“It is traditionally assumed that exhaustion during high-intensity aerobic exercise occurs because fatigued subjects are no longer able to generate the power output required by the task despite their maximal voluntary effort…We have demonstrated for the first time that this is not the case… [I]f our subjects were able to voluntarily produce 731W for 5s immediately after exhaustion, they must have been physiologically able to produce 242W for much longer. The most likely explanation for the very high MVCP produced immediately after exhaustion is psychological. Subjects knew that the final MVCP test was going to last only 5s, and such knowledge motivated them to exert further effort after the time to exhaustion test which had a longer and unknown duration.” Dr. Samuele Marcora, entire article here.
All this is fun stuff. For the coach, instructor, exercise physiologist, scientist, or curious athlete it is like spending a day at the circus. Nothing but fun, games and cotton candy.
Once again the guys in the white lab-coats are presenting test results suggesting everything we know about training and racing is wrong. Again. That what we once held as dogma just got run over by new karma. Take this quick pop quiz as an example: The question is this: What causes fatigue?
A) Muscular exhaustion.
B) Cardio-Vascular over work.
C) Bio-chemical pH mixture.
D) Excessive core temperature.
E) All of the above.
F) None of the above.
Dr. Mancora suggests, through his testing and research that the answer is F. His research indicates that the main factor in fatigue (and try to remain objective here for a few minutes longer) is ALL IN YOUR HEAD. That the feelings of fatigue, the minds perception as to what is taking place in the muscles, organs, lungs and blood is not limiting your effort, it is how you think, listen and respond to all that combined data that elicits a response manifesting in one of two things, both of which are PR killers; 1) Slow down, or 2) Stop. You were not at max due to fatigue you simply misinterpreted the neuro-signals and default to what you have always done when that message is received, the very Pavlovian connection of fatigue to failure. I feel fatigue therefore I slow. Cogito egro sum. I think therefore I am WRONG.
Here is an excellent article and interview with Dr. Mancora with Matt Fitzgerald from Competitor Magazine.
You can go further. You can go faster. You can go longer. Just override the impulse to involuntarily brake at the first sign of fatigue. Test it out, do some high-intensity intervals and when you normally would back off--don't. Hold that output a second, ten seconds longer. Respond to the positive. Tweak your 'tude and take no prisoners. Rise above. It's a whole new world out there inside your head. A rutilant sphere of success waiting with your name pre-engraved beneath the victory wreath. All you have to do it claim it.
We can practice this. We can perfect it. This is pragmatic and utilitarian. Think of how it will improve your 5K, your TT, your 100 free. Think you can do it. Refresh your definition of fatigue. Change the conversation. Put it in play. Jump the fence.
It's all in your head.
As promised, here is the "defining moment" scene from The Great Escape, directed by John Sturges, not Milos Forman, depicting the metaphorical example of the decisions we face in training (when fatigue shows up dressed like gun toting Nazis.)
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