Is Fatigue All In Our Minds?

http://tinyurl.com/g3vvj Tim Noakes' Central Governor Theory

Got this link from my running list- it mostly pertains to cycling, and is _very_ interesting!

Psych Out Your Body-

....For years, exercise scientists assumed that we—athletes, gym goers,
fitness walkers—become weary and slow down when our muscles run out of oxygen. Not so, says researcher Timothy D. Noakes, M.D., a professor of exercise and sports science at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He points to his 2001 study that found when cyclists quit out of exhaustion, on average after 62 miles, their muscles still had plenty of oxygen left to continue pedaling. Essentially, Noakes says, their brains turned on the discomfort before
they actually ran out of fuel in order to help shield their bodies from potential injury.

YEP! I read that just the other day. ANd based on some of the other reading I've done as of late it makes sense. You see your mind senses impending boom so it tells your body to shut down. But if you tell your mind to shut up your body will just keep going. Thats why in the latter stages of a marathon I make myself focus on something other than what I'm doing. If I say focus on the colors of the leaves on the trees my body just keeps moving on autopilot and the next thing you know I've gone a mile or so.
Def going to put this theory to the test in two weeks... I have the feeling someone else I know is going to as well. (wink wink) ;)

This makes so much sense.

I am helping a Degree in Fitness and Recreation student (Donna) at the moment - I am her assignment. She measures my fitness in a sports lab, writes me a programme for 6 weeks which I have to follow, then measures me again and has to explain any physiological differences (my fitness improvement or lack-thereof).

So last week I did a VO2max tezt, and endurance test and a lactate threshold test.

The lactate thresh-hold hurt the most afterwards, but that endurance test is the one that makes so much sense in terms of this thread.

You see, Donna's tutor who was supervising the tests told me that I would probably last 6-8 minutes... 6-8 minutes? I thought. Damn that... I'll show him I thought to myself... I'll go more than 8!

Donna saw the look in my eyes... but I don't think she realised how bloody minded I can be!

So they set the output I had to produce at 150watts and off I went... started to get very tired at about ten minutes... tutor starts saying "we've made it too easy for her" (they had based the wattage I had to produce on my VO2max test)...

I had to put myself in a place - a zone - just focus - very hard when the view is a whole lot of machinery... so I watch the numbers... the cadence count, the wattage, the speed... just numbers... and 22 minutes later I am too tired to maintain 150 watts...

My oldest son had come along to watch as he is very interested in sports science. He reckons the tutor was a tad embarrassed.

But I couldn't have done it if I listened to my original thoughts, cause my head had "just last 6-8 minutes" firmly planted, and I had to change that thought and fight it out of the way a few times... cause that thought was telling my body it could stop now...