In December, 1952, a young man stood on the starting line for a mile race at Melbourne’s Olympic Park, unsure whether the rumbling in his stomach was pre-race nerves or emanated from the couple of meat pies and chocolate sundae he had wolfed down fewer than two hours earlier.
The idea of our brain as a prediction factory is what’s called a mental model. A mental model is a way of simplifying real world situations to better understand them.
We all know how factories work. We can use that concept to better understand how our brains create expectations.
If you want to improve the product made at a factory, you have a few options: improve the machinery, improve your processes, or get better materials. In the context of expectation-setting, you can improve brain health, improve the way you process information and make decisions, or input better thoughts and beliefs.
Note: The Landy Era, by Len Johnson, is available for purchase from the Runner's Tribe bookstore. Help support Len Johnson and Runner's Tribe, providing running content on this platform since 2008.
“It is so good to have a book that looks into the mindset of the athlete and analyses the critical questions of how to think about training to get the best out of yourself. Bryan Green accepts the ‘how’ and ‘when’ but provides the definitive ‘why’ that separates the...
This article was written with the help from Snell's classic book, NO BUGLES NO DRUMS
Profile
Snell won three Olympic gold medals during his career, including winning both the 800 and 1500 metres at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
Born: 17 December 1938, Opunake, New Zealand
Died: 12 December 2019, Dallas, Texas,...
‘A Body Built on Pain’
The Training of Herb Elliott
© 2017 Runner’s Tribe, all rights reserved.
“I find that orthodox training is drudgery because it’s so unnatural to run for hours on end on a circular track.” - Herb Elliott
Sources
The Golden Mile, by Herb Elliott as told to...
Australian Marathon Stars’ - Interviews and training insights with Australia's best ever - (Paperback Book)
‘Australian Marathon Stars’ is more than a collection of interviews with Australia’s greatest marathon runners. The book dives deep into the background, development, training, coaching, nutrition, motives and perspectives of these legendary runners.
For those with...
