Running is a head game, with two options: let your mind wander, or focus. To compete, you must focus. Goucher shares her secrets to improving running performance. She includes tips, techniques, and real-life experiences as well as offering perspectives from experts in the field of sports psychology. Guided activities are provided so you can develop your own training program. -- adapted from back cover.

"In her twenties, Alexandra Heminsley spent more time drinking white wine than she did in pursuit of athletic excellence. When she decided to take up running in her thirties, she had high hopes for a blissful runner's high and immediate physical transformation. After eating three slices of toast with honey and spending ninety minutes on iTunes creating the perfect playlist, she hit the streets--and failed miserably. The stories of her first runs turn...

"In this memoir for young readers, Olympic champion runner Caster Semenya reflects on her groundbreaking career and her fight for identity in professional sports. Caster Semenya is a two-time Olympic gold medalist and a three-time world champion in track from South Africa. Since her first spectacular performance at the 2009 World Championship in Berlin, she has been at the center of a growing debate about female eligibility rules in professional athletics...

"When Alexi Pappas was four years old, her mother committed suicide, drastically altering the course of Pappas's life and setting her on a perpetual search for female role models. When her father started signing her up for sports teams as a way to keep his bereaved daughter busy, female athletes became some of the first women Pappas looked up to, and she became a girl with a goal: to be an Olympian. Despite setbacks and hardships, Pappas held fast...

"Kara Goucher grew up with Olympic dreams. She excelled at running from a young age, and though she was confronted with serious challenges including the death of her father and struggles with disordered eating, her prospects were bright. She won high school cross country championships in Minnesota, NCAA track and field championships at the University of Colorado, and when she graduated from college, Nike offered her a sponsorship deal. Alberto Salazar...