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Category: Running

ANTs in Ultra Running

ANTs in Ultra Running

Published by Patrick Durante on February 7, 2025

Automatic Negative Thoughts, or ANTs, play a significant role in ultra running. These thoughts often invade your mind when a race becomes challenging and things aren’t going as expected. They surface when the going gets tough, and your body amplifies their effects by fostering a negative attitude toward the race. But why does this happen?

The mind is inherently predisposed to think and predict, often anticipating worse conditions due to its negative bias. Once it sets on this track, it perpetuates a negative spiral, consistently fueling the fire. Here are some tips and tricks I use to manage these thoughts, which you can also apply to your next event.

ANTs don’t bother this dude at all.

Our minds tend to follow thought processes to their conclusion, often seeking problems even when there are none if that’s how we’ve trained them to behave. The principle is that our thoughts and actions reflect what we repeatedly do; if negativity dominates your mindset, negative thoughts, regardless of their truth, will invade your mind. We often overlook how much more attention our minds give to negative emotions compared to positive ones. This is similar to the news mantra “if it bleeds, it leads,” driven by our innate focus on survival. The mind aims to identify dangers and draw attention to them, a necessity in our evolutionary past. Like prey animals constantly scanning for predators, we become alert, jumpy, and quick to perceive threats everywhere.

I coached the predator to his first 100 mile success. True story.

In contrast, predators move with calculated precision, focusing solely on necessary actions without entertaining doubt. The idea is that those who proceed more deliberately make fewer mistakes, staying fixated on their targets and preventing doubt from creeping in. This focus is key to defeating ANTs. Just as a lion locks onto its prey, you must concentrate on your targets. But instead of fixating on the distant finish line, focus on eliminating ANTs by keeping your goals within reach. In a previous post, I mentioned adopting the mantra “feet over finish” to maintain my focus on achievable targets, not just the distant objective of the finish line.

The predator as a trail runner. He would be a BEAST!

My immediate targets include managing my calorie intake, pace, and running form. These are my close “prey,” things within my control and focus. ANTs have no room in my mind when it’s preoccupied with something else. They emerge when attention drifts and pain escalates. During a long race, your brain perceives your actions as a threat to its well-being. It defaults to safety and ease, deploying ANTs—fear, doubt, self-deprecation—as its primary weapons. “I suck,” “I’m too slow,” “I’m not good enough”—these are the whispers of a brain desperate to return to Netflix and comfort.

This is the where you must slow down, think strategically, acknowledge negative thoughts, and move past them. Employ the OODA loop—a decision-making model created by US Air Force Colonel John Boyd to aid fighter pilots in making quick decisions in combat.

The OODA Loop:

Observe: Gather information about your situation.

Orient: Align with reality by analyzing your assumptions and biases.

Decide: Make informed decisions based on your observations and analyses.

Act: Implement your decisions.

Why is the OODA Loop Useful?

The OODA loop aids in making swift and precise decisions in uncertain environments, leveraging agility over sheer power.

Your personal OODA loop might be: focus on feet, calories, form, hydration, and posture—stand tall, maintain a quick cadence, breathe, and relax. Run for 20-30 minutes, then reset and repeat: focus on feet, calories, form, hydration. This loop helps you push through the race free from fear and ANTs, maintaining focus until you finish.

Thanks for reading.  This was one of my random thoughts I had after listening to a podcast.  I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it.  

Thanks for reading!

Where do you draw the line?

Where do you draw the line?

Published by Patrick Durante on October 24, 2024

I was walking down the street. As I passed two people having a conversation, I overheard someone say, “You gotta draw the line somewhere!” The lady stated this in disgust. I had no idea what she was talking about, but I laughed in my head. It got me thinking about athletes and whether they ever say that to themselves. Why would they say it? Where do I draw the line regarding the events and challenges I add to my calendar?

Where do you draw the line in Ultrarunning?

One of the events I think will go way past my line is a “Last Man Standing” event. I’m pretty sure I plan to add that to my calendar for next year. This race will force me to draw the line on how far I go. It will test how long I can keep things under control. What will be the first thing to cross the line? Will it be my body or my mind?

A Backyard Ultra is a unique and grueling endurance race format where participants run a loop of a specific distance every hour, on the hour, until only one runner remains. The standard loop distance is 4.167 miles (6.706 kilometers), which ensures that runners cover 100 miles in 24 hours if they continue for that long.

Each year, you should review your proverbial “line in the sand.” As an athlete, that could mean the biggest distances, hardest events, fastest times, or newest challenges.

Who drew your initial line? Think about that. Odds are it was the sum of past experiences or maybe someone you admired. At some point, you thought, “Well, maybe I could do that.” Maybe you and a friend crossed the line together in a race. You both expanded what you thought was your limit. Either way, you now have a line in the sand, and that’s it. A limit was born. Each year, I return to my running era. I contemplate ways to erase or redraw that line. I want to make it slightly higher or different than last year. A new line that puts me in new or novel situations to experience life.

It’s been a long time since I’ve crossed over “the farthest I’ve gone”

You should be near, above, or sometimes well below your line in training. That means you have easy days, on-target days, and days way over your line of what you thought was possible. That’s because race day does the same thing. If you are pacing it right, you will reach your limit on race day. Then, you will need to decide if this is truly your limit. Was it self-imposed the entire time—a fabrication of your sum of past experiences? The mind wants to know if there is an end to the suffering, but what if there is no finish line? I think that’s why I want to try a backyard event; there is NO DEFINED finish.

If you do ultras, people will tell you all the time that you’re crossing the line in these events. It will be way past where most people drew their line, which was at 10K, half marathon, or marathon. The term “ultra” encompasses EVERYTHING past the marathon. There’s no limit to the length that these races and events can be, and that’s a good thing.

“You gotta draw the line somewhere!” Or maybe you don’t. They keep making longer and longer events; 200-mile races are becoming the norm just as 100s seemed crazy a few years ago.

I am not at the 200-miler event yet; maybe I never will be. But I want to draw the line over 100, so that’s why I want to try one of these backyard events. I want to understand what happens mentally and physically as I cross OVER where I think my conceived limit lies. My furthest distance to date is 105 recorded at Rabid Raccoon. I can’t wait until my foot crosses over where I drew my line and I am in uncharted territory. That’s where the magic happens, outside of the comfort zone.