Pushing through discomfort

[Wines Not Whines]

I was thinking about this during my run yesterday. In order to improve - get better, faster, stronger* - do you think it's important to be able to push through discomfort? Discomfort meaning mental and physical fatigue, soreness (not injury-type pain), self-doubt, etc. I think it's pretty clear that you need to be able to do that in order to improve, but I'm wondering if other people agree.

I was thinking about this in the context of pushing myself to keep going during a tough workout, and also in the context of people who are really bad at pushing themselves and give up whenever things get slightly uncomfortable.


*Unintentional Kanye West reference

[Susie]

I think of it as getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. By doing that, your threshold of what's truly uncomfortable is extended. It seems clear to me that it's necessary to improve.

[Brit]

I think you have to be able to push through discomfort to get better/faster/stronger. As Susie mentioned, I think there is some element of resetting your expectation of what uncomfortable is, because no matter how much you improve, it is never easy because you (or I) just keep demanding more of myself. I'm never like "Meh, that's fast enough, I don't really want to improve." Instead, I think more along the lines of "This was hard six months ago, but now it is a crappy sluggish run."

[shorewife]

I think improving is mostly mental, meaning you've got to want it. If you can get through those crappy days you improve just by doing it.

[kams]

I think it's essential for the improvement that happens beyond the initial plateau.

This last year I've seen some pretty significant gains, and my buzzword has been suffering. My H told me very seriously that there is only one way to truly love sport, and that is to suffer in it. Im not really into inspirational quotes and stuff, but that has really resonated with me & pushed me beyond my self-imposed limits lately.

[trigal]

I think you have to push through it for several reasons. I see many people who hold back when it gets hard (I've done it myself), but then wonder why they never improve. It has to be uncomfortable to get your body to do what it has not done before.

Also, I think it's great mental training for when things get tough in a race. Running a fast 5K is uncomfortable. You don't have to run it fast, but if you want to, then you will be uncomfortable. Doing an Ironman is uncomfortable, but in a different way. I may not be going fast, but I'm tired (both mentally and physically) and all sorts of things may be going wrong, but if I want to reach my goal, then I have to push through it. If I haven't practiced that in training, then I cannot expect to be able to do it on race day.

[mcc]

Right now I struggle with this because my knee from the ACL causes me discomfort and sometimes pain. That's a different animal though.

For the record, it's a Daft Punk song that Kanye remixed

[zoidberg]

I think it is really mostly mental. In fact, for me, I know it is. (More anemia talk ahead)

I have been working so hard to try and improve, but not getting any faster. I have been able to increase my mileage from a 5k to a half marathon, but the mental effort was tremendous. It was just so hard. But I kept at it and was able to get there, even though for me doing a super slow half felt like sustaining a 5k effort for 2 hours and 40 minutes. It was horrible! I wanted to quit, sometimes I even wanted to cry a little, but apparently I am almost infinitely stubborn and that is what it takes.

I was really discouraged about it seeming so hard for me when it looked a lot easier for others, but not giving up is what got me there. If I were the give-up type, I would have dropped this shit over a year ago. I was actually feeling really bad about myself, thinking that I just didn't have what it takes to push myself to improve (because I THOUGHT I was pushing myself, but not improving, so clearly I thought I must not really know what hard work is).

But now my perspective has been totally changed. I KNOW I have the mental game to do anything I want now. I know I was working as hard as I physically could manage and the lack of results was a medical problem, not a moral failing on my part. This experience has taught me absolutely that mental toughness is what gets you to your goal.

[al320]

A friend of mine once told me that running never gets easier, you just get better at dealing with pain. I think its just learning what kind of discomfort to expect, being confident it wont.kill you, and knowing youll get through it. Its totally mental.

[gt7301b]

I agree! A friend once said if you don't feel like you are going to throw up during a 5k you aren't pushing yourself hard enough.

I think part of the reason I like the 10 mile/ half distance is that the first 3/4 of those are fun. It is only the last mile or two (usually) that sucks. Which I guess is the same number of painfull miles as a 5k, but a better fun miles to uncomforatable ratio.

It also keeps me running in the summer, I hope that the discomfort of running in the heat will make me faster in the fall .

[chw57]

Yeah, I think it's huge. Going fast does not feel good, but you have to "embrace the suck" (triathlete-europe.competitor.com/2013/05/30/maccas-musings-embrace-the-suck) 

[katinthehat]

foundmylazybum specializes in this kind of talk (like I think sports psychology is what she has her degree in)

I think if our minds were half as strong as our bodies were, we'd all be champions. I know for me, my mind needs just as much, if not more, strengthening than my body.

I know it's kind of dumb, but I really have come to love suffering by doing the Sufferfest videos on my trainer. They've totally embraced the suck and made it an object of pride and a badge of honor. I've been able to translate a bit what I've learned on the bike from them to the run and am seeing some improvement in my mental run game.