Negotiation
On a recent podcast of The Morning Shakeout, host Mario Fraioli converses with author Sebastian Junger. Junger was a solid collegiate runner at Wesleyan University with bests of 4:12 in the mile and 24:05 for 5 miles. In his mid-20s, he ran a 2:21 marathon. He discovered he had an ability to run at age 15 when as a soccer player he was encouraged by the cross-country coach at Concord Academy to run in a school meet and won it. At 16, he ran the Boston Marathon in 3:15 despite not having trained, running 4, 8, 12, and 20 miles during the week before, just to see if he could go the distance. At age 26 he assessed he did not have the speed or ability to pursue professional running and though he continues to run some recreationally, focuses on his writing projects and other activities.
During this podcast, Junger talks about the “negotiation” we have with our bodies as we pursue excellence. He suggests that is true of any endeavor, and his books expand on that in various ways. This part of the discussion centered around run training and how he in his teens and early 20s had to negotiate how much pain he was going to endure to determine what his upper limits were.
This implies our minds and bodies, while certainly connected, have different and separate tendencies and that mind over matter is involved. This harkens Tim Noakes’ Central Governor Theory, which suggests our brain saves us from our own devices by holding us back from going beyond our capabilities, in effect going through Death’s Door!. Most committed runners have probably wrestled with this element of pushing themselves to the max to determine their top potential.
Maybe there is a “negotiation” with our bodies during an interval pace or a finishing kick in a race, but those are specific time-bound instances, when fear, doubt, and negative self-talk can rein us in. But there are certain things we can’t negotiate. For example, the amount of rest and recovery needed, while it varies by individual, is not negotiable. If we try to push beyond the time needed to recover, or rush the adaption process, we are moving towards injury. Or maybe we ran six or even seven days a week in our 40s, putting our bodies on notice we were going to get in our run, hell or high water. In our 60s, that type of notification has backlash.
Junger, now 63, suggests he sometimes finds himself too tired, mentally and physically, to write and has to push himself through that. Maybe that can work, but if every time we hit limitations we charge ourselves to motor through, it can result in an unrealistic expectation that our minds know more than our bodies. A tenet emphasized in Peter Reaburn’s The Masters Athlete, is we must “listen to our bodies.” If we do, they tell us things we should be paying attention to. This seems to apply to our mental capacities as well, which we might think of as being static. But they, too, are dynamic. We learn by creating new synapses in our nervous system, be that understanding a new concept or developing expertise in something like juggling.
Recently, I made a 90-minute presentation on senior running. The workshop drew a range of runners, some “serious,” others less so. Yet, all were interested in learning more about how aging affects their running. It was the first time I had made this particular presentation and I spent considerable time prepping, even practicing several timed run-throughs. There was a lot (too much it turned out!) information and since there was a range of backgrounds, I had to pay close attention to who was following the thread as well as those needing further explanation to follow the topics covered. So, it was more than just spitting out stuff I knew. After about 75 minutes, I was beginning to flag, needing to pause to focus my thinking. By the end I was exhausted. One lesson I learned is I do not have the same level of mental energy I had 20, 10 or maybe even five years ago. The quality of the presentation started to go downhill and thank goodness it was not planned for longer!
Whether it’s physical, mental, or emotional challenges we face, it’s important to sense when enough is enough. While this will vary considerably among us, it’s important to know our limits. And respect them. We can try to override our bodies, in a way negotiate with them, and maybe there are times this is necessary. Discerning when that is appropriate is easier said than done.