I've found counting catches good for motivation initially. However, it's not clear to me if it's currently helpful or a hindrance, both because of causing mental barriers, being still slightly distracting (it's crazy automatic, but I imagine it's still eating some brain cycles) and because it can lead to frustration - since rather than just going, oh, that run felt nice and controlled, part of me always thinks "that run was 15 less than your best and you did better yesterday, not very good".
It's ingrained enough that I have to concentrate on not counting to avoid it, which is annoying.
A way to get over the barrier is to try and not count! Time records, someone else counting, videoing, or not obsessing over how much your record actually is are all substitutes. I mean, I can't actually get any of these to work, but they sound good in theory :P
by Brook Roberts, in response to this post 2016-01-29 17:19:32
