All through my athletics career, September was the month of reflection. It was closing time on the season, and with that came the sense things were about to change.

There always came a time when I was just getting through those last few end-of-season races, already beginning to think about how I could do things better. With that, there was almost an urgency to finish the season and start all over again.

Sometimes those seasons would end in far-flung places – Fukuoka, Japan; Johannesburg, South Africa; Doha, Qatar – eking out that last effort from a tiring body while also topping up the bank balance before the autumn break and long winter hibernation.

I was reminded of that end-of-season feeling this week after travelling back to Australia from an extended summer stint in Ireland that included coverage of the Rio Olympics with RTÉ.

I’d committed to a number of subsequent events, although the wear and tear of being away from my daughters and the late-night shifts on the Olympic panel meant the body was looking forward to a bit of a rest. Still, the mind was already looking ahead, reflecting on the past year and planning the next.

And, with that, I got to the point where I had to “borrow one”, and now it is payback time.

I first heard that phrase – "borrow one" – from former British distance runner and BBC commentator Brendan Foster, at the Great North Run in Newcastle, where I would often finish the season. The way Brendan saw it, you often get to the point in the season where you are hanging on, and somehow you get away with it and steal one last victory.

This phrase came into my head earlier this week, out walking Snowy, our dog, with the hurl at hand as usual. We’d actually lost the ball, so it became a particularly slow, reflective walk in the early Melbourne morning.

When an athlete needs to “borrow one”, it’s more about the mind than it is the body. Before I left Dublin last week, I called into one of my physiotherapist friends; as motivated as I was to increase my running, my body wouldn’t co-operate.

After a quick rundown of recent events, he told me that if he’d seen me a week earlier, he would have stopped me from doing the Jailbreak Triathlon, in Cobh. Obviously there were plenty of warning signs I was ignoring, but I was able to complete the task I set out to do. I had to “borrow” that one, and now here’s the payback, a very slow return to running and to that feeling of freshness again.

It was another reminder, too, of the mind and of how athletes often push themselves through pain barriers or rise to the occasion to deliver results that logically don’t make sense.

For me, the best example of this at the Rio Olympics was when Thomas Barr ran the race of his life to finish fourth in the 400 metres hurdles, setting an Irish record of 47.97 seconds in the process, a time well beyond his dreams at the start of the season.

It was the most unlikely of results, especially given the fact that his summer was so worryingly interrupted by injury, which meant very little race preparation. Races are what athletes use to build confidence leading into a major championship.

Instead, Thomas was able to improve with every race in Rio, running without any stress, as he already felt like he was in bonus territory. Fourth place is so close and yet so far from the global recognition that athletes receive as an Olympic medallist. Still, he was beaming with delight because he knew he gave it everything, running above and beyond himself to deliver the best result he possibly could in the Olympic final.

The confidence he’ll have gained from that result can only help him through the winter’s training. In most Olympic finals prior to this year, 47.97 seconds would have delivered a medal. It’s another reminder that you can’t put a limit on the capabilities of the human body when the mind is co-operating, no matter what the projections on paper may look like.

It’s easy to look at an athlete’s training and preparation to weigh up results and achievements, but the measurement and understanding – let alone replication – of the impact of the mental side of an athlete’s preparation is a lot more difficult. There are times when everything just falls into place, and you run the race of your life.

That’s why it’s so hard to quantify how important the mental aspect is for athletes. The mind is what drives the body, and it can be affected by the slightest change to a set plan. This is not just true for Olympic athletes, but for all levels of athlete across all sports.

I felt this too last Sunday, watching Croke Park from a distance: Dublin were favoured to retain their All-Ireland football title, only for Mayo to rise to the occasion and match them every step of the way, despite two own goals in the first half.

You just hope Mayo are not dwelling on this as a missed opportunity as they face into the same task in 10 days’ time.

Most athletes at their peak are as fit as they can be, so the result is more often than not decided on the mental strength to overcome the nerves and doubts.

Fitness is not an issue; at this stage it is all a mental game, who can maintain the focus for a couple more weeks. Both Dublin and Mayo already felt like it was the end of the season, and until last Sunday’s result would have been looking forward to a time of reflection.

They can’t get any fitter between now and October 1st, so now is the time to “borrow one” – and I think whoever does that most successfully will take home the Sam Maguire.