dissociation

Dissociation: A psychological defense mechanism in which specific, anxiety-provoking thoughts, emotions, or physical sensations are separated from the rest of the psyche.

I just read an article in my ACE Fitness Matters magazine about dissociation. Then today, I tried it. Basically dissociation is putting your mind on something else while you run (or perform some other athletic feat) so as not to think about your fatigue and/or pain.

Bill Morgan of the University of Wisconsin did a research study on this method and discovered that it works! Marathoners will count their strides, breathe to a rhythm, all to keep their mind from reminding them how fatigued their muscles are. The runners who dissociated themselves from their running ran faster and longer than those who did not.

Reading this story reminded me that in HS cross-country, I used to step in time to a song that would run through my head (now we have ipods for this), or I would type a single phrase over and over as though I were on a type writer (I am seriously from the stone age) or computer.

In thinking this over though, how do we feel that we do something to ourselves everyday that may necessitate us to think about something else? We even ENJOY doing this sport! We're odd birds, us runners.