There are a lot of great articles on the Lets Run site bookmarked over in the links. The most interesting that I have seen in a while is one by the site administrator in which he looks back at his college career and talks about why he never ran up to his potential. The whole article is worth reading and I put the link at the bottom, however the key paragraph is this one:
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But most importantly, turning back to Gary Stolz and Vin Lananna, you need to believe in yourself that you're going to run fast. The All-Americans, the national champs, they are no different than you or me. They just run faster and there is no doubt in their minds they can do it (sure they are nervous on the line. I always said that if I didn't get nervous before races I would quit running because what would be the point of competing). A lot of people work hard, put in the work, but feel like they are not ready to reach the next level or are not sure they can reach it. Well racing is a hugely mental thing. And if there is any doubt in your mind as to how you're going to do, when it starts to hurt, you'll start questioning yourself and that will be it. Say you're in shape to run 29 minutes for 10k (4:40 pace). 4:50 or even 5 minutes pace is not going to be a walk in the park. So if you are not mentally prepared to race, when you are hanging on for your dear life at 4:45 pace you're going to question yourself and fall off. However, if you know that you can run that fast, you'll accept the discomfort as a natural part of the race and hang on and keep going. It's amazing how we all set mental barriers as to what we can do. Once they run a PR, a lot of people start running that time repeatedly.
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Read the whole thing : http://www.letsrun.com/2006/collegesuck.php
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