What should be the focus during the break between Reps?

T runner

Came back from injury relatively recently and managed a few sessions with my club. 2k reps with 2 mins rest. The thing is this time my concentration between reps has been excellent. Never any dread from thinking about the number of reps left and the associated hardship.

I know why the change is and ill give the background: I did Bikram Yoga as part of my cure/rehab. Thats 90 minutes in 40C heat doing pretty physically difficult Yoga. On my first session I wanted out after the warmup...and it took mental endurance similar to the closing stages of an endurance race to actually stay in the room. You get small rests of 10 secs between exercises. The instructor strongly advised to clear the mind during these small rests to make recovery better and be able to perform the next exercise with more application. I did several sessions and got good at this.
(amazingly this ability to mentally blank transferred to the parenting: for a few days after each session baby and child related stress didnt accumulate, stress just disspated before it could mount)

Anyway, when i went back to my sessions I was able to have a goldfish approach. After each rep I relaxed completely, just focusing on recovering, not thinking about how many reps left, how tired I was feeling etc. Just a very objective approach to completing the next rep well.and simply not thinking beyond that. I actually felt that I could manage more reps than usual with this approach. In the past usually the 3rd from last rep was tough, and if I ran this badly it was due to my mental processes in the preceding rest interval.

Thinking about it now mental strenght/weakness between reps mirrors the same in races. The same negative thoughts arise. Mastering your mind, or rather, relaxing it during the rest period should help you run stronger consistant reps and should starve the bad habit of thinking negatively which can haunt sessions and races alike.

Track men and women and those who have consistantly done sessions over years might have more experience and knowledge on this? The Bikram Yoga was the exception for me...but how do others keep positive between reps....is it just experience..or should we be mindful of "quality rests" when doing sessions to speed up the process and benefit the quality of sessions?

Krusty_Clown

Good thread T Runner. Don't mean to side-track, but I'd also be interested in thoughts on how one stays positive during the reps, particularly when running on one's own, where you don't have rabbits to chase. Better to zone out and disregard the splits, or try to stay as focussed as possible and measure, measure, measure?

EmcD123

I'm a 400m sprinter but I did tai chi for a year and it helped me too. But what I like to do during my break is think hard on what my technique was like in the previous rep and what I need to improve and then I keep those ideas in mind during the next rep ,as well as working on keeping breathing steady and from my diaphragm and not my chest

Sacksian

This might be a bit tangential to your original query but it raises a couple of issues I have with interval training, or at least the way a lot of people seem to approach it, and the idea of mental strength.

For me, the pace of the repetitions and length of the recovery or rest are established beforehand by the purpose of the session. I don't think that you should be trying too hard to overcome those parameters mentally.

As such, the focus between reps is on getting the appropriate rest or recovery!

And if you're expending a lot of mental and physical energy trying to maintain paces in training, then I reckon you're doing them too hard. Obviously, there will (and should) be an increasing effort level over the course of a session but I like to do them to establish form and effort for a given pace at a given distance.

It's roughly the same mental challenge with 16 x 400m with 30s recovery or 10 x 400 with 2 minutes recovery or 10 x 200 with 1 minute recovery. So, it doesn't seem to really matter (as much as I'd like to think) what I do mentally - it's down to how fit/tired I am as to how hard or easy it is.

I know some people, myself included, like to think we could run much faster if we were mentally tougher but I'm not sure that's a sustainable position. How far can you push that idea??

That's not disputing that there are individual races/occasions that you feel mentally tougher/weaker than others but I've run my fastest times when I've been fittest and I don't remember any of my pbs as being particularly mentally draining - they might even have been the most comfortable.

The two races I remember where I probably outran my fitness (i.e. fought a mental war for the entire race) were the most unpleasant races of my life and both put me off training and running afterwards.

All of this is personal opinion and has worked for me to date with good results. However, I'm well aware that different things work for different people and there are a range of approaches that people take to improving their running.

Sacksian

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Good thread T Runner. Don't mean to side-track, but I'd also be interested in thoughts on how one stays positive during the reps, particularly when running on one's own, where you don't have rabbits to chase. Better to zone out and disregard the splits, or try to stay as focussed as possible and measure, measure, measure?

For me, it's a bit of both: don't zone out, stay focussed on the effort but disregard the splits! Within reason, obviously...

T runner

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Good thread T Runner. Don't mean to side-track, but I'd also be interested in thoughts on how one stays positive during the reps, particularly when running on one's own, where you don't have rabbits to chase. Better to zone out and disregard the splits, or try to stay as focussed as possible and measure, measure, measure?

Im not an expert on that at all, far from it. Id guess the more anaerobic and faster the reps the more feedback you'll need from the watch because you'll be forcing it to some degree.

When alone I usually work on keeping my tempo good. Counting every 4 steps steps....1234, 1, 1234, 2, 1234, 3........etc

Thats a good one especially when fatigue is setting in because youre keeping youre power output up. Youll need to keep half an eye on the clock but keeping the tempo up will usually keep the time good.

Many run threshold and sub threshold runs based on feel. Some rhythm checking here as above without looking at the clock might help keep it at the right intensity.

That wont work for some of the long mixed tempo and easy runs, where the second tempo segment should feel harder, so the clock must be watched.

I think the right strategy is to have different strategies based on each session you encounter. I think you do it very well.
When back in marathon tarining id be hoping to go more by feel early in the cycle...and by pace later. I think you do that too.

woody1

T runner wrote: »

(amazingly this ability to mentally blank transferred to the parenting: for a few days after each session baby and child related stress didnt accumulate, stress just disspated before it could mount)

f*ck intervals, im off to look into this for this reason alone

T runner

woody1 wrote: »

f*ck intervals, im off to look into this for this reason alone

Haha. It weared off a few days after each session mind. I think all the mindfulness stuff helps with that kind of thing. The difference with this is that if you dont do it properly (blank your mind and forget how long is left to work in the heat) youll have to leave the room so you tend to do it right. Its almost like worrying about how long left was doubling the difficulty. Dont want to come across as propoting it, but its something different anyway.

Thats why I was wondering if hard track sessions were similar. You have little chance of doing a really good session if you're constantly thinking about the pain ahead. So do athletes adapt quickly...or maybe the sheer volume of sessions and experience slowly hardens the mind.

T runner

Sacksian wrote: »

For me, the pace of the repetitions and length of the recovery or rest are established beforehand by the purpose of the session. I don't think that you should be trying too hard to overcome those parameters mentally.

As such, the focus between reps is on getting the appropriate rest or recovery

And if you're expending a lot of mental and physical energy trying to maintain paces in training, then I reckon you're doing them too hard. Obviously, there will (and should) be an increasing effort level over the course of a session but I like to do them to establish form and effort for a given pace at a given distance.

It's roughly the same mental challenge with 16 x 400m with 30s recovery or 10 x 400 with 2 minutes recovery or 10 x 200 with 1 minute recovery. So, it doesn't seem to really matter (as much as I'd like to think) what I do mentally - it's down to how fit/tired I am as to how hard or easy it is.

I know some people, myself included, like to think we could run much faster if we were mentally tougher but I'm not sure that's a sustainable position. How far can you push that idea??

That's not disputing that there are individual races/occasions that you feel mentally tougher/weaker than others but I've run my fastest times when I've been fittest and I don't remember any of my pbs as being particularly mentally draining - they might even have been the most comfortable.

The two races I remember where I probably outran my fitness (i.e. fought a mental war for the entire race) were the most unpleasant races of my life and both put me off training and running afterwards.

All of this is personal opinion and has worked for me to date with good results. However, I'm well aware that different things work for different people and there are a range of approaches that people take to improving their running.

I think I'm saying something similar. You shouldn't be trying to overcome the session parameters during the rest interval and you should be concentrating on rest.

IMO Id disagree that each session presents the same mental challenge. I have done a session of 10 x 2k during marathon training and mental resilience is a factor here.


There are also sessions/days where you may be mentally fatigued. The mind is weaker and can become negative even though the body is physically fit and strong.

Youre point does hold true with the assumption that if the session presents a mental or physical challenge it is too hard.

On reconsideration and given what you've revealed your point would probably hold true for many track sessions. Otherwise as you've said, form etc starts to get compromised. Perhaps there is a divergence in mental difficulty between difeernt events/sessions in this case. I would have thought though that some track sessions particularly the ones involving specific endurance (extending race pace) closer to target races would be quite tough mentally?
I do take youre point and I do tend to run some of my sessions a little hard.

Everyones different as you say, and for myself in the past ive compromised a rep or two from long sessions..(Rep 7 or 8 in 10 x 1k for example) because i convinced myself that I wouldn't be able to complete the session at the required effort. I could actually physically complete the session relatively comfortably as required, but the mind was unnecessarily weaker than the body at that time.

For me anyway, practising that recovery seemed to improve the consistancy of my sessions...which should improve my racing hopefully.

Krusty_Clown

Incidentally, I was listening to one of my regular podcasts yesterday while running, which happened to be on the subject of panic attacks, and it spoke of the link between breathing and panic attacks and the usefulness of mindfulness (learned through yoga or meditation) as a mechanism of helping to deal with/overcome panic attacks. Have never practised yoga or meditation, but I can see how maximizing recovery during a 20-30 second recovery would be useful. The thing is, I'd imagine with recoveries that short, the goal isn't always to give yourself the opportunity to fully recovery, but rather provide a stepped increase in training load during the workout. Not saying that mindfulness is going to be counter-productive (clearly the focus/concentration/positivity element is hugely beneficial), but rather that over-emphasizing the need for recovery may be counter-productive.

Loosely related, but I have a tendency to do some active recovery during longer races 10 mile+), where I slow the pace, close my eyes, and just zone out of the race environment for 10-15 seconds and rest, before taking up the charge again (obviously making sure there's no obstacles or runners in the near vicinity!). I may be rather unique in this practise (read: weird!), but have found it very useful to take an active break from the stress of the race.

T runner

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Incidentally, I was listening to one of my regular podcasts yesterday while running, which happened to be on the subject of panic attacks, and it spoke of the link between breathing and panic attacks and the usefulness of mindfulness (learned through yoga or meditation) as a mechanism of helping to deal with/overcome panic attacks. Have never practised yoga or meditation, but I can see how maximizing recovery during a 20-30 second recovery would be useful. The thing is, I'd imagine with recoveries that short, the goal isn't always to give yourself the opportunity to fully recovery, but rather provide a stepped increase in training load during the workout. Not saying that mindfulness is going to be counter-productive (clearly the focus/concentration/positivity element is hugely beneficial), but rather that over-emphasizing the need for recovery may be counter-productive.

I agree with that. I guess that mindfulness teaches you to concentrate on the here and now, and not worry about what might happen in the future.

I guess the benefit of mindfulness as that each rep is identical from a mental outlook. Which makes putting 10 good ones back to back more likely.

When you see the likes of me running a poor reps no. 7-8 out of 10 reps. It means I'm evaluating my percieved fatigue + perceived remaining effort during each rest and my mental resilience reaches a natural low point at these reps in this example.

Im speculating that being mindful between all reps should improve the quality of session physically as well as mentally which should translate to races.

Loosely related, but I have a tendency to do some active recovery during longer races 10 mile+), where I slow the pace, close my eyes, and just zone out of the race environment for 10-15 seconds and rest, before taking up the charge again (obviously making sure there's no obstacles or runners in the near vicinity!). I may be rather unique in this practise (read: weird!), but have found it very useful to take an active break from the stress of the race.

Thats a great strategy. Are you getting a physical rest at all or is it a device for resetting your mind? Never heard that before, very good indeed.

Sacksian

T runner wrote: »

I would have thought though that some track sessions particularly the ones involving specific endurance (extending race pace) closer to target races would be quite tough mentally?

For me anyway, practising that recovery seemed to improve the consistancy of my sessions...which should improve my racing hopefully.

Absolutely - maybe I was over-emphasising the level of comfort I'd feel! But I do like building into sessions (on a rep by rep level as well as a week by week basis), which is probably the same as practising the recovery and sessions that you mention. Obviously, the sessions I mentioned are run at very different effort/paces, which is why they'd pose roughly equivalent challenges.

I see people running 400s or 800s at an effort that is unsustainable for a session (and unachievable during a race), with the consequent heaving during recoveries and I think there are dangers (physical and mental) in believing that you can mentally overcome certain physical barriers by trying harder - not suggesting that you were saying that but I just wanted to put that down somewhere!

I use counting too during very long reps / tempos but I'd have no problem ditching a session rather than doing it too slowly - if I thought my form / effort was going to be too far removed from the purpose of the session. I also use counting towards the end of races.

During recovery on short reps, I focus on how hard/easy the form/effort felt in the previous rep and adjust accordingly, based on the length of the session.

So (and possibly now answering your original query!), I guess I prefer to use associative thoughts on form/effort/cadence during reps and races, until the point at which I can no longer think in a coherent manner and then use disassociative thoughts, mainly counting, to get me to the finish. But the closer that is to the finish, the better.

If I'm doing that halfway or even two-thirds through a race, I'm probably screwed. Three-quarters might be okay.

Sacksian

I'm off to do some 1km reps now, so I'll be able to report back on just how removed from reality my theories are!

Krusty_Clown

T runner wrote: »

Thats a great strategy. Are you getting a physical rest at all or is it a device for resetting your mind? Never heard that before, very good indeed.

Physical and mental rest and also allows you re-compose. A form of meditation on the hoof. Doesn't work for hill races.

dna_leri

I'm not much into the mindfulness, yoga approach myself but each to their own. For me the time between reps passes quickly even with a track session involving 4 mins recovery. First I am working on recovery, getting breathing under control, checking if all limbs are still attached and functional. Then I am focussing on the next rep, what do I need to do differently, pacing, form, etc. If I let my thoughts wander to something different, like work or what I need to do after the session, that's when I tend to lose it. Don't try and tell me that's "mindfulness".

I also do most of intervals solo and during my reps, especially for the first few, I am checking my watch constantly, trying to adjust to the pace. I do have a mental metronome going on most of the time too: 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4 or 1-2-3, 1-2-3 in sync with my paces and/or breathing - a bit like Irish dancing lessons that I did for 3 weeks when I was 5 before I told my mother what she could do with them.
After the first few reps, I will only check the watch at the end and go with the flow - faster or slower than the plan. In the end I am still counting them off, especially if there is a high number (10+). The 2nd last is always the worst then I relax again on the final one (sometimes losing concentration and going too slow or else picking it up to finish strong).

My best races (on times) are when I can get into a good pace/breathing rhythm and maintain it. Different story when racing for position though.

Chivito550

Very simple. Try recover as best I can, and get pumped up as best I can for the next one. This obviously gets harder and harder as the session goes on. I tend to walk around the track during long recoveries by myself, because talking to others during recoveries consumes unnecessary energy. I need to keep moving also to keep warm, so I tend to walk. Loads of my training partners sit down and have a chat. Don't know how they manage it.

Of course when it's pure speed work, like 60m reps, or block starts, I tend to have the craic with others during recoveries. Different energy systems and all that.

T runner

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Physical and mental rest and also allows you re-compose. A form of meditation on the hoof. Doesn't work for hill races.

Not the both eyes closed version but you can zone out...for example...... Nip in ahead of a better descender just before a long narrow descent. Rest the mind and Zone out....... you might just hear him begging to be allowed pass.....with luck you wont hear the cursing and the yogic bubble will definitely block out the off-putting whimpering.
If he has an issue at the bottom, inform him that you were "meditating, you focking phillistine". Now choose the flight and not the fight option (following the markers) and do the warm down in the car..especially if its a Munster race.

dna_leri wrote: »

I'm not much into the mindfulness, yoga approach myself but each to their own. For me the time between reps passes quickly even with a track session involving 4 mins recovery. First I am working on recovery, getting breathing under control, checking if all limbs are still attached and functional. Then I am focussing on the next rep, what do I need to do differently, pacing, form, etc. If I let my thoughts wander to something different, like work or what I need to do after the session, that's when I tend to lose it. Don't try and tell me that's "mindfulness".

Thinking about your body, staying in the moment is mindfulness, man.

I also do most of intervals solo and during my reps, especially for the first few, I am checking my watch constantly, trying to adjust to the pace. I do have a mental metronome going on most of the time too: 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4 or 1-2-3, 1-2-3 in sync with my paces and/or breathing - a bit like Irish dancing lessons that I did for 3 weeks when I was 5 before I told my mother what she could do with them.
After the first few reps, I will only check the watch at the end and go with the flow - faster or slower than the plan. In the end I am still counting them off, especially if there is a high number (10+). The 2nd last is always the worst then I relax again on the final one (sometimes losing concentration and going too slow or else picking it up to finish strong).

My best races (on times) are when I can get into a good pace/breathing rhythm and maintain it. Different story when racing for position though.

I tend to count them down at the end too. That Bikram thing wasnt by design, but just allowed me to treat each recovery and rep as a single unit. I could concentrate on the next one and id look no further. I guess it allowed me to think about recovery/ the next rep...without thinking about how many was left which can effect the reps quality.

BTW you may have heard some of the Sligo lads are considering a mountain race in the Glenade valley this winter. Youll have to do that one if it goes ahead. You might be wishing you did more Irish dancing on counting the attached limbs after that one!

Sacksian

Sacksian wrote: »

I'm off to do some 1km reps now, so I'll be able to report back on just how removed from reality my theories are!

Well, it was an interesting experiment but I'm not convinced the Bikram Yoga helped during recoveries.

In reality, it was 6 x1km on grass, which were all pretty much the same. Mentally, nearing the end of recovery on the 2nd was the most difficult, in terms of motivation as much as effort. Possibly why I now prefer track training!

I don't generally check my watch during reps of 600m or less, just adjust in between, but otherwise it would be as dna_leri said.

Enduro

Sacksian wrote: »

That's not disputing that there are individual races/occasions that you feel mentally tougher/weaker than others but I've run my fastest times when I've been fittest and I don't remember any of my pbs as being particularly mentally draining - they might even have been the most comfortable.

That's not at all surprising to me...I've got plenty of similar examples myself, along with one or two complete opposites. But I think its possible you might have cause and effect somewhat back to front there. I would guess the mental comfort (combined with the fitness obviously) played a role in helping you get the PBs.

Sacksian

Enduro wrote: »

That's not at all surprising to me...I've got plenty of similar examples myself, along with one or two complete opposites. But I think its possible you might have cause and effect somewhat back to front there. I would guess the mental comfort (combined with the fitness obviously) played a role in helping you get the PBs.

Hmm, maybe I should have said "least distressing" rather than "most comfortable"! My slowest races - i.e. non pb efforts, uncompetitive races - have also been mentally comfortable but I'm pretty sure the more fundamental variable in running the pbs has generally been fitness.

In my experience, the mental comfort in running pbs was due to fitness and mental discomfort in trying to run faster than my training would suggest was sensible was also due to (a lack of) fitness. That's been my experience but I'm not sure it's that controversial a view!

Sacksian

Actually, upon mature reflection, I'm probably coming from a very different perspective than you long distance guys, particularly when it comes to the psychological endurance involved in races.

The longest race I do these days is 5k and I find that considerably more mentally demanding than 800m, which is my usual distance. I have done marathons before and, for me, there is no comparison - in the mental or physical demands - between running 26.2 miles and racing half a mile. (Not to say it's a greater achievement, etc, etc, etc).

So, mental discomfort for me lasts at most half a minute whereas, for a marathon, it'll be half an hour at least. Even for a 5k, it's going to be a few minutes worth.

I wonder if mental strategies are more important for long distances, particularly when there's a limit to how much overdistance training you can do??

In middle distance (particularly 800/mile), a typical session would involve a volume of around twice the race distance (10 x 200, 8 x 400) or something like that. So, the equivalent for a marathon runner would be a 52 mile session and a multi-day racer would have to take a week off work!

Peterx

T runner wrote: »

IMO Id disagree that each session presents the same mental challenge. I have done a session of 10 x 2k during marathon training and mental resilience is a factor here.

It's gas, I used to love those 10 x 2k sessions. They just appealed to me in a big way. I probably wasn't doing them right
Where I really struggled was with the long hardish runs. different folks and different strokes..

The yoga has to help, it trains the mind in a new way that can be very useful in varying scenarios.

T runner

Peterx wrote: »

It's gas, I used to love those 10 x 2k sessions. They just appealed to me in a big way. I probably wasn't doing them right
Where I really struggled was with the long hardish runs. different folks and different strokes..

The yoga has to help, it trains the mind in a new way that can be very useful in varying scenarios.

.


I remember after a few of those sessions you translated them to some excellent racing performances.

One year I did them in Bushy Park and was flying. I struggled in the polo grounds though, maybe I was working too hard to keep up with ye!

Rep 7 was usually a pit stop in the bushes with the monkeys for me, if I remember correctly.

dna_leri

T runner wrote: »

Thinking about your body, staying in the moment is mindfulness, man.

BTW you may have heard some of the Sligo lads are considering a mountain race in the Glenade valley this winter. Youll have to do that one if it goes ahead. You might be wishing you did more Irish dancing on counting the attached limbs after that one!

T - I was aware of the irony regarding "mindfulness".
Perhaps I should have used one of them smilies to make that clear
We all need more smilies in our lives.
I have an aversion to putting a label on something that complicates rather than simplifies.

Regarding Glenade race, I will keep an ear out for that, it's a great location but might be a hill too far for me.

Back on topic: I had planned to assess what I did during the break between reps, during my track session last night but once I got into it, I forgot. I did notice on the first one that I was keeping the same breathing rhythm during the recovery as during the rep. Definitely the rhythm is important for me.

However as Sacksian stated, the mental strength required for distance runners is different than for middle distance, both in training and racing.

T runner

dna_leri wrote: »

T - I was aware of the irony regarding "mindfulness".
Perhaps I should have used one of them smilies to make that clear
We all need more smilies in our lives.
I have an aversion to putting a label on something that complicates rather than simplifies.

Back on topic: I had planned to assess what I did during the break between reps, during my track session last night but once I got into it, I forgot. I did notice on the first one that I was keeping the same breathing rhythm during the recovery as during the rep. Definitely the rhythm is important for me.

However as Sacksian stated, the mental strength required for distance runners is different than for middle distance, both in training and racing.

Apologies, the irony went over my head!
Mindfulness is only what worked accidentally for me for a few sessions.

Interesting about the rhythm: rhythm between relaxed controlled breathing and striding? I'm trackless but considering finally giving the indoors a pop this year. There must be many a lot of improvements that would benefit the endurance stuff eventually.

nerraw1111

I tend to focus on one rep at a time.

The fear of failing is a big motivator for me. I tend to break it down as "if you bail now, it'll come back to haunt you in a race.'

Then add a positive motivator by saying "you've done this before, it's tough but you always come through it."

For really tough ones, I tend to save a bit of music for the last 2 reps. Makes a big difference.

That and lying to myself by saying "just one more, sure you're tired." Repeat 2 or 3 times.

Enduro

Sacksian wrote: »

Actually, upon mature reflection, I'm probably coming from a very different perspective than you long distance guys, particularly when it comes to the psychological endurance involved in races.

The longest race I do these days is 5k and I find that considerably more mentally demanding than 800m, which is my usual distance. I have done marathons before and, for me, there is no comparison - in the mental or physical demands - between running 26.2 miles and racing half a mile. (Not to say it's a greater achievement, etc, etc, etc).

So, mental discomfort for me lasts at most half a minute whereas, for a marathon, it'll be half an hour at least. Even for a 5k, it's going to be a few minutes worth.

I wonder if mental strategies are more important for long distances, particularly when there's a limit to how much overdistance training you can do??

In middle distance (particularly 800/mile), a typical session would involve a volume of around twice the race distance (10 x 200, 8 x 400) or something like that. So, the equivalent for a marathon runner would be a 52 mile session and a multi-day racer would have to take a week off work!

We're in very definite agreement that being in physically excellent shape is a pre-request for setting PBs. There's no hiding from the hard work. But I think that a good mental approach adds another string to the bow. Small gains, as team sky would say.

Well I've probably taken the long distance thing to more extremes than any other poster on the forum that I'm aware of, so I think I can provide some feedback on this.

I definitely find that the longer the distance the harder things become mentally in general. There are exceptions to the broad rule though. For example I found it much easier mentally to run 71 hours on one big loop in the alps than to run 24 hours around a track. But by far the hardest thing I've ever had to cope with in a running race was the 6 day race I did on a one mile lap. Doing well in that was probably 95% mental effort (And I was in very good physical condition for both the 24 hour and 6 day races I'm reffering to).

Having said that, I also count my 10 mile PB as one of the hardest races I've had to cope with. Keeping the necessary speed up for the 55 minutes or so it took me at the time took a lot of concentration, I can still recall the physical and mental effort requried. It's a different kind of mental effort than the ultras required though. In comparison to the 6 day example above I'd say that my 10 mile PB was 90% physical, with the last 10% being the mental effort required to fully utilise that fitness.

To bring it back to interval training... I can only speak for myself, and theorise based on my own experiences, but I never find it an issue keeping focus during the breaks. Possibly that is because I find most interval sessions (barring steep hill repeats) to be pretty mentally (but definitely not physically) easy in comparison to multi-day running!