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The four prongs of success for runners

Performing well requires talent, drive, mental toughness and a little bit of luck

What makes a successful distance runner? What separates the leaders from the rest of the pack? The world’s best athletes have a perfect blend of talent, drive, mental strength and of course, a little bit of luck. While most of us will never find ourselves competing for a gold medal on the world stage, we can still apply many of the same principles that create successful world-class athletes to our own running to help us continue to improve.

7 Habits of Highly Successful Runners

Talent

There’s no doubt that the runners we watch lining up at the Olympics and other international events have talent, and although the majority of us don’t have quite the same natural ability as elite athletes, we can still use the ability we do have as a starting point.

Regardless of where you’re at now, whether you’re pushing yourself to run one kilometre without stopping or you’re already running sub-20 5Ks, you can use that as a springboard for improvement.

Consistency

At the elite level, natural talent is no longer enough to differentiate one athlete from another. It’s what an athlete does with that talent that counts. In order to be the best of the best, you need to work hard consistently, often for years. Even if you’re not an elite athlete, if you want to get fitter and faster, you need to train consistently over time for small, incremental improvements, that gradually add up to larger performance gains.

 

Mental flexibility

thinking brain

Successful athletes need to be mentally flexible in order to adapt to the ups and downs that come with training. Not every day is going to be great, and improvements may not always come within the timeline you’ve set for yourself. The best athletes understand that setbacks are part of the developmental process, and rather than beating themselves up after a poor performance, they use it as a learning experience. Recreational runners can do the same, taking setbacks in stride and remembering that success isn’t the result of one run, workout or race, but the accumulation of work over time.

5 habits of successful masters runners

Luck

Sometimes, things happen to athletes that are outside of their control that affect their ability to train or compete. In the same way, a little bit of luck can help an athlete have a break-out performance and spur them on to success. Of course, this last prong of success is outside of your control, but accepting that things may happen during training or on race day that you can’t do much about will help you do your best regardless of the circumstances.

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