How to "push" in a race?

You can try this.

Two days before your race, you go to the track. (Because you need to be thoroughly warmed up, this workout might take upwards of 45 minutes to complete.). Here is the workout:

1. Thoroughly warm-up/stretch, drills, etc. This could take almost 1/2hr.

2. Run a few short *acceleration sprints (10-20 yards). Walk to full recovery between these. (*You don't blast out of blocks for these; just accelerate through the finish. The idea is just to get used to some turnover for what is next.)

3. Run a few 200's, accelerating to all-out speed. Walk to full recovery between these. (This reminds the mind what it's like to go all-out. What comes next should consequently feel MUCH easier.

4. Run a 400m at race pace. Concentrate/think in order to not go out too fast, but to 'feel/embrace' what this pace feels like. If you didn't hit your target pace, run another one. You can run a third, for good measure. Walk to full recovery between these. REMEMBER/FEEL what this pace feels like, and then start your race two days later at that pace, and hold it.

Yeah I mean I know what the pace I'm looking to run feels like because I've done it in longer workouts, it's just that when it comes to actually hitting that pace in a race I end up with some sort of mental block that I'm not sure how to work around.

dumb e wrote:

...I've done it in longer workouts, it's just that when it comes to actually hitting that pace in a race I end up with some sort of mental block that I'm not sure how to work around.

Okay, I left out a key word for that workout, which you may not have fully understood, but now you are (hopefully) ready: "when the student is ready, the teacher appears"..

The key word is: VISUALIZATION.

That workout I described was an Active Visualization Exercise. In your mind's eye, as you go through the routine, when you get to the 400m reps, you are to go deep into Visualization of the race experience. It is the Visualization that is to make that workout 'practice' so special. And you have probably heard the saying, "practice makes perfect."

dumb e wrote:

Yeah I mean I know what the pace I'm looking to run feels like because I've done it in longer workouts, it's just that when it comes to actually hitting that pace in a race I end up with some sort of mental block that I'm not sure how to work around.

You're not yet in race shape. But if you get faster in each race, then what's the problem?

pure hate

Okay that I haven't tried before, and I'm not sure why I haven't because it makes a lot of sense. Thank you!

Most of it is mental. Having a pacer that runs exactly your best pace that you could run is ideal.

Also, peaking is a process that starts in the training period - with very hard, balls-to-the wall workouts and some tune-up races. If you struggle to really enter the pain cave or fail to kick at the end of a race, it's likely you've done a lot of easy mileage/threshold training which suppresses your anaerobic abilities a bit.

And if you have a good amount of FT fibers, you NEED these anaerobic abilities to race at your best. ST (slow-twitch) monsters are often in race shape most of the time and are a lot easier to peak than FT runners.

So would adding a few anaerobic intervals to one of my runs every week help with that? I recently started making my normal run pace a bit faster and it's helped so I'm wondering if doing a few short/fast tempos would have a similar effect.