Human Limits
I was prompted to write the latest blog post on human limits after finishing the Hackney Half Marathon earlier today. What spurred this on? Well, I had done next to no training, apart from having completed Tough Mudder the week before and just one 8-mile practise run the week before that. I had been so busy getting my Personal Training career on track that all I could fit into my schedule were short, interval training sessions and a lot of functional exercises. I wasn’t even planning on running the Hackney Half Marathon, but after winning a place thanks to Brooks, I thought I might as well give it a go and just take it easy.
Or that’s what I initially thought…! I’ve done many half marathons before and I relied on that as my safety net; the reassurance that I know what running 13.1 miles feels like and there have been varying outcomes, usually dependent on how much training I have done. However, there was one element that was different in this race. With past races there has always been a constant: my husband has been my supporter at every single one. Today I didn’t have him there, which meant I didn’t have my comfort blanket. Now, this doesn’t mean that I NEED my husband to come to every one of my races, but it just felt a bit strange not having him there. I’m very independent and especially when it comes to my running, I’m very much a solo runner. But I think having support at any race is important and the fact that I didn’t know anyone else running, nor had anyone cheering me on, felt like the whole experience was missing something.
Still, I thought to myself, ‘what could go wrong?’ So what if I’m by myself? I’m a sociable person and love chatting to people on the tube on the way to the race, and the nervous buzz in the air at the starting line. Plus, the race conditions were fantastic today and the weather not too hot, luckily!
I started the race fine and felt pretty good. I usually am a little over prepared with my nutrition and packed way too many gels than I needed. But better to be over prepared than underprepared and I always listen to my body. The course was fast and pretty flat, which suited me fine! It was also nice to get to see Hackney for the first time (can’t believe I’m a Londoner and I’ve never really seen much of the popular parts of London!). I do run by my watch and after the first 5K I was hitting 8-minute miles, which shocked me a bit because I always treat the first few miles as my warm-up! But then as I came up to the 10K mark I was still hitting the 8-minute miles and some of those were comfortable sub-8 minutes. Usually this is a warning sign to me and consequently I slow down, however not today! My body simply kept going in a natural rhythm up until the 11-mile mark. I developed a bit of a stitch at this point, which I thought came from being dehydrated, but when this has happened in the past I try and focus on my breathing again, which eases the pain slightly as a result.
I had to dig deep with the last couple of miles; I had lost my rhythm slightly and my legs were starting to weigh me down. But who said running is just using your legs and feet? Not me! That’s why I do a lot of upper body strength work — when my legs give in, I still have my arms to drive me forward! So that’s what I did, and with that I finished the Hackney Half Marathon in 1 hour and 46 minutes — just missing my PB by 2 minutes.
Just to re-cap, I hardly did ANY training.
Looking fresh as a daisy with the Brooks team, Hackney Half Marathon, 10.05.15
Looking fresh as a daisy with the Brooks team, Hackney Half Marathon, 10.05.15
So, this made me ponder how I achieved that time so comfortably? Being a Personal Trainer I do have a solid base fitness level, but surely I couldn’t have just relied on that? I believe in having a positive mental attitude, and after Tough Mudder last weekend there are a lot of things in life — exercise or otherwise — that involve sheer mental grit. I do have a bit of a ‘running’ monologue when I take part in races (ha! See what I did there?), and certainly today there were no voices in my head saying that I couldn’t achieve a respectable time. Particularly today where I didn’t have much support, I found myself acting as my own support and motivator. I can’t even remember how many times I was shouting motivational cues in my head, but it must have worked. I’m quite competitive with myself and usually succumb to my ego telling me to give up all the time, but today there were only positive vibes present and thoughts of CAN, rather than CAN’T.
I listened to a great podcast a few weeks ago by RadioLab. It’s called ‘Limits’ and talks through several case studies on human limits. One of these case studies was an interview with the athlete Julie Moss, who in 1982 entered the IronMan championships in Hawaii as a research experiment. She hadn’t completed all of her training beforehand, particularly in the cycling, but she was very physically fit from being a very keen surfer.
With about 2 miles left in the race, she becomes completely dehydrated. She’s suffering from cramps and indigestion, when suddenly her legs give out and she collapses. Anyone would think it’s game over, and when you watch the video you can evidently see her body physically cannot go any further, and it’s better to admit defeat. However, Julie said that at that crucial moment a voice in her head told her to ‘get up’. Prior to the race Julie had made a deal with herself that she would finish the race no matter what. That positive voice and will power, not the ego, told her she CAN finish the race. Even if it meant her crawling to the finish line, which is exactly what she did.
The link to the video is below. It’s a tough watch, but incredibly inspirational. Julie believes the human body has no limits, and I believe that too. The human mind is extremely powerful and too often we fill it with negative thoughts and allow them to simply overpower us. When I explain to people that running a marathon is 80% mental strength, they don’t believe me. I understand why they think that — how the hell is your mind supposed to get you through 26.2 miles of running? But when we’ve only trained to around 21 miles, what else is going to get you through that last 5 miles? A couple of gels? Some jelly babies? A sports drink? Perhaps. But when my legs feel like lead and fatigue has struck every other part of my body, it’s my mind that is still strong and willing me to keep going.
The podcast features another case study of research by Physiologist Dr. David Jones, who tells us how to trick the voice in your head that tells you you’re exhausted. He conducts an experiment on groups of athletes to see whether sugar, when injected into the bloodstream, has any effect whatsoever on our muscles and ultimately our physical performance. Interestingly, our muscles have way less to do with human limits than we think.
For many of us our limits are defined more by what we perceive them to be, rather than as a result of having tested the waters of our capabilities. Naturally, many of us are uncomfortable with pushing on those boundaries, of moving outside our comfort zone, in large part because we fear the risk of failing miserably during the pursuit of some new activity. And yet, by not attempting to move past these lines we use to delineate our abilities, how can we be certain we’re not holding ourselves back from fulfilling our real potential? We so easily put a guard up — our faithful safety net. By playing it safe, we not only deny ourselves new opportunities for personal growth, we’re also keeping ourselves from truly appreciating our inner talents and abilities.
Do all of us have limits to what we’re capable of doing? Absolutely. However, unless we really push beyond that barrier and take that chance at trying some new field or activity, we will never have a realistic view of what we’re really able to accomplish.
The mind is an incredible thing.
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