Well, duh.

I recently read this piece in your version of the NYTimes, Internet.

It's definitely mind over matter! (I mean, isn't that why the saying is "mind over matter" in the first place?)

And it's not just sports: I remember my violin teacher used to tell me that it wasn't that my fingers weren't physically fast enough to play a particular passage; it was usually that my brain was slowing down my fingers. If I just did it without thinking so much, I could usually play faster than I had previously. (And she was right.)

When I'm out rowing or biking or running or doing anything athletically challenging (but usually rowing, since that's what I actually push myself at), it's almost always a matter of getting my mind to cave in to what I want my body to do. Sure there are times when the body is tired, but not nearly as often as I allow, and probably not nearly to the degree I believe myself to be tired.

It also explains how it is so much easier to push myself to get better when I have competition (and also explains to me how it is so much easier to push myself on the water when I'm facing other real people in actual boats on existent water in live races).