Amateur Running Psychology

Overview → The Daredevil → Session Notes
Session Notes The Daredevil
Addressing:

The Wall

That devastating moment in long races when your mind goes to war with your body, typically around mile 20 in a marathon, where every step feels impossible and your brain screams to quit while negative thoughts flood in uncontrollably

How The Daredevil Can Break Through The Wall in Amateur Running

Posted on December 19, 2025 ~ min read
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For: The Daredevil athletes in Amateur Running
Focus: Session Notes - The Wall
Read Time: ~9 min
Session Notes December 19, 2025
Profile: The Daredevil
Sport: Amateur Running
Challenge: The Wall

Mile 20. The legs that carried you through months of training suddenly feel like concrete pillars. Your brain floods with a single, screaming message: stop. This is The Wall in amateur running, and for The Daredevil iconThe Daredevil (ESRA) athlete, it represents a collision between two forces that usually work in harmony.

The Wall is the point in distance running where glycogen stores deplete and the body shifts to burning fat for fuel. This metabolic transition creates profound physical discomfort. But the real battle happens between your ears. Negative thoughts cascade without warning. Each step becomes a negotiation between the part of you that wants to finish and the part that wants the pain to end.

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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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