Internal Mono(b)log

Anyone who’s watched a Kona IM championship where Chrissy Wellington was racing knows that she’s well known for smiling in the face of intense physical challenge and discomfort. Her twitter id is even @chrissysmiles!

The other day I was talking to someone about the power of body position on mood. There have been many studies on this over the last few decades and they all point tot the same thing: you can change (or at least strongly influence) your mood by changing your posture and/or facial expression.

So I started thinking: I wonder if this is something she does actively or by instinct, or completely by accident. In any event I decided I’d give it a go. Last weekend, I did a 3.5hr ride in some pretty good hills north-west of Toronto. As an experiment, while climbing some of the hills I’d relax my face and smile, on others I’d grimace and snarl and swear and gnash my teeth. At the end of each hill I’d evaluate perceived effort.

Sure VERY unscientific. I’ll admit that. But good enough for my laboratory of 1 (me).

My results? Absolute! Smiling and relaxing the face when climbing had a definite impact on perceived effort when pushing up the hills (and at most every other time on the route when I was feeling tired or worn down).

So next time you’re out there slogging it away, put a cheery smile on your face, smile and say hi to the cyclist you’re passing as you seemingly effortlessly roll up the hill beside them. It’ll still hurt, but somehow, it just won’t seem as bad.