Trail Running Psychology

Overview → The Rival → Session Notes
Session Notes The Rival
Addressing:

Pacing Panic

The anxiety-driven tendency to start too fast on fresh legs, ignoring race strategy because other runners are pulling ahead, leading to the dreaded blow-up in later miles that transforms a goal race into a survival march

How The Rival Can Conquer Pacing Panic in Trail Running

Posted on December 5, 2025 ~ min read
📋
For: The Rival athletes in Trail Running
Focus: Session Notes - Pacing Panic
Read Time: ~9 min
Session Notes December 5, 2025
Profile: The Rival
Sport: Trail Running
Challenge: Pacing Panic

In trail running, pacing panic is the anxiety-driven compulsion to abandon your race strategy when other runners pull ahead early. You know the feeling. Fresh legs, adrenaline pumping, and suddenly that carefully planned conservative start feels like a mistake as competitors disappear up the trail. For The Rival iconThe Rival (EOTA), this moment triggers a cascade of poor decisions.

Your tactical mind screams that falling behind means losing. Your opponent-focused psychology interprets every passing runner as a threat requiring immediate response. The result? You torch your reserves in the first quarter of the race. By mile 30, what started as a goal race becomes a survival march.

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Vladimir Novkov

M.A. Social Psychology | ISSA Elite Trainer | Expert in Sport Psychology for Athlete Development

My mission is to bridge the gap between mind and body, helping athletes and performers achieve a state of synergy where peak performance becomes a natural outcome of who they are.

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