Limits, suffering and your brain…

What do you do when you don’t have anything left to keep riding? How do you know when you don’t have a single bit of energy to run another mile? When do you need rest, food? When do you quit, or push on?

Turns out the answer to that question isn’t that simple. We are survivors. We have evolved to be able to go the extra mile to survive, but we wouldn’t be able to survive unless we could go another extra mile in an emergency. That’s why our brains trick us into thinking we’re done long before we really are.

Here’s some inspiration from Radiolab for LowCO2 during his training and eventual asskicking (both giving and receiving) @ La Ruta:

Limits

“Jad and Robert talk to two Ironman competitors, Julie Moss andWendy Ingraham to find out how they do what they do. PhysiologistDr. David Jones tells us how to trick the voice in your head that tells you you’re exhausted. Then we follow two men, Patrick Autissierand Jure Robic, as they bike across the country as fast as they can in a crazy race called The Ride Across America. Producer Lulu Miller brings us their story and New York Times writer Daniel Coyle walks us through the process of physical and mental breakdown RAAM competitors face.” -Listen to the podcast Here

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 8th, 2010 at 9:31 am and is filed under adventure. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.