When you begin training you will find that the longest and most strenuous mental and physical exertions all come at the start…It seems to me that stamina is just as much a mental attribute as a physical one. Make your mind healthy and it will do the rest. If it is not normally healthy, you will never make a decent job of anything. One of my favourite maxims about training is that the most difficult part of any run is the bit between the sofa and the front door! Mental toughness is, I believe, essential in all forms of running in order to be successful This view is echoed by Noakes and Newton. Noakes devotes an entire section of his book to the mental aspect of the sport. At the elite level, often it is only the mental aspect that … [Read more...]