As a coach I have noticed that some of my most stubborn/determined athletes

I like this book, and keep it in my race bag:

http://www.amazon.com/Mental-Toughness-Training-Sports-Excellence/dp/0828905746/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1446830017&sr=8-2&keywords=mental+toughness+training+for+sports

Stay positive and light on race day. Negativity and anxiety are killers.

The Kenyan Way: Train hard, rest easy, race relaxed.

Conflict and confusion about success and failure. This is at the root of the anxiety and strange way it plays out in sport . Childhood development probably at the core. If it runs deep with the athlete there is

probably nothing that a coach can do about it. Winter, Wooden and the rest, didn't get this type of athlete with a serious case because the person wouldn't rise to that level of sport.

A lot of the advice for the head case athlete on this thread is good …but it can take a long time to beat or even modify a bit.

I think this raises an important point: control. The kind of runner we're talking about feels totally in control during their interval sessions or other workouts, but when they get into a race situation, they feel a total lack of control which leads to the fear of "being chased" instead of the exhilaration of "chasing down their opponents". The need for control is possibly a cultural thing, but is important for athletes in this country nevertheless.

How to remedy this? It's hard to say. Most of these overthinking types can't just be told to "stop overanalyzing it", because that's just not in their nature. The cure for this can be different between different people, but, as others have said, probably some combination of relaxation, positive visualization and forcing the runner to start the race slower will build their confidence.

4 wrote:

Some of my former college teammates fit this mold. they could do 10x800 in 2:10, and do 6 repeat miles on the track in 4:50. But race day, none ever cracked 25:45 for 5 miles in XC. I even beat some of them(by time), and I was never able to do those times in workouts. I attribute this to two things;

A) Strength. I always knew I was built for the marathon. Long, steady running. And, over time that's what wins most long distance races. Staying strong, not fading.

B) Choking. Sorry, but it's the truth. Most of these guys just get to a race and go out too fast or feel fatigued and give in.

C) Overtraining - If they can do 6xmile in 4:50 but are running 5:10 on race day than they are running their workouts too fast.

FTFY - Psychological issues aside, there are a lot of coaches that insist that running the workouts as hard as possible will lead to racing as fast as possible.

You can only get away with hammering workouts for so long and you will not be able to get away with doing your workouts faster than the recommended paces (by the sounds of it, those 800's were done at somewhere between mile and 3k pace. IMO, that is a 5k pace workout which should have them slowing down to 2:20-2:24)

Hunk wrote:

Most of these overthinking types can't just be told to "stop overanalyzing it", because that's just not in their nature. The cure for this can be different between different people, but, as others have said, probably some combination of relaxation, positive visualization and forcing the runner to start the race slower will build their confidence.

Describes me almost exactly. My coach has said that I'm the "most analytical runner" he's seen, and I almost always underperform in races. I tend to overthink the sport in general, and I've had some of my best performances when my attitude was "fvck it, I don't care what happens, I'm just gonna run hard."

The "cure," if there is one, is probably something along the lines of relaxing (as said above) and remembering to enjoy yourself, both in the sport and in life in general. Personally, I'm always taking running too seriously and viewing all my races as very important, forgetting that XC and track are actually really fun sports that I should be enjoying. After all, I will probably look back on my running career years from now and remember how great it was, so I may as well enjoy it while I'm still on a team and running competitively. If you show up to a meet with that awful nervous feeling that makes your chest tighten and your limbs go numb, it can help to remember your last meet or your last season where you really enjoyed it and remind yourself to just do that again.

And these same determined runners often do well in the early meets, but fail at the end of the season when others find the extra gear to race faster when it matters most. Similarly, they get outkicked at the end of races because they have spent all of their energy the first 90% of the race.

Hunk wrote:

I think this raises an important point: control. The kind of runner we're talking about feels totally in control during their interval sessions or other workouts, but when they get into a race situation, they feel a total lack of control which leads to the fear of "being chased" instead of the exhilaration of "chasing down their opponents". The need for control is possibly a cultural thing, but is important for athletes in this country nevertheless.

How to remedy this? It's hard to say. Most of these overthinking types can't just be told to "stop overanalyzing it", because that's just not in their nature. The cure for this can be different between different people, but, as others have said, probably some combination of relaxation, positive visualization and forcing the runner to start the race slower will build their confidence.

Say what you want about him, but Steve Magness has some good ideas on countering this problem. He says (paraphrasing here) that training is certain, controllable, and knowable. Racing is exactly the opposite of all of that. To get your athletes used to this kind of mental stress, you should introduce uncertainty and unpredictability into workouts occasionally.

So for example, instead of saying at the outset, "we're going to do 6x1k at 5k pace today," you only tell your runners before each repeat (or not even then!) how far the repeat is going to be. Doing uncertain mixed workouts, like a 1k, a 500, a 2k, a 500, a few 200s, another 1k. Abrupt changes of pace within workouts, etc. "Run 5k pace until I blow the whistle." That kind of thing.

I've only used it a very limited number of times, since I don't really have many headcases recently (knock on wood...). I think it could be really easy to outsmart yourself with this stuff and do it too often, or give kids the impression that you're just making it up as you go. But in small doses, could counteract some of the control problems you mention.

My high school (sprints) coach did this every workout. We didn't even know which days would be hard or easy until we were into our third 42-second 300m. Maybe it worked with some people, but for me it made every practice a nightmare. I hated going. And I don't think it helped eliminate anxiety at meets.

Some kids I have can really make running their focus in life and perform well but others can't handle it that well.

I find that on easier days just making practice fun can help. Kids love running in a tie day or a fake mustache run day. We also do a lot of group bonding activities like movie nights and pasta parties. If you can strengthen the relationships between team members it can really help the kids with anxiety issues.

Also, I have found that the fear of being passed by one of their team members can cripple some of your better runners. Getting them to focus on taking on the competition and working together can lessen the importance of their place on the team.

Part of the problem these headcase runners have is that they identify their athletic ability with a time.

For example, someone is a "4:20 guy". For a high school guy running 4:20 one week, it's basically totally random whether he runs 4:15 or 4:25 the next week.

This is pretty rare for endurance sports. If you look at cyclists or skiiers they tend to have a healthier attitude, where they give it what they've got and believe that any day could be their day. The focus is not on the time, but it's on an internal gauge of effort.

Runners have a weird sort of toughness, where they'll grind through pain in training, but they want everything perfect on raceday. It doesn't work that way. In other sports, you have athletes feeling like garbage before and during a race but they still put it together and win.

Runners also obsess over workouts. The workouts don't really matter that much until you're at a really elite level. Just get out there and run without a watch until you're not holding good form anymore, then shut it down.

If you've raced for years against different people without a clock and you keep hitting the same exact time, then yeah maybe you've reached your limit. But more than likely it's psychological, and you just need different circumstances to get shocked into running a faster time.