Brain Games - Part 2

Abby Normal's Brain
(Courtesy karmaOWL @ Flickr)

Yesterday we discussed some interesting ideas about how our brain can make goal achievement harder rather than easier. These ideas come from a great little blog piece by Gregory Ciotti. Today we'll finish up with two remaining notions about the games our brain tries to play with us: 1) how our brain just loves to engage us in mindless busywork, and 2) how poorly our brain functions when it tries to act as the great spur-of-the-moment planner. We'll also look at how these two notions interact with our efforts to train for and successfully complete our marathon goal.


Your brain loves mindless busywork disguised as progress

I admit it: sometimes I just like to do some dumb meaningless task rather than attack the meat of the problem. You know, meaningless stuff like labeling folders for the file cabinet, or deleting old emails, or straightening up my desk (well, the desk actually needs straightening up, I think). Sure, those tasks get something done. We feel busy and we think we've accomplished something, but not really anything measurable against our important goals. It's the challenging stuff that really needs getting done, and as we mentioned yesterday - if we just get started, our brains will actually help us keep on going.

Applied to training towards the goal of completing a marathon: In Jack Daniel's book, Daniel's Running Formula, he makes it abundantly clear that each day's workout must have a purpose. Simply going out and running whatever we feel like is not in keeping with a purposeful plan. A purposeful training plan has no busywork - every activity is part of the overall plan. Sticking to that plan will keep us from being tricked by our brains into doing something we hadn't planned on and which is not in keeping with the path to our goal.

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Your brain is not good at "winging it" when it comes to planning ... ever!

Lastly, Gregory Ciotti reminds us that our brains are pretty lousy at making up good plans on the spur of the moment. In fact, the research actually suggests that those who plan, get more done. And those who build into their plans some contingency for failure do even better. I mean, this all makes great sense, doesn't it? I don't believe I'd need research to convince me of the truth of this fact about my brain. However, hearing it is not sufficient. We must act on what we know.

Applied to training towards the goal of completing a marathon: What if each morning when we got up to do our daily workout, we had to try to figure out what the right thing to do that day was? We'd either be plagued by the task of having to figure it out on the fly, or we'd succumb to doing any old workout whether it fit in with our long term goal or not. Remember, it's not aim, fire, ready; it's ready, aim, fire. Doing the right stuff in the right order serves the plan's objectives. So, the night before the next morning's workout, the timelapserunner surfs to the local weather site to determine tomorrow morning's conditions, then he opens Excel and calculates pace and intervals based on that and the nature of the workout. He sets his Gymboss to the proper intervals, if that day's workout calls for intervals. In the morning, we execute the plan. Hey, we don't always get it right, but it beats winging it every day.

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That's enough about the brain. Mine is tired of all that thinking.

TODAY'S WORKOUT: Our long run / walk / run was 5.5 miles! Planned on a 14:59 pace; actual was 14:27, with intervals of 0:30 / 0:45, and a nominal running pace of 13:41. As usual, found it tough to slow down enough. Left hamstring said 'hello' for few moments at the four mile mark but quietened down after that. Total time out there: 1:19:24. Got a few sips of water at a couple of the water spots, but relying on that is simply not going to work, in my estimation. I will be ordering a water belt soon. More on this in the days to come.