BILL MORGAN, an emeritus pro-fessor of kinesiology at the University of Wisconsin, likes to tell the story, which he swears is true, of an Ivy League pole vaulter who held the Division 1 record in the Eastern region.

威斯康辛大學人體運動學榮譽教授摩根常講一個故事，他信誓旦旦說是真人真事，故事主角是常春藤盟校撐竿跳選手，也是美東一區紀錄保持人。

His coaches and teammates, though, noticed that he could jump even higher. Every time he cleared the pole, he had about a foot to spare. But if they moved the bar up even an inch, the vaulter would hit it every time. One day, when the vaulter was not looking, his team-mates raised the bar a good six inches. The man vaulted over it, again with a foot to spare. When his teammates con-fessed, the pole vaulter could not believe it. But, Dr. Morgan added, "once he saw what he had done, he walked away from the jumping pit and never came back."

但他的教練和隊友發現，他可以跳更高。每次飛躍過竿就發現，他其實還可以多跳一呎（30.48公分），但只要他們把竿往上移一吋（2.54公分），這位撐竿跳選手每次都踢竿。有一天，趁他不注意，隊友悄悄把竿上移6吋（15.24公分），他不但一躍而過，而且同樣還可以再往上跳一呎。當隊友坦承相告時，這位選手不敢相信，但摩根又說：「在發現自己的表現後，他調頭離開沙坑，一去不回。」

After all, Dr. Morgan said, everyone would expect him to repeat that perfor-mance. And how could he The moral of the story No matter how high you jump, how fast you run or swim, how powerfully you row, you can do better. But sometimes your mind gets in the way. "All maximum performances are actually pseudo-maximum perfor-mances," Dr. Morgan said. "You are al-ways capable of doing more than you are doing."

摩根說，這下大家都期望他會再有同樣亮眼的表現，但他怎麼辦得到？這個故事的教訓是不管跳多高，跑或游多快，划多猛，你都可以有更好的表現，但有時你力不從心。摩根說：「所有體能極限表現，其實都是假極限，你永遠可以超越自己。」

One of my running partners Claire Brown calls it mind over mind-over-body. She used that idea in June 2007 in the Black Bear triathlon in Lehighton, Pa., going all-out when she saw a competitor drawing close. She won her age group (30 to 34) for the half-Ironman distance, coming in fourth among the women.

常和我一起跑步的克萊兒．布朗稱之為頭腦主宰思想指揮身體。去年6月，她在賓州利哈頓參加黑熊盃三項全能競賽時就使用這種理念。一發現競爭對手快追上來，她就卯足全力衝刺。她在鐵人三項賽跑項目30至34歲年齡組中獲勝，在女子組中排名第四。

When it was over, she ended up in a medical tent. "I felt like I was going to pass out or throw up or both," she re-called. "At a certain point in a hard race, you've pushed yourself beyond the point of ignoring the physical pain, and now you have to tell your mind that it can keep going, too."

但比賽完後她被送到醫療站。她回憶說：「我覺得我快昏倒或嘔吐或兩種症狀同時出現。在一場激烈競賽中的某個點，你會把自己逼到忽視肉體疼痛的臨界點，這時你得不斷告訴大腦還可以撐下去。」

The problem for many athletes is how to make a pseudo-maximum perfor-mance as close as possible to a maximum one. There are some tricks, exercise physiologists say, but also some risks.

對很多運動員，問題在如何使假的極限演出，盡可能接近真正的體能極限。運動生理學家指出，其中有些訣竅，但也有些風險。

But since most people can do better, no matter how good their performance, the challenge is to find a safe way to push a little harder. Many ordinary ath-letes, as well as elites, use a technique known as dissociation.

但由於大部分人不管表現多棒，都可以更上層樓，他們的挑戰在找出安全的方式更用力逼迫自己。很多平庸的運動員及其中佼佼者，使用一種所謂的「抽離術」。

Dr. Morgan, who tested the method in research studies, said he was inspired by a story, reported by an anthropologist that, he suspects, is apocryphal. It in-volves Tibetan monks who reportedly ran 300 miles in 30 hours, an average pace of six minutes a mile. Their mental trick was to fixate on a distant object, like a mountain peak, and put their breathing in synchrony with their loco-motion. Every time a foot hit the ground they would also repeat a mantra.

在研究中測試這種方法的摩根說，他是受一位人類學家所報告的一則故事啟發，但他懷疑它可能是虛構杜撰的。話說西藏喇嘛據說可以在30小時內跑300哩，也就是每6分鐘跑一哩，他們的心智訣竅是注視遙遠的物體，像某一座山峰，並使他們的呼吸和肢體運動同步。每次腳觸地，他們還要覆誦一句經文。

So Dr. Morgan and his colleagues in-structed runners to say "down" to themselves every time a foot went down. They were also to choose an object and stare at it while running on a tread-mill and to breathe in sync with their steps. The result, Dr. Morgan said, was that the runners using the monks' strate-gy had a statistically significant increase in endurance, doing much better than members of a control group who ran in their usual way.

摩根便叫他同事指示跑者，每次腳踩到地下就對自己說「下」，同時在跑步機上跑步時要選定注視一樣物品，呼吸也要和步伐一致。結果，據摩根指出，數據顯示，使用喇嘛策略的跑者耐力大增，比按照平常方式跑步的對照組成員表現優異得多。

That, in a sense, is the trick that Paula Radcliffe said she uses. Ms. Radcliffe, the winner of this year's New York City Marathon, said in a recent interview that she counts her steps when she struggles in a race. "When I count to 100 three times, it's a mile," she said. "It helps me focus on the moment and not think about how many miles I have to go. I concentrate on breathing and striding, and I go within myself."

從某方面看，這就是寶拉．拉德克利夫所使用的撇步。拉德克利夫在今年紐約市馬拉松比賽中奪冠，她最近接受專訪指出，當她在比賽中卯勁苦拚時，她就開始算自己跑了幾步。她說：「每當我從1數到100來回數3次正好是一哩。這幫我把注意力放在當下，而不去想我還要跑幾哩。我專心呼吸邁步，量力而為。」

Without realizing what I was doing, I dissociated a few months ago, in the middle of a long, fast bike ride. I'd be-come so tired that I could not hold the pace going up hills. Then I hit upon a method — I focused only on the seat of the rider in front of me and did not look at the hill or what was to come. And I concentrated on my cadence, counting pedal strokes, thinking of nothing else. It worked. Now I know why.

幾個月前，在一場漫長快速的自行車賽中，我無意識地使用抽離術。當時我極度疲乏，以致在上坡路段速度放慢下來。我忽然心生一計，把焦點鎖定前面那位自行車手的座位，不再張望小山坡或將面臨什麼。一旦心無雜念，全神貫注於我的步調節奏並計算踩了幾下後，真的很管用，現在我豁然開朗。

Dissociation clearly works, Dr. Mor-gan said, but athletes who use it also take a chance on serious injury if they trick themselves into ignoring excruciating pain. "The old adage, no pain no gain comes into play here," Dr. Morgan said. "In point of fact, maximum performance is associated with pain."

摩根說，抽離術顯然很管用，但使用這套方法的運動員如果自欺欺人，不顧自身的錐心之痛，也冒受到重傷害的風險。摩根說：「古諺有云：沒有痛苦就沒有收穫（或一分耕耘，一分收穫），在這裡派上用場，事實上，沒有痛苦，難望締造極致表現。」

（取材自紐約時報，原作者Gina Ko-lata）