1. The presence of a challenging activity – a six-mile run as before.

2. The perception that your skills match the challenge – I have trained well and feel the goal is a reasonable one.

3. Clear goals – here's the difference. My goals are now to be in the moment to maintain awareness of my running style and enjoy the run!

4. The availability of instant feedback concerning your performance – I can check my neck, shoulder and back muscles are relaxed; my legs are kept free from tension and I can allow my feet to rebound up from the road.

In this case the activity remains the same but the emphasis is now placed on how I go about running and not the time. In place of monitoring my speed and time I am going to focus on areas where I may be making it harder than it should be and see if I can prevent unnecessary effort. It is easy to believe that effort is good and will help you to run faster so surely more effort is better. Yet many actions initiated by the thought of picking up the pace are wasted and may even slow you down.

I set off and for the first mile contemplate what makes me run faster and how can I maintain that speed for a lengthy period? Obviously my legs have to swing faster but I cannot afford to waste energy doing that, so it comes down to efficiency and style – getting the most out of each stride with minimal effort.

So if I can maintain my awareness on the how I’m applying myself to the act of running to ensure maximum efficiency, that is, remove the inappropriate effort and I will increase my speed in the process.

I could choose to check my time at the mile markers but it should not change how I am running directly. For instance, if I maintained my focus for the first mile and the time is good, I’m somewhere on the right track. If the time is poor, my focus will have been in the wrong place and it is this that has to change.

I become Sherlock Holmes and look for clues where I may be making the run harder than it should be. I can use the second mile to experiment with my level of focus and open it up to take in the scenery whilst still maintaining an awareness of myself running in my surroundings. Before I approach the second mile I could guess whether the time will be good. Is my estimate based on how much effort I think I have applied? On occasions when I thought I had run a good time it can turn out to be slower than I anticipate because the effort I have sensed may have been wasted, such as, lifting my shoulders that has slowed me down. At other times an enjoyable, relaxing run can be turn out to be a fast time.

I am now really enjoying being totally absorbed in an activity on a pleasant evening and do not even look at the stopwatch at the three or four mile stage because I couldn’t care what it says. I know I’m going fast because the hedgerows are flowing past, there are no aches or pains and as I approach the fifth mile my curiosity gets the upper hand and I take a look at the time. It’s good and I tell myself not to alter a thing due to the time. I don’t need to try to run faster, just to maintain my awareness of any tension that may have crept in unnoticed. I find I have lifted my shoulders a fraction and allow them to release again.

As I finish I stop the watch but don’t look at it for some minutes because it doesn’t matter. I have achieved my goal by remaining conscious of the act of running throughout the run and enjoyed the experience. Later when I do check the time it’s 41:54, three seconds faster than the previous run.

Was I In The Zone? What do you think? ...read on>>>

Extracted from my book 'Zone Mind, Zone Body' - How to breakthrough to new levels of fitness and performance - by doing less!(Ecademy Press). For more details please click peak performance training. Available in paperback or online ebook.