"We’re told to “listen to our bodies” and respect pain as a boundary for exertion. But what if the body sends mixed signals and the pain is malleable? I’m encouraged by the experience in those final miles, when my brain shelved the pain for the sake of racing, and then quickly healed and returned to normal in the next 48 hours. Experiencing all the pain-related discouragement mid-race made the finish feel even more satisfying. That’s why pain and pleasure are linked."
Finding that ability to intuit what's going on (which, of course, is not always so easy) is such an empowering and freeing skill, and I've found that it's taken consistent years of really tuning in and learning my body to start to get a feel for it. It's such a beautiful dance, with the body, that we get to engage in through running. I've found a lot of self-love, compassion, and wisdom in learning the steps. Thanks for this, Sarah.
To me, listening to your body doesn’t mean stopping when things hurt but doing the kind of experienced and intelligent assessment that Sarah describes in this post. You listen to your body, assess, and make decisions and changes.
I recently read Steve Magness’s book and he has great example narratives of running what we would consider super short races — 800m — and yet going through a complex series of mental assessments, slight adjustments, decisions, etc., as the race evolves. I think this is where experience helps a lot, but it’s humbling to know that it remains a challenge to someone as experienced as Sarah.
Oh boy can I identify! I’ve done Black Canyon 2x - the 100K distance. The first time I fell on my last shakeout run 3 days before the race and smashed both of my kneecaps. I knew it would be a long day. Everything was fine until Black Canyon city and then it was pretty intense pain those last 25 or so miles. Everything resolved eventually. I just had to suck it up. I knew there was no meniscus tear and no swelling within the knee joint itself, it was all outside the joint so I didn’t worry. Honestly, I believe there is a wisdom to the body. If the pain is bearable enough and things work ok, then usually there isn’t irreversible damage being done - this is my reasoning as a physiologist. I’ve never DNF’d a race but I have been stopped in my tracks mid-run from pain and then I knew I was done! I stopped and walked home. If it had been a race I would have had to quit. From these experiences I feel I will likely be able to distinguish types of pain if I need to. Coincidentally, I was diagnosed with chondromalacia in college. Well…. I’m 55 and still running fine! Knees stay healthy with good running form and targeted strength work. It’s not too late to mitigate. Most orthos see people who just continue on the same path, and do nothing to change the underlying cause of whatever the issue is. It might not be too late to get a good PT and change the trajectory. I’m glad you finished strong and are doing well!
You know that I like transparency in an athlete, who I know has grit, resilience, and competitiveness in spades. Thank you again for that humanity, I like to call it "powerful vulnerability." I see it every day from my daughter, who at 27 has a post-viral condition similar to Long Covid. She is almost bed-bound, with a few spoons of energy on any day. Previously she was the best athlete in my family. However she (and you and anyone) may not see or practice powerful vulnerability in themselves.
I want to let you know that at the Dick Collins 50M last year, I chose to walk and slightly jog the last half marathon of that course, because both knees were hurting inside the joint, not in the soft tissues in the area. So this kind of pain, as a 68 yr old ultra runner, I will not push through. I hope I will be able to do this whenever it rears its ugly head. I always wrap my "bad" knee, but during this race I wrapped both (with 4" 3M Vet Wrap, the kind I used on horses) and it really can stay on nicely, get wet etc, for 12 hours if you have wrapped it correctly. The happy ending is that 2 weeks later (because I didn't power thru my knee joint pain), I ran my first ever sub 5-hr 50K. So keep up the hope, and remember even an A-race may not be worth having to recover from a hard effort AND an injury of sorts. xoxo
Thanks Angie! I used to wrap my knee with KT Tape but my ortho actually recommended against it, saying it could make the kneecap press down on the cartilage and irritate it more. Go figure. But I appreciate your perspective!
That was great, thanks! I was reminded of my own pain management at the end of the Cascade Crest 100 miler last summer. During that run, I thought a lot about the work of Dr. Rachel Zoffness, a pain psychologist and Stanford professor. She says that 100% of the time pain is both physical and emotional, and we can often limit our pain by adjusting our emotional state. Something like that. I was able to manage and limit my pain by telling myself that it didn’t hurt. I don’t know if what I was doing was based on science or hallucinations, but it helped!
If you’re into podcasts, her interview on a podcast called Ologies might be worth checking out.
I LOVE this:
"We’re told to “listen to our bodies” and respect pain as a boundary for exertion. But what if the body sends mixed signals and the pain is malleable? I’m encouraged by the experience in those final miles, when my brain shelved the pain for the sake of racing, and then quickly healed and returned to normal in the next 48 hours. Experiencing all the pain-related discouragement mid-race made the finish feel even more satisfying. That’s why pain and pleasure are linked."
Finding that ability to intuit what's going on (which, of course, is not always so easy) is such an empowering and freeing skill, and I've found that it's taken consistent years of really tuning in and learning my body to start to get a feel for it. It's such a beautiful dance, with the body, that we get to engage in through running. I've found a lot of self-love, compassion, and wisdom in learning the steps. Thanks for this, Sarah.
To me, listening to your body doesn’t mean stopping when things hurt but doing the kind of experienced and intelligent assessment that Sarah describes in this post. You listen to your body, assess, and make decisions and changes.
I recently read Steve Magness’s book and he has great example narratives of running what we would consider super short races — 800m — and yet going through a complex series of mental assessments, slight adjustments, decisions, etc., as the race evolves. I think this is where experience helps a lot, but it’s humbling to know that it remains a challenge to someone as experienced as Sarah.
Great point about listening to your body meaning not stopping necessarily, but assessing. thank you for reading!
thanks for reading!
Oh boy can I identify! I’ve done Black Canyon 2x - the 100K distance. The first time I fell on my last shakeout run 3 days before the race and smashed both of my kneecaps. I knew it would be a long day. Everything was fine until Black Canyon city and then it was pretty intense pain those last 25 or so miles. Everything resolved eventually. I just had to suck it up. I knew there was no meniscus tear and no swelling within the knee joint itself, it was all outside the joint so I didn’t worry. Honestly, I believe there is a wisdom to the body. If the pain is bearable enough and things work ok, then usually there isn’t irreversible damage being done - this is my reasoning as a physiologist. I’ve never DNF’d a race but I have been stopped in my tracks mid-run from pain and then I knew I was done! I stopped and walked home. If it had been a race I would have had to quit. From these experiences I feel I will likely be able to distinguish types of pain if I need to. Coincidentally, I was diagnosed with chondromalacia in college. Well…. I’m 55 and still running fine! Knees stay healthy with good running form and targeted strength work. It’s not too late to mitigate. Most orthos see people who just continue on the same path, and do nothing to change the underlying cause of whatever the issue is. It might not be too late to get a good PT and change the trajectory. I’m glad you finished strong and are doing well!
Thanks for sharing your experience—it’s helpful!
The "beauty" of the course is under a "C" for me. Brown around and brown hills. Meh.
Glad your knees and back have miraculously recovered! Yay!
haha Olga, you and I are a lot alike
Hey, Sarah,
You know that I like transparency in an athlete, who I know has grit, resilience, and competitiveness in spades. Thank you again for that humanity, I like to call it "powerful vulnerability." I see it every day from my daughter, who at 27 has a post-viral condition similar to Long Covid. She is almost bed-bound, with a few spoons of energy on any day. Previously she was the best athlete in my family. However she (and you and anyone) may not see or practice powerful vulnerability in themselves.
I want to let you know that at the Dick Collins 50M last year, I chose to walk and slightly jog the last half marathon of that course, because both knees were hurting inside the joint, not in the soft tissues in the area. So this kind of pain, as a 68 yr old ultra runner, I will not push through. I hope I will be able to do this whenever it rears its ugly head. I always wrap my "bad" knee, but during this race I wrapped both (with 4" 3M Vet Wrap, the kind I used on horses) and it really can stay on nicely, get wet etc, for 12 hours if you have wrapped it correctly. The happy ending is that 2 weeks later (because I didn't power thru my knee joint pain), I ran my first ever sub 5-hr 50K. So keep up the hope, and remember even an A-race may not be worth having to recover from a hard effort AND an injury of sorts. xoxo
Thanks Angie! I used to wrap my knee with KT Tape but my ortho actually recommended against it, saying it could make the kneecap press down on the cartilage and irritate it more. Go figure. But I appreciate your perspective!
That was great, thanks! I was reminded of my own pain management at the end of the Cascade Crest 100 miler last summer. During that run, I thought a lot about the work of Dr. Rachel Zoffness, a pain psychologist and Stanford professor. She says that 100% of the time pain is both physical and emotional, and we can often limit our pain by adjusting our emotional state. Something like that. I was able to manage and limit my pain by telling myself that it didn’t hurt. I don’t know if what I was doing was based on science or hallucinations, but it helped!
If you’re into podcasts, her interview on a podcast called Ologies might be worth checking out.
Thanks!