Even today, in retirement, I find it very distracting if there is conversation during a run. I work out as much for my head as I do for my body. I'm a thinker. A lot of my ideas come to me more easily when I am running. That is why I like to run in the morning.

My basic philosophy can be summed up by an expression we use in Norwegian: hurry slowly. Get there, but be patient.

Spend at least some of your training time, and other parts of your day, concentrating on what you are doing in training and visualizing your success.

Too many people I meet believe that you can sit in a chair and be given motivation. With exercise and fitness, you get it by doing. The mental qualities you need are all linked like a chain. If you give exercise a try and see results, even if it's as simple as feeling good that you get out the door, you'll become motivated to repeat the exercise. Seeing results is inspiring.

To suddenly be a hero on a world basis was hard for me to understand. God gave me a gift. I got the chance to use it. I didn't think I deserved what people were saying. My talent is just more visible than theirs.

Exercise and sports are greatly affected by what goes into the mind, and the mind is greatly affected by sports and exercise as well. This is true among exercisers at all levels, despite their different goals. A major element in mental training is visualization ... Visualizing a positive outcome can create a pattern of success, as long as you set realistic and specific goals.

For every finish-line tape a runner breaks -- complete with the cheers of the crowd and the clicking of hundreds of cameras -- there are the hours of hard and often lonely work that rarely gets talked about.