Every endurance and mountain sport athlete knows the moment when their legs burn, their stomach churns, and their mind screams to stop.

We work arduously to rid ourselves of these distractions - of these annoying thoughts and feelings that push us towards quitting, but to no avail. They keeping coming back. We can push them down, ignore them, sometimes we try to ‘reframe’ them – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing - if it works. But like flies on shit, they keep coming back.

You can have a huge VO2max, great running economy, process lactate like no one’s business, consume a gazillion calories without an ounce of GI issues, not have a single ache, perfect weather, have a solid taper, and still have a shitty performance in an ultramarathon, not because of anything other than where your mental energy is and has been. 

Several weeks ago I finished one of the countries hardest 100 mile races - the Bighorn 100 in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming. The feeling I had in this race was one like no other. A lot had to do with my mindset and how I practiced it. (Photo Courtesy of Mile 90 Photography.)