Two to three weeks out from your big race is a critical time. Often we forget to trust all the work we've done for months. We may be tired, both physically and mentally, we may be feeling the beginning of nerves.

Then you see it's taper time. This can sometimes mean distress for athletes as training volume and intensity drops - the sessions you rely on for confidence such as long runs or big interval sessions are reduced and/or gone from the schedule... where do you turn to now for confidence?

Rather than doing something that may jeopardise your race and training (eg. trying to prove you are ready by changing or making a session too intense, changing routine, adding cross training, looking for answers on the outside...) ~ the risk of injury is greater at this point as you have endured your training load and are at the point of need rest beofre you race... But this isn't the time to prove anything - leave that for race day!!

Now IS the time to pause and look back at the journey to this point. Reflect on all the positives, all the struggles you've endured ~ remember these moments, sessions, weeks, months all build up ~ you have banked them. Now is the time to reflect and gain confidence from that reflection.

From here, there is no training session that will make you "more ready", there is no "magic bullet". Unless the magic bullet is faith. From here it is all between your ears that the work needs doing.

This I have learnt from my own, sometimes painful, sometimes wonderful, experiences in racing and running...