4 Understanding the mindset of extreme endurance athletes

Extreme endurance sports place exceptional psychological demands on athletes, such as being able to manage the pain and discomfort that will inevitably accompany them. There is also the psychological impact of fatigue as the muscular, nervous and cardiorespiratory systems may be working at their limits for prolonged periods of time. Also, owing to the sheer volume of exercise undertaken, sleep deprivation can also be an issue.

Roebuck and colleagues (2018) identified that ultra-endurance runners respond differently to pain when compared to non-runners as they appear to have a higher pain tolerance threshold and lower pain-related anxiety. They are able to use effective pain-coping strategies and employ psychological skills such as positive self-talk, visualisation and challenging negative thoughts (Berger et al., 2024). Ultra-endurance runners have described how they are able to run while fatigued because of their strong drive to explore their physical and psychological limits (Simpson et al., 2014).

A significant psychological trait that ultra-endurance runners possess is that of mental toughness or resilience (the ability to bounce back from setbacks), when compared to non-runners. Mental toughness is seen as a psychological trait that allows athletes to deal with challenges and persist when under pressure and during negative experiences (Lin et al., 2017), so you can appreciate why it is so important in ultra-endurance activities. The importance of mental toughness is further explored in Activity 4 where you will also learn about methods that sport psychologists can use to support extreme endurance athletes.

As well as setting goals, a technique that sport psychologists can implement with athletes to manage feelings of pain, is to teach athletes to direct their attention to task-relevant cues rather than focus on the discomfort (Lasnier and Durand-Bush, 2023). For example, a cyclist might focus on their technique, leg speed, sensations of breathing, or their race tactics to distract themselves from feelings of pain. Pain is considered to be a subjective experience, and its perceived intensity is not always directly related to the strength of the pain signal sent out (Stevens et al., 2018). Sport psychologists can help their athletes by changing how they perceive and appraise the pain signals they are receiving (Stevens et al., 2018).

Having taken a look at a psychological approach to understanding extreme sports, you will now explore aspects of extreme endurance performance by applying the discipline of sport and exercise physiology.