Mental Preparation

On the 6^th of May 1954, Sir Roger Bannister, became the first person to run a mile in under 4 minutes. Prior to this event Grunder Haegg, another contender that came within 1.3 seconds of breaking the 4 minute per mile barrier, stated that “Bannister is the man to beat 4 minutes. He uses his brains as much as his legs” (Doherty 1964:216). After running a sub 4 minute mile at the Iffley Road track at Oxford, Bannister stated that “though physiology may indicate respiratory and cardiovascular limits to muscular effort, psychological and other factors beyond the ken of physiology set the razor’s edge of defeat or victory and determine how closely the athlete approaches the absolute limit of performance” (Bannister 1956:224).

Bannister provides some insight as to the relationship between the physiological and psychological aspects and how the interaction between preparation and race-day performance ties into one cohesive function. Bannister trained until he was able to run the 400 meter in 1 minute, then two 400 meters in 2 minutes etc. He states his motivation for this: “in this way the singleness of drive could be achieved, leaving my mind free for the task of directing operations so that it could fix itself on the objective ahead” (Bannister 1955:184). 

From the achievement of Bannister we can deduce a number of important factors:

(1)    Performance is the result of both physical and mental preparation: Train smart, ensure that your training builds your confidence, this way the benefit draws through from the physical to your mental state.

(2)    There must be a challenging but also a realistic goal that is achievable: Know yourself, set small interim goals along the way and let each small goal build on one another to make your one big goal a reality. By selecting smaller and achievable goals, that challenge you in small steps, you will have multiple successes strengthening your confidence. My advice is, create your own success by having realistic goals.

(3)    The goal must be reduced to its most basic function that would enable the overall goal to become achievable: Break down your goal into smaller sub sections. It is daunting to run 80km’s, but by training to run a relaxed yet strong 10km then doing two, three and four of these reduces the longer distance to manageable chunks. I don’t just train this way, I run this way.

(4)    Physical effort must become automated: Fitness is more than endurance, strength, speed and suppleness, it is also habit. The more time you spend on your legs exerting yourself, the less foreign the activity will be and the more natural it will become. There is, therefore, no better way to prepare for any distance than spending time on your feet repeatedly doing the same activity over and over again until it can be done without thought.

Thank you for visiting my blog,

Genis