Have struggled a lot mentally in races for a long time now. I'm one of the slowest on my team so I sometimes think of races as threats rather than challenges, and I don't have much self-confidence. In trying to improve my mental game, I've tried to muscle my way through discouraging self talk. In other words, I go into workouts expecting mental failure and try to have tools, such as focusing on my body, trying to stay in the moment (the rep, that lap of the race) rather than worrying about the future, etc. But the other day I got fed up with all the overthinking of things and couldn't even remember why I chose to run and compete in the first place. So in preparing for my workout that day, I decided to do away with all the tedious mental planning and just try to have a good time. Working hard feels good and is rewarding. And I had one of my best workouts in a while. My last race is this weekend and I'm a bit worried about it, especially about taking such a relaxed attitude/race strategy as "having fun" towards it. Is this a bad strategy? Has this ever happened to anyone?
Also more generally, curious why other people out there chose to run and compete.