Cognitive Association vs. Dissociation

[Paul Thomas]

On another thread we got into a bit of a discussion on talking vs. not talking during a race. This reminded me of some research I did for a school paper back in 1982. That was the year I ran my first two marathons, DesNews in July and St. George in the fall. I was on a sub-3:00 pace at DesNews, hit the wall very hard at 20 miles, and finished around 3:20. I had to write a paper that summer for a class I was taking at BYU, and chose the topic "Hitting the Wall in a Marathon". The two things I remember learning from my research were carbo loading, and cognitive association vs. cognitive dissociation. I applied what I'd learned (and trained a couple of more months) and ran St. George in 2:52, nearly 30 minutes faster, with no discomfort.

I googled "dissociation marathon" to verify what I remembered about cognitive association vs. cognitive dissociation. These can further be classified as internal vs. external.

Some definitions from "The mental marathon" http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NHF/is_1_22/ai_113898593:

* Internal association: This focuses on how the body feels while running

* Internal dissociation: This is essentially distraction: examples include playing songs over and over in your head and solving mental puzzles

* External association: This focuses outwardly, on factors important to the race: passing or being passed by other runners, looking out for fluid stations and calculating split times

* External dissociation: This, too, focuses outwardly--but on events unimportant to the race: enjoyment of the scenery, attention to throngs of cheering spectators or glimpses of outrageously costumed runners passing by.

I found a number of different articles. One of them specifically mentions "chatty running partners" as an example of external cognitive dissociation.

I tend to use all of these mental strategies at times throughout the marathon, with more dissociation earlier in the race and more association later in the race.

The research appears to say that elite runners tend to associate more (which is mentally much harder), while non-elite runners tend to dissociate more, but a mixture of both strategies can be beneficial.

There are large number of elite and non-elite runners on this blog. I'm curious about your experiences and opinions on this topic.

[Sasha Pachev]

If you are not a novice to running, there is not mental trick that could help you run even as little as a minute faster in the marathon. Your performance is 95% fitness-based.

They say there is more than one way to skin a cat. There is more than one way a slightly more fit runner can "skin" a slightly less fit runner. Speaking from experience in both roles.

[Michelle Lowry]

I'd argue against segregating bloggers between elite and non-elite, since by many standards none of us would fall into the former camp.  
I try to dissociate as little as possible in a race, when I wander I try to pull back to the task at hand.  I do remember a great part of the St. George marathon was the beauty of the scenery.  I am looking forward to that external dissociation again, but only in 15 second increments

[Josse]

If you are not a novice to running, there is not mental trick that could help you run even as little as a minute faster in the marathon. Your performance is 95% fitness-based.

They say there is more than one way to skin a cat. There is more than one way a slightly more fit runner can "skin" a slightly less fit runner. Speaking from experience in both roles.

So are you saying that it is only 5% mental?  Because I think you have to be 100% into it metally.
I think throughout a marathon most people use little tricks to help the distance/time pass, but you can't let your mind wander the whole time.  You need to stay focused if you are wanting a certain time.  At least I think, but everyone is differant.

[Jon Allen]

Reminds me of Once a Runner, where Cass says that, Oddly enough, everyone is thinking about the race during the race. 

Oddly enough, I think almost exclusively about the race during the race, even on races as long as 3 hours+.  Mainly monitoring my body, thinking of what comes next in the race, looking for weaknesses in my competition, etc.  A bit of mental math, though fingers are usually involved cause I have trouble doing even simple math at race pace.  I often have a song in my head the whole time, but in the background- I don't concentrate on it, I'm thinking of other things.  I will occasionally notice that the scenery around me would be pretty if I had time to stop and admire it, but I don't have time to stop.  In other words, almost all association.  Minimal talking, especially in the last 2/3 of a race.  In fact, I almost stop talking altogether a few hours before the race.  Not grumpy (despite what my wife thinks), I'm just concentrating and getting ready.

[Tom]

I used to be a dissociater (is that a word?) in past years but seems like this year I've switched to association. I think doing loads of long tempo runs solo over the winter where I was focused intently on holding a certain pace, listening to body signals, running form, etc, got me used to monitoring my body closely whenever I run at faster, race-like tempos. As I've gotten faster and learned how to race better I find it can take an incredible amount of associative concentration to stay on tempo. Seems like if I phase off even for a few seconds I can get completely out of the groove. I feel bad sometimes in races when runners around me are wanting to chat and I get pretty unsociable sometimes.  I think sometimes we need to run races just for fun and enjoy the perks of dissociation.

On the other hand, most of my very best PR races have been those very rare situations where something happens....endorphines, runner's high, help from On High....whatever.....when it seems like I don't even have to think at all, the running just "happens" with seemingly little mental or even physical effort on my part. I've described it before as running on "auto-pilot" and just being there for the ride. almost feeling like having an out-of-body experience or something. Man if I could only find the secret to making this happen any time I wanted.....

Also I haven't done a marathon yet this year. I'm thinking a little dissocation and chit-chat in the early miles might be a good thing to help relax, enjoy the moment, and get motivated for the later miles when we can associate to our hearts content.

[Jeff Linger]

Personally, I use a number of mental methods during races. I usually start a longer race by trying to just stay relaxed and casual, just getting into a light flow. I check my watch at the first couple mile splits to make sure that I'm in my target range, but generally I try not to focus on too much to do with my pace time and instead on my pace feel. As the race stretches on I find that light disassociation is helpful. First, if I feel my body is in the groove I try not to think about the race and let my body do its thing. Especially in a long race if I can get away with a maintained pace that's in my target without thinking about the race that is just less mental strain that I need to exhert. Staying focused mentally on a race can take its toll. The less toll I need to exhert the better. However, by ignoring my watch except at mile splits I can keep myself monitored without mental effort. If my body is doing what its supposed to be doing, I generally find that zoning out periodically will help me feel stronger and sometimes it actually increases my pace a bit. Always when I'm beginning to feel the pace slow down, I begin by focusing either on my breathing or my hands. I try to pick just one thing to completely occupy my attention that is race oriented, but that minimizes my mental strain. Once I get this under control and get back into a rhythmic pace, I tend to start calculating splits. Ex: Ok, I'm at 44 minutes through 6 miles. 6 miles at 45 minutes is 7:30s, 1 minute divided over 6 miles is 10 seconds a mile. 10 seconds a mile off 7:30s is 7:20s. Ok, I'm running 7:20s. That's about where I want to be, or that's a bit slow, I'm going to try to hit my 7th mile in a 7:15. Generally this will take me about 1/4 of a mile to run the math. I'll sometimes throw in other mental math such as, ok, I'm at 41:30 minutes through 6 miles. I've got 7.1 miles to go and I'm trying to crack 1:30 for this 1/2 marathon. If I maintain my pace that will give me 41:30 xs 2 is 83 minutes, leaving me 7 minutes to run my last 1.1 miles. Well, I usually run a negative split race so I'm probably just about right for my pace, but I'd like to pick it up a bit so I'm going to try to run the next 3 miles at 7:00, 6:55 and 6:50. This will leave me with 4 miles to go and I can really focus on putting down the pace hammer through the finish. These sorts of mechanisms take my mind off the running part of the race, while still keeping my mind in the race. I think anytime you start feeling a bit sluggish if you can just take your mind of the physical aspect of the race for even 1/2 a mile it will provide significant benefits to your physical capacities, but that's just me. I pick math because I'm good at calculating splits, mostly because I practice it during training runs.

[Paul (RivertonPaul)]

Nice thread, thanks.

[Sasha Pachev]

Josse:

I've come many times to a race with no intent to race it, just jog to win. Or with a plain bad attitude. Or I would see supposedly unbeatable competition and say to myself at the starting line - there goes my money. But I was fit, and part of being fit is that your body starts running fast against your will. So I would run a near PR and be pretty tired at the end. And sometimes I would even beat the "unbeatable" competition in spite of the bad attitude at the start. On the other hand I've come to key races with the best attitude ready to die for every second. But I was not fit that day. Part of being unfit is that your body starts running slow against your will. So I ran slow against my will, got beat by all kinds of competition, and found myself fairly fresh at the end although for the life of me I could not have gone any faster. What I've found is that my attitude has never correlated with my performance, but my fitness has.

Mental aspect of running plays a much smaller role that what we make it out to be. To help illustrate that - what would it take for a 3:00 marathoner to beat a 2:30 one? That's right, the 2:30 would need to either royally blow up, suffer an injury, or just stop at mile 26 and wait for the 3:00 guy to pass him. Note that all the scenarios involve severe underperformance from the 2:30 guy. There is no way a true 3:00 guy could run even 2:50, nothing said about 2:30, without being more fit.

If you want to run fast, just train. When it is time to race, just run, don't worry about anything. If you've trained right your body will figure out how to run the time that your fitness deserves.

[Paul Thomas]

Tom's "auto pilot" and Jeff's "getting into a light flow" comments sound similar to "Flow" as described in Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)

"Flow is the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. Proposed by positive psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, the concept has been widely referenced across a variety of fields.

Colloquial terms for this or similar mental states include: to be on the ball, in the zone, or in the groove."

Since flow depends on being "fully immersed", "energized focus", and "full involvement" it sounds like something associaters are more likely to experience than dissociaters.

Based on Sasha's race reports, I would say Sasha is definitely an associater. For an example, take a look at his recent Spanish Fork 1/2 report (http://sasha.fastrunningblog.com/blog-Spanish-Fork-Half-Marathon/09-06-2008.html). He seems to be constantly monitoring his body, analyzing, calculating and strategizing.

An example from his race report: "Benjamin comes to help and starts racing me towards the tape. Several thoughts go through my head - his 100 meter PR from last spring is 17.7, he is fresh, and I do not want to get beat to the tape by my 9-year-old son! So I was able to find another gear and pull away from him a little bit."

Interestingly enough, from that same race report it appears Sasha is not above an occasional mental game. I quote, "Close my eyes, try to not be distracted. Also this mental game of seeing the finish line closer suddenly once you open your eyes works wonders." A "mental game" that "works wonders"? Hmmm. 

Seriously, I think highly of those who don't think it's important to think about what you are thinking about while racing, it's just that for me my experience is different. The SF 1/2 was the only race all year where I had a mental strategy before the race. By planning mental breaks, I was able to maintain my mental focus the rest of the time and I ran my strongest race of the year, being able to finish stronger than I started for the first time all year. I guess as I continue to improve, those mental breaks can get shorter and shorter, and I'll get faster and faster, and mentally stronger and stronger, until I don't need them at all...or maybe only in 15 second increments.

Thanks for all the comments so far. It's been very interesting.

[Josse]

As we see hear everyone is differant, because if I show up to a race with a bad attitude I am not going to race as fast or as well then if I show up with a good attidtude.   Mental breaks are going to be differant for everyone as well.  I like staying positive in a race, for me there is nothing worse than for someone to say to me "man I hate hills" or something negitive.  In fact when someone does, becuase it seems like it happens alot then I turn that into a positive and tell them back "man I love hills".  At the end of Hobble I with about a mile to go I passed a guy and he told me "oh not you again, you always pass me and finish strong".  I wasn't feeling like I wanted to run faster but scence he had said that I thought to myself yes I am a strong finisher and picked it up. 
I think we can take alittle of everything said here and use it to help us run alittle stronger in SG.
Oh ya and Sasha you are just not a normal person! 
Some other tricks I do to get through a marathon is break the course up into sections.  For my game plan it will be 1-7 with the attitude of staying relaxed but getting a good start. then 8-13 with not over working this section because you can burn yourself out.  Then 14-18 let it loss on this section.  Then 19-20 not get discouraged on this section because it is a good uphill.  Then either a mile at a time or two miles at a time depending on how bad I am hurting.  Staying and saying positive things to yourself like free, float, fly and working on form are good mind distracors when things get tough.

[Sasha Pachev]

Paul:

The sophisticated combination of all the mental tricks gave me about 2-3 seconds (at the cost of nearly losing by breakfast except I had not eaten any, which saved the finish chute from foul substances). I needed those seconds to break 1:14. I've had races when those tricks were worth money. They can be helpful in a high stakes situation when a few seconds will make a qualitative difference. But they are worth only a few seconds, and they deserve just as much attention. The main focus in your training should be teaching your body to run comfortably at a fast pace. If you can do that your competitors can arm themselves with a quiver of tricks, and all of their tricks will not bother you more than a mosquito bite. Then you drop them and their tricks half way through the race and never seen them until the finish. 

We are raised in a culture that worships spectacular heroic acts. At least in running, however, success is not found in those. You merely get out every day and apply a modest but honest effort. It does not feel heroic, you are just quietly doing your job. You do the same thing in a race. When you do something that appears heroic it is not heroic at all - it is instinctive. If it is not instinctive, it is likely unwise and you will end up running slower.