REWIRED TO RUN

Are the cold days leaving you short on get-up-andgo? Sports psychologist Dr Josephine Perry explains how we can hack our brain chemistry to max-out our motivation

WE’VE ENTERED THAT GLOOMY REGION of the calendar where new year’s resolutions go to die. The weather is rubbish, the sofa somehow more welcoming than ever, and spring and summer races seem too distant to apply the necessary metaphorical boot to our posteriors. In fact, for many, running right now can feel more of a chore than a choice.

But a lucky few seem to run unperturbed, their enthusiasm unwavering as they bounce out the door oozing oomph from every pore. In motivational terms, these lucky ones can be thought of as the ‘born to’ runners. They are the natural runners. It’s a phrase more commonly used in the physical realm, when talking about those who have the physique and technique to run fast and light with seemingly effortless grace, but being a natural runner actually starts in the brain. Those bounding out the door are mentally wired to run. A deep-rooted, intrinsic love of running helps them succeed without them having to go through much of the stress and worry that the rest of us, the ‘want to’ runners, must overcome. So what can we ‘want to’ runners learn from the ‘born to’ brigade to rewire our brains and make everything feel a little bit easier?

The biggest advantage ‘born to’ runners have is a true, deep love of running itself. They are not necessarily chasing PBS or medals, or even the friends they see at their club. They run purely for the joy of running. In sports psychology, these people are known to be intrinsically motivated. Even if there were no races, no GPS watches to track them, no clubs to run with, they would still run, simply because the process of running makes them happy. ‘ Want to’ runners are more likely to be what we term extrinsically motivated, meaning that they run for medals, or friends, or health…or cake. All excellent reasons, but ones that require much more mental effort.

If we naturally – intrinsically – love running, we will keep going even when the conditions get tough. If we don’t, we need to find ways to manipulate our motivation. The stronger we can make it, the better able we are to keep going even when that little devil on our shoulder is telling us to stop, our bodies are grumbling or the freezing downpour outside makes a long run look very unappealing. To tip the motivational scales, we need to give ourselves a reward for using our determination and the more difficult we perceive our running to be, the bigger reward we require.

MOVI N G THE GOALPOS T S

SO FIRSTLY, WE NEED A WELL- CHOSEN and effective goal. A goal big enough to get us out of bed at 6am on a cold – and probably wet – winter morning. A goal that is enough of a stretch to scare us into action, but realistic enough that we don’t simply give up on it. A goal that makes our stomach flip with excitement. Then, once we’ve chosen our big goal, we need to break it down into much smaller targets, things we can aim to achieve along the way. Hitting each of these targets gives us a neurological reward, just like a drug.

Most addictive drugs are thought to work because they push the brain to release a reward chemical, dopamine. It makes us feel good. Researchers believe that running has the ability to trigger it, too. Dopamine is released when we anticipate something good is going to happen, so we can trigger it by setting lots of small, incremental goals. Each time we get close to achieving these we get a ‘hit’ and feel good. And the effect helps us sustain motivation in the longer term because the better we feel, the longer we want to continue with our goals.

Research at Vanderbilt University in the US mapped the brains of those they described as ‘go-getters’ and those classed as ‘slackers’. They found the go-getters, who pushed themselves to work hard for