Quite often you train every day and the results don’t always go the way you want. Stay focused. Your training is developing your endurance, your power and your speed. The races that you run are all developing a tactical awareness and teaching you what to do when the pace is too fast or too slow. Focusing and learning from each experience means the dream will happen. But along with the dream you must be fearless and believe that it can happen.

Most top athletes do not reach their peak until 26 years old. Along the way there are the immense highs but also frustrations, pain, injuries, challenges and obstacles. To reach that point they have lived every day as an athlete. They have been careful with their diet, on what they did during the day, the time they went to bed and the time they got up in the morning. There have been routines for a normal day and routines for training or racing. They would have visualised races and strategies to mentally prepare themselves for each event. They would be familiar with their opposition and their tactics by reading and watching videos on them. They would have trained to simulate these races and they would be confident in how they could respond if that race was run again.

Every training and racing situation is a learning opportunity. Getting beaten in a race is not always a good feeling but it can be a good learning opportunity. Quite often you will look back and see that the day you got beaten was a catalyst for an important change that you made to your outlook or to your training

Find a coach that believes in you and challenges you. You need to be able to understand why you are doing specific sessions and see the progress you are making. It can often take years for effective strategies to take effect. Every athlete and coach bring to the relationship many different traits. Learn to discuss and listen. Each year aim to be fitter so that next year you can train harder and progress further. What are your short term and long-term objectives? Is the training meeting these?

Every top athlete I have ever met was different. Some were quiet and reserved, some were loud, some were just crazy. Some turned up, just as training was about to begin, while others were there an hour before the workout doing warm up jogs, stretches and drills. One thing they all had in common was that they all had an inner determination. When the session started, they were all incredibly tough, focused and competitive.

Champions love to run fast. They love it when the training times come down and each session is better than the past. They all have an attitude and a desire to succeed. Quite often my athletes think I am the crazy one, especially when they see the training schedule. However they are ones driven to succeed, they are the talent, they are the ones with the goal and the belief that they can do it.

Its time to have a dream and go out to make it happen.