Interesting - Train your brain!

Everything about the training process, including programs, experiences, etc.

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purdy65
Abby Hoffman
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Interesting - Train your brain!

Postby purdy65 » Wed Sep 18, 2013 12:04 pm

Hmmm... obviously it's not just your body you have to train!

http://www.runnersworld.com/race-traini ... cle?page=4
It's not the size of the dog in the fight...it's the size of the fight in the dog! 11K Marker post - 2010 ATB.

Introducing 2017

GoodLife Half Marathon.
TBD

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ian
Jerome Drayton
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Re: Interesting - Train your brain!

Postby ian » Wed Sep 18, 2013 1:14 pm

Here's the single page version of the article (as opposed to just the last page):
http://www.runnersworld.com/race-training/how-to-build-mental-muscle?page=single

Neat stuff. While I probably don't care enough about my results to suffer through mind-numbingly tedious brain exercises (unless you count the marking I have to do for work), I am a definite proponent of being lightly distracted for the first 30K of a marathon in order to conserve mental energy for the hard part of the race.

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Jogger Barbie
Bill Crothers
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Re: Interesting - Train your brain!

Postby Jogger Barbie » Thu Sep 19, 2013 6:42 pm

Very interesting, Lisa, thanks for posting this. Although I haven't done any formal "brain training", it makes me wonder if working extra-long hours during January - May, while training for a Spring marathon, helps out on race day. Certainly I had a couple of results this year that amazed me, and the same in Vancouver in 2011. Hmmm...there might be a silver lining to the nightmare aspects of my job. ;)
Jacqueline
--------------
19 marathons (3:24:56), 9 30 km ATBs (2:21:33), 2 Midsummer 30 km (2:22:07), 15 half marathons (1:33:53), 5 10 Ks (44:17), 1 5K (22:59), 1 50 K (4:29:22)
2015: London :)
2016: Boston, followed by injury rehab and then ???

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La
Kevin Sullivan
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Re: Interesting - Train your brain!

Postby La » Mon Nov 10, 2014 5:00 pm

I heard Alex Hutchinson speak about this topic at our Tri Club's AGM last night. He talked about all the different ways we can "trick" our brain (and our mind) to squeak out just that little bit more performance (more than we thought capable of, or that our body is telling us we are capable of).

One interesting study was with people who were racing (on a CompuTrainer) an avatar of themselves from a previous workout sessions. When they sped the avatar up by 1%, people were able to keep up with their "former self" because they knew this was someone they could race against. But even when they raised the avatar's performance by 2%, the participants weren't able to beat it, but they came close - topping out at about 1.7% increase in their previous top performance.

Obviously, there's a limit to how much you can trick (or train) the brain, but it was an interesting topic.
"Maybe I will be my own inspiration." - UltraMonk (Laura)
"Everywhere is walking distance if you have enough time." - Steven Wright


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