2024-03-20 12:36:00
This article is an extract from ‘La stride’, EL PAÍS’ newsletter regarding running beyond times, training and improvement. If you want to receive it, you can sign up for free here.
I want to start by asking you a question: when you go out for a run, do you do it to think or not to think? Maybe you have never thought regarding it but, if you talk regarding it with your acquaintances who run, you will see that the answers are very varied. I, for example, am one of those who take advantage of the time I go out for a run to think regarding things a lot, even those at work. The La stride newsletter, to which this article belongs, was actually born in a long training session now that I am preparing for my first ultramarathon. But this is not the case for everyone: I have asked several amateur runners, of different levels and ages, and I have been surprised by how varied their answers are regarding what goes on in their heads when they run.
“Although the first thing I feel when I go out for a run is a feeling of disconnection, over time I have realized that running helps me think better,” Carlos Carrasco, a 32-year-old runner from the Myrmidons athletics club. “Now I take advantage of this moment to revisit the issues that concern me. The shame is that, since during the week I go for a run following work, the inertia of the day unintentionally leads me to think regarding work. And usually I arrive with solutions to problems or with the desire to take some initiative.”
Carlos Carrasco and Jimena Ruiz in the El Derbi de las Aficiones race, in Madrid. Photo courtesy of Jimena Ruiz
Something very similar to what Carlos says happens to me, but there are very different cases. I also asked my colleague in EL PAÍS Alejandra Agudo, 41, who started running last July, got hooked and now reflects on it. on her instagram @una_corriente. As a good journalist, she wanted to see on the spot what was going through her head when she ran. She made a 40 minute exit and followingward she wrote me this:
“Not thinking is impossible, but I don’t usually think regarding work issues or the problems I may be ruminating on, but rather regarding everything for which work and distractions do not leave mental space for the rest of the day. And so I disconnect from certain obligations and connect with other aspects of life: the landscape, my breathing to the back of my lungs and the movement of my legs and arms, music if I am listening to music, or the sounds first thing in the morning or last thing of the day.”
Alejandra Agudo, on one of her running trips. Photo courtesy of Alejandra Agudo
Jimena Ruiz, also a member of the Myrmidons athletics club, Carlos Carrasco’s partner and a long-distance fan, says that “in the first half of the long runs I make an effort to think and distract myself, because if not, I know I will lose my mind. to be very long. In the second half, I try to just focus on running.” Juan Díaz, 47 years old, told me something similar. member of the Hellín Triathlon Club (Albacete): “When it is a time when I am not preparing for races I run for the simple pleasure of running and to clear my head,” he explains. “In fact, I notice how it relaxes me and helps me disconnect. When I’m preparing for races, I usually think regarding issues related to running: the training I’m doing, the upcoming competitions… But I don’t usually think regarding day-to-day issues.”
Juan Díaz running the Hellín Half Marathon, Albacete. Photo courtesy of Juan Díaz
Even Haruki Murakami, who has 0 Nobel Prizes and thousands of kilometers on his legs, reflected on this topic in his essay What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, in which he wrote:
“As I run, maybe I think regarding the rivers. Maybe think of the clouds. But, in substance, I don’t think regarding anything. I simply continue running in the middle of that silence that I longed for, in the middle of that flirtatious and artisanal emptiness. It’s really great. Whatever they say”.
But why are there runners who automatically start running and start thinking and runners who focus only on running and disconnecting? “We have the answer in their previous learning, and in repeated intentionality during many training sessions,” Natalia Pedrajas, Psychologist and Doctor in Healthy Lifestyles and director of The Psychologist at Home; and Carla Rodríguez, psychologist specializing in emotions in sports, director of the association Release the Brakes Psychology and Sports. “Whether exercise in your life has been a moment to connect or disconnect does not depend on whether we have different brains, but on how we have configured what is done in the ‘race moment.’ According to specialists, the predisposition to one state or another depends on different factors:
- The reason why we are practicing sports.
- The personal state in which we find ourselves.
- Previous experience in sports (“an experienced athlete who goes out to play sports will be able to more easily abstract himself from external demands and bodily sensations,” they say).
Although we generally do not do it consciously, psychologists have told me some guidelines so that ‘reflective runners’ can disconnect and vice versa:
“First we have to ask ourselves, do we have other ways or spaces in our lives to reflect? If we have not created them, possibly running is a good time, since automated physical exercise (when you do not have to think regarding what you are doing, you simply run automatically and do not think regarding how you are running) manages to free up a space in our brain perfect for The hippocampus focuses on what it does best, evoking memories and consolidating them.
The fact of running through a familiar environment, or going out with a topic in mind that we want to think regarding while we move, encourages this reflection. If what we want is to focus on the race, we must consciously work on bringing our attention to specific aspects of it, varying from the outside (sounds, colors, time, people, environment, etc.) to our bodily sensations of breathing. , heartbeat, sensation of the muscles, position of our body… It is important to alternate because we will not be able to maintain attention on some elements for a long time without starting to get lost, at which point our alternative thoughts and self-dialogue can come into action.
And you, are you one of those who run to think or to disconnect? What do you think regarding when you run? Do you have any recurring thoughts? If you want, tell me in my email pcanto@elpais.es and, in the next installment of this newsletter, we will comment on the responses.
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