Getting over the mental barrier

I'll also add that i run a 56 400

You need to gain some flexion in the weight room. Doesnt hurt to do some short sprinting. Also...caffeine.

The fact you're ALWAYS ahead of the other runners in practice may be your problem. You're wasting your race in the days leading up to the race.

Standard wrote:

The fact you're ALWAYS ahead of the other runners in practice may be your problem. You're wasting your race in the days leading up to the race.

Right answer. It's a little late to stop racing your workouts, but maybe you can do fewer high intensity workouts so there is a little "fire in the belly" for the race.

If you reflect on a race, you can almost always identify a single make or break moment in the race. There's a point in almost all races (barring sickness or anything out of your control) where one chooses to fully engage and be in control of one's own race or where one hesitates and fall off. Don't choose the latter.

Ashton wrote:

I run the 4x800 meter relay with my school and we have the state championships this Friday. My best time indoors is 2:10 for the 800 last year but my best time this year is 2:11. My 5k time in Cross Country improved by over a minute form 19:30 to around 18:00 and my 1k time indoor improved from 2:58 to 2:49.

I believe its obvious that I'm much more fit than i was last year and I'm always ahead of the other runners on our relay team but they all run faster than me in the race. Is there anything I can do to overcome this mental road block that is keeping me from racing at my full potential?

Ashton:

Race Strategy is important! Most high school runners take off way too fast, in fact even older runners who know better fall into this trap as it's so easy at the beginning of a race. I don't care what you do, it's best to save a little early in the race. You also should practice starting slow in practice and then finishing fast. If you want to race that way, you must also train that way!

Have you ever noticed that in the Olympics the man who leads early almost never wins the race. It is true that 800 and below you can sometimes get away with starting fast, but it's not worth the risk. Why do it?

Binron wrote: If you reflect on a race, you can almost always identify a single make or break moment in the race. There's a point in almost all races (barring sickness or anything out of your control) where one chooses to fully engage and be in control of one's own race or where one hesitates and fall off. Don't choose the latter.

So true. Great things happen when runners have the knowledge to realize when this happens, and the balls to seize the moment.

Feel inspired with this account of one of the greatest runs in T&F history:

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"I drew on a little more effort round the bottom curve to trail him [Robinson] coming up the straight.

In my effort to make this contact, I completely lost track of my pace judgement and I listened hard to pick up the threads as we came up to the bell. I expected to hear the timekeeper chanting seconds beginning with "fifty..." but the first call I heard was "forty...." The fifty came up as I went past them.

Now, for some unaccountable reason, Barry moved out a lane. I was thinking with particular clarity now -- probably stimulated by the fantastic time -- and instead of being shocked into easing or coasting, I quickly realised that I was feeling as good as or better than I had in many of my other races when I'd passed through the quarter two or three seconds slower.

So, through some crazy impulse, I threw away all text-book procedure and sprinted. This was pure effort against the stopwatch now. Into the back straight, I still felt myself traveling fast I was sharply aware that I was well inside both world records as far as I'd gone. It was only a matter of being able to continue..."

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