training the body and training the mind

One of the first links I have at the top of my web browser takes me to the Run Well blog from the New York Times.  A writer from the newspaper was training for the New York City Marathon, and it became a hub for veteran and rookie marathoners alike to come and both share their stories in the comments section, but also to learn about how to improve your running. And let me tell you, only about half had to do with things to do physically.

One more recent article discusses that elite runners are elite runners not only because of their physical abilities, both because of their mental will.

“I was given a body that could train every single day.” Tom said, “and a mind, a mentality, that believed that if I trained every day — and I could train every day — I’ll beat you. The mentality was I will do whatever it takes to win. I was totally willing to have the worst pain. I was totally willing to do whatever it takes to win the race.”

The Tom they are referring to is Tom Fleming, a two-time winner of the New York Marathon, and was at one point ranked the 4^th best distance runner in the world.

I wholeheartedly agree with him. From my albeit more limited experience with distance running, your body can only take you so far. You can train and train and train, but if you do not also train your mind, you’re body is going stop on that 20^th mile. One needs the mental capacity to push through pain and every muscle screaming to stop in order to really achieve something in the sport.

However, there is something that runners can train themselves to do in order to endure the pain. They say that the top runners are those that achieve “dissociation”, and successfully manage to separate mind and body. They accept that the pain is not going to get any worse, but they just simply ignore it and focus on something else. To do this one needs to wholly separate your mind and your body. With this, a runner can keep going, banking on the fact that they are mentally stronger that they even may be physically.

I wholeheartedly agree with this notion. The contradiction in this is also interesting. It first suggests that to run better is to acknowledge that the mind and the body are one, and a runner needs to successfully train both physically and mentally in order to truly do your best. Tying the two together is against the Cartesian way of thinking. However, this idea then continues. While one must acknowledge the relation between the mental and the physical, the training of the two is through learning how to separate them. Training mentally is finding that Cartesian split. Excelling at the sport is by placing the mind on top, suggesting that it can conquer the body. This idea is undoubtedly what Descartes attempted to do.  

It seems that Descartes would have made a good distance runner.