Comment by padobson | Hacker News Reader

Comment by padobson | Hacker News Reader

But by then, he had won four major marathons and the Olympic gold medal, and what he lacked in raw physical potential he made up for with … something.

It seems like the next frontier in distance running optimization is the mind. Given the analysis on the runners' physiology, the only thing that really separated them was mentality.

This seems obvious, given the nature of distance running, but the article never mentions sports psychology or mental exercises the runners do to improve performance.

That's pretty interesting, given that so many elite athletes have put such an emphasis on the mental part of their game:

I knew I was going to wrestle in the finals of the Olympics against a Russian and I knew he had been training specifically to beat me, but then I knew the guy was on steroids, That would help me. Whereas some might think ‘oh he’s cheating, for me you didn’t pay the price. You’re not as committed as I am. It’ll tear him apart. He may be strong, but all I have to do during that 9 minutes of wrestling is loosen one single wire in his brain, make him do something that isn’t perfect, and he’ll fall apart. Besides the health effects, what you lose when you use steroids is mental toughness. The key to victory is that the strongest mind wins. You can get physical strength with steroids, but you lose the mental toughness (you would have gained) from brutal hard work. Steroids hurt mental toughness by serving as a crutch. - Dan Gable[0]

Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them – a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have the skill, and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill. To be a champion you must believe you are the best. If you’re not, pretend you are. - Muhammad Ali[1]

Physically is a little bit easier, but the mental part is the hardest part, and I think that's what separates the good players from the great players - Michael Jordan[2]

[0]https://www.bjjee.com/articles/wrestling-legend-dan-gable-st... [1]https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/the-power-of-vis... [2]https://youtu.be/xlFRZmUmaYI

I think part of that mental toughness that may be overlooked is being dedicated and putting in the time to become a true champion. If you devote a good amount of your waking hours to a craft or sport and you use that time properly (learning to do things right rather than doing them repeatedly wrong) then you will excel.

I learned this from one of my Drumline instructors at university who was also a biology professor; He stated that one of his students did poorly on his exam and the student said he studied hours on end and didn’t know how that could happen. The professor replied, the amount you study isn’t nearly as important as studying efficiently and correctly. He then likened that to us practicing drums he said, if you spend hours practicing with improper technique then you are doing yourself a disservice and he finished up by saying you will only perform as well or likely worse than how you perform while practicing.

Despite that efficiency beats time in most aspects, if you want to do well at the National and international level you will still likely have to devote a very major part of you waking hours to honing your skills efficiently.

For endurance sports the top level competitors are all in phenomenal condition. What separates the winners from the losers is the ability to suffer. (Not accounting for PEDs of course).

In the ultramarathon world, there is increasing attention being paid to PEDs. A lot of that focus is not on the physical benefits of the drugs, though that is important, but the focus is also on the mental benefits. That is, drugs that lower anxiety and/or increase focus can have greater benefits in a race that might last 20 hours. So, in my world, being physically able to run 50 or 100 miles is just table stakes. It's the mental game that makes the difference in whether you cross the finish line or not.

running may not seem like it, but the way you think about what you are doing especially in a race scenario can make or break you quickly... I recently ran a half and did almost all of my morning prep beforehand wrong.. forgot some key things, freaked myself out just before the race and did far worse than I had trained for... if you think you've messed up, you've messed up :)

A trick to get into a race (not based on empirical evidence, just my own experience) is to start counting in your head and turn off everything else. I counted 1-2-3 after I almost tripped in the beginning of a half marathon. Instead of focusing on beating myself up for almost tripping I just continued to count. Broke almost all my PB. Keeps you from thinking about messing up.

Not only the steroid quote is whole lot of bullshit but running is not really competitive in the same way basketball and wrestling/boxing are.

So you and I start the race standing next to each other, then we run to the finish line. One of us wins. Why is that not competitive like a fight or basketball?

Not OP, but I'd say it's different because in running, your performance is mostly based on yourself. In boxing and basketball, you have an opponent trying to prevent you from executing your plan.

I'm not judging better or worse and I hate the "is golf a sport" arguments.

Pro distance runners learn about their rivals' style and preferences, and have race strategies to frustrate 'em.

Having co-participants is not the same thing as having direct opponents.

It’s not identical but this sounds like direct competition. I’ve read other quotes from Jim Walmsley about the mental competition in an ultramarathon.

> “You shouldn’t let others bully you on the course and make you do something you aren’t comfortable with, like going too fast or too slow,” he said. > > “You need to find your pace and, if you can, try to bully one of the other big names into going your pace and not their pace.”

http://m.scmp.com/sport/outdoor/article/2109266/jim-walmsley...

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