Tune in or zone out? The experts weigh in on which training strategy works best

rACHEL HAIG OF PORTLAND, OR, used to think running was a bore; Unless she was running with a Walkman or a friend, the former competitive diver couldn't get through a workout. Then, while training for a half-marathon this spring, she underwent a radical shift in attitude. "I started looking at each run like I did diving practice in school," says Haig, 38, a law student. "I tuned in to how I was feeling, what my legs were doing, how my breathing sounded. I used to have random thoughts on my runs, but now, concentrating on what I'm doing makes me enjoy running and go slightly faster."

For some women, the key to an enjoyable workout-whether it's a six-mile run, a 3,000-meter swim workout or 45 minutes on the elliptical--is zoning out; however, others, like Haig, say that when they space out, their intensity--not to mention their interest--drops. Researchers label these attentional strategies "association" and "dissociation." Association involves focusing attention internally on bodily sensations such as muscular strain and breathing, as well as monitoring things like pace and heart rate. In contrast, dissociation means distracting yourself from your physiological signals by daydreaming, listening to music, talking to a friend or enjoying the scenery. But is one strategy better than the other, or is it just a matter of personal preference?

"It really depends on what your goal is," says Kevin Masters, PhD, a psychology professor at Utah State University, Logan, who has conducted several studies on attentional strategies and written a review article summarizing 25 years of research on the topic. "Generally, for athletes who practice dissociative behavior, time seems to go faster, their mood is better at the end of a workout and they have higher ratings of enjoyment--but they also have a slower pace."

MINDFUL MOTION

It makes sense that maintaining your concentration on physical sensations during a workout would allow you to sustain a certain pace: You have the awareness to constantly remind yourself to keep up your efforts. It's like keeping an eye on your car's speedometer to make sure you're not exceeding the speed limit. "By doing a general monitoring of things happening in your body--areas of tenseness, breathing, form--you're able to maintain your intensity better by making adjustments when necessary," says Benjamin M. Ogles, PhD, professor and chair of the psychology department at Ohio University, Athens.

While turning inward might make you run, bike or swim faster, it also might set you up for added pain. In a study conducted on finishers of the 1996 London Marathon, British researchers found that recreational runners who tuned in to internal sensations hit the proverbial "wall" sooner than runners who tuned out. Researchers thus speculated that by paying too much attention to their physical symptoms, the associative runners may have magnified their physical discomforts.

The jury is still out, though, on whether or not you'll hurt more if you tune in more. In a 2001 study published in the Psychology of Sport and Exercise, experienced runners ran a 5k and were directed to tune in or tune out--for example, the dissociative runners weren't allowed to wear watches or heart rate monitors. Despite running faster, the associative group had the same rates of perceived exertion as the dissociative group.

LISTEN TO THE PROS

While the majority of competitive athletes practice associative strategy during a race, tactics vary during training. For Meghan Arbogast, 43, a marathoner who qualified for the 2000 and 2004 Olympic trials, it depends on the goal of the workout. "If it's a really hard workout, I have to tune in to what I'm doing. It takes a lot of concentration to maintain a hard pace. I concentrate on cadence and form--am I upright? Are my elbows in? If I'm going into wind, am I making myself small? It becomes a real mental workout."

Yet listening to tunes on an iPod is how Dotsie Cowden, 31, a professional cyclist on the U.S. National Team sponsored by T-Mobile, gets through her most difficult interval workouts. "The music is a great motivator, and it also helps with my rhythm during specific intervals," says Cowden, who is also a women's cycling coach living in the Los Angeles area (dotsiecowden.net). "I think it helps to mix it up: Sometimes the silence out there gets to me, and other days I totally relish it."

Researchers and coaches agree that there's no blanket rule about associating or dissociating. "It's dynamic from one person to another and one day to the next," says Ed Acevedo, PhD, an associate professor in the department of health, exercise science and recreation management at the University of Mississippi, Oxford. Acevedo has conducted attentional strategy research on ultramarathoners and English Channel swimmers. In one study, he found that successful Channel crossers who did the swim to mark a significant life event, such as a milestone birthday, used dissociation much more frequently than competitive open-water swimmers.