Keely Hodgkinson Interview on Pain Tolerance

It always bugged me referring to pushing through running 'pain'... But to me it's discomfort, not pain. Pain is when you strain a muscle or something, you don't want to push through that or it's going to get worse. Pushing through 'discomfort' or fatigue, that's not pain. You need to have a high discomfort tolerance, not pain tolerance.

As a mid d runner who has raced up to a half marathon, I agree the 5k is far the most painful distance and it's not even close. I've been told the marathon has it beat, but wouldn't know personally

Really? I didn’t hear anything interesting or insightful in that duration. The role of effectable psychology is overrated. Talent is paramount followed by dedication to training. The rest is blah blah noise.

There isn’t a quantitative measure of pain tolerance or a practical way to conduct an experiment to confirm or refute the hypothesis that Keely or for that matter anyone has more of it than anyone else.

I don't think most amateurs really push themselves to the limit in a marathon like they do in a 5k.

For me when I had a kidney stone that was a little less painful than the second half of a 5k I remember thinking that at some point during the ordeal. In that case it lasted for 3 days though and I had less control. Also my pacing was often poor so the second half of races were probably harder(and slower lol) than they should have been.

I remember reading some female marathoner saying her races were harder than giving birth which I always counted as a point for running heh. The bottom line is that you cant feel what another person is feeling so its hard to judge whether elites have better pain tolerance etc or are just better. Mostly the second but tolerance could be on a bell curve like most other things

I agree 800m is peak pain, but 5K is more pain overall.

Where is my buddy wellnow/Jon Orange (and several other names) to chime in and say that a well-conditioned athlete should not be this uncomfortable in training or in races?

It's just totally different. Each race hurts in its own way if raced properly.

400/800 hurts a lot, but over pretty quickly.

I actually think the mile is one of the easier distances, the third lap is rough but mentally the last lap isn't too bad. If you're running reasonable splits.

The 5k is pretty brutal from mile 2 onward. A ratcheting up of discomfort quite quickly.

The marathon is always more painful than you think it's going to be, but it comes on really slowly. By the end you're suffering in an existential way.

This. It's emotional response. And we're supposed to use it wisely to avoid injury and training too hard or too easy.

In bed with a calf cramp. True story.

Why would you possibly use an apostrophe to make a word past tense?

The secret is that every elite believes they have a higher pain tolerance than everyone else.

Yep. All these self-made and "just believe" and "I'm not talented". Instantly lose any respect they might have had.

how about an interview on how to be hot and fast at the same time?

But Keely said it herself. The races don't seem to hurt nearly as much because of the adrenaline.

The hardest training is sometimes enjoyable and sometimes a chore. My session yesterday was actually fun. So much so that I overdid it when my left calf suddenly cramped and I stopped immediately.

So why do you think my philosophy is wrong? The feelings are subjective. Pain isn't the goal, optimal pacing is.

Yep. Having to drive myself home from practice hoping I didn’t have to break hard because my legs were so weak, then having to sit down to take a shower. It felt awful, but then having the extra gear to power past people down the homestretch felt amazing. It was fun at the time, but I am glad I don’t feel the need to do that anymore.

Keely is getting more than a good feeling from doing this. She is making millions of dollars and knows that if she does this now she will have the option to never work again for the rest of her life. Plus she seems to enjoy the attention of being famous as a star athlete in Great Britain. There are painful and miserable jobs out there that don’t come with any of those benefits. I think she sees the value in having control over how she suffers and having enormous payout when it generates success on the track. When she retires from this she will still be incredibly young and can live out her days however she wants. Most people never have that kind of opportunity.

Typical CIS male reply. Do you know what empathy is? Have you ever tried to imagine what it’s like to be a top female athlete? the pressure to perform, the ovulation cycles with their hormonol vicissitudes, the objectification of their bodies, the absolute courage and fortitude it takes for them to just get out of bed in the morning. I think that, maybe, after you’ve reflected on the profundity of my statements for a while you will start to understand the tedious and provincial errors that make up your worldview.

Have y'all contacted the marathon investigation guy about getting involved in this probe yet?