Ask Adrienne – The Pain Cave

“I [used to] imagine a comfortable chair where all I had to do was sit there and ride out
the storm. When I go in now (to the cave), I imagine grabbing a chisel and heading to
the farthest back portion of my cave to work on making it bigger,” -Courtney Dauwalter.

I recently accepted an invitation to be on a Habanero team this August. For those not
familiar with this storied race, it’s a multi-distance event put on at the end of August and
starts at High Noon. Now who would not love that?! Really though, hard events like this
can help bring the best out of us as runners, as many of us thrive on community and
challenge. But anyway, this means I have to get out in the maximum heat of the day to
prepare, so naturally, I have thought of the subject of discomfort tolerance quite a bit
lately. Today I hope to give you all some insight and techniques in better managing the
near-inevitable trips to ‘the cave’ if you are pursuing your best out there.

A little on the science of effort-related pain: the sensations we experience are caused by
a web of processes in your mind and body. In general, pain is both a physical and a
psychological experience, influenced by one’s past, present, and anticipated future. It is
also shaped by social, psychological, and of course, biological factors. It can serve in an
adaptive role, but it also can cause harm—hence, our challenging relationship with it as
runners.

Alex Hutchinson’s book, ‘Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human
Performance’ discusses a theory by researcher Samuele Marcora that focuses on the
brain’s perception of effort and a human’s motivation to tolerate that effort. In short, how
much suffering can you tolerate? As Marcora wrote, rate of perceived exertion (RPE)
correlates to physiological strain, such as heart rate and blood lactate concentration,
which depends on workload (speed, intensity), the athlete’s fitness and health (including
nutrition and hydration), and, something we are all familiar with here in Texas,
environmental factors (temperature, altitude).

So basically, your experience with pain depends on, well, a lot of things. But let us not
get too much further into the weeds today, how about we discuss some ways to expand
or just form a more comfortable seat, in our personal pain caves. One thing to
remember is that the definition of pain is relative.

1. You can start by asking yourself honest questions during activity, such as “is this
   ok with me?” “do I have the resources to continue?”, “Can I accept this right
   now?” I regularly use these during training and early on in races. Once you have
   made your assessment, proceed to committing to whatever effort or pace you’re
   performing.
2. Okay, now that you’ve clicked “accept changes” in your brain, running the mile, or
   stretch or road, or delineated amount of time on your watch, becomes a solid strategy. I always recommend talking yourself through hard parts and reminding
   myself that what I’m feeling is normal and productive. For example, this summer I
   have been running tempos on the treadmill, and mentally, I never go beyond a 5-
   minute interval. This seems to be an acceptable amount of time that helps me
   expand my cave gradually.
3. Another tactic that encompasses all the others is adjusting your comfort zone.
   According to Noake’s classic “Central Governor Theory”, we have to gradually
   challenge the things we are currently comfortable with. For example, set a goal to
   finish faster and ‘just see what it feels like” on the last interval of a track workout.
   Another way is to run with others who are slightly faster than you. Of course, we
   have to be realistic about who we choose to go with, but this helps those who
   need some external motivation to press their efforts. There also is the concept of
   co-regulation that can happen here-individuals feed off emotional states or one
   another (obviously, we want positive co-reg here!). Using a log and stating goals
   and intentions for races and workouts and de-briefing also helps the learning and
   re-learning process.
4. Lastly, practice acceptance and aim to stay present. This can go a long way if we
   think what is happening is normal and part of growth and improvement!
   On a concluding note, I think it is worth noting that the pain cave is different than “hitting
   the wall”, running out of glycogen, or messing up hydration or nutrition. We are talking
   about something we can actively manage. If one or all of these occur, we can simply
   use it as data and look to make adjustments as we go. If we keep striving to grow and
   become better versions of ourselves, then chiseling away can become something we
   can master one run at a time.