Mental training
The limit in endurance sport is perception of effort, and perception can be trained. These articles cover how champions handle setbacks, why self-talk works, what performance anxiety is doing to your race, and the difference between toughness and stubbornness. This is the largest section of the archive and the one readers come back to.
Articles
How to Run Stoically (and Why You Should)
· Matt Fitzgerald
What I Tell My Athletes, I’m Still Learning to Tell Myself
· Rosina Garcia
2020 Was a Good Year
· Matt Fitzgerald
3 Things That Work, But Not the Way Most Runners Think
· Matt Fitzgerald
5 Things To Do Before A Workout
· Jim Vance
A Fitness Carol
· Matt Fitzgerald
Screw Loose, Sh*t Together: A Theory of Athletic Greatness
· Matt Fitzgerald
Advice for Aging Athletes: Assume Nothing
· Matt Fitzgerald
Are You a Chosen One?
· Matt Fitzgerald
Become a Better Pacer with These Simple Games
· Matt Fitzgerald
How to Choose the Best Running Plan
· Jim Vance
Book Review: The Holy Sh!t Moment
· Matt Fitzgerald
Book Review: The Science of the Marathon
· Matt Fitzgerald
Choose Your Own Adventure
· Matt Fitzgerald
Creative Goal Setting
· Matt Fitzgerald
Curiosity Killed the Competition
· Matt Fitzgerald
Do Big Workouts Make You Nervous?
· Matt Fitzgerald
Do It Because You Suck at It: Training and Racing with a Mastery Mindset
· Matt Fitzgerald
Do You Suffer from Workout Myopia?
· Matt Fitzgerald
Does Every Second Count in a Daylong Race?
· Matt Fitzgerald
Don’t Ever Be Complacent
· Matt Fitzgerald
Don’t Panic: My Ironman Santa Rosa Race Report
· Matt Fitzgerald
Don’t Trust Your Treadmill
· Matt Fitzgerald
Endurance Racing as a Spiritual Experience
· Matt Fitzgerald
Fifty Is the New Whatever
· Matt Fitzgerald
Get INTO Your Comfort Zone
· Matt Fitzgerald
Understanding Goal Setting for Endurance Sports Athletes
· Matt Fitzgerald
Good Cop, Bad Cop
· Matt Fitzgerald
Good Perfectionism and Bad Perfectionism
· Matt Fitzgerald
Got a Comfortable Training Routine? Good—Change It!
· Matt Fitzgerald
How Sex Can Make You a Better Runner
· Matt Fitzgerald
How to Build Self-Trust As an Athlete (and Why It’s Important)
· Matt Fitzgerald
How to Cultivate a Growth Mindset in Athletes
· Matt Fitzgerald
How to Deal with Race Day Cold Feet
· Matt Fitzgerald
How to Impress Your Coach
· Matt Fitzgerald
How to Never Have a Disappointing Race
· Matt Fitzgerald
If It’s Not Hard, It’s Not Hard Enough
· Matt Fitzgerald
On the Importance of “Doing You” As an Athlete
· Matt Fitzgerald
In Defense of Not Crying
· Matt Fitzgerald
In It for the Long Haul
· Matt Fitzgerald
Is Mental Fitness Innate?
· Matt Fitzgerald
Is Motivation Ever Really the Problem?
· Matt Fitzgerald
It Just Doesn’t Matter
· Matt Fitzgerald
It’s Only Pain
· Matt Fitzgerald
Keep Calm and Keep Running
· Matt Fitzgerald
Keeping Up with 80/20 Endurance
· Matt Fitzgerald
Knowledge Is Good. Understanding Is Better.
· Matt Fitzgerald
Laughing All the Way to the Finish Line
· Matt Fitzgerald
Make 2019 Your Year of No Excuses
· Matt Fitzgerald
May the Smartest Runner Win
· Matt Fitzgerald
Mental Predictors of Physical Performance
· Matt Fitzgerald
Mental Strategies for Race Day
· Matt Fitzgerald
Now Is the Time for All Runners to Channel Their Inner Kenyan
· Matt Fitzgerald
Improve Your Mental Game with the One-Month “No Hope” Challenge!
· Matt Fitzgerald
Overcoming Stadephobia (Fear of Distance)
· Matt Fitzgerald
Pressure Is a Double-Edge Sword
· Matt Fitzgerald
Rediscovering a Process Focus
· Matt Fitzgerald
Relationship Counseling for Athletes and Their Devices
· Matt Fitzgerald
Repeat After Me: “I’m Injured and I Couldn’t Care Less”
· Matt Fitzgerald
Separating Want from Need in Training and Racing
· Matt Fitzgerald
Hyperindividualism – Should You Train Your DNA or Train for Your Event?
· Matt Fitzgerald
That Coach Is Best Who Coaches Least
· Matt Fitzgerald
The Chased-by-a-Bear Analogy of Mental Fitness
· Matt Fitzgerald
The Joy of Running Angry
· Matt Fitzgerald
The Official 2020 80/20 Endurance Holiday Reading List
· Matt Fitzgerald
The Power of Low Expectations
· Matt Fitzgerald
The Results of the 80/20 Endurance Pacing Challenge Are In!
· Matt Fitzgerald
The Trouble with Mental Toughness
· Matt Fitzgerald
The Trouble with Troubleshooting
· Matt Fitzgerald
The Ultimate Athlete Superpower
· Matt Fitzgerald
There Is Only One Kind of Run
· Matt Fitzgerald
Best Way to Track Endurance Training Progress
· Jim Vance
Endurance Athlete Training Zones: What is Zone X and Zone Y?
· David Warden
What Are You Afraid Of?
· Matt Fitzgerald
What Does It Mean to Be an Injury-Prone Runner?
· Matt Fitzgerald
What If There Is No Finish Line?
· Matt Fitzgerald
What Is Good Running Form?
· Matt Fitzgerald
What Role Do Incredibly Painful Workouts Have in Endurance Training?
· Matt Fitzgerald
What Would Spock Do?
· Matt Fitzgerald
Why I Encourage Athletes to Be Hard on Themselves
· Matt Fitzgerald
Why You Should Treat Negative Emotions Like Pain
· Matt Fitzgerald
“You Are Not a Watch” (A Lesson in Pacing)
· Matt Fitzgerald
