30. Take Control of Pain and Discomfort in Your Next Race
Every ultra runner knows that point in the race when the pain feels like it might stop you. You’ve trained for months, everything’s going well, but suddenly you hit a wall of hurt that feels impossible to get through. But this moment isn’t really about pain…and you have the power to control it.
In this episode, I break down how to separate pain from discomfort. You’ll learn how to recognize when your body is giving you a real warning versus when it’s simply telling you that you’re working hard but can pull through.
We’ll also talk about the mental shift that helps you stop fearing pain and start managing discomfort with confidence. Once you understand that you can choose how much discomfort to accept, you’ll discover that finishing strong isn’t about gritting your teeth. It’s about taking conscious control of your effort, your mindset, and your race.
If you’re loving the show, please take a moment to follow, rate, and review wherever you listen to podcasts today!
What You’ll Learn from this Episode:
Why 95% of what stops runners isn’t pain, and what to do about it.
Why pre-suffering in training and willpower alone don't solve the real problem with race discomfort.
How to use the “discomfort dial” to stay in control, no matter how tough the miles get.
Practical ways to practice separating pain from discomfort in daily runs and everyday life.
Specific strategies for managing discomfort during climbs, low spots, and challenging race sections.
Listen to the Full Episode:
Featured on the Show:
If you’re loving the show, please take a moment to follow, rate, and review wherever you listen to podcasts today!
Full Episode Transcript:
What if I told you that the pain you worry will stop you at mile 80 isn't actually about pain at all and that you have the power to control it?
Welcome to Unstoppable Ultra Runner, the podcast for ultra runners who refuse to let anything hold them back. I’m your host, Susan Donnelly, veteran of over 150 100-mile races, and a coach who helps runners like you break through mental roadblocks, push past doubt, and run with confidence. Let’s go.
Welcome to episode 30. Hard to believe we're already 30 episodes in, and honestly, we've barely scratched the surface. After years of working with runners and developing these mental strategies, I keep discovering new angles that can completely transform how you race. There's so much more I'm excited to share with you, so keep listening.
Picture this. You're at mile 80 of a 100-mile race and you have the time to finish. Everything has gone well so far. You're on top of your nutrition and hydration, no GI issues. You started great for a change, really conservatively. You have no injuries. You've been mentally able to deal with the pain up until this point.
But now, at mile 80, the pain has intensified to a level that you don't think you can deal with, and you can't make yourself get up out of that aid station chair and start the next lap. You legitimately just can't cope with the pain anymore. It's just too much for you.
This exact scenario happened to a runner who reached out to me recently. He'd trained for months. He was physically prepared, but mentally, he hit a wall of pain that stopped him in his tracks and ended his race. It's a common story about one of the biggest mental barriers we face in ultrarunning: the belief that the pain will overwhelm us.
So today, we're going to completely reframe how you think about pain and racing and give you mental strategies for dealing with the pain that comes with ultras so you can finish those tough races you've been dreaming of.
So, let's start by getting clear on what's actually happening when we think we can't deal with the pain anymore. Most runners think the problem is the amount of pain they're experiencing. They believe they've hit this pain threshold, that there's some kind of fixed limit to what they can handle, and once the pain intensifies beyond that line, their race is over. But here's what's really going on. It's not the amount of pain that stops us; it's our belief that we can't handle that amount of pain.
Think about it this way. Pain is just a neutral piece of information going from the nerves in your body to your brain. It's neither good or bad information at that point; it's just neutral information.
But when your brain receives those signals, it interprets them, and that's crucial. Your brain doesn't just passively receive that information and pass it on to you; it actively decides what you should think about that signal, like how threatening it is and whether you can cope with it. And that interpretation, what your brain tells you about those signals, is what you actually perceive.
So when that runner was sitting at mile 80, his quads weren't shot and his muscles weren't damaged beyond repair. What happened was his brain decided that the signals it was receiving were more than he could handle at that point. His brain was trying to protect him, but it was protecting him from something that wasn't actually dangerous and something that didn't need to end his race.
We anticipate that pain might stop us. So what most runners do is they try and get ahead of it before the race. They develop strategies to either avoid it or tolerate it or power through it. And the problem with these strategies is that they don't solve what's actually stopping us.
The first strategy runners try is pre-suffering in training. Many runners think that if they physically suffer enough in training, they'll build a tolerance to it and it won't bother them in the race. It's kind of like building a callus against blisters. It's a very pain-now-so-you-get-used-to-pain-later strategy. The idea here is that the more you physically suffer in training, the more used to suffering you'll be.
But this approach misses the mark because it's still based on the idea that pain is suffering that happens to you rather than something you have control over.
The second strategy runners commonly try is overtraining for protection. And this is the idea that if you train right or enough at a high enough volume, that will protect you from even feeling pain in the race. It's kind of a, "If I'm fit enough, it won't hurt" mentality. But even the most trained athletes experience discomfort in ultras. Fitness helps, for sure, but it doesn't eliminate the pain, and it certainly doesn't teach you how to deal with it.
Third thing runners try is distraction. Things like music and pacers and conversation with other runners. And these can all be helpful for sure, but they're just temporary band-aids. When you're trying to distract yourself from the pain, you're still operating from the belief that the pain is the enemy. You're trying to avoid it instead of deal with it.
And the last tactic that runners commonly try is willpower, toughness, the just-push-through-it mentality. And this approach treats pain like a battle that you have to win through force. It comes from the belief that you're supposed to be a strong ultra runner, and it's embodied by sayings like, "Pain is weakness leaving your body." This is like forcing yourself to pay with pain.
And all of these approaches have one thing in common. They treat the pain we feel in a race as something external that you have to defend against or overcome. But what if that's not the case at all?
Here's the game changer for you. The truth is that you have power over the pain you feel in a race. What stops most runners isn't the pain or the discomfort itself. Again, it's the belief that all this physical hurt you're feeling will overwhelm you and you'll have no way to control it. It's fear of the pain. You imagine being trapped in increasing levels of suffering with no way to adjust or adapt or escape it. No exit ramp.
But that's not how it actually works. You're not a passive victim of whatever sensations arise in your race. You're actually the one in control.
Here's exactly how that control works, and it starts with understanding what you're really dealing with. The first powerful step to take when you're feeling physical difficulty in a race is to separate it into two distinct categories: pain and discomfort. Two different things. And here's how to tell them apart.
Real pain is a warning signal. It's your body telling you something needs attention. It's acute. It's sharp, throbbing, or burning. It indicates potential injury or damage. Think joints and bones and muscle tears. It's your body saying, "Stop. Something's wrong." This type of pain often lasts after the race and may need medical attention. In an ultra, if you feel genuine, real pain, like a stress fracture developing or a ligament strain or tear, you should absolutely listen to it. It gets priority.
Discomfort is temporary bodily distress. It's more chronic. It accumulates and builds over time in the race. Think muscles. It's the aches and tightness and soreness that come from sustained effort. It's the lactic acid buildup in your muscles. It's your muscles saying, "This is really hard work." Discomfort goes away with rest and recovery. It's real, but it's not a danger signal. It's just your body's way of telling you that you're working hard.
Here's the key with these two categories. 95% of what stops runners in ultras, thankfully, isn't pain. It's discomfort. And discomfort, unlike injury-related pain, is something you can work with and control. It doesn't have to stop your race.
Here's a practical example of the difference. When your back muscles are really tight and sore, that's discomfort. But when you feel a sharp stabbing pain in your spine, that's pain. Or when your foot feels tender from hours of impact on the trail, that's discomfort. When it feels like you stepped on a knife, that's pain.
Just investigating what you're feeling in your body and learning to tell the difference between pain and discomfort can transform how you approach racing.
But separating pain from discomfort does two real things for you. It reduces the total overwhelming mass of hurt that you're feeling at mile 80 into two smaller categories that are each more manageable and easier to address. You can deal separately with each instead of having to deal with all of the pain all at once. And more importantly, it tells you how to deal with what you're feeling because the two categories require completely different approaches.
Let's talk about the solution first to the actual pain you might be feeling since it gets priority. Real, actual pain is the signal that something needs attention, and here's your power with real pain. You get to decide how to respond to it. You can address it and continue in the race, or you can stop. The key is recognizing that it's pain and making a conscious choice about what to do with it. Addressing it might mean things like adjusting your stride or taping an injury at an aid station, or yes, sometimes dropping.
Here's an example. This past weekend, I attempted Javelina Jundred, and I knew I had an injury going in, but thought I'd be able to finish with it. I thought, you know, maybe I'll get to mile 60 or 80 before I start feeling it and have to manage it. But I felt it in the first step I took across the starting line, and I definitely didn't expect that.
And that didn't go away. I had to focus hard on managing it, how I was running, what I was doing, what I chose to run versus walk. When I hit the hilly part of the course, I found that I had no power in my left leg. It was doing the motion of running, but I couldn't push off from it. So the right leg was doing most of the work, and nothing fixed that left leg. And every time that leg would give out, I'd wonder, can I do this for 100 miles?
And to help answer that, I had to decide, was this pain that needed to be addressed, or was it discomfort? And I really, really wanted it to be discomfort because I am willing to put up with a ton of physical discomfort. I know how to finish with lots of discomfort.
So I decided to treat it as a high level of discomfort until I knew different, and I decided I would go out on a second loop and just get as far as I could because as difficult as that felt, I was actually ahead of my goal splits. Things really looked good on paper.
But near the end of that first 22-mile loop, the pain actually intensified to the point that I simply couldn't walk. I limped into the finish of that loop, but I still didn't want to give up. I was still in the race. I was still doing good on time, and I know how to do this race. I've done it 13 times and it is doable for me even in a bad year.
So I refilled my bottle and I took 10 steps out of the aid station on the second loop and then stopped. This, I finally reluctantly decided, was pain, real pain. I literally couldn't walk. And I wanted so very badly to go on, but I couldn't limp through 80 more miles under cutoff, and I really didn't want to. It just wasn't a smart decision for my long-term running. So I dropped.
The pain turned out to be my SI joint out of place. Thankfully, something that's fixable instead of the worst problems I imagined. And a massage therapist at the race put it back into place. So I was able to move around and volunteer and cheer friends on and yell for the last runners at the race, which was fabulous. But in retrospect, I realized also that this was the same thing that led me to drop at Superior 100 two months ago. Same exact issue. So it was definitely time to categorize it as pain and address it.
So that's your power over pain. You have complete control over how you respond to it. You can choose to fix it and continue, or you can choose to stop. But either way, it's your decision, not pain controlling you.
And one thing that I want to add while we're talking about pain is that actual real pain isn't something to mask or pretend that it's not happening. If it's there, you want to feel it because it's alerting you to something that needs attention, and you want to know about it so you can deal with whatever's causing it. And ignoring it or medicating it away isn't the best race or long-term strategy. You might have an injury, and the pain is signaling that you're making it worse.
So when in doubt, err on the side of caution and talk with medical personnel at the race. It's okay, not weak, to end your race to deal with real pain. That's a smart response to it.
Now that we've dealt with pain, what's left over after that is discomfort, which is most of what we feel in a race. It's what the runner in the beginning of this episode was feeling. And here's what you need to know about discomfort. You have even more control over discomfort. And again, it's all about choice here, but this time, you're in full control of deciding how much discomfort you want to take on. That's the key.
You can decide at any time to take on a lot of discomfort or a little or anything in between, and you can change your mind at any time in the race. For anyone who wants to know what the pain cave is and how to do it or what to do with it, this is exactly what we're talking about here. The pain cave isn't actually about pain. It's about expanding your capacity to take on discomfort.
And here's a powerful technique for doing that. Stop, if you can, what you're doing, if it's safe, and try this short visualization with me.
Picture the volume control on your phone or stereo. You can see a slider or a dial, right, that you can turn up to make the music louder or turn it down to make it quieter. You have complete control over how much volume you want to experience.
Now, instead of controlling volume, imagine that dial controls your discomfort level. You can turn it up to increase the intensity to accept more discomfort, or you can turn it down to reduce and accept less discomfort. You get to decide moment by moment how much discomfort you're willing to accept. You have control of that dial.
And this isn't just a metaphor. It's literally what you're doing during a race through your choices. Every decision you make in a race is you adjusting your discomfort dial. You turn it up by picking up the pace or pushing harder on climbs or maintaining a constant level of effort in heat. And you turn the discomfort dial down by slowing your pace, walking more on the hills, taking longer at aid stations, adjusting your effort for conditions.
You don't have to accept all the discomfort of a race entirely all at once. You can take it on gradually, one small dial notch at a time. You can feel a level of discomfort, get comfortable with it, and think, okay, that's not too bad. I can tolerate this. And then you can decide, okay, I'm going to turn that dial up another notch. I can do that.
And here's the beautiful part. You can always turn the dial back down. You can always slow down, walk, you can even sit for a moment if you need to. You always have options because you have control of that dial. The discomfort doesn't control you. You control it.
And once you understand that you control the dial of discomfort, you can intentionally expand your comfort zone. Instead of thinking, I hope I can handle the pain in this race, you can think, I can gradually accept more discomfort little by little as the race progresses. I get to decide how much I want to take on.
And maybe you start a 100-mile race, let's say at a discomfort level of 3 out of 10, and you cruise along for the first 20 miles getting comfortable with your pace and how the running feels and how the day is going to go. And then as the day heats up and the miles increase, your legs stiffen, and you turn the amount of discomfort that you're willing to accept up to a level 4. And as the miles grow and the effort feels harder, maybe you turn it up to 5.
By mile 60, you might be comfortable at a 6 or 7 because you expect to be uncomfortable there, and it's something you're willing to live with. But you got there gradually by choosing to accept a little bit more and a little bit more and a little bit more, knowing that's what you were doing. It's not by discomfort just suddenly overwhelming you.
The difference here that I'm really emphasizing is that you're choosing each level of discomfort rather than having it imposed on you without choice. And if you need to turn it back down to 5 because of heat or fatigue or just because you want to, you want to take it a little bit easier, that's your choice too. You can turn it back up again when you're ready, or you can turn it back up again whenever you choose.
So let's talk about how this works in real race scenarios. When you doubt that you can keep this level of effort up for the remaining miles, you can remind yourself that you're not trapped at whatever level of discomfort you're currently feeling. And effort can feel like discomfort. You can always adjust it up or down. You have options.
When discomfort like increases unexpectedly, when you've gone out too fast and you're starting to feel it, instead of assuming your race is over, maybe you turn your—the amount of discomfort you accept down by slowing your pace, walking more, or taking extra time at the aid station to hydrate well and refuel until you bounce back.
And let's just say you're facing a challenging section, like before a long climb. You can consciously decide to turn up your dial of the amount of discomfort that you accept for the climb, knowing that you can turn it right back down on the descent. You could slow your pace, shorten your stride on that climb, or take a momentary break or two to let your heart rate slow. That's how you control it on a challenging section.
And even when you're planning your race, planning race strategy, instead of pacing only by speed or heart rate, you could also factor in when you'll push harder and when you'll ease off based on where you need to accept different levels of discomfort.
And one final example. When you're hitting a low spot, instead of fighting the discomfort, acknowledge it and consciously choose how much you're willing to accept right now. Turn down the amount of discomfort that you're willing to accept temporarily until you get out of the low, and then once you start bouncing back, you can turn the dial up and accept more discomfort gradually as you feel better.
Applying this approach requires a fundamental shift in how you think about discomfort and racing, going from thoughts like, “I hope I can survive it,” to, “I get to decide how much discomfort I'm willing to accept at any time.” And going from thoughts like, “I need to be tough enough to push through,” to, “I can choose how much discomfort to take on at every moment. It's up to me.”
Going from thinking, “What if the race overwhelms me?” to, “I get to decide how much discomfort I take on.” And going from thinking that “I have to endure whatever the race delivers, whatever that looks like,” to, “I'm in control of how much discomfort I experience.”
And like any skill, building the skill of distinguishing pain from discomfort and knowing what to do with each and making that skill stick takes regular practice. And here are three easy ways you can do that aside from a race.
On daily runs, try and practice separating pain from discomfort. Label them in your mind. On long runs, practice turning up your dial uphills and turning it down flats and downhills, and notice how your discomfort level changes and how much more confident you feel when you know you're in control of how much discomfort you accept.
And even in everyday life, notice the difference between pain and discomfort in activities like strength training or stretching or even being at work, sitting in an uncomfortable chair. Notice when you use the words pain and discomfort to describe a physical sensation. That's good practice. And the more you practice this outside a race, the more natural it is in the race when the stakes are higher.
When you truly get this concept, your perception of pain changes. You'll start thinking in terms of real pain and discomfort. Physical difficulty won't feel as overwhelming because instead of one big massive cloud of pain, you have two smaller distinct ones, and you know exactly how to deal with each.
And you'll no longer fear the discomfort of ultra distances because you know you're in control of it. You'll have the confidence that you can handle whatever the race brings because you control the volume. You can always adjust the amount of discomfort you accept up or down. It's not all or nothing.
You know, that runner who stopped at mile 80, the problem wasn't that he couldn't handle the sensations he was feeling. The problem was that he believed he couldn't handle them. So he felt powerless to change them.
With this new understanding, he could decide to turn the discomfort dial down a notch by walking more for the next few miles and then reassess. He could control the discomfort instead of feeling overwhelmed by the fear of it and finish the race.
So the next time you're in a race and discomfort starts to build, remember, you're not at the mercy of whatever you're feeling. You have control of the intensity. You have control of the volume that you accept, the intensity that you accept, and you get to decide to turn that up or down. You can handle more discomfort than you think, not by forcing yourself to suffer, but by taking conscious control of how much you choose to accept and when.
Again, that runner at mile 80 who couldn't make himself leave the aid station? The only difference between him finishing and not finishing was understanding this concept, that you control how much discomfort you accept. And now that you understand that, go put it to use.
All right, you all, that's this week's episode. If you know someone who could use this, share it with them. It might be exactly what they need to hear. See you all next week. Bye.
Thanks for listening to Unstoppable Ultra Runner. If you want more ultra talk, mindset tools, and strategies for running with confidence, visit www.susanidonnelly.com. This podcast receives production support from the team at Digital Freedom Productions. That’s it for today’s episode. See you next week.
Welcome to Unstoppable Ultra Runner, the podcast for ultra runners who refuse to let anything hold them back. I’m your host, Susan Donnelly, veteran of over 150 100-mile races, and a coach who helps runners like you break through mental roadblocks, push past doubt, and run with confidence. Let’s go.
Welcome to episode 30. Hard to believe we're already 30 episodes in, and honestly, we've barely scratched the surface. After years of working with runners and developing these mental strategies, I keep discovering new angles that can completely transform how you race. There's so much more I'm excited to share with you, so keep listening.
Picture this. You're at mile 80 of a 100-mile race and you have the time to finish. Everything has gone well so far. You're on top of your nutrition and hydration, no GI issues. You started great for a change, really conservatively. You have no injuries. You've been mentally able to deal with the pain up until this point.
But now, at mile 80, the pain has intensified to a level that you don't think you can deal with, and you can't make yourself get up out of that aid station chair and start the next lap. You legitimately just can't cope with the pain anymore. It's just too much for you.
This exact scenario happened to a runner who reached out to me recently. He'd trained for months. He was physically prepared, but mentally, he hit a wall of pain that stopped him in his tracks and ended his race. It's a common story about one of the biggest mental barriers we face in ultrarunning: the belief that the pain will overwhelm us.
So today, we're going to completely reframe how you think about pain and racing and give you mental strategies for dealing with the pain that comes with ultras so you can finish those tough races you've been dreaming of.
So, let's start by getting clear on what's actually happening when we think we can't deal with the pain anymore. Most runners think the problem is the amount of pain they're experiencing. They believe they've hit this pain threshold, that there's some kind of fixed limit to what they can handle, and once the pain intensifies beyond that line, their race is over. But here's what's really going on. It's not the amount of pain that stops us; it's our belief that we can't handle that amount of pain.
Think about it this way. Pain is just a neutral piece of information going from the nerves in your body to your brain. It's neither good or bad information at that point; it's just neutral information.
But when your brain receives those signals, it interprets them, and that's crucial. Your brain doesn't just passively receive that information and pass it on to you; it actively decides what you should think about that signal, like how threatening it is and whether you can cope with it. And that interpretation, what your brain tells you about those signals, is what you actually perceive.
So when that runner was sitting at mile 80, his quads weren't shot and his muscles weren't damaged beyond repair. What happened was his brain decided that the signals it was receiving were more than he could handle at that point. His brain was trying to protect him, but it was protecting him from something that wasn't actually dangerous and something that didn't need to end his race.
We anticipate that pain might stop us. So what most runners do is they try and get ahead of it before the race. They develop strategies to either avoid it or tolerate it or power through it. And the problem with these strategies is that they don't solve what's actually stopping us.
The first strategy runners try is pre-suffering in training. Many runners think that if they physically suffer enough in training, they'll build a tolerance to it and it won't bother them in the race. It's kind of like building a callus against blisters. It's a very pain-now-so-you-get-used-to-pain-later strategy. The idea here is that the more you physically suffer in training, the more used to suffering you'll be.
But this approach misses the mark because it's still based on the idea that pain is suffering that happens to you rather than something you have control over.
The second strategy runners commonly try is overtraining for protection. And this is the idea that if you train right or enough at a high enough volume, that will protect you from even feeling pain in the race. It's kind of a, "If I'm fit enough, it won't hurt" mentality. But even the most trained athletes experience discomfort in ultras. Fitness helps, for sure, but it doesn't eliminate the pain, and it certainly doesn't teach you how to deal with it.
Third thing runners try is distraction. Things like music and pacers and conversation with other runners. And these can all be helpful for sure, but they're just temporary band-aids. When you're trying to distract yourself from the pain, you're still operating from the belief that the pain is the enemy. You're trying to avoid it instead of deal with it.
And the last tactic that runners commonly try is willpower, toughness, the just-push-through-it mentality. And this approach treats pain like a battle that you have to win through force. It comes from the belief that you're supposed to be a strong ultra runner, and it's embodied by sayings like, "Pain is weakness leaving your body." This is like forcing yourself to pay with pain.
And all of these approaches have one thing in common. They treat the pain we feel in a race as something external that you have to defend against or overcome. But what if that's not the case at all?
Here's the game changer for you. The truth is that you have power over the pain you feel in a race. What stops most runners isn't the pain or the discomfort itself. Again, it's the belief that all this physical hurt you're feeling will overwhelm you and you'll have no way to control it. It's fear of the pain. You imagine being trapped in increasing levels of suffering with no way to adjust or adapt or escape it. No exit ramp.
But that's not how it actually works. You're not a passive victim of whatever sensations arise in your race. You're actually the one in control.
Here's exactly how that control works, and it starts with understanding what you're really dealing with. The first powerful step to take when you're feeling physical difficulty in a race is to separate it into two distinct categories: pain and discomfort. Two different things. And here's how to tell them apart.
Real pain is a warning signal. It's your body telling you something needs attention. It's acute. It's sharp, throbbing, or burning. It indicates potential injury or damage. Think joints and bones and muscle tears. It's your body saying, "Stop. Something's wrong." This type of pain often lasts after the race and may need medical attention. In an ultra, if you feel genuine, real pain, like a stress fracture developing or a ligament strain or tear, you should absolutely listen to it. It gets priority.
Discomfort is temporary bodily distress. It's more chronic. It accumulates and builds over time in the race. Think muscles. It's the aches and tightness and soreness that come from sustained effort. It's the lactic acid buildup in your muscles. It's your muscles saying, "This is really hard work." Discomfort goes away with rest and recovery. It's real, but it's not a danger signal. It's just your body's way of telling you that you're working hard.
Here's the key with these two categories. 95% of what stops runners in ultras, thankfully, isn't pain. It's discomfort. And discomfort, unlike injury-related pain, is something you can work with and control. It doesn't have to stop your race.
Here's a practical example of the difference. When your back muscles are really tight and sore, that's discomfort. But when you feel a sharp stabbing pain in your spine, that's pain. Or when your foot feels tender from hours of impact on the trail, that's discomfort. When it feels like you stepped on a knife, that's pain.
Just investigating what you're feeling in your body and learning to tell the difference between pain and discomfort can transform how you approach racing.
But separating pain from discomfort does two real things for you. It reduces the total overwhelming mass of hurt that you're feeling at mile 80 into two smaller categories that are each more manageable and easier to address. You can deal separately with each instead of having to deal with all of the pain all at once. And more importantly, it tells you how to deal with what you're feeling because the two categories require completely different approaches.
Let's talk about the solution first to the actual pain you might be feeling since it gets priority. Real, actual pain is the signal that something needs attention, and here's your power with real pain. You get to decide how to respond to it. You can address it and continue in the race, or you can stop. The key is recognizing that it's pain and making a conscious choice about what to do with it. Addressing it might mean things like adjusting your stride or taping an injury at an aid station, or yes, sometimes dropping.
Here's an example. This past weekend, I attempted Javelina Jundred, and I knew I had an injury going in, but thought I'd be able to finish with it. I thought, you know, maybe I'll get to mile 60 or 80 before I start feeling it and have to manage it. But I felt it in the first step I took across the starting line, and I definitely didn't expect that.
And that didn't go away. I had to focus hard on managing it, how I was running, what I was doing, what I chose to run versus walk. When I hit the hilly part of the course, I found that I had no power in my left leg. It was doing the motion of running, but I couldn't push off from it. So the right leg was doing most of the work, and nothing fixed that left leg. And every time that leg would give out, I'd wonder, can I do this for 100 miles?
And to help answer that, I had to decide, was this pain that needed to be addressed, or was it discomfort? And I really, really wanted it to be discomfort because I am willing to put up with a ton of physical discomfort. I know how to finish with lots of discomfort.
So I decided to treat it as a high level of discomfort until I knew different, and I decided I would go out on a second loop and just get as far as I could because as difficult as that felt, I was actually ahead of my goal splits. Things really looked good on paper.
But near the end of that first 22-mile loop, the pain actually intensified to the point that I simply couldn't walk. I limped into the finish of that loop, but I still didn't want to give up. I was still in the race. I was still doing good on time, and I know how to do this race. I've done it 13 times and it is doable for me even in a bad year.
So I refilled my bottle and I took 10 steps out of the aid station on the second loop and then stopped. This, I finally reluctantly decided, was pain, real pain. I literally couldn't walk. And I wanted so very badly to go on, but I couldn't limp through 80 more miles under cutoff, and I really didn't want to. It just wasn't a smart decision for my long-term running. So I dropped.
The pain turned out to be my SI joint out of place. Thankfully, something that's fixable instead of the worst problems I imagined. And a massage therapist at the race put it back into place. So I was able to move around and volunteer and cheer friends on and yell for the last runners at the race, which was fabulous. But in retrospect, I realized also that this was the same thing that led me to drop at Superior 100 two months ago. Same exact issue. So it was definitely time to categorize it as pain and address it.
So that's your power over pain. You have complete control over how you respond to it. You can choose to fix it and continue, or you can choose to stop. But either way, it's your decision, not pain controlling you.
And one thing that I want to add while we're talking about pain is that actual real pain isn't something to mask or pretend that it's not happening. If it's there, you want to feel it because it's alerting you to something that needs attention, and you want to know about it so you can deal with whatever's causing it. And ignoring it or medicating it away isn't the best race or long-term strategy. You might have an injury, and the pain is signaling that you're making it worse.
So when in doubt, err on the side of caution and talk with medical personnel at the race. It's okay, not weak, to end your race to deal with real pain. That's a smart response to it.
Now that we've dealt with pain, what's left over after that is discomfort, which is most of what we feel in a race. It's what the runner in the beginning of this episode was feeling. And here's what you need to know about discomfort. You have even more control over discomfort. And again, it's all about choice here, but this time, you're in full control of deciding how much discomfort you want to take on. That's the key.
You can decide at any time to take on a lot of discomfort or a little or anything in between, and you can change your mind at any time in the race. For anyone who wants to know what the pain cave is and how to do it or what to do with it, this is exactly what we're talking about here. The pain cave isn't actually about pain. It's about expanding your capacity to take on discomfort.
And here's a powerful technique for doing that. Stop, if you can, what you're doing, if it's safe, and try this short visualization with me.
Picture the volume control on your phone or stereo. You can see a slider or a dial, right, that you can turn up to make the music louder or turn it down to make it quieter. You have complete control over how much volume you want to experience.
Now, instead of controlling volume, imagine that dial controls your discomfort level. You can turn it up to increase the intensity to accept more discomfort, or you can turn it down to reduce and accept less discomfort. You get to decide moment by moment how much discomfort you're willing to accept. You have control of that dial.
And this isn't just a metaphor. It's literally what you're doing during a race through your choices. Every decision you make in a race is you adjusting your discomfort dial. You turn it up by picking up the pace or pushing harder on climbs or maintaining a constant level of effort in heat. And you turn the discomfort dial down by slowing your pace, walking more on the hills, taking longer at aid stations, adjusting your effort for conditions.
You don't have to accept all the discomfort of a race entirely all at once. You can take it on gradually, one small dial notch at a time. You can feel a level of discomfort, get comfortable with it, and think, okay, that's not too bad. I can tolerate this. And then you can decide, okay, I'm going to turn that dial up another notch. I can do that.
And here's the beautiful part. You can always turn the dial back down. You can always slow down, walk, you can even sit for a moment if you need to. You always have options because you have control of that dial. The discomfort doesn't control you. You control it.
And once you understand that you control the dial of discomfort, you can intentionally expand your comfort zone. Instead of thinking, I hope I can handle the pain in this race, you can think, I can gradually accept more discomfort little by little as the race progresses. I get to decide how much I want to take on.
And maybe you start a 100-mile race, let's say at a discomfort level of 3 out of 10, and you cruise along for the first 20 miles getting comfortable with your pace and how the running feels and how the day is going to go. And then as the day heats up and the miles increase, your legs stiffen, and you turn the amount of discomfort that you're willing to accept up to a level 4. And as the miles grow and the effort feels harder, maybe you turn it up to 5.
By mile 60, you might be comfortable at a 6 or 7 because you expect to be uncomfortable there, and it's something you're willing to live with. But you got there gradually by choosing to accept a little bit more and a little bit more and a little bit more, knowing that's what you were doing. It's not by discomfort just suddenly overwhelming you.
The difference here that I'm really emphasizing is that you're choosing each level of discomfort rather than having it imposed on you without choice. And if you need to turn it back down to 5 because of heat or fatigue or just because you want to, you want to take it a little bit easier, that's your choice too. You can turn it back up again when you're ready, or you can turn it back up again whenever you choose.
So let's talk about how this works in real race scenarios. When you doubt that you can keep this level of effort up for the remaining miles, you can remind yourself that you're not trapped at whatever level of discomfort you're currently feeling. And effort can feel like discomfort. You can always adjust it up or down. You have options.
When discomfort like increases unexpectedly, when you've gone out too fast and you're starting to feel it, instead of assuming your race is over, maybe you turn your—the amount of discomfort you accept down by slowing your pace, walking more, or taking extra time at the aid station to hydrate well and refuel until you bounce back.
And let's just say you're facing a challenging section, like before a long climb. You can consciously decide to turn up your dial of the amount of discomfort that you accept for the climb, knowing that you can turn it right back down on the descent. You could slow your pace, shorten your stride on that climb, or take a momentary break or two to let your heart rate slow. That's how you control it on a challenging section.
And even when you're planning your race, planning race strategy, instead of pacing only by speed or heart rate, you could also factor in when you'll push harder and when you'll ease off based on where you need to accept different levels of discomfort.
And one final example. When you're hitting a low spot, instead of fighting the discomfort, acknowledge it and consciously choose how much you're willing to accept right now. Turn down the amount of discomfort that you're willing to accept temporarily until you get out of the low, and then once you start bouncing back, you can turn the dial up and accept more discomfort gradually as you feel better.
Applying this approach requires a fundamental shift in how you think about discomfort and racing, going from thoughts like, “I hope I can survive it,” to, “I get to decide how much discomfort I'm willing to accept at any time.” And going from thoughts like, “I need to be tough enough to push through,” to, “I can choose how much discomfort to take on at every moment. It's up to me.”
Going from thinking, “What if the race overwhelms me?” to, “I get to decide how much discomfort I take on.” And going from thinking that “I have to endure whatever the race delivers, whatever that looks like,” to, “I'm in control of how much discomfort I experience.”
And like any skill, building the skill of distinguishing pain from discomfort and knowing what to do with each and making that skill stick takes regular practice. And here are three easy ways you can do that aside from a race.
On daily runs, try and practice separating pain from discomfort. Label them in your mind. On long runs, practice turning up your dial uphills and turning it down flats and downhills, and notice how your discomfort level changes and how much more confident you feel when you know you're in control of how much discomfort you accept.
And even in everyday life, notice the difference between pain and discomfort in activities like strength training or stretching or even being at work, sitting in an uncomfortable chair. Notice when you use the words pain and discomfort to describe a physical sensation. That's good practice. And the more you practice this outside a race, the more natural it is in the race when the stakes are higher.
When you truly get this concept, your perception of pain changes. You'll start thinking in terms of real pain and discomfort. Physical difficulty won't feel as overwhelming because instead of one big massive cloud of pain, you have two smaller distinct ones, and you know exactly how to deal with each.
And you'll no longer fear the discomfort of ultra distances because you know you're in control of it. You'll have the confidence that you can handle whatever the race brings because you control the volume. You can always adjust the amount of discomfort you accept up or down. It's not all or nothing.
You know, that runner who stopped at mile 80, the problem wasn't that he couldn't handle the sensations he was feeling. The problem was that he believed he couldn't handle them. So he felt powerless to change them.
With this new understanding, he could decide to turn the discomfort dial down a notch by walking more for the next few miles and then reassess. He could control the discomfort instead of feeling overwhelmed by the fear of it and finish the race.
So the next time you're in a race and discomfort starts to build, remember, you're not at the mercy of whatever you're feeling. You have control of the intensity. You have control of the volume that you accept, the intensity that you accept, and you get to decide to turn that up or down. You can handle more discomfort than you think, not by forcing yourself to suffer, but by taking conscious control of how much you choose to accept and when.
Again, that runner at mile 80 who couldn't make himself leave the aid station? The only difference between him finishing and not finishing was understanding this concept, that you control how much discomfort you accept. And now that you understand that, go put it to use.
All right, you all, that's this week's episode. If you know someone who could use this, share it with them. It might be exactly what they need to hear. See you all next week. Bye.
Thanks for listening to Unstoppable Ultra Runner. If you want more ultra talk, mindset tools, and strategies for running with confidence, visit www.susanidonnelly.com. This podcast receives production support from the team at Digital Freedom Productions. That’s it for today’s episode. See you next week.
Enjoy the Show?
Don’t miss an episode, follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RSS, or wherever you listen to podcasts!
Next
Next