Saturday, October 23, 2010

How To Push Past the Pain, As Champions Do (NY Times)

The NY Times had a great article yesterday called "How To Push Past the Pain, As Champions Do", with a little insight on those spit-coated elites and how far they push themselves. My favorite quote:

“Mental tenacity — and the ability to manage and even thrive on and push through pain — is a key segregator between the mortals and immortals in running,” Ms. [Mary] Wittenberg said.

In that case, every 100-miler I know is immortal! ;-)

Here's another good quote:

“We have towels at marathon finish to wipe away the spit on the winners’ faces,” she said. “Our creative team sometimes has to airbrush it off race photos that we want to use for ad campaigns.”


Yummy!

- SD
at

6 comments:

  1. ross88guy10/23/2010 12:47:00 PM

    So you know you are an immortal when you are handed a towel at the finish line then?! lol

    My Running Blog

    ReplyDelete
  2. George Beinhorn10/23/2010 05:30:00 PM

    I found that article weird and poorly documented, reflecting Gina Kolata's predilection for pain - have you read her book? - where she describes her spinning sessions?

    Fact is, if you warm up long enough - 40 to 90 minutes - you can run at 90% to 95% MHR with very little pain at all - on the best days, with none.

    This glorification of pain is completely wrongheaded. The idea that we all start from an equal base of talent and that the great ones just endure more pain - it's nutty-cakes. It simply is not true.

    Read David L. Costill's comments about a graduate student who initially assumed that the pain = talent equation was true. After working with Costill (a sports physiology legend) for several months, he readily conceded that great talents are born, not made (whether by training or endurance). As Costill put it, world-class athletes are so different from the average neighborhood jogger as to be almost a different species.

    ReplyDelete
  3. sites like service10/24/2010 05:08:00 AM

    Thank you very much for your wonderful

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous10/24/2010 08:58:00 AM

    I think having a body that can safely train every day is a big factor.

    ReplyDelete
  5. U.Anne10/24/2010 09:28:00 AM

    when the pain gets going, i start trying to find myself distractions to keep from thinking about the pain. ;)
    i'll glass around at things or people and start thinking about them and possibly find something to google about later hahaha

    ReplyDelete
  6. Health and Finances by Jeff Ritter11/06/2010 11:16:00 AM

    Immortal is a good way to describe it but I think its basically mind over matter and distraction as others have talked about. You have to be healthy to train for marathons.

    ReplyDelete

I LIVE for comments! Please add your thoughts, let me know you stopped by, etc., and be thoughtful of others. Always best if you sign your name, of course.