Hello and

welcome to the Runers Connect audio blog.

This is Coach Claire Bartholick and today I'm reading Next, written by Sarah Crouch. As runners, we're always looking for that extra edge in training to make us faster and more consistent on the race course.

Understandably, most of our efforts to improve are geared towards the physical,

lowering lactate threshold, increasing muscle power, improving form.

Enhancement to any of these physiological systems

is going to result in faster race times and should be the main focus of your training plan.

However, almost any long distance running coach in the world would agree that the

mental aspect of racing is also critical to running your best. But when asked

how much time they spend coaching in the mental aspect of the sport, few, if any,

would say that it is a top priority in how they coach their athletes.

So the question is, how can you prepare for the mental and

emotional rigors of race day during your workouts and in your mind?

Sports psychologists recommend adding a technique called visualization to your race day arsenal

so you can toe the line feeling confident in both your physical and mental strength.

But does visualization really work? If so, how exactly can you implement

it into your training? In this article, we'll outline how visualization works for some of the best runners in the world,

when you should implement it in your training,

and outline a step-by-step process for helping you easily add visualization to your training repertoire.

Does visualization really work?

Some of the world's top athletes from professional golfers to Olympic track and field medalists, practice mental imagery and visualization in their training.

When I first heard of visualization techniques, I thought it was a bunch of hocus pocus to help those who weren't mentally

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