Mental Chillness

Rethink how you respond to pain, and you’ll nail every tough run.

- Brad Stulberg

IF YOU WANT TO run your best, there’s no way around it: you’re going to hurt. Whether you’re racing 1 600m or the marathon, the ability to push through pain is what lets you translate training into a bragworthy finish. And even if you run for fitness, you’ll need to keep pushing your limits to see progress as your body becomes more efficient.

Research shows that the brain may ‘shut down’ your body when you still have more to give: in experiments at the University of Cape Town, participants were told to perform high-intensity exercise for as long as possible. When they maxed out, researchers stimulated their muscles, which contracted with great force.

Dr Samuele Marcora, director of research at the University of Kent’s School of Sport and Exercise Sciences in England, says that while we run, the brain weighs “perception of effort with our motivation to succeed”. When the former outweighs the latter, we slow or stop. If we change how we perceive effort and/or boost motivation, we may get more from our bodies.