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Mind Games
A psychological look at
endurance sports
By Monique Cole
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After
finishing the 1989 Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run, Gordon
Hardman dutifully filled out a personality research survey. But
his wife Molly, who had been up all night crewing for him (and
caring for their infant son), shared her own theory with the
scientists. "'You want to know why they do this crazy race?'"
Hardman recalls his wife saying. "'Because they're self-centered
and egotistical.'"
Theories abound, some more scientific
than others, about the psychological side of trail running and
adventure racing. Especially at the driving edge of both sports
- ultra-marathons and expedition-style multi-sport races - everyone
seems to want to know the answer to the question, "Why?"
When these athletes talk about their
chosen sport, the terms "mental toughness," "discipline"
and even "fun" often come up. But outsiders are more
likely to call their training schedules and grueling race courses
"insane," "self-destructive" and just plain
"stupid."
If anything, though, ultra-runners err
on the side of intellectualism. "I'm always staggered by
the number of professionals - engineers, mathematicians, teachers,
scientists," says Hardman, an engineer himself who also
founded the Hardrock 100-miler. "There must be something
about the mental discipline required."
It's logical that people who strive
for excellence at work would also want to push their limits at
play. But these same high achievers tread a fine line between
a reasonable training and racing schedule, and one that negatively
impacts their family, friendships, careers, and physical and
mental health. Still, the real research on ultra-runners and
adventure racers reveals healthy mental states - a bit quirky,
perhaps - but definitely sane.
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photo ©Phil Mislinski
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In 1998 and 1999, personality tests
were conducted on 50 participants in Iditasport - a 100-mile
event in the Alaskan winter wilderness where solo racers choose
between running, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing or mountain
biking. The study, conducted by Samuel Case and Sherri Hughes
of Western Maryland College and others, revealed that the subjects
scored low on neuroticism and boredom susceptibility and high
on thrill seeking and extroversion.
"Individuals who are prone to negative
emotions including anxiety and depression would seem unlikely
participants in this demanding environment," they wrote
in a paper presented at a 1999 regional meeting of the American
College of Sports Medicine. "In addition, this event is
a unique and exciting experience even when compared to other
ultra-marathons and endurance events. Finally, individuals who
are less inclined to experience boredom or to engage in unhealthy
behaviors would be best suited for the substantial and often
repetitive training required to prepare for this race."
A resistance to boredom has been linked
to distance runners with a "positive addiction" to
their sport. This term was coined by psychiatrist William Glasser
who wrote a book by that name in 1976. He observed that people
who ran for at least an hour a day, along with people who meditated
daily, reaped psychological rewards from their activities. They
could faithfully persist in what other people might find a boring
pursuit, he theorized, because they were addicted to their chosen
activity. And because these addictions increased mental strength
in his view, Glasser went so far as developing a six-step plan
for developing positive addictions.
However, Glasser pointed out in his
book, "The positive addict enjoys his addiction but it does
not dominate his life."
Since then, a different type of addiction
has entered the spotlight - compulsive exercise, which is often
linked with eating disorders. Victims of the disorder are also
called exercise addicts, and are known for scheduling important
events like weddings and business meetings around their daily
workout. They will often push themselves past the point of healthy
activity, or continue exercising despite an injury that gets
progressively worse.
In the book, Exercise Addiction: When
Fitness Becomes an Obsession, author Laura Kaminker writes, "When
exercise takes over your life, when it isolates you, when it
becomes the sole focus of your thoughts, then it has become unhealthy."
Just don't assume all ultra-athletes
are exercise addicts. "We've got enough spurious addictions
to go around without branding ultra-events an addictive pastime,"
wrote ultra-runner Douglas B. Spink in a letter responding to
an article posted on Salon.com in July 1999 which portrayed ultra-endurance
sports as unhealthy. "What's next? Calling life itself addictive,
since so many of us just can't seem to let go and die?"
Contrary to the impression left by the
Salon.com article, ultra-runners and adventure racers have actually
chosen a healthy outlet for a personality trait called sensation
seeking. This personality category was first described by famed
psychologist Marvin Zuckerman in 1964, as a craving for "varied,
novel, complex and intense sensations and experiences."
Studies by Zuckerman and others have revealed that drug addicts,
sexual risk-takers, reckless drivers, compulsive gamblers and
participants in high-risk sports such as rodeo or motorcycle
racing score high in sensation seeking.
Over the past two years, Terri Schneider
of Team SCAR and a master's student in sport psychology at San
Jose State University, has studied the sensation seeking trait
in her fellow adventure racers, as well as ultra-runners. Her
results weren't very surprising.
"Adventure racers have proven to score high on Zuckerman's
Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS). As high as rock climbers. Almost
as high as folks who climb Mount Everest, who have scored the
highest thus far," she says. "Ultra-runners, on the
other hand, rank several notches lower, but still relatively
high on the scale."
A different study confirmed that adventure
racers tend to be thrill-seekers. Nick Seneca, an Ironman California
finisher who is working toward a Ph.D. in molecular neuroscience,
used a more general personality survey (NEO Five Factor by Mcrae
and Costa) which he says is less biased than Zuckerman's SSS.
Still, he found that his adventure racing subjects scored higher
in the excitement seeking and action sub-scales than subjects
in his two control groups - traditional college team athletes
and sedentary individuals (i.e. couch potatoes).
Several decades ago, Zuckerman theorized
that sensation seeking was at least partially a genetic trait
and that sensation seekers are born with low levels of the neurotransmitter
dopamine. To make up for this shortage, they seek out exciting
experiences that stimulate dopamine production.
Curious if this oft-repeated theory
held true, Seneca also collected saliva samples to measure the
genetic variation of dopamine beta hydroxylase (D ßH) in
his subjects. Surprisingly, he found his sedentary control subjects
had the lowest levels, and adventure racers were much higher.
This seems to debunk Zuckerman's theory
that sensation seekers "do something to an extreme because
they have to increase the amount of dopamine in their systems,"
Seneca explains. "I'm guessing that it's the opposite. That
we have higher levels of dopamine." But, Seneca points out
that he ended up with only 90-100 usable saliva samples, instead
of 150-200 samples, which would make the results more conclusive.
The usable samples were limited due to the difficulty of extracting
DNA from saliva, not because of the bits of energy bar floating
around to the amusement of lab technicians.
Whatever the inspiration, participation
in (and injuries from) so-called extreme sports is on the rise
in the United States. Social scientists theorize that Americans
seek out risk through sports because they find little of it in
their everyday lives. Fatal diseases like polio and bubonic plague,
hunting for food, and ground warfare, for the most part are things
of the past. Former soldiers are common among the ranks of adventure
racing, including elite racer Chris Burgess and Beast of the
East race director Don Mann, both former Navy Seals. Could they
be trying to replace the thrill of combat or the intensity of
military training through sport? Quite possibly.
All this research and conjecture makes
for scintillating cocktail conversation, but what good is it
to the athlete? The answer to that lies in applied sports psychology.
In the textbook Endurance in Sport (The
Encyclopedia of Sports Medicine, 2000) there's a chapter dedicated
to psychology by John S. Raglin and Gregory S. Wilson, who reviewed
scientific literature up to 1999. Some of their conclusions can
help endurance athletes understand themselves better and even
improve their performance.
Research has repeatedly shown that distance
runners on average have good mental health. However, intensive
training can create mood disturbances in athletes who were fine
prior to training. The greater the intensity of training, the
greater the mood disturbance, which can lead eventually to "staleness,"
over-training syndrome or even clinical depression. Luckily,
the cure is a simple one: take a break or adjust your training
schedule, before you burn out.
Another psychological pitfall lies in
the difference between association and dissociation. If you're
a runner whose mind wanders all over the map, especially when
your discomfort increases, you're a victim of dissociation. According
to research cited by Raglin and Wilson, recreational runners
are more likely to dissociate, which often makes them run slower
than their optimum pace. On the other hand, elite and competitive
runners associate, thinking constructively about their pace,
how their body feels and their running goals.
Other mental strategies often suggested
to improve performance (see "Mental Tools") haven't
necessarily been proven scientifically. One of these is visualization.
"Despite the popularity of this technique," Raglin
and Wilson write, "the benefits associated with imagery
appear to be modest at best."
Visualization probably has greater effects
in sports like downhill skiing than ultra-marathon running. It's
fairly easy to see how committing to memory a tricky course through
a short stretch of steep snow would make a greater difference
than visualizing 30 hours of shuffling along a trail marked by
glow-wands. Still, seeing yourself cross the finish line in your
mind's eye may keep you optimistic in reaching your goal. And
if it works for you, who cares what the researchers say.
Independence is a trait that comes up
frequently in personality tests of runners, including a separate
study at the 1994 Iditasport which concluded participants were
"intelligent, self-sufficient and independent." Considering
that theirs is a solo sport, this makes perfect sense.
On the other hand, adventure racers
must work together as a team. For athletes who come from backgrounds
in individualistic sports like biking, running, hiking and kayaking,
it can be extremely challenging to rely upon, wait for and even
physically carry their teammates. Rather than mere personal disappointment,
they face letting down as many as four other people if they fail.
Although dysfunctional teams may be
more interesting to the TV viewers on their couches, teams that
get along finish faster. (See "One Team, One Mind.")
During the 1997 Eco-Challenge in Australia,
Pamela Gilbert, a corporate consultant from Sydney, was curious
if the team-building techniques she used in business settings
would work in a multi-day adventure race.
Her approach was based on the Herrmann
diagnostic method (Harvard Business Review, July-August 1997).
"It all relates to brain dominance, our preferred way of
thinking, which impacts how we communicate and behave in certain
situations," Gilbert explains. She combined individual profiles
with combined team profiles to determine strengths and weaknesses
and potential areas of team friction and breakdown.
With this information, Gilbert helped
teams devise strategies and techniques to help them work together
more effectively, particularly in times of stress. The big question
was whether the process would increase performance. "The
answer was a definite, 'yes,'" according to Gilbert. "It
was as critical a component as the physical training."
"It was intriguing, to say the
least. Certainly we feel that we got some insight into how we
function as a team," says Robert Nagle who led his team
Eco-Internet to first place that year. "We use a slightly
different tool at the company where I now work - comparing the
two has led to a firm belief on my part in the value of these
analyses."
Likewise, the psychological side of
ultra-running cannot be ignored, even if it's also extremely
physical. "Finishing Hardrock is 90 percent mental,"
says Hardman. "The other 90 percent is physical."
This explains how hard-bodied youths
can cave in at the 30-mile mark of a 100-miler, while seemingly
less fit and older athletes drag themselves across the finish
line. This phenomenon, also seen in long adventure races, is
often attributed to mental strength and wisdom acquired through
experience.
"It's amazing that we can become
better racers at 40 than we are at 30," says Robyn Benincasa
of Team Eco-Internet. "But because adventure racing is based
on maturity, patience and experience, youth and genetics are
not the key indicators of success."
In the end, no matter what ultra- athletes
look like from the outside, they are certainly not a bunch of
freaks. "Nothing is farther from the truth," says Greg
Soderland, race director of the Western States 100-miler, American
River 50 and the Way Too Cool 50k. "Most are moderate- to
high-income, well educated, mainstream folks with families. Ordinary
people doing extraordinary things."
Senior Editor Monique Cole was a
guinea pig for a nutritional study at the 160-mile Iditasport
race in 1996, which she finished as the second place woman. Since
then, the mother of two has limited her ultra experiences to
pacing friends in 100-milers and nursing sick kids through long
nights. She says she's an extraordinary person doing ordinary
things.
Sidebars
One Team, One Mind
Winning, or even finishing,
an adventure race depends upon strong team dynamics. But you'd
better do a lot of homework first, according to Liz Caldwell.
With her teammate Barry Siff, she has finished in the top ten
at the 2000 Raid Gauloises, co-directed racing camps, and co-authored
Adventure Racing: The Ultimate Guide. Here are some of
her tips.
Know thy teammates. If there are personality conflicts before,
they'll only intensify after a day or two of racing. "While
it may not be possible to train with them, it is possible to
get to know them through phone conversations and e-mails,"
Caldwell says. "The red flags will go up if there is a personality
problem."
Agree on goals.
"If three team members want to have fun, finish together
as friends and do the best they can, and the other teammate starts
talking about 'winning' the race, there could be major problems
ahead," she predicts.
Create bonk plans. Different motivational styles work for different
people. Caldwell says she responds better to positive encouragement
and actually goes slower when someone tries to bully her. But,
she continues, "I had one military teammate who did respond
to being yelled at - it was what he was used to."
Be honest.
Each teammate should share their personal weaknesses and accurately
describe their skill levels. Caldwell relates: "I've heard
too many teams say after a race 'so and so told us they were
a really good mountain biker, but they were scared to ride a
dirt road' or whatever."
Maintain unity.
A good team leader will manage people well, won't be afraid of
being direct, and will solve problems during a race before they
escalate. "Don't let the group split into three against
one or two against two," says Caldwell. "Teams with
good dynamics do well in races - period." M.C.
Mental Tools
Sure, everyone knows that mental
strength is key to success in ultra-marathons. But how do you
pump psychological iron? Joan Steidinger, Ph.D., an exercise
psychologist who has finished the Western States Endurance Run
suggests honing these specific skills.
Positive Thinking
Say you're running out of steam
only halfway through a race. Instead of focusing on how many
miles you have left, think of how many you have already traveled.
Or, cut the remaining miles into manageable bits, like the 6
miles to the next aid station where you'll see a loved one or
eat something you're craving.
Goal setting
Finishing races of increasingly
longer distances during your training period provides feedback
and confidence that you can accomplish your main race goal. For
race day, establish multiple goals, such as split times, target
heart rates, pace, and something that draws on your strengths,
like running comfortably on all the uphills or descents. Just
keep your goals realistic and flexible to avoid getting discouraged.
Focusing
Although focus is important
in finishing an ultra, too much can create a crippling state
of anxiety. To manage your tension level during training, waiting
for the start gun or on the race course, borrow a technique called
"centering" from martial artists. Turn your attention
to your body's center of gravity, just below and behind your
navel, as you stand and take several deep breaths. If you notice
tension anywhere, focus your attention on that spot until it
relaxes, then return your focus to the "center."
Visualization
Mental imagery is a skill that
can encompass all five senses, but which takes lots of practice.
Some runners like to picture themselves as a cougar or gazelle,
gracefully covering ground. During Western States training camps,
Steidinger takes participants on a mental rehearsal of the entire
course, including conditions unique to that year. She says it
can also be helpful to see yourself surmounting specific problems
from your past.
Confidence
"As you train and stretch
your limits further," Steidinger says, "it's important
to acknowledge your developing running skills and abilities."
Reward yourself after particularly good training runs and apply
the confidence you've gained through other parts of your life
or other sports to your race goal. M.C.
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