How to Push Past the Pain, as the Champions Do
1–10 of 77 posts
Re: How to Push Past the Pain, as the Champions Do
#2I was a competitive runner for many years and trained with some of the best. The difference between great runners and cyclists and everybody else is that they learn to tolerate pain - a lot of it - on a regular basis. They crave pain and can push their pain threshold far beyond what normal people would be able to tolerate.
If you've ever seen a great runner working out - it's almost painful to even watch - but always very impressive.
Re: How to Push Past the Pain, as the Champions Do
#3I'm no elite athlete/champion, but this makes complete sense to me now. The last couple of weekends I have been taking part in hill climb events. Knowing every inch of the course definitely helped me pace myself and achieve a far better time than I expected.
Like the interviewee in the article, I definitely didn't look pretty in the photos: http://flic.kr/p/8KQANq
Re: How to Push Past the Pain, as the Champions Do
#4I think there is a comparison to be made about pushing past the monotonous work required to launch a product.
Re: How to Push Past the Pain, as the Champions Do
#5 Mental tenacity — and the ability to manage and even
thrive on and push through pain — is a key segregator
between the mortals and immortals
- Mary Wittenberg
Re: How to Push Past the Pain, as the Champions Do
#6I was a competitive runner for many years and trained with some of the best. The difference between great runners and cyclists and everybody else is that they learn to tolerate pain - a lot of it - on a regular basis. They crave pain and can push their pain threshold far beyond what normal people would be able to tolerate. If you've ever seen a great runner working out - it's almost painful to even watch - but always…
They crave pain and can push their pain threshold...
These two things seems contradictory. If they crave pain, why would they need to push their pain threshold?
(Disclosure: I'm a wimpy athlete. I always thought pain was the body's signal that something was wrong, so I backed off. Your remark confuses me even more. Just trying to understand.)
Re: How to Push Past the Pain, as the Champions Do
#7I took a 140 mile bike trip and noticed that if I started thinking about anything other than biking, I started going slower. But if I was focused and one-pointed in mind, and allowed myself to feel the pain fully, I was able to push myself harder.
Re: How to Push Past the Pain, as the Champions Do
#8I was a competitive runner for many years and trained with some of the best. The difference between great runners and cyclists and everybody else is that they learn to tolerate pain - a lot of it - on a regular basis. They crave pain and can push their pain threshold far beyond what normal people would be able to tolerate. If you've ever seen a great runner working out - it's almost painful to even watch - but always…
> and trained with some of the best.
If you don't mind me asking, what were your PRs? I got lapped on a mile in high school (the guy ran a sub-5!)
Have you read Once a Runner? Was that what your training life was like?
Interesting offshoot - The whole point of training 20 hours a week for the Ironman triathlon (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile marathon) is so that the body never goes anaerobic during the actual Ironman race. When the body goes anaerobic (lactic acid buildup), everything goes downhill rapidly - it goes from racing a PR (personal record) to whether you will finish the race.
And then there are the Marathon Monks of Tendai:
> The ultimate achievement is the completion of the 1,000-day challenge, which must surely be the most demanding physical and mental challenge in the world. Forget ultra-marathons and so-called iron-man events, this endurance challenge surpasses all others.
Only 46 men have completed the 1,000-day challenge since 1885. It takes seven years to complete, as the monks must undergo other Buddhist training in meditation and calligraphy, and perform general duties within the temple.
Re: How to Push Past the Pain, as the Champions Do
#9"It never gets easier, you just go faster." -Greg LeMond
Re: How to Push Past the Pain, as the Champions Do
#10I was a competitive runner for many years and trained with some of the best. The difference between great runners and cyclists and everybody else is that they learn to tolerate pain - a lot of it - on a regular basis. They crave pain and can push their pain threshold far beyond what normal people would be able to tolerate. If you've ever seen a great runner working out - it's almost painful to even watch - but always…
They crave pain and can push their pain threshold... These two things seems contradictory. If they crave pain, why would they need to push their pain threshold? (Disclosure: I'm a wimpy athlete. I always thought pain was the body's signal that something was wrong, so I backed off. Your remark confuses me even more. Just trying to understand.)
Presumably because they want to improve as well.