mere minutes ahead of cutoff. You can feel that intense pressure and that stress. Your mind can be screaming at you to just give up and you can still finish.
In two separate hundreds, I've come into aid stations five minutes or less ahead of cutoff and still finished both. And believe me, the cutoff stress was very intense for a moment until I focused on the business of finishing and got the job done.
If you have some basic mindset skills like the six I teach, to stay focused instead of freaking out, being close to cutoff doesn't have to end your race. You can feel cutoff stress and control it all the way to the finish line.
Being close to cutoff and feeling that stress isn't the end. You have the chance to stay in the race and finish. And this moment, the one where you're feeling the cutoff stress, where you're really challenged, is something you can train for instead of worry about.
All right. The fourth thought I want to give you about cutoff stress ahead of time is that you don't have to be perfect to be fast enough to stay ahead of cutoff and finish. This one is for all you perfectionists out there.
I know some of you are thinking, but what if I make a mistake? Guess what? You will make mistakes, or at least you will do things imperfectly. You're a human, not a robot. You'll miss a turn, drop your last gel, forget something in the aid station, get behind on hydration. Something will go sideways, especially in the longer runs. And you can still finish.
I've coached runners who have thrown up at mile 70 and bounced back, who've sat in an aid station for 30 minutes and still crossed the line. You don't need to be perfect. You need to solve problems and keep going. The goal here isn't being flawless. Flawless doesn't guarantee you a finish. The goal is forward progress, the best you can do in the moment.
Cutoff stress often shows up when you think you need perfection, that it's required. And then you try to pre-stress about every single little thing that can go wrong. But the truth is, what gets you through a race isn't having a perfect race. It's your ability to recover and stay engaged with the process. The name of the game is adapting, rethinking, and solving. And think about it this way: mistakes don't disqualify you. Quitting does.
The fifth thought I'm going to give you about cutoff stress is that you can plan for pace changes and still finish. One of the most powerful things I do with clients is help them map out exactly how they expect their pace to change over the course of a race as part of their race plan. Not just hoping it stays even, but planning for the inevitable shifts in pace. Knowing where their cushion is likely to shrink and where they can build it back.
When you expect your pace to fluctuate and you have a plan for how to respond to that, you don't have to panic when something doesn't go perfectly. You already know what you're going to do. Instead of reacting to fear, you're adapting with confidence, and that keeps you in the race and ahead of cutoff. A good race plan isn't rigid. It's flexible. It includes space for things to go wrong and still end well.
And the sixth and last one is, instead of worrying, ask how you can be fast enough. This. This is the mindset shift I most want to leave you with today. Worrying that you won't be fast enough doesn't make you faster. But asking yourself how you can be fast enough, that leads to action. That leads to strategy. That leads to calm, useful thinking.
When you're stuck in worry, all you're doing is basically rehearsing disaster. But when you shift into curiosity and problem solving, you're building power. You're putting your mind to work in a way that's going to help you finish. And that's the biggest difference between stress and strategy. And you get to choose.
So, in conclusion here, cutoff prediction stress might feel necessary, but it isn't. It's not helping you and it's not required to stay ahead of cutoff and finish. What actually helps is seeing the full range of possibility, seeing how you can be fast enough and how finishing is possible.
Instead of worrying, what helps is actually doing the things that are going to help you stay well ahead of cutoff, like training your best, planning your race, learning how to navigate the lows, how to solve problems and manage pain and stay focused and control your negative thinking.
You can't worry yourself into being ready. You can't fear your way into finishing. And there are far more powerful tools at your disposal than fear and worry. When you stop spending energy on imaginary stress, you're going to have time, more time for the race itself. You're going to have more attention, more determination, and more strength to give it.
So, that's what today's episode is about, releasing the need to feel cutoff stress ahead of time. So the next time your brain tells you you have to worry about cutoff when it's not even a problem yet, pause and remember, you don't have to fall for that. You have other options to think, you have better thoughts, and you have real strength of mind.
Okay. This is just the beginning of our lovely conversation about cutoff stress and this piece is enough to change the way you run starting now. That's it for this week. Thanks for listening and share this with a friend who will appreciate it. See you next week. Bye.
Thanks for listening to Unstoppable Ultra Runner. If you want more ultra talk, mindset tools, and strategies for running with confidence, visit www.susanidonnelly.com. This podcast receives production support from the team at Digital Freedom Productions. That’s it for today’s episode. See you next week.
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