Pain Tolerance and Athletes
Happy Monday!
I am a little worse for wear after my weekend of fun, but I did warn you in Friday’s post that it may happen. I had such a fantastic weekend of racing, run groups, concerts and seeing friends that it felt like I put a whole week’s worth of things into two days.
Nike Run Canada event. It was great to meet so many running clubs in Toronto.
One Republic concert to close off the weekend.
Recaps on the races will be up this week, but I thought I would chat to you about something that all endurance athletes are absolutely suckers for…pain.
Pain is something we all deal with. Last week at track practice with my team, I asked a few team mates how they were feeling. It was followed up with causal mentions of stabbing pain in their feet, hamstrings and well, everywhere. I remember telling my coach when I ran varsity in university that I had some pain and he said “You are a runner. You will hurt a little bit somewhere all the time.”
It sounds awful when you type it out like that but it is true. When I stop hurting, it means I have recovered from my race or training session and it is time to work again.
It is interesting to me that athletes have a significantly higher pain tolerance than non-active people. There was a recent study by Jonas Tesarz at the University of Heidelberg that studied this topic and found that although they have a higher pain tolerance, they have similar pain thresholds. Training can’t make athletes numb to pain, but it can condition them to tolerate it.
Training to tolerate pain syncs with mental training for athletes. When I am on training run and I run out of glycogen stores and bonk or I have discomfort or pain, I adjust my mindset to view it as gaining a competitive advantage. In competition, my opponents will be hurting just as badly as I am, but the winner is the athlete who can learn to be indifferent to pain.
Now, I think it is time to throw in a disclaimer that I will not run through all pain. My first DNF (did not finish, the most horrible title for any athlete) came from a decision made when I truly felt as if there was something medically wrong with me and it was in my best interest to stop. Being in tune with your body and understanding when to stop is vital to athletes, but it is something that is worked out in training.
As an athlete of any kind, learning to be comfortable with discomfort and being able to successfully manage training pain is vital for competition.
You will never ever be successful, until you turn your pain into greatness, until you allow your pain to push you from where you are to push you to where you need to be. Stop running from your pain and embrace your pain. Your pain is going to be a part of your prize, a part of your product.
More articles on pain and athletes:
No Pain, No Gain – Aeon Magazine
How Pain Tolerance Affects Running Performance – Competitor Magazine
What are your tips for managing pain in training and racing?
If I’m in pain during a race, I try and sing some ridiculous song in my head to distract myself from it.
“As an athlete of any kind, learning to be comfortable with discomfort and being able to successfully manage training pain is vital for competition.” This is so true. Training runs can hurt, (but in a good way) and you’ve got to learn to push through it.
Runners are suckers for punishment…
Pain as part of the prize ~ yes! A game-changing quote for me was, “The race always hurts, luv. Expect it to hurt. You don’t train so that it doesn’t hurt. You train so you can tolerate it.” ~Laura Fleshman’s coach Mark Rowland. After this, I started looking forward to pain ~ it meant I wasn’t just running but competing, and training to compete. Looking at it that way made it feel less scary when the pain arrived.
I know. I once heard the most wretched quote for runners that sums it up well: Make pain your friend and you will never be alone..
You DID wear your race shirt to the concert!! 😀 Love it! As far as training/racing through pain goes, you’re the best person I know at that. How you managed to get through the Niagara half AND PR with your knee and toe issues still wows me! As you implied, I think it’s important to know the difference between the kind of pain that you can learn to tolerate while your body works hard, and the kind that indicates you should probably stop if it puts you in danger from a health/medical standpoint. Sometimes endorphins and my stubborn runner personality make those two ends of the spectrum hard to distinguish!
Of course I wore the shirt. I told you. Never plan to go anywhere fancy with me the night of a race – I can and will show up in my race tshirt. Excuuuse me, were you aware I am a TRIATHLETE!?
Also, how I survived is simple – I had a good friend to complain loudly to about it…
My tips for managing pain are don’t try to keep up with Jessica.
Great post. I think it’s also important that we learn what paint to not ignore. Something I’m bad about. I’ve gotten so good at dismissing and tuning it out, working through it, that I sometimes push too far.
Pushing too far is always a worry, but as long as I can run, it’s alllll good. 🙂
I’m with John on this one… 😉
Ha! You are hilarious, lady. 🙂
my husband always says he’s going to the “pain box.” He has to train himself to face that fear at times. Me.. not so much LOL!
The pain box? I’ve never heard that one before but it is SO apt. I love it. 🙂