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
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