I fully agree with Dev and must think of two things when I read it:

1) Not sure if it is true and I do not know if he said it himself or if it has been told about him: Frodo finished every single run in his Olympics '08 preparation with a sprint. And I am sure that he always had a pole, a tree, a line, just something that represented the Bejing finish line banner. And he probably did not slow down before he got to that point.

2) Not so much on the bike, more on runs, I actually think about that topic sometimes when doing intervals. No matter if it is something like "3 light poles" intervals or 1km intervals: Sometimes I slow down just a few meters before the last light pole or when my GPS watch shows 0.99km. This reminds me not to slow down too early in the next interval because I do not want to slow down too early in my races. Not sure if it helps me in my races, but certainly it is something I am telling myself: If you want to nail it in racing, make sure you also nail it in training. It is about mindset, no question.

I agree a bit and disagree a bit too.
Training and racing are not necessarily the same thing.
I treat some of my training like I do racing with a finish line I want to reach. This would apply to say hill climbs, or my final high intensity interval of a session. I always tend to finish these with purpose. But other sessions, especially lower intensity stuff or if the intent is not especially specific, I'm more focused on how I feel than watching the numbers, the terrain, or the time.
If you obsess over stuff you know isn't important it devalues your obsession when it does matter. I focus very well when I value the target, whether that's maintaining HR or a specific pace on a run or ride or minimising every loss of time during a race. But it has to matter.

I do a fair amount of interval training, but I've taken to doing many of my trainer sessions on Zwift using the virtual terrain to set VO2max or Threshold interval durations rather than time. It's more psychologically pleasing and probably similar to what the OP is suggesting. When you use time, the thought can linger that if you sandbag a bit, the timer will still run out just as quick. When it's terrain based, real or virtual, the quicker you get there the quicker you rest. You've chosen the route so that it's correct anyway but mentally this helps IMO. For example, I use the timed "Epic KOM" forward or reverse segments on Zwift for threshold intervals (it takes about 3mins longer forwards than backwards so I chose accordingly!). I know how long it should take and when I get close to the top and see an ETA I'll either be ahead, behind or on target. Either way I'm incentivised to maintain or raise my effort for the finale so I can meet or beat my expectation.
I similarly use the short climb timed KOM just after the lap start/finish area to do shorter higher intensity intervals.

I'm not entirely convinced, however that this attitude is something that you practice. I know lots of people believe otherwise!
I've always been like that. Others only race when they race and I'm not sure there's an advantage in forcing it in training.

This post turned into more a stream of conciousness piece than it was supposed to....apologies! TL;DR?

See what I wrote inside this thread on having a similar sense of purpose on easy sessions or recovery. In those the sense of purpose is to keep the workout easy and not deviate from that task. Not killing it in easy workouts often takes more sense of purpose than hammering right past the finish line of an interval or a training TT.

It might be the OCD engineering student in me, but I never cut short on things like intervals (unless it's bailing on a workout completely due to fatigue etc).

A 5min interval is 5:01. 20min is 20:01. A 2hr trainer ride is 2:01. A 10mi run is 10.1 miles.

Unhealthy? Maybe. But my logs are accurate!

---

"Don't you have to go be stupid somewhere else?"..."Not until 4!"

Anyone can nail an interval. The better folks can consistently nail a workouts. The best folks nail seasons.

I've been thinking about the mental side of things alot lately. I remember a quote by Steve Magness where he said that sometimes he makes sure the track intervals finish not at the ("official") finishline (where a track race would finish) but somewhere else. I guess the point is, that not every end of an interval simulates the end of a race. Rather, an interval session is there to split a longer distance up into smaller segments with recovery that allows you to complete the total work distance with more quality.

So if you run 1000m reps at 10k pace, chances are that you will run 950m at 10k pace plus 50m flailing to the line (maybe with poor form). I've never even thought about this before, but when the goal of the session is to simulate a 10k, then it is not conductive to end each rep tensioning up.

And I guess that is very similar to what you are saying in your first post.

The attitute how you approach something is so important.

Another thing is that you should do everything on purpose. Don't do drills when you are not entierly focused. Don't do things just to do them.

---

10k - 30:48 / half - 1:06:40

Yep. Mental strength and focus. Yours are impressive.

yes, the task and objective for each interval in a set of say 10x400m may be different (for example, the first 4 might be about staying on pace and not going too fast, the next 4 may be about staying on pace and holding form, the last 2 might be about negative splitting and pushing a lower time and maybe going hard to 404m (possible at the track, probably not at the pool, but to use the Phelps analogy, slam the touch pad harder than Cavic once at the line). But really it is about completing the task at hand. My wife does this really well with whatever she is doing (non athletic) and takes everything to perfection (but she will take forever on every tiny task)....I am in the "perfection is the enemy of progress group" in my business life. I move a lot of things ahead reasonably fast, and take them the the equivalent of 390m and then I will move other things things to 390m and so on and often that tradeoff is better than taking 5x the time to move one thing to 400m. Where I need to, and it is critical, I will get a colleague or someone else to make sure the last 10m are done perfectly. But in racing, I can only rely on myself. So this goes against my normal mindset. I have to train myself to do what good/great athletes do and not revert to my natural tendency. Everyone has their own mindset.

We can beat up on Sky and their marginal gains, but they are a perfect example of a team that takes every tiny task to completion and leave zero time on the table. They don't really wing anything where the problem can be bounded and not left to chance and executed to perfection.

Look at what MTM just did in his hour record. The guy was completely thorough with his execution and off 5W per kilo and moderate genetics relative to a protour rider and he ends up with the 4th faster time all time. This is based only partially on his genetics, but mainly on his mental focus and execution and getting each task of the hour record done. Probably the prime example I can think of this week.

Dev

Hello devansish_paul and All,

You are in good company ...... 'Dave Scott's Triathlon Training'

Partial selection ....

"Dave Scott, ‎Liz Barrett - 1986 - ‎Sports & Recreation (excerpts from page 202)
5 Pedal rhythmically. The rhythm is your own; it doesn't have to be a perfectly smooth circle. I try to pedal elliptically — pushing from 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock — to loosen my ... I always pretend that there is an extra 20 or 30 feet at the top of the hill, so that after the crest I pedal four or five hard revolutions before I back off. When I do decrease the effort, I keep spinning so that the lactate has a chance to diffuse.."

---

Cheers, Neal

+1 mph Faster

We've already discussed here how "taking a task to completion" has physical as well as mental benefits.

Here is another anecdote from the menal (subconcious) side:

After every run I have to go up a hill to out house. Halfway to the top I pass the company where my dad works. Sometimes I run up this road without much thought, I change sides or take the corners the far way. So one day during my summerholidays I finish my endurance run and then my dad comes home from work for lunch and tells me: "How are your running? You are covering so much more distance then necessary". I say: "Man, that was just an easy training run. I don't care how much extra meters I run."
He: "You do it in training and then, when you are tired in a race, you're doing it there as well."

After some thought I guess that he is right and some basic behaviour just needs to be ingrained into our head. And you do that by practising it everyday.

---

10k - 30:48 / half - 1:06:40