Psychology of endurance sports - motivation
Just as you mention to someone you do any kind of endurance related activity, they generally ask the obvious question of “Why?”.
Motivation (or discipline) plays a key role in achieving anything in endurance sports. It doesn’t have to be a win at a big race, it can be as simple as finishing an event, achieving a PB or testing out one’s breaking point.
Today, we will dive into motivation and how different people find a way to move on.
Motivation
Motivation is as diverse as the people that take part in any sport. It’s as individual as it can get. Someone just likes a certain sport, another person wants to master a particular aspect of a sport, while another group of people is there only for the prizes.
Intrinsic motivation
Everyone, usually, starts with intrinsic motivation. These are the things that got them to start in the first place. Once they found interest and joy in a particular activity, the activity itself is the reward and they can put in the effort without much thought.
Extrinsic motivation
On the other hand, extrinsic motivation is completely different. Here athletes put their personal interest aside and focus on the competition and reward as the prime source for motivation. This can be the win on a big race, getting a sponsorship deal, or just a lot of kudos or likes on social media.
There is nothing wrong with being extrinsically motivated. That’s pretty much what professional sport is all about. The thing they have in common is that, most of the time, extrinsic motivation emerges from intrinsic motivation once a certain level of success is achieved.
Regardless of the type of motivation, it’s almost impossible for endurance athletes to achieve anything without the joy for the activity. In order to participate (or win) in an ultra-marathon race, athletes have to put in a large amount of time and effort into it. They have to train continuously for long periods of time to achieve a desired fitness level where they have a chance at tackling a certain event.
“You’ve got to enjoy what you do. I think the reason I have been successful is because I’m super passionate about what I do and I really enjoy it.”
Finding one’s breaking point
For most endurance athletes it becomes a quest to find how far they can go. Dean Karnazes is one of those endurance athletes who continuously tries pushing the boundaries of what they can do.
After completing a 50 mile race, he learned about a 100 mile race. Then he completed a 135 mile race. After that he took on a 200 mile relay race all alone. It took some convincing for the race organizers to approve but he finished this one too. Every time he finished a certain distance he was looking for something new. He, eventually, found his limit at 350 miles non stop!
“There was a point on the third night without sleep - I think I was at about mile 318 - and all of a sudden I was looking down upon a guy running... I was in a helicopter but then I realised ‘Oh my God, the guy that’s down there, that’s me’ And I thought that maybe that was what you see right before you die”
Exploration
Another element to motivation is the desire to constantly improve and be better. It might not be enough to win the overall category or set a new personal best but if the athlete finds a new way to improve their performance they will use this as fuel to keep going.
“The perfect performance may be an illusion, but it’s the pursuit of that that interest me”
When someone starts out in a new sport, improvements are pretty much exponential. As you get better and better, improvements are much more difficult and require an ever increasing amount of effort. To some athletes this can be the fuel that keeps them going. Not accepting a plateau and always traying to find room for improvement is enough to justify hours of training.
Ride the wave as best you can
There will, of course, come times when an athlete’s motivation hits a low. It’s in those situations that motivation and the desire to continue play a key role. If the athlete is willing to accept these situations and push through them they will soon be on a new wave that will take them further. They start focusing on the process itself and trust that with enough time the outcome they desire will come.
Now with motivation explored. We will look into more detail how to use motivation to achieve goals and keep focus during training.
