Lucho Drops By with Zero Expectations

Tim Luchinske stopped by the site and left this comment for me:

Joe- The low expectations you place on your runs are a mental game that you play with yourself to counter your fear. By having low expectations there is less risk of failure, so there's nothing to be afraid of and your brain doesn't release stress hormones. When your expectations are high then there is more risk of failure (and success) and you get stressed which releases hormones. This is the "fear of success" theory in sports psychology. Going in to workouts with zero expectations counters both of these thought processes. Zero expectations allow you more readily to listen to your body and get the most out of the session. You should also consider how you define success and failure of a workout. If you plan to run at 8:00 pace and are too tired to achieve this- the workout may still be very successful in terms of moving towards your goal. Just because the number on the watch isn't up to your expectations, the effort may be. Your muscles don't care what the number on the watch is- they only care about how hard they work. Fatigue can make 8:30 pace just as effective in building fitness as 8:00 pace can when you're more rested. The same thing with HR. What happens with athletes is that they condition and teach themselves how to perceive their objective data (watts, HR, pace), the brains perception and preconditioned response to the number THEN determines how they feel. If you are intimidated by 7:30 pace, when you see it on your watch it will trigger fear, THEN you will feel tired, even if you felt great up to that point. Hormone release triggered by brain response to seeing a stimulus that you have taught yourself to fear... Ie: A small child doesn't fear a tiger until he learns to. When he first sees the tiger he is calm and laughing and wants to pet the tiger... once he learns what it actually is, seeing the tiger will trigger adrenaline, norepinephrine and cortisol release causing elevated HR and the fight or flight mechanism (fear). Bad analogy- but it gets the point across. When you look at your watch or power meter and your expectations are not met- the number may as well be a tiger.. Figure out how to shift this thinking away from expectation and more towards allowing your body to do what it can. Sorry to pop in and give unsolicited advice... this subject is currently the only thing that I myself am focused on. I see this response in nearly every athlete out there! The athletes that you don't see this response in are the ones who won Kona yesterday. They're the ones who break world records. The brain is 100% in control of how your body functions on race day... every small movement and decision starts in the brain. Your brain tells you how your legs feel, not the other way around.

It's awesome that Tim's checking out the blog. I found him through Jeff Keil's blog and enjoyed his perspective. Then I learned that Kindzia had worked with him in the past. Tim's working on a sub-2:30 marathon and is turning out 120+ mile weeks. He used to compete in triathlons and is now focusing on running.

Aside from the huge and fast running that he does, his mindset's very centered. In the last month... the month when I started reading him... he went through a big change in his mental approach to running. It's been amazing seeing that unfold each day.

So, of course, I'm more than glad to get any sort of feedback/guidance from him, solicited or not.

In a nutshell, Lucho recommends going into workouts with zero expectations. I had been describing my attempts at setting low expectations in the hopes of not being disappointed with my efforts. Zero expectations is a different mindset. It'll be hard to do that because there are always many sources of sensory input telling you things about your fitness status going into a workout. Soreness in the legs. Lung fatigue. Core/back tightness.

But I've had great workouts through each of those. So adopting a zero expectations mindset is rationally correct.

I can see the "fear of failure" angle too. So amazing that the mind can do so much to the body.

This all goes back to my meeting with the doctor who played chess. He said that in competitive chess at the world class level it's often the young guys who win because their *bodies* are in better shape to endure the long matches (i.e. body pain doesn't distract their mental activity.) In endurance sports you always hear that the difference between good and great is *mental* (i.e. the brain doesn't limit the body's activity.)

I always find this juxtaposition rather ironic. Chess is about physical conditioning and running is mental.

Having somebody like Lucho out there sharing his thoughts is very helpful to the entire community because he's many steps ahead (certainly of me.) We can watch him shape his own mental fortitude. While he does so many of the lessons make sense logically but don't hit home emotionally until we progress to through the lessons and feel them for ourselves.

I mean, sure, zero expectations. I'm on board. But I know that tonight on the treadmill I'll have expectations. Actually achieving zero expectations will take training, attention and effort. And in the process I'll learn about myself, morph the lesson to make it my own and share it here so that others can take it and run with it.

Thanks Lucho.