I read an article last year in Triathlete magazine about Breakthrough workouts. I can’t find the article posted online anywhere, but here’s the gist of it: Your brain causes you to think that your muscles are fatigued long before they actually are. A breakthrough workout is designed to break through that barrier in order to teach your brain that you can go faster and farther than it thinks you can. I even planned a breakthrough workout as described in the article. That workout was a great workout, but didn’t provide any dramatic change in my skill level.
I just received an email newsletter this week from Active.com with a similar article entitled Train your brain.
This article says basically the same thing…
Cutting-edge research in exercise physiology demonstrated that fatigue is seldom, if ever, caused exclusively by events that occur within the muscles. Fatigue is actually caused by the brain, which reduces its electrical stimulation of the muscles and produces feelings of discomfort to prevent any real damage from happening to the muscles or other organs.
I just don’t buy this theory. I tried hard to use mental toughness to keep up my speed during the running leg of my races this season. It just didn’t work. If anyone has a secret to tapping into this, please share it with me!
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I think that there is some truth to this and I think you have seen it already in the post you've discussed. When you feel like you have to slow down, but you say a little chant in your head and get going again. That boost is mental. The chant hasn't changed your physiology. That is also why a coach or training video is so helpful, it pushes you mentally to keep going. Again there is nothing in those motivational people that changes your physiology. It's just that the motivation overrides your brain's desire to get back to a comfortable state, i.e. on the sofa watching tv.
I actually believe it, especially in endurance sports. Things like always running the same route, or training in the same situation, would force you to think that the "tough hill" is approaching, and you feel tired even before the "tough hill" arrived.
In high-school I used to run with the track-and-field team in a 5K race that included a HUGE hill at the end. In one year, I wanted so badly to get a medal in the competition that my mind was totally focused for the race. I broke my record in the course, and although I felt great, I was SO tired (physically) that I fainted after crossing the finish line and woke up in a stretcher. Why didn't I slow down in the hill? Why didn't I feel tired?
This is a very personal opinion, but I think it plays a huge role in endurance sports.
Yes, that is my experience as well. "You got to work hard, you got to work hard, if you want anything at all"...Depeche Mode
I have no secret unless it is a secret that working long and hard has given me the best results. I don't buy the brain/fatigue theory either.
Bob