Inside the Endurance Athlete's Mind

From Forbes.com:

Inside The Endurance Athlete's Mind
by Allison Van Dusen

Bob Whitman's days start at 2:45 a.m.

While the rest of us are rolling over in our beds, Whitman, CEO of the Salt Lake City, Utah-based Franklin Covey, is fitting in a few hours of biking, swimming and running before work in preparation for next month's Ford Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii.

Considering that the majority of Americans have trouble finding the time or energy to work out at all, let alone train for a grueling triathlon while juggling a C-suite position, it begs the question: How does he do it?

Much of it is mental. While many endurance athletes say there's nothing special about their physical abilities, clearly people who are drawn to and are able to accomplish feats such as marathons, triathlons and challenging ultra endurance events differ from the rest of us somehow. A big piece of the puzzle is how these athletes think about their lives, goals and the obstacles they face.

"Moderation bores me," says Dean Karnazes, who completed 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 consecutive days and wrote about the experience in the new book, 50/50. He is also currently trying to be the first person ever to complete the world's five major desert foot races in one year. "Once I did a marathon, I thought, 'Huh, I think I can go further than this.' I wanted to explore not only my physical limits but my mental confines."

A Certain Personality
Just as they tend to have a specific body type (i.e., lean, not too tall), many endurance athletes also have common personality traits, says Jenny Susser, a clinical health psychologist specializing in sports psychology at the Women's Sports Medicine Center at the Hospital for Special Surgery. These traits include persistence, endless curiosity, a lack of fear when it comes to failure and a sense of boldness.

Persistence is particularly crucial in helping endurance athletes stick to a training schedule, which they know can't be compromised no matter how much work is waiting for them at the office or how sore or tired they may feel. The benefits of showing up every day for a workout aren't just about being physically prepared on the big day. They can help an athlete feel like he or she has done everything possible to meet a challenge, ultimately translating into confidence at the starting line, Susser says.

Successful endurance athletes also have to know how to psychologically face and overcome pain during events. Roger Little, CEO of Spire Corp. and a longtime triathlete, was competing in the World Championships Triathlon Long Distance in Almere, Netherlands, last month when he hit a giant wall.

Little swam 3.1 miles and rode his bike for 76 miles on a hot and windy course when he started to feel sick. After completing his ride, he took the first step of a 20-mile run and set what he calls a new "personal pain" record. Even though the event took him 10 hours to finish, he didn't give up--it wouldn't jibe with the way he thinks of himself as an athlete.

"You get into the sport and you talk about it so much that you end up having an image you've created that you have to live up to," Little says. "You can't just say, 'I've had a bad day.'"

Pain Management
While specific techniques vary, endurance athletes rely on methods of distraction to get through painful or difficult patches. Susser counsels people to focus on the technicality of their sport by zeroing in on their strides, or to play games, such as coming up with an animal for every letter of the alphabet. During the Ironman swim, while Whitman is trying to avoid getting dunked or kicked, he counts his strokes and recites a poem called The Little Red Hen to keep himself on pace.

"It might be a little like a pingpong game--this type of distraction is never 100%," Susser says. "But if you can swap your focus enough you can get yourself through it."

In the event that they should have to quit, endurance athletes know how to embrace their failures, too.

Karnazes recalls passing out in 1995 at about the halfway mark of his first attempt of the Badwater Ultramarathon, a 135-mile run through Death Valley in the middle of summer. The experience was crushing, since Karnazes had spent six months training and planning for the race. He later realized that his problem wasn't his preparation, but his lack of mental flexibility.

At some point early on, Karnazes unknowingly downed some nonpotable water, which quickly made him sick. Rather than slowing down and letting his body recover, he pushed himself to nail a certain time--a decision that cost him the chance to cross the finish line. But the experience infused in him a fire to conquer the course the following year, as well as many times since.

"Unless you push yourself to failure," Karnazes says, "you don't know how far you're going to go."

Also, see this great slide show for another look at the mind of an endurance athlete.

Pain is Relative

So after I took Justin out for a run again this morning, he was commenting on how painful it is to get back into running after having taken so long off. We can all understand his point -- but then he made an interesting observation:

Justin: I can see why you all run with injuries.
Me: Because it's so hard to get going again after a rest?
J: No. It's because you all are so used to ignoring pain, you can't distinguish one pain from another.

Touche.

A Little Common Sense

So now that I'm all moved in at my new place in Winter Haven, it's time to get back to running. I'm not working right now (a condition I hope to be very temporary) so I have the luxury of running whenever I want. So I headed out for a little 5-miler the other day around 4 p.m.

There are two large differences between Tallahassee and Winter Haven, two differences that can mean big problems for a runner. There is a lot more pavement and much fewer trees. Those factors, combined with the hot, muggy weather we've been having, made for The Most Miserable Run Ever.

I was moving along just fine for the first two miles -- at a pretty fast pace, actually. Then, just before the 3-mile point, I was done. Parched, hot, sweaty, tired...even sick. The sun was beating me from above and below (bouncing off the pavement) and the park that I was certain would have a water fountain was a disappointment.

I drug myself home and up the stairs to my apartment, only to realize that in my stupor I had gone to the wrong building. This was very disappointing, as the effor to climb the stairs was unbearable. I finally made it to my apartment and dove into a bottle of Gatorade. An hour and a shower later, I was still red-faced.

Like any athlete, I analyzed this experience to determine what went wrong. It didn't take long. By 4 p.m., the temperature had climbed to nearly 100 degrees, and I had nothing to drink. I decided to exercise a little common sense.

So this morning I set out on the same route; this time at 9 a.m. and with an ice-filled bottle of Gatorade in hand. And wouldn't you know it? I finished the 5 miles with no problems! Isn't common sense grand?

Want to live a long life? Run!

By Maggie Fox, Reuters Health and Science Editor

People who want to live a long and healthy life might want to take up running.

A study published on Monday shows middle-aged members of a runner's club were half as likely to die over a 20-year period as people who did not run.

Running reduced the risk not only of heart disease, but of cancer and neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's, researchers at Stanford University in California found.

"At 19 years, 15 percent of runners had died compared with 34 percent of controls," Dr. Eliza Chakravarty and colleagues wrote in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Any type of vigorous exercise will likely do the trick, said Stanford's Dr. James Fries, who worked on the study.

"Both common sense and background science support the idea that there is nothing magical about running per se," Fries said in a telephone interview. "It is the regular physical vigorous activity that is important."

The team surveyed 284 members of a nationwide running club and 156 similar, healthy people as controls. They all came from the university's faculty and staff and had similar social and economic backgrounds, and all were 50 or older.

Starting in 1984, each volunteer filled out an annual survey on exercise frequency, weight and disability for eight activities -- rising, dressing and grooming, hygiene, eating, walking, reach, hand grip and routine physical activities.

Most of the volunteers did some exercise, but runners exercised as much as 200 minutes a week, compared to 20 minutes for the non-runners.

At the beginning, the runners were leaner and less likely to smoke compared with the controls. And they exercised more over the whole study period in general.

"Over time, all groups decreased running activity, but the runners groups continued to accumulate more minutes per week of vigorous activity of all kinds," the researchers wrote.

"Members of the running groups had significantly lower mean disability levels at all time points," they added.

The team also set out to answer whether taking up running late in life would benefit, and whether people who stopped exercising began to pay a price as they aged.

Most of the runners have stopped running as they reached their 70s, Fries said. But it was difficult to find people who totally stopped exercising. "Almost all of them did something else. They continued their vigorous exercise," he said.

People who took up exercise when they were older also improved their health, he said.

The study also showed that people cannot use the risk of injury as an excuse not to run -- the runners had fewer injuries of all kinds, including to their knees.

You Can Always Count on Mom

I've been waiting to post about my experience at the Innaugural Scenic 17 Sprint Triathlon because I wanted to include photos. But they still have not been posted, and I don't even know who was taking the photos. Just as I had almost resigned myself to posting without them, my mom emailed me the photos she took. Thanks, mom!

So, thanks to her, I present to you: Erin's Race Report, Scenic 17 Edition

I drove down to Babson Park the day before the event. I chose this race for its location; Babson Park is in Polk County, where my family lives. One thing I did not consider about this area was its landscape. Most would think that a triathlon in Central Florida would be easy: flat and fast. So after I stopped by Webber University to pick up my packet, I decided to drive the bike course and have a look. Suddenly I regretted doing all my bike training at the St. Marks Trail.

You might be wondering what makes Scenic Highway 17 so scenic. Is it the green, trimmed rows of orange trees? Meh... Is it the sparkling lakes nestled among the groves? Not really, but they are pretty. No, the feature that gives this stretch of road its scenic designation is its position on the Lake Wales Ridge. That's right -- huge, monstrous, gigantic, thigh-burning hills. Lots of them.

So, driving the bike course the day before the race, my stomach was tied in knots. I only had one thought: "There's no way. NO WAY." And of course, just as I was at the height of my panic, mom called.

"I can't dooooooo this," I yelled into the phone. "What was I thinking?!"

"Yeah, it's hilly out there," she answered. Thanks, mom. But she just laughed at me and told me to hurry up and get to her house so we wouldn't be late meeting up with the rest of the family for dinner. She wasn't worried, so I didn't worry. But she wasn't the one who had to bike this thing...

I showed up the next morning to get a good spot in the transition, only to find that there was plenty of room...for all 35 of us. Remember my whole "small race = winning awards" theory? I was sure I'd walk away with something this day, even with the mountains I had yet to climb.

I went down to the water to face the Beast. Even though the bike was still on my mind, I knew my real challenge would be the swim. This course was a .5-mile swim -- longer than I'd ever gone in a race before. As I was surveying the buoys, I noticed the team of lifeguards assembling on the shore were not much older than my bike (my bike is old, but not old enough to have sufficient life-saving experience).

"I don't know if I trust kids half my age to save me," I quipped to the girl next to me. She made an equally snide remark and we were instant friends. She said that she drove down from Daytona for this race, and soon we were joined by another girl from Orlando. We chatted until the race started, and I was happy to have something to take my mind off of how nervous I was about the swim.

Soon, all 35 of us were on the shore and starting. Turns out, I did pretty well in the swim. I was faster than I had been in training, but still one of the last in my age group out of the water. No worries, though -- I was sure I'd catch them on the bike. Or at least the run.

I took off on the bike and the hills were exactly as painful as I thought they'd be. On the upside, though, I hit about 35 mph on some of the downhills, so I made pretty good time overall. I finished the 15 miles in 54 minutes, despite having to stop and put my chain back on twice. It's definitely time for a new bike.

By the time I got back from the bike, I realized that, despite the small field, an age group prize might not be in the cards for me after all. This course was no joke and these people weren't joking. Even though I finished the bike faster than most of my age group, they were still ahead of me and a lot of them seemed to be coming back from the run turnaround while I was still heading out. But I just pushed on, confident now that I was finally in my strongest event. I finished the 5K in 29:36 -- the first in my age group. Well, that's something!

I finished the race in 1:46:01 -- almost 15 minutes ahead of my goal! My mom and preggers sister, Sara, were cheering for me at the finish. My new friends and I packed up all our gear together and waited for the awards.

Kristen from Orlando was first female overall and Katie from Daytona was third overall -- making me first in our age group!! Woo hoo! No to mention fifth female overall!

Here I am, accepting my huge glass beer mug award:

My sister said, "Why are they giving out beer mugs at a race? Do these people drink beer?"

Overall, this was a great race. Even though it was small, it was very well-organized and chip-timed. It was the race director's first race, and I think he did a great job. I'd recommend this for someone looking for a challenge. Red Hills has nothing on this race.

Who Knew?

Another great tip from the GWTC Discussion List -- this one comes from Andrea's friend and running partner, Sandra:

While running this morning in Killearn, a police officer stopped and advised Andrea and I that it was against the law to run in the street if there was a sidewalk. Well, guess what: it is true.

Florida Statute 316.130(3) states, "Where sidewalks are provided, no pedestrian shall, unless required by other circumstances, walk along and upon the portion of a roadway paved for vehicular traffic." You can receive a $15 ticket if you do this.

Florida Statute 316.130(4) says that if sidewalks are not provided, "... when practical, walk only on the shoulder on the left side of the roadway in relation to the pedestrian's direction of travel, facing traffic which may approach from the opposite direction..."

There is a 27-page publication which outlines the Florida Pedestrian Law Enforcement Guide. So now you know. Have a great run on the sidewalk or a dirt road.

Safety First, Training Second

Terrible news came from Cary, NC, this week, where a female runner was abducted and murdered. Read the story here.

The GWTC Discussion List email contained some great safety tips today, so I wanted to pass them along to you:

1. Vary your running route often, even if this means running clockwise rather than counter-clockwise.
2. If running early or late (in the dark), try to find a running partner or adopt a dog that would enjoy a good daily run.
3. If possible, let someone know when you run and where (e.g., if you don't show up for work, a close colleague may know where to tell police to look for you).
4. Always run with your cellphone handy, turned on and programmed with an emergency code and GPS enabled.
5. Stay aware of your surroundings - if you run with headphones, keep the music low so you can hear an approaching runner or bicyclist (yes, bicyclist - in Tucson, AZ, there was a guy who was grabbing women as he rode by them on his bike).
6. Carry a whistle or noisemaker but do NOT wear this on a chain around your neck. A neck chain is easy to grab and strangle you with.
7. Make a mental note of public telephones (which are rare these days) and nearby businesses/homes that appear occupied at that hour; do not hesitate to run to such a place and even throw a rock through a window to set off an alarm if you believe this will scare away your attacker (the window can be fixed).
8. If you run with a water belt, it would be wise to carry a pen and paper to write down anything, including a license plate, if you feel threatened by anyone in any way (you can do this with a cellphone by taking a photo).
9. If you are comfortable doing so, run with a weapon and more importantly be prepared to use it (gun, knife, mace).
10. Take a self-defense course and again, be prepared to use the moves you are taught.

But most importantly, you guys: use your head! Be smart -- don't go running by yourself in the dark in some remote area (I'm looking at you people who run at Overstreet by yourselves). My dad always taught me that the best defense against danger is not putting yourself in danger in the first place.