The fitter and more talented you are, the more mental it is.
I've always found that the fitter I am, the more mentally strong I am. I really have never been disappointed with any of my efforts and mental strength when I've been fit.
Maybe that's not true for other runners. But coming from that perspective, that explains why I've always had sympathy for pro runners when they are having a bad stretch and message boarders are questioning their mental strength (i.e. Webb).
The fitter and more talented you are, the more mental it is.
I've always found that the fitter I am, the more mentally strong I am. I really have never been disappointed with any of my efforts and mental strength when I've been fit.
Maybe that's not true for other runners. But coming from that perspective, that explains why I've always had sympathy for pro runners when they are having a bad stretch and message boarders are questioning their mental strength (i.e. Webb).
"Baseball (and the 5000) is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical." Yogi Berra
The fitter and more talented you are, the more mental it is.
I've always found that the fitter I am, the more mentally strong I am. I really have never been disappointed with any of my efforts and mental strength when I've been fit.
I think this is true. I feel like when I am most fit, it is easier to block out the discomfort.
This is dumb. If you have a 3k PR of 9:00 you're not going to run a 5k in 15:00. It's all about fitness. Occasionally people don't know how to push themselves hard enough, but in most cases people can get just about everything out of themselves in a 5k race.
In an Olympic 5000 final the winner isn’t the most mentally tough. The difference in places is almost completely fitness combined with ability to kick (which is also related to fitness). You can throw away a race with poor positioning, but that isn’t really mental, that is execution.
Qualifying for the Olympic 5000 final, that is 100% fitness.
A 15:00 5ker can’t will himself to a 13:00. But if he goes out fast and wills himself to not slow down too much over the last mile, he can run 14:40.
If he goes out even faster and doesn't slow down he can run 14:20 right? And then go out even faster and run 13:50? Should be running sub 13 before long. Willpower doesn't do much when the muscles stop contracting...
Anyone who has run has wondered how much is mental and how much is physical. Is the elite guys actually mentally tougher or do they just suffer the same at a faster pace.
"Ask yourself: 'Can I give more?' The answer is usually: 'Yes''
-Paul Tergat
The most successful athletes I coached were also the ones who worked the hardest. They were the most consistent, ran the most mileage, then they brought their A game on race day.
Just because you have the fastest time on paper doesn't guarantee a win.
They're intertwined. There's no way to determine where your fitness ends and where the mental kicks in. If there was some fitness metric, maybe Vo2 Max, we could compare it against each runner and people with lower Vo2 who run faster than those with higher are just mentally tougher and that would give you an idea of how much mental toughness comes into play.
Also, it depends on the race... It think if the race is slower, like a championship race, less fit people can compete with a strong mental drive... but if you're talking about running in the 12:40's... no one can just will themselves into that without an incredible fitness base...
Ultimately, trying to say what portion is mental and what portion is physical is going to be a subjective measurement for each athlete.
I'd say it's over 95% physical. If you take someone who runs a 26 minute 5K and put them in an elite race, no matter how mentally strong they are they are NEVER going to keep up with professional athletes.
One of the hardest races I ever ran, an 800m, was after an extended break and I pushed myself incredibly hard. I still remember the pain on the last lap and trying to catch the woman ahead, deciding to kick a second time to try to catch her. It was excruciating and I also remember laying on the bench in the changing rooms for about an hour after. It also wasn't a very good time but mentally I pushed really hard. Months later I cruised a race much faster barely thinking, just tried to 'float' and run even laps. I didn't try in the same way at all yet was a lot faster.
Look at the masses running a marathon. Look at the elites. It's all in physical conditioning, their training, the miles they logged. We would devote more time to mental training if the opposite was true. Mileage/training is the most important alterable factor by far. Obviously there is innate talent and so on but you can't change that. So yeah I disagree.
I think there’s something more mentally challenging about the length of the 3K and 5K. They hurt or feel just hard enough but aren’t over with quick. A 1/3 of the way through you can be hurting and questioning yourself. For races under 6 minutes, most people can get through the hard parts while pushing themselves. When the race is over 25 minutes like a 10K+, realistically the race takes a while to feel hard and you can have the mental benefit of being more than 1/2 or 2/3 done before you start wondering if you can hang onto your pace.
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