Q:  When I get passed in a race, I tend to give up. How can I become more aggressive in racing?   --H.B., Long Beach, Calif.

A:  An aggressive racing attitude starts with how you handle yourself in practice.  You can develop toughness in your training when you learn not to give up on a workout.  In a set of repeat 400s, try making your last two repetitions your best or cover the last 100 meters of your 400s at an accelerated pace.

There's a strong mental factor, too.  To be aggressive, you need to be very focused and, once on the track, not let any distractions enter your mind.  This is also something that can be worked on in practice.  You need to get ready for competition, to sharpen your state of mind, prior to race day.  At practice, if you try certain strategies and fail, you can correct your mistakes.  Also, at practice your coach is with you and can assess how you handle yourself.

If you do your mental homework during the week of the meet, you can put your energies into a more substantial warmup on race day.  The high school athletes I've observed don't warm up enough.  Pep up your warmup jog with some 20-meter pickups.  Do plenty of strides before you take the line.  Don't ever sit around listlessly.

Have you ever noticed that whenever you run two events in a meet, your second race is better than your first?  This happened to me.  I feel that the first race functions as a great warmup.  And the lesson is, we all need to warm up much harder than we think.  This will help you become a more aggressive competitor.