Positive thinking results in negative splits...

The nature of your thoughts can have a significant effect on your race performance. Ever dread a workout or race and find that it was just as bad as you were thinking, if not worse? Or, your legs suddenly feel more tired and the pain grows exponentially as you count the number of people passing you by? This, in part, is due to negative thinking. Conversely, ever start passing people and feel like you are flying and have all the energy in the world? Or, hit every split dead on and suddenly your last one is way under pace? Wahooo for positive thinking.

So, to help his athletes "remember" to think positively, Dr. Walker tells his athletes to repeat a mantra. A good mantra (at least according to Dr. Walker) is short, positive, instructive, and full of action words. Or, sometimes, I just repeat advice that people have given me in my head. And, other times, for longer races, I find that singing songs works!

#20's Favorites:

• Be positive. (someone told me this in the last few miles of the Frosty 50, helped enormously)
• Remember your geometry. (1 of 2 most "most useful" pieces of advice ever given to me by a coach)
• Keep moving forward. (2 of 2 "most useful" pieces of advice ever given to be by a coach)
• I'm going to make it, I'm gonna make it, I'm gonna make it... wahooo! (the past tense of which I repeat after every workout... with a skip for good measure)

And, although singing this song can seem somewhat "daunting" at first, it makes me laugh:
... 31 more miles to go, 31 more miles, take one step, and then another... 30 more miles to go (the good thing about this "song", you can replace the distance measurement with anything you want: 42 more kilometers to go, 42 more kilometers...) -> note: the entirety of this song gets sung at every distance interval! :-)