Looking to improve the way you run? Hoping to break a P.B.? Or just wanting to find a way to get more out of each session? Well, whether it's to relieve anxiety before a race, build self-confidence in your ability as a runner or to enhance your overall performance, sports psychology can help in a number of ways.

Needs analysis: A good starting point is to conduct what's known as a 'needs analysis'. What this means is you spend a little time really thinking about why you run, how you train and how you prepare yourself for a run or race. Ask yourself what you want to get out of it. Consider, also, how you run when you're with certain people. These questions should help you work out your strengths and weaknesses, and provide you with a base level of information to work from. In turn, this allows you to measure your progress.

Characteristics to look for: Create a list of relevant psychological and physical characteristics for yourself: key mental elements for runners usually include confidence, concentration, motivation, determination, stress management, discipline and competitiveness. Physical elements such as core strength, endurance and speed should also be included. Evaluate and grade yourself by giving a mark out of 10 as to where you think you are now and a 'goal' score of where you want to be. You'll find that many of these factors impact on each other - for example, the more you grow in confidence, the more motivated you'll be to keep going.

Write it down: Committing all this to paper will highlight your strong and weak areas and help you to identify future goals. It also gives you a better idea of what you need to work on whilst training. Sometimes just being aware of a certain weakness and its impact on your performance is enough to start overcoming it. Should you discover a more serious psychological weakness, sport therapists can offer professional help. Or, if you are a member of a running club, ask your coach for some informal advice.

Goal setting: Without goals or targets, you'll struggle to commit to any training programme. A goal in running can be anything from losing weight or improving general fitness levels, to breaking 40 minutes for a 10K or completing the marathon distance. Goals are vital to give you something to aim for, helping you to get motivated and then stay motivated. The more meaningful the goal or goals, the more you’ll strive to achieve them.

Be specific: Work out the specific finish point of your goal. How many pounds do you want to lose and by when? What is the exact time you're trying to achieve for a distance? When do you want to achieve it by? Goals should be realistic and challenging at the same time. If you set your sights too high you may be easily discouraged; set them too low and you may feel indifferent toward your successes. If you can, set yourself smaller goals on the way to achieving your ultimate aim and use each success to help build your confidence.

Careful planning: Break your goal down into manageable daily, weekly or monthly chunks, using your needs analysis to work out what has to be done in order to achieve it. Timescales should always be adaptable to allow for the fact that progress can be quicker than expected or hindered by factors outside of your control. You should also be careful to manage your expectations as hoping for too much too soon could leave you feeling demotivated.

Monitor your progress: It's important to review your progress all the way along, so that you can assess what's working and what isn't. Keep a training diary or log, and chart your miles per week, weight loss, etc. Time yourself over a specific session at regular intervals and record your times. Look at what preparation you did before a session/race – what you ate, when you ate, what time you ran, etc and see what really worked for you. Learn about what influences your performance and use this knowledge to help you improve on your next run. Your training programme will become more enjoyable if you can see how well you’re progressing and that the achievement of your goal is getting closer.

Positive attitude: What you believe you can achieve is down to the attitude you choose to adopt. If you can get your mind set right, it's much easier to get your physical performance right. You need to consciously decide to focus on the positive rather than the negative - the progress you've made rather than what you haven't achieved. If you're generally quite a negative person, focus on developing a more positive attitude over time. Constantly 'catching' negative thoughts and replacing them with positive ones can train the mind to think positively. For instance, "I'm too tired to run" might be re-framed as "Once I start running, I'll feel invigorated".

Find success in every run: If you're aiming for a personal best in a race, achieving a faster time in the build up to the event is only one measure of success. Maybe you ran further than ever before, or felt that you were pushing yourself harder than before. There are times when just getting out of the door and completing a run, or feeling tired and carrying on anyway, should be seen as successes. Look at the benefits that running has on the rest of your life. Do you feel more energised? Less stressed? If so, record these as successes.

Apply the same attitude to a race: Runners often complain that they perform better in training than in a race. By developing your mental fitness, you should start to find ways to control any pre-race nerves, maintain belief in yourself when you start to tire and also manage the additional stress of a race situation. It's not just about how you feel during the race: you should also be able to effectively plan for a race based on what you’ve learnt about yourself during training.