Running News Daily

The Middle of a Run Sometimes Feels Like the Hardest, Right? Here‘s How to Push Through

New research published in the journal Cortex found that in tasks that extend over time—such as a training run or race—people tend to put most of their effort into the start and finish, and much less into the middle.

While it’s human nature to do this, there are a few ways you can approach this lower point of effort, such as adding in sprints to the middle of your runs to mix things up or gradually building intensity over time.

Do you typically begin your runs like a racehorse coming out of the gate and end your runs with a recharged kick, but find the middle miles to be the most grueling part? Well, you’re definitely not alone.

It turns out that when doing tasks that extend over time—such as a training run or race—people tend to put most of their effort into the start and finish, and much less into the middle, according to a recent study published in the journal Cortex.

Researchers asked 18 people to play a simple computer game in which they controlled a spaceship that shot down asteroids. They were told that for each session, top performers would get an additional financial bonus, paid after the last session.

They found that participants tended to invest high levels of effort in the beginning and toward the end of a game, in a U-shaped pattern. This is consistent with previous research, which includes athletes in track races, swimming, rowing, and cycling, which all involved what they called a STIM pattern, short for “stuck in the middle” effect.

In terms of why this happens, it’s likely an unconscious belief in balancing cost and reward, according to study coauthor Nitzan Censor, Ph.D., a professor in the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University in Israel.

“The STIM pattern reflects higher reward at the beginning and end, and the longer the task goes on, the more people tend to perceive that the middle part simply costs too much in terms of effort,” he told Runner’s World. “The result is that effort can decrease by quite a bit over the course of a task, especially if the beginning and end are seen as especially rewarding.”

For example, you might love the excitement of the start line and, honestly, who doesn’t embrace seeing the finish line during a race of any distance? But if you’re hooked on those two elements as your rewards, you might actually be decreasing the amount of effort you put in during the race itself.

f you’re someone who needs that extra motivation during the middle portion of your miles or your training cycle, there are a few possible ways to approach this point of lower effort, according to certified running coach Kourtney Thomas, C.S.C.S. The first is to simply acknowledge that this is what people naturally tend to do.

“Just knowing this is common, and that most people tend to exert less effort in the middle of training, can be helpful for giving yourself a break,” she told Runner’s World.

But if that mindset is sabotaging your training runs and races—by slowing you down, for example—then you can make tweaks based on modifying that “middle time” of your training. For example, you can start at an easier pace—as opposed to gunning it right out of the gate—and build intensity over time, said Thomas. That can help to shorten the period of less effort.

Another tweak to consider is having different goals for the middle of your run, she added. Getting started and reaching a certain goal—like time or distance—provide their own rewards, but for the rest, it helps to mix it up.

“Maybe this is where you introduce some sprints, for example,” said Thomas. “That creates mini goals in the midst of your longer run.”