Second wind

Running is such a mental thing. Many of my friends who are not runners don't understand this at all. They think it's all physical training. I've come to understand that the physical aspect of running is cake compared to the mental stuff.

I was reading Dean Karnazes' book, 50/50, and he was explaining what a "second wind" really is. They've done some studies with bike sprinters that prove this effect does exist. What’s generally believed to happen is your body is doing fine, but your brain decides, "WHOA, hang on there, buddy. You are going to burn yourself out at this rate, so you better slow down and back off." While you're running (or doing whatever it is you do), your brain is subconsciously starting to worry you might run out of fuel, so it starts trying to convince your body to slow down in an effort to conserve resources. Unless your brain receives new information that makes it reverse its decision. Maybe you take a swig of sports drink or a gel, and your brain goes, "Ding, ding, ding! More fuel! Carry on!" Or, you realize you're closing in on your goal, and your brain goes, "OKAY! Almost there! Kick it!" Other things can influence your brain to reassess and summon your reserves...someone cheering the right thing at the right moment, an inspirational thought, a friend's encouragement...but whatever it is, your brain will suddenly let go of the subconsciously-induced restraint and your body can dig into the resources you were holding yourself back from.

That means it really should be possible to run better due to the power of positive thinking. You have to constantly work to convince your brain that your conscious self knows what its doing, regardless of how badly the self-preservation happy subconscious side wants you to stop. My runs are always much easier if I go into them thinking, "Yeah! I get 10 miles of peace and quiet time!" and go enjoying the amount of “me” time I have left before me instead of, "Ugh, do I really have to do 10 miles today?" and mentally slogging through thinking about how much longer I have to go. I’ve written about it before. Being positive does make a HUGE difference. So my goal this week is to replace every negative thought with a positive one, while running and doing everything else. Second wind, you're mine!