Staying focused during painful anaerobic exercise

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Hello, this is one of the most annoying issues I have with my training at the moment and I'm wondering if anyone can share their experience.

I have a lot of difficulty maintaining my concentration during sprint intervals. My mind wanders after the second interval and I will think about anything but the task at hand. The result is that I can't get my sprinting technique correct, I will stop just before the finish line, and I can rarely reach 100% intensity.

What techniques can you use to stay focused when the exercise you are doing is so painful that you lose motivation and focus the moment you start doing it?

Why is anaerobic exercise so painful anyway?
 
Your goals have to be more important to you than the pain or whatever else is distracting you; whether your goal is to increase your sprint speed, decrease body fat, increase endurance, improve oxygen uptake (lung capacity), improve cardio vascular fitness, etc. Especially sprints should be short enough (10-30 seconds?) that all your concentration is on the movement and not on the pain.

I think they hurt more than most anything else because they are taxing every system in your body (oxygen uptake, cardio vascular, muscle strength, endurance, speed, balance, CNS, etc.) which is why they are so effective compared to other lower intensity exercises that do not tax all those things to their max simultaneously.
 
dswithers said:
Your goals have to be more important to you than the pain or whatever else is distracting you; whether your goal is to increase your sprint speed, decrease body fat, increase endurance, improve oxygen uptake (lung capacity), improve cardio vascular fitness, etc. Especially sprints should be short enough (10-30 seconds?) that all your concentration is on the movement and not on the pain.

I think they hurt more than most anything else because they are taxing every system in your body (oxygen uptake, cardio vascular, muscle strength, endurance, speed, balance, CNS, etc.) which is why they are so effective compared to other lower intensity exercises that do not tax all those things to their max simultaneously.
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Thanks for this.

I realised today that fear also prevents me from performing at 100% - that is, fear of doing some sort of 'damage'.

I use a heart rate monitor and I don't know how accurate it is, but nearing the end of my sprint it can reach 200 - 220 bpm. I feel like I could keep performing at this level, but something inside me tells me to slow down before I do some damage. Should I try to suppress these thoughts and keep going even if I feel like I'm going to die (since it is only 20 - 30 seconds as you mentioned)?
 
Yes, push yourself. At 22 you are not going to have a geart attack unless you have a major heart abnormality, which your doctor should have diagnosed by now. Or if you are in doubt then see you doctor and get an EKG and/or ultrasound and/or stress test. Obviously, you can take as long as you need to start during the recovery interval to let your heart rate go below your pain threshold and allow you to perform at the same level on the next sprint. You can gradually decrease the rest intervals later as you progress. Of course, the maximum benefit derives from the shortest rest intervals (search Tabata for more info).
 
My best tip would be to just push yourself to the maximum on the sprints-if your in a lot of pain increase the time between them or do fewer in training but train more often
i also find listening to music, preferBLy upbeat dance does the trick- concentrtae on the beat not the pain.
 
Never heard of Tabata training before but it sounds perfect for me, looking forward to trying it out next week. Thanks!
 
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