If you read the sports literature, you'll learn about everything from Achilles tendon care to updating your heart rate monitor software. However, you may not be putting an adequate amount of time into the psychological aspects of your training.
Mental preparation can do for the mind what stretching does for the body .
It can make all the difference in how you experience your workouts and racing. Yet it is a skill that even the best conditioned athletes fail to practice sufficiently. As a top endurance athlete I have been racing for the past 20 years, and I have worked with athletes of all levels doing sports psychology, coaching, and stress management. I have worked with Olympians, with novices and serious life long athletes. However, if you took a good look into their eyes as they were warming up, stretching, approaching the starting blocks, and executing their events, you could appreciate their sense of unwavering focus, drive, and internal strength which brought them the results they were looking for.