The nitty gritty of endurance...

LiveEnjoyEndure

Each new level of endurance event adds to my lessons learnt. These are not ‘new’ lessons just deeper or increased quality of understanding and capacity. The cornerstone of endurance is mental preparation. Anyone who completes an endurance event does so because they are able to do so mentally. Of course physical preparation is important, but it means nothing without emotional and psychological preparedness.

The two main barriers to overcome in endurance events is not the actual distance, or the mountain, or river or road, but the person’s body. The athletes body throws two main problems at it, pain and fatigue. If you want to succeed you have to overcome discomfort and tiredness at an extreme level and you have to start doing this during training. These capacities are transferable to the rest of your life.

"To have the ability to endure in-the-field will mean you are able to endure in-life."

Pain is a very negative term, to me it is a destructive force an enemy, it cannot be overcome just numbed, an enemy to avoid. When competing in endurance events you have to embrace pain, almost invite pain along for the ride; if the competitor doesn’t embrace pain, it will eat away at them and rob them of the pleasure and satisfaction of competing in the first place. The long-and-the-short of it is that what endurance event means is enduring discomfort, it means embracing pain, not in a masochistic self-punishment sense, but as part of the process of achieving the end-goal of the event.

Fatigue is a little more technical and I’m not going to elaborate in-depth here, but to say the ability to overcome fatigue is a lot more dependent on physical training and mental preparation. Fatigue has to be overcome more than endured, fatigue has to be dismissed, told to go away, the body and mind told to submit. Failure to overcome fatigue will decrease performance and lie the competitor into not completing the event.

I’ll never cease to be amazed at the limits I/we can push our bodies to as part of our day-to-day lives or during events. The limits depend on how far you can ‘push’ yourself mentally, not so much what the body can actually do. Our bodies are awesome biological machines. Ironically to complete an in endurance event the participant has to ‘damage’ their body, not permanently and this ‘damage’ is not long-term but actually adds to our long term ability to endure

hewhoiscd

Great post!

nwhitley

Where the mind goes, the body will follow. (not sure who the quote is attributed to)

Trail_Addict

My favorite patch!

Escarda

This is a really good post!!

Iv always been good at taking pain because i can mentally prepare for it.
But during exercise i just go for it and get put off, or take breaks when things get painful.
Im going to try to use this in my next workout to push all the way through!!
Thanks for the post

dpwellman

I just bought a new T-Shirt (Nike)

It Says:

Kicking your a#! one step at a time

cls_333

I think I go one step farther, and actually like the pain. I definitely get the runner's high, and feel super good after a really tough workout. I believe a lot in your mind leading your body. I plan my hard runs ahead of time and think about them and prepare myself all day, actually getting myself excited about them. If you fret anything or let yourself think negative thoughts you're doomed from the get go. I coach and I preach this every day. I also tell myself things like "ilove hills, I have trained hard for them, and I am amazing at them". So many people think omg I hate hills, I can't do them and I suck at them. Your body is capable of anything your mind believes it is capable of! No excuses, just reasons to do it!

LiveEnjoyEndure

I think I go one step farther, and actually like the pain. I definitely get the runner's high, and feel super good after a really tough workout. I believe a lot in your mind leading your body. I plan my hard runs ahead of time and think about them and prepare myself all day, actually getting myself excited about them. If you fret anything or let yourself think negative thoughts you're doomed from the get go. I coach and I preach this every day. I also tell myself things like "ilove hills, I have trained hard for them, and I am amazing at them". So many people think omg I hate hills, I can't do them and I suck at them. Your body is capable of anything your mind believes it is capable of! No excuses, just reasons to do it!

I agree I love hills in training and I pick the hill routes. I also like a good head-wind when training too... The best thing about hills is that gravity pays back especially when you are cycling, but if you learn the technique downhill running can be great as a recovery part of the run.

I have worked with a lot of people with emotional and mental health problems and I shy clear of 'liking' pain, because I fear where that thought process leads to.... That aside I know what you mean, but for me the furthest I can go is embracing it as part of the process.

LiveEnjoyEndure

This is a really good post!!

Iv always been good at taking pain because i can mentally prepare for it.
But during exercise i just go for it and get put off, or take breaks when things get painful.
Im going to try to use this in my next workout to push all the way through!!
Thanks for the post

Hope your training goes well! Glad you have been inspired, remember you need to rest after the killer workout ;-)