Pain can be perceived by the mind as your friend or your foe. Define it, acknowledge it, and figure out the next best step.

“The race is won by the rider who can suffer the most.” (Eddy Merckx). “Shut Up Legs.” (Jens Voigt). “As long as I breathe I attack.” (Bernard Hinault).

You probably know the “attack” well – the moment when a competitor picks up the pace and breaks away. If you are cyclist or a runner, this might mean they break away on their own. If you are a swimmer, it could mean that another lane has taken the lead. Whatever your sport, you know that moment when you have a decision to make. You have a split second to make a choice – you either go with them or you don’t.

When you choose to go with them and attack, it takes guts and it can hurt. The alternative is not going with them, dropping off, and letting someone else win.

Not only are these short bursts of effort physically painful, they can be mentally painful as well. In most cases, the mind gives up way before the body. But you can change that.

(Source: How to: Win the Mental Battle When Cycling Gets Tough)

Pain versus injury

While these often go hand in hand, they are not the same thing. Just because you’re hurting doesn’t mean you’re injured.

Pain is a tricky thing. As an athlete, you have to figure out how to mentally push through some pain and that can be a good thing, but it depends on the type of discomfort you are experiencing. It’s important to be able to differentiate between being in pain and being injured.

Here are some good questions to start with that’ll help you decide if you are possibly injured:

1. Did something specific happen? Do you remember a specific situation where you felt a pop or snap? When you are injured, there is usually a specific event that’s brought it on.
2. Is the area swollen or bruised? There usually are visual signs of an injury.
3. Do you have a loss of function? The biggest difference between being hurt and injured is a loss of function.
4. How badly does the area hurt? On a scale of 1 (very little pain) to 10 (terrible pain) where is the pain? If it’s above a 5 or 6 or jumps quickly up above that, the chances are good that it’s an injury. “The type of pain is also important. Sharp, stabbing pain, burning, tingling, or numbness are all symptoms that require medical attention.” (Source: 3 Steps To Assessing Pain: Are You Hurt Or Are You Injured?)
5. How long have you had this problem? When I was coaching triathletes, we’d suggest they lay low for 3 days, come back slowly, and if the problem persists, talk to a doctor.

Performing with pain

In competition, legs and lungs are usually both burning but there is research that says some athletes, like cyclists, actually race better when they feel that pain. That physical discomfort helps riders judge the effort they are putting out.

“Pain of some description is actually good for cyclists, and experiencing pain helps drive us on.” (Source: The science of suffering)

What happened when research participants took Tylenol before a race? They managed to ride significantly faster because they still only felt the same level of pain compared to producing lower outputs on a placebo. This suggests that the pace you can maintain isn’t determined by a physiological limit (lactic acid) but the pain level you’re able to endure that determines the pace you can maintain. When pain is reduced, performance improves because it’s less than you are used to. (Source: The science of suffering)

Train for pain

The research goes on to say that pain tolerance is trainable. This includes physically training your muscles to deal with heavy workloads and working on your heart rate and blood lactate levels. This also includes your brain – mental training.

Pain transmits stress signals that are interpreted as a threat, to our brain which then triggers anxiety even when there’s nothing wrong. If you are experiencing normal pain, you have to learn to mentally push through it. One way of pushing through it is to interpret it differently. We can learn to interpret normal pain as something good. For example, as I was cycling yesterday, I was cranking in such a high gear my calves were killing me. I realized how my calves were feeling and interpreted that as good pain. It fueled me to continue cranking. 😊

Just one note on being injured. Injuries can be psychologically difficult to deal with at many levels. If you’ve been injured, it strengthens your pain signal and you will want to re-establish your relationship with it so you don’t misinterpret, push too far, and re-injure yourself.

Use it to win

Most humans hate the feeling of agony and hurting. It’s painful. What’s important is that you understand the difference between pain and injury and learn how to physically and mentally train for pain. Unconscious pain can be your foe but you can turn it into your friend when you make it conscious and understand how to use it, and use it to your advantage.