Discussion
This study investigated the effects of mental training on time trial to exhaustion performance and attempted to elucidate the physiological or perceptual mechanisms by which MT may alter performance. As hypothesized, time trial performance was increased, though 2 weeks were needed for this performance increase to become apparent, differing from a previous study in our lab where an 8.5% increase in time trial to exhaustion occurred after only 1 week of mental training (Van Haitsma et al. Like our previous study that found an 8.5% improvement in time trial to exhaustion performance, this study found a 30 s, or 10.4%, improvement in TTE with MT training. These findings are supported by other endurance-based psychological interventions. Motivational self-talk, used on its own, yielded an 18% improvement in performance though the relative intensity was 7% lower and the TTE was more than twice as long (Blanchfield et al. 