You don’t need to be a masochist to run through pain.
Pain is not a indication for you to stop running. It is a sign that you are pushing against the current threshold of your body. Dead calves, burning thighs, numb toes, lungs on fire, limbs laden down with lactate buildup, stomach in knots, all that is just a sign that you need to press ahead regardless and push your limits over and over. Keep pushing your limits till you get to the point where you realize that you don’t have any limits.
The normal reaction I get as a long-distance runner when my training regimen is shared with people is that, I probably have a penchant for whips and leather. Why would anyone push their bodies to and beyond the breaking point for no reason? I have no hope of running a 2:15 marathon (actually I do someday, but you can’t say things like that outside parentheses) And if running at a speed which is the bare minimum to be respectable for international glory is completely out of realistic expectations, then why run?
Of all the comments I’ve heard about my running the most common one is “Why run?”
I’ve made a checklist of all the reasons I have for running, and prepared responses for all the questions runners face.
Why run? – I like it. Moving forward, getting better.
You’re just running around in a circle. – Then ditch the tracks, run on the road.
It makes you sweat. – Well eating and drinking makes you poop and pee. Does that make you stop eating?
You will have arthritis when you get old. – Nope, running makes your legs fitter. Look at Fauja Singh.
Watch out! Dogs will chase you. – Meow.
Watch out! Cops will chase you. – Eh? Why so?
It’s more likely that you are a robber fleeing a crime scene than a guy out for a jog. That’s true, Sonu Sood was stopped by the cops when he was running in the streets at an ungodly hour.
Running is unnecessary when you have a car, even if you don’t a taxi is pretty good. – By personal experiment, it takes one hour to cover twelve kms in Kolkata. My speed for the first hour is 14 km/hr. Slow and steady wins the race, while cars keep getting stuck in bumper to bumper traffic.
Running makes your legs hurt, you get out of breath. So why run?-
I’ll explain.
Normally we have developed a instinctive reflexive response to pain. Touch a piping hot pot and you jerk your hand away. Lessons learned in childhood. There’s a lot of other things which we learned in childhood which we discard as we grow up. Instinctively folding and bowing down when faced with pain is one of those. I reiterate, I’m not advocating mindless sadomasochism here. Just making the point that pain is not a indication for you to cut your run short.
This is a scientifically proven fact: pain is an indicator that you are crossing your threshold. There’s an old adage, the best endurance athletes are those who are willing to withstand pain. When they hit the wall, they hit it again and again until the wall crumbles.If your pain is caused by muscle inflammation, it may be possible to continue running without risk of further tissue damage. Only if you have a stress fracture, the pain may not go away and you may be at risk for further damage.
Andreas Falk of Sweden, who ran in a ultra-race suffered a muscle injury and he had to walk instead of run for five days of it, literally crying four to five hours on the first few days due to the pain. “But I just kept going; I could feel the pain decreasing each day,” says Falk, who is fine today.
The results of the experiment conducted by Dr. Schultz showed that some leg injuries are safe to “run through.” If a runner has inter-muscular inflammation in the upper or lower legs, it is usually possible to continue running without risk of further tissue damage. Other overuse injuries such as joint inflammation, carry more risk of progression but not always with persistent damage.
http://www2.rsna.org/timssnet/media/pressreleases/pr_target.cfm?ID=506
Inflammation: that’s usually the problem. In marathons they give out wet foams, presumably so you can squeeze the water on your burning legs. If its been proven that your body can withstand you running through pain, why not push the wall instead of hitting it?
The problem Schutz says is, it’s not easy to distinguish between the pain of a stress fracture and that of severe muscle or tendon inflammation. That may require a trip to the doctor.
I take this to mean that it is all about mind over matter. Our conservative culture focuses more on safety than on pushing the limits. If it feels good it must be good, if it burns like a red hot poker it is time to stop. I’ve stood down on hitting the wall many times. Earlier, I’d train by just running until I had to slow down to a jog, and then walk, and then I’d stop. Now I try to keep pushing a higher pace all the time.
Here’s what Allen Iverson‘s teammate had to say about Iverson’s toughness and ability to will himself through pain.“More than anything, I think he’s tough mentally. He can somehow kid himself into thinking he’s (feeling) better than he actually is. Then he has the will to get out there and will himself through it and do some things even he didn’t think he could do. … It’s an amazing thing to see.” – Eric Snow
Here’s a pic of Allen Iverson’s injuries. The column on the right shows his team’s record without him. It also shows the number of games he missed because of these injuries.
He only missed 100 games through a litany of injuries in 10 years.
If he can will himself through those injuries, surely a long distance runner can withstand a lot of pain while running.
Point being that you can will yourself through pain. Not advocating reckless abuse of your body, but one should continuously keep pushing the wall further to see how far we can take it. If you imagine your capacity of enduring pain to be limitless, you can make it.
