THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RACING: HOW MENTAL PREPARATION FOR ATHLETES SHAPES PERFORMANCE

Published: 12/03/2026 | By: David Van Wetherill

Racing doesn’t just test your legs and lungs; it tests your mind – and David Van Wetherill is a big believer that sport psychology and performance go hand in hand. The body can be ready, but the mind can still slam on the brakes. In this piece, the Sports Direct ambassador unpacks how he trained his mental resilience so that nerves become fuel, setbacks don’t spiral, and race day feels familiar. Because it’s always more than just a race.

Physical readiness is the training block – the miles, the sessions, the strength work and the recovery. Mental readiness is what happens when the plan gets tested – when the occasion, the fatigue, the pain, the pressure and the emotions start competing for your attention. In endurance marathons and hybrid events like HYROX, the psychological demands stack up – motivation dips and you start negotiating with yourself. You ride waves of both confidence and doubt.

If you’ve ever felt that negative spiral begins, the “I can’t” loop, then you’re not alone. When I’m nearing a big event, I can feel it creeping in: the ‘jitters’, the “what ifs,” the sudden urge to overthink everything. I heard the phrase “maranoia” and honestly… I get it. It’s that mix of excitement and nerves where your mind starts running the race before you’ve even pinned your number on.

THE TRIGGERS THAT DERAIL THE MIND

For most athletes, from first-time 10K runners to experienced HYROX racers, the common barriers look like this:

• Performance anxiety: adrenaline that feels like panic
• Negative self-talk and doubt: “I’m not built for this”
• Pre-race nerves mismanaged: going off too fast, too hyped, “blocking out” feelings
• Fear of failure: tying self-worth to the outcome

I’ve been there. Sometimes my challenges are actually too much mental intensity, especially early on, and I find myself relying on certain psychological triggers and sheer grit and determination to get me through the pain and the adversity.

I’ve written previously about many of these well-trodden Stoic philosophies that I often call upon. Things like amor fati (loving your fate and making the best of it), memento mori (reminding yourself that time and opportunity is precious), letting go of the uncontrollable and practicing gratitude. I try to celebrate everything, even the struggles, because they’re often the things that make you stronger.

They are very real and very quick and easy mental triggers to help regain some perspective in your mind. They definitely have a time and a place but having them there in your back pocket doesn’t necessarily mean you are ‘mentally strong’.

As much as you may have practiced Stoic philosophies… as much as you may have prepared yourself with difficulties on purpose… embraced challenges… had no excuses… The brain can STILL slam on the brakes. The heart rate can still inexplicably spike on the start line and your mind can still unravel into fog… getting thicker and thicker… more painful by the second.

Even if you have done the work, know that you are not “weak”. You’re human. And that it is completely normal.

FIGHT OR FLIGHT?

I’d question anyone who says they don’t feel it – your brain is hard-wired into a defensive mindset, constantly scanning for threat. It is why the build-up to competition can trigger such a stressful response… anticipation… adrenaline… somatic anxiety… sweaty palms… doubts… You start catastrophising. But none of it means you’re not ready.

It nearly always means you care and you can gain immense comfort in knowing that you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be. It’s mental! Just being able to recognise and accept that is the first and most important hurdle towards overcoming. So what happens next?

HOW TO TRAIN MENTAL RESILIENCE AND MENTALLY PREPARE FOR A RACE?

The basis of all my psychology is to firstly recognise and accept, and then secondly to take back the power over how to react or respond. Like all things in life, it is not what happens but how you react which matters. Having that choice is everything.

Just like the gym, if you’ve trained yourself well – if you’ve trained your instincts when hit with a certain stimulus – then you’ll soon realise that you can develop the ability to ALWAYS have the choice in your emotional response. You start to realise that there is no such thing as a ‘positive’ thing in your brain, and there is no such thing as a ‘negative’ thing. There are only things. And there are only perceptions of those things. You start to wield the magic wand.

When you have an unbelievable power over your perspectives then you therefore have an unbelievable power over your feelings and emotions, especially in those moments. It makes you begin to introspect and question how you frame certain things in your brain. You realise that thoughts aren’t facts. They’re just thoughts – and there is no on/off switch.

I’ve lived that mental tug-of-war for most of my life. I was born with an excruciatingly painful disability, I’ve used crutches since I was 10, and I’ve had to learn resilience in situations where just goal setting, self-talk, breathing techniques, and visualisation are simply not enough to get you through.

Pain and pressure can be loud. “Just push through” isn’t a viable slogan and it definitely isn’t a solution when things get tough. Like, really tough. I have no doubt the following mindset practices are the essence of what makes me so mentally resilient to the many vicissitudes of life. They have been so incredibly useful for HYROX, marathon training and real-life setbacks. But it doesn’t happen automatically.

MINDFULNESS

Start by watching your thoughts instead of reacting to them. Both ‘positive’ and ‘negative’. All of them. Notice your feelings and separate yourself from them. That pause creates control. You become an impartial witness to your own emotions. Let it become a constant form of meditation… let the consciousness of your thoughts become second nature – as normal as breathing. This creates a calmness in observing the self, which in itself is a thought! In essence, it is how you start tapping into your higher self.

If you can let go of your ego and suspend judgement like this, then behind it you can find an inward light, a spirit, which puts you in a position of control that can be called upon at a much higher level. You become a watcher of your own thoughts and you can start to take an objective and rational view of things. One which doesn’t slip into a spiral of negativity, one which isn’t affected by pain or pressure.

When you let that transposition occur then you begin to understand that subjective things aren’t actually real unless you now choose to make them real. Things like pressure, confidence – even physical things like pain – aren’t actually real. You understand that none of it actually exists per se and that you are in complete control of each perception that is attached. You don’t need an on/off switch because you are in complete control of the volume dial(s).

MENTAL GYMNASTICS

Having recognised certain thoughts during certain moments of mental anguish, during bouts of “maranoia” or pain or self-doubt, I like to initiate something which I now call mental gymnastics. It has become the essence of my brain on a daily basis. I say to myself, here we go then – how can I outwit myself? How can I one-up my own self! How can I provide myself with unshakeable confidence! I think this is where we start to see what makes the difference between world-class physical athletes and the absolute mental powerhouse greatest of all time athletes – it’s all mindset.

Being able to tap into the virtuousness of the higher self is a key separation which turns you into a higher-brow version that is not carried along by your own stream of (un)consciousness. When you take back the choice on how to respond, you find that all your thoughts and feelings are valid and that you now have the power to distinguish between those which are helpful and those which are unhelpful.

You can turn the unhelpful ones into incredible positivity. When you learn to welcome things as they are, both consciously and proactively, then you’ll find that these previously negative feelings are often the most powerful.

MANIFESTATION

All types of thoughts have the capability to turn mere feelings into reality. I can never overstate this enough – if you make them real in your head, then you make them real in real life, and so it is vitally important for you to train a conscious filter system.

Your body follows the story your mind tells it. This is what I mean when I say performance isn’t just physical. In fact, a very small proportion of it is physical. The body achieves (or doesn’t achieve) what the mind believes it can (or can’t). It is especially important for nipping any negative spirals in the bud as soon as possible, for amplifying the volume of those which keep you going, and for defying limits by turning the impossibles into possibles against all odds.

RELATIONSHIP WITH SELF

Through psychoanalysis of my higher self, and to make certain situations, attachments, or boxes, in my head feel more ‘real’, I have come to name the unhelpful voice in my head – the one that listens attentively to things like nerves, pain, and doubt. I always used to say in those ‘negative’ moments that I was “struggling”. And therein was born my alter ego, which personifies characteristics of my lower self…I named him Mr. Steven Ruggling. Struggling.

It is a very personal mindset technique of mine, something tangible rather than something abstract or difficult to fathom in the moment – almost like having an imaginary friend which nobody else knows about. You see people running along, but you know, if you know as I do, that they are not just running along by themselves, even if they are unconsciously aware or consciously unaware.

Me and ‘Steven’ have certainly had a few bumps on the road, but I have come to be great friends with him. Now, whenever he pops into my brain before a race… or before a perceived big moment… or whenever he starts to hit me with the ‘jitters’… I welcome him like a friend.

I put an arm around him, I move him from the driver’s seat and into the passenger seat…I tell him that everything is going to be okay. Transposition. We’ve got this.

PSYCHOLOGICAL STRATEGY FOR MENTAL TOUGHNESS

A huge breakthrough for me was realising that the connection with the self is not a fight, it’s a relationship. It’s not about trying to bully your pesky little alter ego of a brain into silence. If you do, then I’ve found that it can become peskier than ever. The more you try to escape, the more you get lost, the deeper you get stuck.

Steven likes to call them pink elephants. He knows that if I try not to think of his unhelpful pink elephants, then I will instantly think even harder of his unhelpful pink elephants. Instead, I now recognise it, I accept it, and I thus begin to turn up the volume of the helpful noise.

By thinking in this way, by training our internal dialogue, that is to say, talking to ourselves automatically, the unhelpful noise can be turned down. If you go straight for the strategy of trying to ‘block out’ noise, then you can often find that you inadvertently turn up those unhelpful feelings into a pure negative spiral. The key is to welcome with open arms.

FINAL LAP: KEY TAKEAWAYS FOR ATHLETES AT ALL LEVELS

Racing is physical, but it’s powered by mindset. Things like nerves are normal. The goal isn’t to eliminate them – it’s to train your response. It’s great when things are second nature, but that’s almost not the point. True awareness of your thoughts is what makes the difference, and that is absolutely trainable. Build mindfulness into your training like you build hydration and sleep. Cultivate an unbreakable familiarity and understanding with the self. Find what makes you tick!

There’s also something underrated about wearing clothes you trust and feel comfortable in. I like to train like I’m stepping onto the start line. Everything, including your mind, is built through preparation, routine, and reliability. The mental calm before the storm.

I use routine, purpose and things I trust to reduce uncertainty, so that trained confidence isn’t solely internal. When your mind is ready, when you feel comfortably at peace knowing you will be absolutely fine no matter what, even when (inevitably) your doubts and fears force their way into the driving seat. Only then does your body get a fair shot at showing what it can really do.

*All images featured are taken by @bygeds