Reply To: Recovery time for athletes
Peter BunyanSteve
Re strength. You may have seen weight lifters in competition, one may lift his best ever then his rival goes one better. The first then knows that he only has to lift one(whatever) kg more to win and achieves just that. He has not got any stronger in the short interval between lifts only in the thinking that he can do it. So yes strength is also in the mind.
Personally I have used visualizing for some years both in training and competition. As a coach I have tried teaching others but mostly they think I am crazy. Example, in order to finish a race as fast as possible I imagine a lion/tiger chasing me. The more I can hear it's breath and paws on the ground, the more I think of those big teeth and perhaps hear a roar, anything to get me scared, gets me to run faster for a while, no matter how tired I am. Only works once, but at the right time…
As a runner to have faster feet is to run faster. Imagine running on a hot surface, this is the cat on the hot tin roof effect. Or imagine you are running across a large shallow puddle with your feet moving so lightly that there are no or only minimal splashes.
The possibilities are endless!