Just an article for your consideration.
 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/19/he...on/19best.html

Maybe some of you know this stuff already, maybe not.
Either way, it's what we do, so I thought I'd share.

It was that attitude that led to my numerous injuries on the running track. I don't recommend it. It is one thing if you have an elite body that holds up just fine no matter how much training you do, but most of us mere mortals just break down if we push through the pain.

Feel free to push through discomfort but never, ever push through pain unless you want the knees of an 80 year old when you are 37(like me.)

Look at these guys, Kolobnev especially looks like he's being tortured and his muscles are about to explode out of his legs. But it's like the article mentioned, they're focused on chasing the rider ahead of them (Cadel, the eventual winner). Helps to have something tangible to motivate you.

http://www.grassyknolltv.com/2009/ro...b0125f62_b.jpg
source

No pain, no gain.

While its not entirely true, it is a fact that the hard you push yourself the more strength you're going to gain. You don't become someone who can lift 200lbs by lifting 100lbs over and over, without ever adding more weight.

A person needs to train smart as well as hard.

What you’re doing today IS important; you’re exchanging a day of your life for it.

Do it correctly.

I think you're mistaking the kind of pain that the article is discussing. It is not talking about injury type pain, but more your muscles are screaming due to fatigue, lactate concentration, etc. I wouldn't train through knee pain or other actual injury related pain, but the burn in your legs is what you have to learn to train through and that pain can be just as real as any other kind.

Reminds me of a Boston Marathon a number of years ago were Uta Pippig won the race with a mixture of blood and diarrhea running down her legs. As well as a couple of years ago when the guy that won the US Trials for the marathon could not keep any liquid down and after each water stop he would vomit.

I think I might just be happy being slow.

And every other year someone manages to win those races without those issues. Sometimes elite athletes get sick or hurt before their big event and they go for it anyway. More often than not they just punch the clock and go to work like every other day.

Unless you're in hell...

Interesting,Greg Lemond said the pain doesnt lessen as you get better you just go faster. Seems these elite folks have the mind power to push thru what we mere mortals dont.

I have a semi serious competitive nature and during self analysis I realize I'm 55% masochistic and only 45% sadist. I guess this is why I'm just pack fodder. If I was 55% sadist maybe I'd be a winner?

I've always believed that the body is capable of much more than the mind will allow.

Actually, i read a paper somewhere that states this to be the case. The mind is wired to get you to cease activity before reaching its actual limit - IIRC, something along the lines of evolutationary coding to save something in case a saber tooth came looking for you. Peak activity involves training the body to actually overcome the brain's "safety shutdown" and actually go to the limit. Apparently, once you do this a few times, it becomes easier to actually repeat this in the future.

It is amazing the sorts of pain you can teach your body to ignore. I've been kicked full-on in the nuts in a sparring match and actually finished 3 more minutes till the round ended before collapsing in pain. Now I need to learn to do the same with the lactic burn in the legs for cycling.

I agree. When I was racing duathlons, towards the end of the second run, say a mile or so before the finish, my body seemed to have nothing left but the desire to finish. Some people would pass me and I would give up on chasing, as though my body was raising the white flag, and all my motivation to finish strong evaporated, my mind saying what I thought pre-race (my goals and sense of strength) was foolish and didn't matter. When I would visually see the finish line, I would coax my mind into the concept that pain is not real, simply an electric signal to the brain telling my body to respond a certain way. So I would mentally override and ignore the signal, and finish with a strong kick that would usually allow me to overtake several people that had previously overtaken me. There's no way I could ignore that forever being in a ridiculous anaerobic state, but it was interesting what I could summon when I thought I had nothing left.

Similarly, when biking through Mexico one day, my buddy and I were climbing in the mountains for 6+ hours without food or water. Worst physical and metal state I had ever been in, could hardly turn the crank one more stroke. If that saber tooth were to come along I would have given no fight. The stuff going on in my mind I don't want to admit. Once we saw a house with a smoke from a cooking fire up at the summit, strength to stand out the saddle and sprint for a half mile came from nowhere. It was there all along obviously, just couldn't find it.

I used to kind of relish or challenge that pain, but as I get older, I don't have that strong a desire. Maybe if I got into some competition again I might feel that way, but now I relish getting to the limits, but not surpassing them. I think its all mental, and its about tricking and goading ourselves past our innate self doubts.