Over the past year I have found that, at times, training to be a professional runner can feel much like trying to dig through asphalt with a wooden spoon. Putting in vast amounts of effort but never really getting anywhere. Obviously, it was time for a change. A move that would take me one more quarter of the way across the country and hopefully from humble personal bests to slightly better than humble personal bests, or at the very least allow me to find more enjoyment in running. Having started my running career in southeastern Idaho, moving to Oklahoma, then Detroit, a move to North Carolina seemed fitting. Reverting back to the slow and simple life in a modest, mountain town. Blowing Rock, NC…. Here I come.
Two weeks ago today I was running around a suburban running shop like a chicken with my head cutoff. Being the only employee on staff, I was scrambling to help all six customers who were clamoring for more attention while looking forward to my afternoon run, a break from running shoe store stresses and an escape from my increasingly mundane schedule. Finally something new and excited. A chance to run with a team again and to have a sponsor to help take some of the financial pressure off.
I’ve just finished my first week here at Zap, as well as my first Adult Marathon Camp and first blog as a Zap athlete. Talk about a baptism by fire. Being surrounded by so many new tasks and experiences has made my transition fairly quick and simple. The immediacy of the situation left me with little choice but to merge with my new surroundings. Being thrust into the flames has allowed me to quickly meld into the group. So here I am, hopefully a fully-functional part of this well oiled machine that is Zap Fitness.
I may have graduated from college exactly 1 year ago to this day, but that doesn't mean I've lost the spark of intellectual curiosity. In fact, with Thomas and Warrenburg to argue with on daily runs, during dinner, and afterward in the kitchen, you could say the flame burns even brighter. One of my favorite classes I took in college was entitled Judgment & Decision Making. It was class that meshed professors from the departments of Psychology, Economics and International and Public Affairs. During lectures, we frequently discussed different heuristics, or experienced-based techniques used during problem solving, learning and discovery. Basically, a heuristic is a rapid, intuitive/unconscious "rules of thumb" that we begin to use as we mature and encounter situations. Often times, we don't even know we are using them. After I took this class, though, I began to notice the effect of heuristics in peculiar aspects of life, particularly running.
Today I want to talk about a heuristic known as the Anchoring Effect. Anchoring is a psychological phenomenon in which people tend to make assessments of situations based upon a reference point. I started talking about the anchoring effect one night at the Zap dinner table in reference to predicting the time and finish of a race. When discussing a future race and Dave says "I think Nate is going to run 13:45..." it is then impossible for me to make a prediction without taking into account the time he just said. This effect can be particularly dramatic when the question you are trying to answer is completely unknown. We love to make bets at Zap, so now when each of us decides to make our call for the correct time that the race will be won in, we all come up with our time prior to the first statement so as to not set a reference point and Anchor the others' guesses. This can be especially important when betting on races like the marathon where the finishing time range can be several minutes.
ANYWAY, back to the point. I started to notice something similar to the Anchoring Effect happening in the NCAA indoor mile this winter. If you follow college track & field these days then you know that we have a seriously talented group of freshman runners this year. And when I say "talented group of young runners," I don't mean it in the typical sense of a freshman running well for being a freshman, I mean guys who are leading the NCAA as freshman and competing on the world scene. It seemed like every other weekend this winter and spring that a new bar was set. Running under 4 minutes in the indoor mile used to be the bar, but after German Fernandez ran 3:55 in a low key race coming off of an injury, it seemed like things changed. Guys started running 3:56, 3:57...and not being satisfied. I see a phenomenon happening here and I think it has something to do with the Anchoring Effect. As guys and girls run faster (and especially young ones) the whole mentality starts to shift. What we once considered as fast, now has become a "good start," and what was once "phenomenal" is now the standard. The new 'bar' is what we now set our references for outstanding times at.
This is absolutely essential for American distance running. To compete with the best at the world stage, we have to completely change our notions of what is really good. There are hundred's of cliche quotes about "believing in yourself" and "shooting for the stars," but there is actually some truth to their underlying principles. I love hearing about new American Records because it raises the bar one notch higher and forces everybody else to reassess what is good. On a separate but related note, what I don't love is this year's slowing of the US National qualifying standards. Set the standards slower, and people, on average, will run slower.
The tough part about heuristics is that they largely exist in the unconscious realm. You cant just say "make 12:50 in the 5k your new standard of excellence," because that wouldn't be reasonable at this point. What I did learn about changing heuristics in JDM was that knowing is half the battle. Until we become consciously aware of these little mental speed-bumps, can we begin to expect changes in our psyche.
Completely disagree? Feel free to share your thoughts...
