It's not ALL Hits, Fits and Runny Shits | Endurance Training Explored |

There I am, Swish swish Bishhhh

Now, could you tell I was referring to ultra-events/marathons? Referring to something which may very well be linked to pain and perseverance.....aye I was. The general consensus appears to be 'you are off your tree', 'crackers in the hatters', 'loop d loop and beyond the hoop' and so on, however I wanted to highlight a few important things that I have learned on my journey to becoming an ironman (I am a female, FE=Iron, male=man, make sense? ).

Reading articles, listening to podcasts and attempting to master the best possible ways to train SMART, SAFELY and EFFECTIVELY whilst avoiding the dreaded injury has got me comparing schools of thought. This is important to me as I have only experience with competitive running, my strength. Cycling and swimming are not my strongest areas and therefore I will be focusing a lot of my energy on improving my swimming technique for open water and learning the ropes with gear changing and tactics within cycling.

People I have spoken to inside and outside of my physiotherapy bubble have a understandable notion that doing a task which involves testing the bodies limits is not always the most enjoyable task or achievement in life. I want to share with you what I believe and what current research has stated makes these challenges somewhat 'easier'.

TRAIN the BRAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is why……...

4 THINGS WHICH HAVE CONVINCED ME THAT YOUR PHYSICAL LIMITS ARE CONTROLLED BY THE BRAIN:

1. Subliminal messages can enhance your endurance-

Cyclists completed a pair of routine time-to-exhaustion tests on stationary bikes. What they didn’t know is that images of smiling or frowning faces were being flashed on the wall in front of them, in totally imperceptible 16-millisecond bursts. When they were shown smiling faces, they lasted 12 percent longer on the test.

Exactly why smiling faces boost your endurance is still up for debate. Marcora believes that seeing smiles subtly changes your brain’s perception of how hard your muscles are working. But in a sense, the mechanism is beside the point. If seeing smiling faces changes your physical limits, that means it was your brain calling the shots all along—especially if you’re not even aware you saw the smiling faces, which rules out a placebo effect. Fantastic!.

2. Free-divers can hold their breath for over 11 minutes-

The world record for breath-holding is 11 minutes and 35 seconds. That’s amazing, but you might assume that it’s because the record-holder is a physical freak. It’s more complex than that, though. Most of us give up on breath-holds when our breathing muscles start convulsing, which forces you to breathe against your will. That happens when carbon dioxide levels in your blood get too high, not when you run out of oxygen. But freedivers essentially learn to ignore that hard-wired warning system: they can hold their breath until they literally pass out from lack of oxygen.

3. Heat is worse when you know it is hot-

Don’t get me wrong, extreme heat will slow you down and can be seriously dangerous if you develop heat exhaustion or heat stroke. But its effects aren’t quite as straightforward as they seem. In a heat chamber study, back in 2012, cyclists performed better in 89-degree Fahrenheit heat when the thermometers in the room were rigged to falsely display only 79 degrees. Heat is real, but its negative effects are partly the result of our own expectations.

That’s why, if you go for a run on a hot day, you’ll be slower than usual right from the start, long before your muscles or core have had a chance to heat up. You don’t slow down because your body is overheating; you slow down (initially, at least) because your brain wants to prevent you from overheating. Interesting right?!.

4. Mental fatigue makes you physically tired-

Intuitively, it seems kind of obvious that if you have a long and stressful day at work, you’re not going to have a great session at the gym. But that link is even tighter than you might realize. In another study by Samuele Marcora, subjects had to sit at a desk and play an extremely simple computer “game”: shapes or letters flash on the screen, and you press a button depending on which shape or letter it is. It’s really easy—you just have to pay attention. Amazingly, after doing this for just 90 minutes, the subjects reached exhaustion 15 percent sooner in an all-out cycling test. When your brain is even a little bit tired, your physical limits shrink.

Why not??

3 ways which COULD change your BRAIN'S LIMITS:

1. Master your 'internal monologue':

Back in Uni (the days of Sport and Exercise Science), we had a sports psychology module and learned about self-talk. But many laughed this off and few thought it would work. In the last few years, though, several studies have shown under lab conditions that learning to replace negative self-talk (“This hurts so much! I can’t keep this pace going!”) with positive self-talk (“You’re ready for this Gill. Keep pushing you got this girrrrrlll!”) really works. In one study, it improved cycling endurance from 8 minutes to 11 minutes—and, more intriguingly, it enabled the cyclists to push their core temperature a half-degree higher. Changing their internal monologue allowed them to dig deeper into their physiological reserves.

The big takeaway from the self-talk research is that you have the ability to influence how your brain interprets the signals from everywhere else in your body—the pounding heart, the aching legs, the labored breathing, and so on. And that, in turn, helps determine just how far your body is able to push. There’s still plenty of debate among scientists about exactly how the brain regulates our physical limits, but the overall message is clear.

2. 'SMILE'

I’m making such a feeble and clichéd recommendation here. When you smile and you’re happy, you can trigger the mind to feel your legs…….

I didnt pay much attention to this in the past until I read a study that telling runners to smile made them roughly 2 percent more efficient, meaning they burned 2 percent less energy to run at the same pace. Smiling helped the runners relax, and it may also subtly alter how the brain perceives the signals from the rest of the body—much like the smiley faces in Samuele Marcora’s subliminal experiment. Personally, I’m not a big smiler during exercise I look like a demon off on a mad one—but I’ve started being much more aware of the opposite when I’m making a big effort grimace. That can’t help, and it’s easy to change once you’re aware of it. SO give it a try!

3. Zap your brain

Yes its exactly what I mean. The most direct way to alter your brain’s limits is to alter how the neurons themselves work. Trickling a weak electric current between two electrodes on your scalp makes the individual neurons slightly more likely to fire (or less likely, if you run the current in the opposite direction) for about an hour afterwards. The technique, which is known as transcranial direct-current stimulation, has sparked a huge pile of research in recent years, with lots of conflicting results and overhyped findings. But there’s mounting evidence that applying current to the motor cortex, which is where signals to your muscles originate, really can make exercise feel easier. And if it feels easier, you can go harder for longer. Get it?!. Personally I am happy to give this one a miss, lol.

Thank you Ben Greenfield an American exercise physiologist and general overall legend, for educating me on this topic and helping me start off my journey towards achieving one of the toughest challenges I have yet to face.

To wrap things up on this positive note, I make it my business when due, to reiterate that we require 90% mental strength and 10% physical strength to achieve when it comes to endurance training and events such as the ironman. So bare in mind not everyone is cut out for this. However, it is my cup of tea.

FAIL TO PREPARE, PREPARE TO FAIL!

To be Continued……..