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Have you experienced? (Read 346 times)

    I have been reading the book The Runner's Brain and was interested to find that the author describes two distinct experiences that some runners have, "runner's high" and "flow".   "Runner's High" is defined as "experiencing a sense of peaceful euphoria wash over them during a run...like a drug high without the drugs".  "Flow" (same as that described by the psychologist Csiksentmihalyi)  seems to happen in tasks that are "challenging yet achievable".  It is "a lovely sense of timelessness...perfect concentration...Thoughts are focused and you feel mindfully in the moment".  It is not unique to running or even sports in general and can happen to musicians and others.

     

    So what do you all think?  Have you experienced the Runner's High and/or "flow" state while running?  I feel like I might have reached the "flow" state a few times but so far the Runner's High remains elusive.

     

    Edited to add that I wanted to put the choice "neither" in the poll selections but somehow it didn't get up there.  Post in the comments if this is your selection.

    "Shut up Legs!" Jens Voigt

      I've experienced neither. My max distance is 11 miles and it wasn't like I was psyched to do it either. I was just going through the motions of training for a marathon, which I didn't get to run. I pulled my groin a week or so after the 11 mile run. But, even my short runs 3-5 miles, I've never experienced any sort of high at all.

      Tar Heel Mom


      kween

        I have been running since 1983 and have gone 26.2 miles on more than one occasion. Runner's High is a load of BS. Sometimes you get in a "zone." That may be what he means about "flow." But not often. Mostly it's stupid and hard and we all know how dumb we are for doing it.

        Nolite te bastardes carborundum.

          Exactly.  I've never had a euphoric feeling other than being really pleased after a race.  It's totally tied to results and not with just the act of running.  I did vote for Flow though because some runs do feel like floating when I'm in good shape.  It's rare though.

           

          I have been running since 1983 and have gone 26.2 miles on more than one occasion. Runner's High is a load of BS. Sometimes you get in a "zone." That may be what he means about "flow." But not often. Mostly it's stupid and hard and we all know how dumb we are for doing it.

          Joann Y


            I used to have a feeling of a runner's high sometimes when I was still starting out. Now I would probably call that same feeling something of a flow state. Didn't Jeff have something to say about this? Natural cannabinoids or something like that?

             

            MTA: This is a good one! But not entirely about endocannabinoids.

              I used to have a feeling of a runner's high sometimes when I was still starting out. Now I would probably call that same feeling something of a flow state.

              Same here.  I would feel a runners high somewhere between 4-6 miles into a run which was generally my longest run.  And I would agree that it is a sense of euphoria.

               

              For me the flow state is a feeling that I could run forever, it feels effortless and smooth.  Like others have said, in the zone   I would say it feels the opposite of a concentrated effort.


              delicate flower

                I have not, but I have experienced that runner's low after bonking, crashing, and feeling physically and mentally defeated after quitting mid-way through a training run and walking back home or to the car.

                <3

                LedLincoln


                not bad for mile 25

                  I have not, but I have experienced that runner's low after bonking, crashing, and feeling physically and mentally defeated after quitting mid-way through a training run and walking back home or to the car.

                   

                  Other than that, how was your run?

                    Oh my goodness, guys.  Funny.  I, too, have experienced "Runner's Low".  Too many times to count, and a heck of a lot more often than the "flow" state.  Thanks for participating in the poll, as I have been curious as to what other runners experience. 

                    "Shut up Legs!" Jens Voigt

                      Runner's High is a load of BS. Sometimes you get in a "zone." That may be what he means about "flow." But not often. Mostly it's stupid and hard and we all know how dumb we are for doing it.

                       

                      I agree with all this. "Runner's high" must be a myth that some runners use to sucker other people into taking up running. I suppose it's more effective than telling people that you will feel an urgent need to poop at random times. As far as "flow" - once in a while, up to a half mile will go by when my mind is not fully occupied by how far I've gone and how far I have left to go. That must be it.

                      Dave

                        Experienced

                         

                        Everytime I read this thread title...

                        Come all you no-hopers, you jokers and rogues
                        We're on the road to nowhere, let's find out where it goes


                        Why is it sideways?

                          Well, I have.

                           

                          Experienced

                           

                          Everytime I read this thread title...


                          Why is it sideways?

                            The runner's dirty little secret: we actually enjoy it!

                             

                            Don't tell anyone, though. We prefer to think of ourselves as sadists or sufferers or ascetics rather than people needing a fix.

                             

                            Here are two posts on the "runner's high":

                             

                            Running as Prayer

                            Running shares many qualities with other types of religious practice. It is regular and repetitious. It is an exploration of the limits of human capacity. It involves a community of friends. It seems strange and sometimes even life-denying to the uninitiated. Its greatest reveries are often produced in isolation and are incommunicable. Running involves meditation and invokes vague and inarticulate feelings. There are communities devoted to abstruse hermeneutics of the running experience, complete with sages, saints, and wise council. It even invokes a sense of duty and righteousness. We must earn our running through sacrifice. Finally, it is absurd. It begins where it ends, and it ends where it begins.

                            This absurdity appropriates the indifference of life for the purposes of life. As runners, we choose the absurd. We choose indifference. We choose difficulty. We choose the lonely road. This choosing revalues all of the difficulties that life presents, making them activities that infuse the soul with energy rather than powers that threaten to destroy it or wash it out. Running allows me to be an active soul. If the function of religion--its highest calling--is to save souls, and if prayer is the means through which the soul is saved, then ah that hour a day is religious practice, absolutely.

                             

                            Running as Drug

                            ...if we're going to keep the record straight then it should be noted that none of this seriousness or the attempt to paint this mindless trotting as somehow Meaningful in the way that Great Philosophers conceive of Meaning changes the fact that the last thing I thought this afternoon before strapping my Nike Skylons onto my knobby feet and heading out for a hill workout was Fuck.

                            Yes no shit there I was yet again running/hobbling down the road, down the road, for the umpteenth time like a damned and gaunt specter looking for a fix. My iliotibial band was raking my knee like a strung wire, but I paid it no mind. It didn't matter that there were papers to write or houses to clean or emails to send or tests to write and papers to grade, not to mention other people in the world. All that mattered was wresting some kind of high out of these beat up legs. Or at least conjuring the memory of being high, which is really what drives the addict down and in and towards the next fix. Not the joy but the lovely wadded up memory of joy, like a dinner receipt that you left in your pants that got dried and compacted into a crackling dusty chunk.


                            Feeling the growl again

                              I've been running almost 30 years.  I have no clue on this whole runners high thing.

                               

                              "Flow", or "in the groove", or some hightened sense of being and hyper-in-tuneness with one's body while racing, absolutely and an incredible experience I'll never replicate again.

                              "If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does.  There's your pep talk for today.  Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

                               

                              I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

                               

                                I'd say both.  I got what might be called a runner's high once or twice when i first started running. Not sure if it was caused and/or confused by a sense of accomplishment - because I seem to remember it around times of "first time running this distance or that distance".

                                 

                                On the flow thing, more than a couple times, but still probably in the half-dozen neighborhood. Usually, it would occur on a run that was a little faster than normal or just "being present" while running on a nice day.

                                When it’s all said and done, will you have said more than you’ve done?

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