Focus and Inner Dialogue: What You Think About in the Final 5 Kilometers

Coach’s Opening: Those 5 Kilometers Are the Real Race

In my fifteen years of coaching athletes, the most common thing I hear after a race isn’t “my legs gave out,” but “Coach, my head was a mess in those last few kilometers—I didn’t know what I was doing.”

One memory stands out clearly. I had an athlete named A-Kai running the Taipei Marathon one year. His pacing through the first 37 kilometers was so beautiful I wanted to applaud from the aid station—heart rate locked at 165 bpm, power, cadence, arm swing all on point. Then, right after the 37K mark, it was like someone pulled his plug. He bled 40 seconds per kilometer over the final 5K. After the race, I asked him what he was thinking in that moment. He paused and said: “I kept counting how many kilometers were left, kept checking my watch, kept telling myself ‘it’s over, it’s over, my legs are about to cramp.’”

That’s when I knew—A-Kai didn’t lose to his body. He lost to the inner dialogue of the final 5 kilometers. His body still had fuel; his brain surrendered first.

What I want to talk about in this article is something few people train seriously, yet it determines whether you can hold your pace: where you place your attention (attentional strategies), what you say to yourself (self-talk), and how you coexist peacefully with physical discomfort (mindfulness). This isn’t feel-good inspiration—it’s a hard skill backed by sports science that can be trained just like intervals.

Whether you’re preparing for your first half-ironman, chasing a sub-4 marathon, or trying not to walk during the marathon leg of a 226 full-distance ironman, how your brain operates in the final 5 kilometers deserves an entire season of refinement.

Conceptual Foundation: Where You Place Your Attention Determines How Much It Hurts

Association vs. Dissociation: Two Completely Opposite Attentional Strategies

The most classic concept in sports psychology is the distinction between association and dissociation as attentional strategies. This distinction traces back to observational studies of long-distance runners in the 1970s and has been extensively explored in subsequent research.

Simply put:

• Association: Directing attention inward, actively monitoring bodily signals—breathing rhythm, leg sensations, heart rate, pace, running form. You are “listening” to your body.
• Dissociation: Directing attention outward, deliberately distracting yourself, ignoring physical discomfort—thinking about other things, watching the scenery, listening to music, chatting with someone nearby, counting utility poles. You are “escaping” from your body’s signals.

Many beginner runners intuitively assume “if I don’t think about it, it won’t hurt,” so they dissociate aggressively. This does work in certain situations, but it’s not a cure-all.

What the Research Says

Based on reviews of decades of research in this field, the general consensus looks like this (I’ll describe it in terms of range and direction, not give you false precision):

Attentional Strategy	Effect on “Performance/Speed”	Effect on “Rated Perceived Exertion (RPE)”	Situations Where It’s Better Suited
Association (inward monitoring of the body)	Tends to produce faster race performance	May make you more aware of perceived exertion	Racing, holding pace, commonly used by elite athletes
Dissociation (outward distraction)	Limited benefit to pure speed	Tends to lower perceived exertion, may improve endurance	Easy training, maintaining exercise habits, prolonged low-intensity work

In other words: in competitive situations where you want to chase a result, moderate “association” is usually more helpful for performance; when you’re just trying to get through a workout, build a habit, or do prolonged low-intensity aerobic work, “dissociation” makes it feel less hard and helps you stick with it.

One study on muscular endurance (a leg-holding persistence task) found that the dissociation plus positive self-talk group lasted significantly longer than the pure association group or the control group. This gives us an important clue: these two strategies aren’t an either/or choice—they are tools that can be combined and switched based on context.

Why the Final 5 Kilometers Are Especially Critical

Here’s a key point many people overlook. In the early part of a race when you’re cruising comfortably, which strategy you use hardly matters—your body doesn’t hurt, and your brain can think about anything.

But in the final 5 kilometers, your body’s distress signals become loud and dense: lactate accumulation, glycogen nearly depleted, core temperature rising, cumulative micro-damage in the legs. Where you place your attention, how you interpret those signals, and what you say to yourself directly determine whether you hold strong or fall apart.

I often tell my athletes: the first 80% of a race tests your body; the last 20% tests your mental discipline.

From a Physiological Perspective: Why “Perceived Exertion” Spikes in the Late Stages

To use attentional strategies correctly, you first need to understand one thing: that “about to break” feeling in the final 5K isn’t purely determined by your muscles. It’s a subjective perceived exertion (RPE) generated by the brain after integrating a flood of signals.

In the late stages of a race, at the same pace and same power output, your RPE climbs relentlessly. Why? Because a pile of background signals are simultaneously flooding into the brain:

• Glycogen nearly depleted: As blood glucose and muscle glycogen drop, the brain receives an “energy running low” alarm and actively tries to put on the brakes.
• Rising core temperature: Especially in Taiwan’s hot, humid environment, cooling efficiency drops—every small rise in body temperature amplifies perceived exertion.
• Accumulated muscle micro-damage: The mechanical fatigue in leg tissues from long distance makes every step “more expensive” than at the start.
• Mental fatigue: You’ve already been focused for two or three hours, and maintaining focus itself consumes a kind of “mental fuel.”

Understanding this has a very practical benefit: when you know that “feeling more exerted in the late stages is normal and inevitable,” you’re less likely to interpret it internally as “am I failing? Am I about to blow up?” It’s a physiological certainty, not evidence of your failure. This awareness itself is the foundation of the “acceptance” we’ll discuss later.

Attentional strategies, self-talk, and mindfulness all ultimately serve to regulate how the brain interprets these signals. You can’t change lactate accumulation, but you can change how you respond to it—and that is often the difference between holding your pace and falling apart.

Self-Talk: Is That Voice in Your Head a Teammate or an Enemy?

Two Types of Self-Talk: Instructional vs. Motivational

Self-talk in sports psychology is typically divided into two broad categories, clearly described in the framework by Hardy, Oliver, and Tod (2008):

• Instructional self-talk: Cues targeting technique and movement control. For example, “relax your shoulders,” “pick up your cadence,” “push through your hips,” “don’t let your hands cross the midline.” Its function is to maintain movement quality and precision.
• Motivational self-talk: Encouraging words targeting confidence, focus, and emotion. For example, “you’ve got this,” “hold this section,” “you’ve trained harder than this.” Its function is to boost confidence, reduce anxiety, and maintain focus during high intensity.

The “Matching Hypothesis”: Match the Task to the Words

There’s a practical principle in the research called the matching hypothesis:

• For tasks requiring timing and precision, instructional self-talk tends to be more effective.
• For tasks requiring strength and endurance, motivational self-talk tends to be more appropriate.

A meta-analysis on self-talk and sport performance included 32 studies, yielding 62 effect sizes, with an overall positive and moderate effect size (approximately ES = .48). The analysis also found that self-talk had stronger effects on fine motor tasks and newly learned tasks; and that interventions with self-talk training were more effective than those without.

Please underline that last sentence: self-talk can be trained. It’s not something where you suddenly think “I’ll just be positive” on race day and it works. Like intervals, it must be rehearsed repeatedly in regular training so that on race day you can summon it and use it smoothly.

The Last 5 Kilometers of Self-Talk: The Main Focus Is “Inspirational”

Back to our topic. The final stretch of a marathon, or the marathon leg of a triathlon, is fundamentally a struggle of endurance and strength, so the main focus should be on inspirational self-talk, supplemented with a few instructional cues to keep your form from falling apart.

I help athletes design 3 to 5 personalized cues, and I require them to start using these during their regular long runs. Here’s a template I commonly use:

Situation	Type	Example Cue	When to Use
Starting to feel tired	Inspirational	“This is why I came here”	At 30~35 km, when your mind starts to waver
Form starting to break down	Instructional	“Cadence, arm swing, relax shoulders”	When you feel your stride dragging
Want to slow down / walk	Inspirational	“Just hold on until the next intersection”	During those few hundred meters when you most want to give up
Breathing becomes erratic	Instructional	“Exhale longer, relax your jaw”	When your heart rate spikes and you can’t catch your breath
Final sprint	Inspirational	“This is where my home turf begins”	With the last 2~3 km remaining

Key technique: Cues should be short, positive, and use the second person or a name. Both research and practice tend to suggest that using second-person or self-distancing phrases like “You’ve got this” or “Hold on, A-Kai” stabilizes emotions better than constantly saying “I’m so tired.” Also, try to avoid negative words in your sentences—don’t say “Don’t cramp up,” because the brain automatically focuses on “cramp”; instead, change it to “Legs are steady, legs are strong.”

Mindfulness: It’s Not About Zoning Out, It’s About “Making Peace with Discomfort”

Why Endurance Sports Need Mindfulness

Many people hear the word “mindfulness” and immediately think of sitting cross-legged, meditating, and zoning out. But in the sports arena, the core of mindfulness is actually: clearly perceiving your current physical sensations with a non-judgmental attitude, and choosing to keep moving toward your goal, even amid discomfort.

This hits the pain point of the last 5 kilometers of endurance sports. Because at that point, you will inevitably feel discomfort—it’s a physiological certainty, not something you did wrong. The issue isn’t “whether it hurts,” but how you respond to that pain.

Athletes who fall apart often spiral into a vicious cycle: feeling pain → fear and resistance toward the pain → catastrophic thoughts like “I’m done, I’m going to blow up” → the sympathetic nervous system becomes more aroused, muscles tighten, energy consumption increases → more pain → more fear.

What mindfulness does is insert a gap between “feeling the pain” and “reacting to the pain.” You simply observe: “Oh, my thighs are burning, my breathing is heavy, this is what 38 km should feel like.” No judgment, no resistance, no catastrophizing. Then you bring your attention back to what you can control—the next step, the next breath, the next intersection.

The MAC Approach: The Most Mature Mindfulness Framework in Sports Psychology

In the field of sports psychology, the Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment (MAC) approach, developed by Gardner and Moore, is currently one of the most systematic and most research-supported mindfulness and acceptance-based methods.

The spirit of MAC can be broken into three parts, which I translate into language athletes understand:

1. Mindfulness (Awareness): Clearly knowing what’s happening in your body and mind right now, rather than being carried away by emotions.
2. Acceptance: Not fighting those uncomfortable internal sensations; accepting that “being tired is just being tired, and pain is just pain” is part of the race.
3. Commitment: Even amid discomfort, still choosing to keep acting toward what you truly care about (finishing, setting a PB).

Multiple studies show that MAC-type interventions can enhance athletic performance, reduce competition anxiety and rumination, and improve emotional regulation. Some research has even been applied specifically to triathletes. For us endurance athletes, “reducing rumination and anxiety while improving focus on the present moment” is exactly the capability we need most in the final 5 kilometers.

How I Train Athletes in Mindfulness

I don’t ask athletes to meditate for an hour every day—that’s unrealistic. My approach is to weave mindfulness into existing training:

• The last 20 minutes of a long run: Deliberately do a “body scan”—systematically notice your feet, calves, thighs, core, shoulders, and breath, spending a few breaths on each area, observing only without changing anything. This simulates the fatigue awareness of the late race.
• 5 minutes of breathing practice daily: Lying down before bed, focus only on breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. When your mind wanders, gently bring it back. This trains the “attention re-focusing” muscle.
• Discomfort exposure: On the last repeat of an interval session, deliberately practice “acceptance”—when your legs are burning, tell yourself, “This is the feeling. I recognize it. I can stay with it.”

Integrating All Three: A Practical “Attentional Pacing” Script for the Final 5 Kilometers

Enough theory—let’s get practical. What I design for athletes is an attentional pacing script that integrates association/dissociation, self-talk, and mindfulness according to race stage. Using a full marathon as an example:

Distance	Primary Attention Strategy	Self-Talk	Mindfulness Focus
0~15 km	Primarily dissociation (relaxed, conserving mental energy)	Minimal, light	Be aware of pace; don’t go out too hot
15~30 km	Alternating association and dissociation	Start adding instructional cues to maintain form	Periodic body scans to check for tension
30~37 km	Shift toward association (monitoring the body, guarding pace)	Inspirational cues come online	Accept that fatigue is beginning to set in
37~42 km	High association + full inspirational mode	Rotate through personalized cues	Accept the pain, pull back to the present, advance intersection by intersection

The logic of this script is: save mental energy early, give it everything late. You don’t need to be highly focused from start to finish—that will burn out your psychological energy prematurely. The point where you truly need to summon willpower is that final stretch.

“Chunking”: Breaking 5 Kilometers into Bite-Sized Pieces

The last 5 kilometers are the most demoralizing because the number “5 km to go” feels too big. I teach athletes to use chunking:

• Don’t think “5 km to go”; think “hold on to the next aid station.”
• Don’t think “3 km to go”; think “run to that traffic light.”
• In city or town courses like the Taipei Marathon or Tanaka Marathon, intersections, landmarks, and cheering crowds are natural chunking points—use them.

By breaking one intimidating big goal into a dozen “I can definitely do this” small goals, your brain won’t trigger the surrender mechanism.

Real Cases: Three Athletes, Three Types of Collapse, Three Fixes

Armchair theory is boring, so let me share some typical situations I’ve encountered over the years (scenarios are reconstructed for teaching purposes, with data based on practical experience). You’ll probably see yourself in at least one of these.

Case 1: Xiao-Mei—“Watch-Anxiety Disorder”

Xiao-Mei was preparing for her first full marathon with a sub-5-hour goal. Her problem wasn’t her legs—it was her watch. Every minute or two she’d look down at her pace, and if it dropped by even a few seconds, she’d start to tense up. The more tense she got, the higher her shoulders crept and the stiffer her stride became, which made her pace drop even more—a vicious cycle. By 32 km, she was completely drained by her own anxiety.

My prescription: For the first 25 km, she was forbidden from actively checking her watch (run by feel; only glance at it when the hourly reminder went off). She focused her attention on “breathing rhythm,” a simple externalized focus (with a hint of dissociation). Only in the later stages was she allowed to “associate” and precisely calculate her pace. She smoothly broke 5 hours in her next marathon and told me, “Turns out, when I don’t stare at the watch, I actually run more steadily.”

Case 2: Da-Xiong—“The Negative-Phrase Curse”

Da-Xiong is a triathlete with no shortage of fitness, but every time during the final run leg, he’d repeat in his head, “Don’t cramp, don’t cramp.” And sure enough, he’d often cramp up in the last 5 kilometers. Of course, cramping has physiological factors related to fueling and electrolytes, but I noticed his tension and fear were making things worse—the more afraid he was, the tighter he got, and the tighter he got, the more likely he was to cramp.

My prescription: I replaced all his negative-phrase cues with positive statements—“Legs are steady, legs are strong, run relaxed.” At the same time, he deliberately relaxed his shoulders and jaw during the final stretch. Combined with fueling adjustments, his cramping frequency dropped noticeably. Psychology wasn’t the only cause, but it was the missing piece of the puzzle he’d been ignoring.

Case 3: A-Zhe — “Catastrophic Thinking”

A-Zhe is an experienced runner with the ability to chase a sub-3. His Achilles’ heel: once his legs start aching at the 35-kilometer mark, his mind immediately conjures up “It’s over, something’s off today, I’m going to blow up,” and then he truly runs more and more conservatively, more and more panicked.

My prescription: Introduce mindfulness-based “acceptance” training throughout the season. Teach him to distinguish between “normal effort-related soreness” and “truly dangerous pain,” and repeatedly rehearse “recognize this feeling, stay with it, pull your attention back to the next step” in the final segment of key long runs. He learned to treat leg soreness as “a signal that’s supposed to be there at 37K,” not a disaster alarm. That year he broke sub-3, and the final 5 kilometers were the stretch where he passed the most runners on the course.

The common thread in these three cases: their original problem was never physical capacity, but the pattern of their inner dialogue. And all three issues could be corrected through deliberate practice.

Practical Considerations for Racing in Taiwan

Taiwan’s race environment has its own unique challenges, which also affects how you should design your inner dialogue for the final 5 kilometers.

• Hot and humid climate: Most road races and triathlons in Taiwan (especially in spring and summer) have high humidity and feel muggy. Elevated core body temperature amplifies “perceived exertion,” and your brain will cry fatigue earlier. So for races in Taiwan, motivational self-talk and acceptance strategies need to be deployed earlier, don’t wait until you’ve already fallen apart to use them.
• Taitung 226 / Challenge Taiwan: The marathon leg at the end of an ultra-triathlon often takes place in the afternoon heat. Fueling and cooling (ice water, sponges, pouring water over your head) are themselves part of stabilizing your inner dialogue — when the body is taken care of, the mind is less likely to collapse.
• Wuling Climb: If you’re into cycling’s King of the Mountain (Taiwan KOM) or the West Approach to Wuling, the high-altitude hypoxia in the final kilometers dulls your thinking. Here, instructional cues (cadence, breathing) work better than complex thinking, because in an oxygen-deprived state your brain can’t process long sentences.
• Aid station food culture: Taiwan’s race aid stations often serve savory rice porridge, bananas, cherry tomatoes, and cola. Rehearse your solid/liquid fueling rhythm before race day, so “what should I eat next, will it upset my stomach” doesn’t become distracting, anxiety-inducing noise in the final 5 kilometers. Stable fueling = stable blood sugar = stable emotions.

Common Mistakes and Fixes

Having coached so many athletes, the inner-dialogue landmines I’ve seen almost always fall into the following categories. Check how many you’ve hit:

Mistake 1: Staring at Your Watch and Pace the Entire Race

Symptoms: Checking the watch every 30 seconds, getting anxious the moment pace drops slightly, and the more anxious you get, the stiffer and slower you run.
Fix: Use dissociation in the early stages; treat the watch as a reference, not the boss. The time you really need to watch the data is the later stages. Learn to run by “feel,” with the watch as a supplement.

Mistake 2: Using Negative Self-Talk

Symptoms: “Don’t cramp,” “Don’t slow down,” “Don’t walk” — and the result is a mind full of cramping, slowing down, and walking.
Fix: Convert everything to positive statements. “Legs are solid,” “Hold the rhythm,” “Keep running.” The brain processes positive commands far more efficiently than negative ones.

Mistake 3: Treating “Pain” as “Something Bad/Dangerous”

Symptoms: The moment you feel leg soreness, catastrophic thinking kicks in — “Am I injured?” “Am I about to blow up?”
Fix: Use mindful acceptance. Distinguish between “normal effort-related discomfort” and “true injury-level pain.” The former is part of racing — recognize it, accept it; the latter (sharp, localized, progressively worsening) is when you need to stop and assess.

Mistake 4: Not Training It, Expecting It to Work on Race Day

Symptoms: After reading this article, you plan to “wing it with positive thinking” on race day.
Fix: Research clearly shows that only trained self-talk is effective. Start practicing cues, chunking, and body scans from your very next long run. Mental skills are like physical fitness — they only grow with training.

Mistake 5: Mismatched Pairing — Overthinking Even Easy Runs

Symptoms: Monitoring your body and staying tense even on easy aerobic and recovery runs.
Fix: Easy days should be for dissociation, relaxation, and enjoyment. Save your limited mental discipline for key workouts and races. Mental energy, like glycogen, is a resource that gets depleted.

Actionable Advice for Athletes of Different Levels

Beginners: First Triathlon / First Half Marathon / First Marathon

The most important thing for you right now isn’t memorizing a bunch of complex strategies — it’s establishing one core cue. Pick a phrase that means something to you — it could be “I can do this,” “Hold on,” or even the name of the person you’re running for. Use it repeatedly during long runs. The goal is simple: when your body cries out in the final stretch of a race, you have a phrase in your head that can catch you, instead of a blank void of panic.

Add one more habit: chunking. In the later stages of a race, always just think about “getting to the next aid station/intersection.” These two tools are enough for a beginner to avoid falling apart.

Intermediate Athletes: Chasing a PB

You can start training the attention-pacing script. Break a target race into dissociation in the early stages and association in the later stages, and design 3–5 situational cues for after the 30K mark (or the final 10K of a triathlon). Write them down, post them in your training log, and rehearse them on every key long run.

Also add 2–3 sessions per week of 5–10 minutes of breathing/body-scan practice. You’ll find that when the race hurts the most, you’re no longer drowning in emotion — you can calmly make decisions: whether to adjust your breathing, take a drink, or trust your body and push harder.

Advanced Athletes: Chasing Results / Long Distance

For you, physical capacity probably isn’t the bottleneck — the stability and reproducibility of mental discipline is. I recommend formally integrating the MAC three elements (Mindfulness—Acceptance—Commitment) into your season plan, and even consider seeking guidance from a qualified sport psychology professional.

In your hardest simulation races or key workouts, deliberately create “discomfort exposure,” practicing maintaining clear inner dialogue and movement quality amid lactate and fatigue. The state you’re pursuing: no matter how much the final 5 kilometers hurt, your mind remains that calm commander making the right pacing decisions and squeezing every last drop out of your body.

A Ready-to-Use “Final 5K” Self-Talk Training Plan

Here’s a 4-week progressive mental training micro-plan that fits alongside your existing mileage — no significant extra time required:

Week	Daily 5 Minutes	Each Long Run	Each Key Interval Session
Week 1	Breath awareness (just observe the breath)	Body scan during the final 20 minutes	Choose 1 core cue
Week 2	Breath + thought-redirection practice	Practice “chunking” in the later stages	Practice accepting pain on the final rep
Week 3	Body scan	Switch from dissociation to association	Deploy 3 situational cues
Week 4	Combined (choose your own)	Run the full attention-pacing script	Simulate the final 5K race mindset

After four weeks, these once-unfamiliar techniques will start to become instinctive reactions. That’s exactly what we want — on race day, you won’t have to “try hard” to think about what to do; your body and mind will simply know.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q1: Does listening to music count as dissociation? Should I listen to music during the final 5 km of a race?
Listening to music is a classic dissociative tool. It’s very helpful for lowering perceived exertion and maintaining mood, making it suitable for easy training days. However, many official races (especially triathlons) ban or restrict earphones for safety reasons, and in the final 5 km, you actually need association to monitor your body and pace precisely. My advice: you can use music to regulate yourself during regular training, but don’t let your performance in the final stretch of a race “depend” on music. Train yourself to hold your pace even without it.

Q2: I’m naturally a negative thinker. Will self-talk work for me?
Yes, it works, and research supports that self-talk is a trainable skill, not a talent. You don’t need to become blindly optimistic—you just need a few well-practiced phrases to catch yourself at critical moments. When negative thoughts arise, don’t fight them; acknowledge their existence (that’s acceptance), then deliberately redirect your attention back to your cues and your next step.

Q3: Won’t association make me feel more pain? Why should I use it in a race?
Association does make you “feel” the effort more clearly, but it also allows you to pace precisely, detect deteriorating running form early, and make correct fueling decisions. These benefits to race performance usually outweigh the advantage of “feeling less pain.” Moreover, when combined with acceptance and mindfulness, you can clearly feel the effort without being intimidated by it. Feeling it ≠ being defeated by it.

Q4: Can willpower alone really keep me from slowing down in the final 5 km?
Mental skills help you hold onto the physical capacity you already have and fully realize your potential performance—they cannot conjure up fitness you never built. In other words, fitness is the ceiling, and mental discipline determines whether you can reach that ceiling. You need to train both together; neither can be neglected.

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Conclusion: Train Your Brain Like You Train Your Legs

Let’s return to A-Kai from the beginning. The following year, he took on the Taipei Marathon again. We spent an entire season integrating attentional pacing, personalized cues, chunking, and body scanning into his long runs. In the final 5 km of that race, he hurt just as much and was just as tired, but he told me: “This time I knew what I was doing. I kept telling myself to hold on to the next intersection, and I never panicked.” He improved his PB by nearly 4 minutes—and it was the kind of improvement where he ran the final 5 km back, not fell apart.

In the final 5 km, everyone’s physical capacity is pretty much the same. What truly separates you from the field is whether the voice in your head is a teammate or an enemy, and whether your attention is steadily focused on what needs to be done or frantically bouncing around.

The good news is, all of this can be trained. Starting with your next long run, pick one phrase, break the run into a few chunks, and scan your body. After one season, when you stand on that final 5 km stretch again, you’ll find yourself a calmer, tougher athlete.

See you at the finish line.

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This article is for educational purposes and does not replace individual assessment by a physician, physical therapist, or nutritionist.

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References

• Masters & Ogles, Associative and dissociative cognitive strategies in exercise and running: 20 years later, what do we know? (Review of associative/dissociative attentional strategies) — https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279578126_Associative_and_Dissociative_Cognitive_Strategies_in_Exercise_and_Running_20_Years_Later_What_Do_We_Know
• Effect of association, dissociation and positive self-talk strategies on endurance performance (PubMed) — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6705126/
• Hatzigeorgiadis et al., Self-Talk and Sports Performance: A Meta-Analysis (32 studies, 62 effect sizes, ES ≈ .48; including the matching hypothesis and training effects) — https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1745691611413136
• Effect of self-talk on runners’ performance: systematic review and mini meta-analysis — https://www.researchgate.net/publication/387867531_Effect_of_self-talk_on_runners’_performance_systematic_review_and_mini_meta-analysis
• Effects of Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment (MAC) on Sport-Specific Dispositional Mindfulness, Emotion Regulation, and Self-Rated Athletic Performance: an RCT — https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12671-019-01098-7
• Theoretical and Empirical Developments of the Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment (MAC) Approach to Performance Enhancement (Gardner & Moore) — https://www.actmindfully.com.au/upimages/Theoretical_and_Empirical_Developments_of_the_Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment_(MAC)_Approach_to_Performance_Enhancement_copy.pdf

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Related Reading

• Attentional Strategies in Sport: Association vs. Dissociation—Where You Put Your Mind Determines How Far You Ride and How Hard You Run
• Running Psychology Skills: Pacing, Self-Talk, and Pain Management
• Associative vs. Dissociative Attentional Strategies: Cognitive Research on Marathon Pacing Control
• Psychological Tolerance in Interval Training: Maintaining Focus and Target Pace Through Discomfort