relaxation in racing...taken from another thread

Im not sure if what you say will truly help or not, but I do know you just succeeded in making me look like a complete fool at work. (Luckily, it was just a fellow co-worker, and not the boss).

I think I'll pass on the eyelash technique for a while...

I cant figure out that eye technique. But what I perceive 'relax' is nicely explained in "Running Within" - to bascially get in a zone where you are running smoothly with your face relaxed, smooth stride, and positive thoughts and focus. Youre still hammering, but in a controlled fashion. just mho.

I think that when you tell somebody to relax, it's a reminder to check your breathing and make sure your not going out to fast. When I'm reminded to relax, I usually just slow down for a few strides and the just mentally prepare for my next big move.

Will we be able to do this technique while running 5:00 pace, and hurting very badly? Also the scrunching of the face seems to be the opposite of relaxing?

You aren't going to be able to master it the first time you try, and as stated in one of the posts it might not make any sense at all. Possibly trying it at night, when the lights can make the intersection of the lashes glow or reflect the light, would be best to initially understand it. Anyways, it does have advantages that come in handy when you are running sub5:00 pace. Those realms are where just about everybody starts to hurt if continued long enough. By employing a method that allows you to focus your vision so accutely, pain is better dealt with. This will be obvious when your line of sight does not change even once over the last 10 - 20% of your race, whereas your less focused, but equally desirous competitors are in much pain and showing this by looking to the right, then the left, up a little, down, everywhere they can to bring in some type of stimulation that will take a little of the pain away. Again, it's quite difficult to keep your line of sight true to one small location, but the rewards can be great when it can be utilized in training or even in "reading" a picture or person. It does seem that "scrunching", as one eloquently put it, is directly opposed to relaxing. This is true if you do not have control over your face and it only seems to scrunch in the waning moments of a race when the pain is controlling you, but if you are in control of everything, you are relaxed. Whether or not the scrunching can be used at sub 5 pace seems to be proven to me by Zatopek. Check out a picture of him while he appears to be in agony, though it is just misunderstood for a look of supreme concentration, how else could anyone pull off a hat trick, 5/10/mar, in the olympics. By the way, once the cheek muscles are well developed, the muscles controlling the flow of air through the nostrils can be developed which will eliminate the need for using one of those nasal strips.

Likely there is no "wizardry" involved, but I would still be quite interested to hear any tips,tricks, exercises, from hodgie-san, malmo, eddy, weldon, etc. in regards to relaxing during the big races.

Interesting. I've always found that my best races I was perfectly relaxed BEFORE and DURING the race. Did I practice it? Yes. Never one for organized tempo runs I was of the type who'd rip into them "on-the-fly" 3-5 times a week. During them I'd imagine myself in a race (always winning) and just let my body go. My "focus" was on the constant feedback of my body and of the "rhythm" of running.

In other words, I learned to feel my Kung Fu, not think it. You can too.

Here's an interesting post from a thread on dyestat.com that relates to this. It was written by Jim Spivey regarding something Seb Coe said to him in a race:

In 1988, I was running the 1500m in Koblenz, West Germany (before the wall came down), two days after running in light rain at the Grand Prix Final in Berlin. The pace went out fast, and for some reason, I was with the two rabbits. Lewis Johnson, now of TV fame for NBC Olympics and NBA, led us through in 54.5 and 1:51.0. I had run a workout on July 30th that included 3x200, and 1x800, 3x250, 1x700 and 4x200. The 8 and 7 were the main focus, running in 1:53.1 and 1:37.8 (1:52 pace) in 90 degrees and 77% humidty. So going through in 1:51.0, not thinking, and in cool 65 degree weather and two rabbits, I was floating.

Lewis dropped out, and Ken Washington took over. He slowed to 29 for the next 200, and we came though in 2:20 for the 1k. I yelled, "Ken, go faster!" He ran for about 5 steps, then moved out to lane 3. I looked up the track, knew I could focus on hearing the bell, and thought, when I hear the sound of the bell, I will really bite down. As I approached the finish line with one lap to go, I heard a voice from the infield. Sebastain Coe, who had already run the 800m that day (1:43), yelled, "Jim, just relax!" I thought to myself, 'He has been at this speed before (pr, 3:29), he must know what he is talking about.' If my coach would have yelled this instruction, I don't think I would have thought twice - but when S. Coe encourages you to do it, you relax. The bell sounded, and instead if really hitting it, I relaxed. 2:49.0 at 1200m, and 42.01 last 300m, or 56. last 400. Increasing the tempo from the previous lap to run 3:31.01. No pain. No straining. Effortless. I had learned to float behind other runners earlier in my carrer, but I learned how to float at the front that day.