I recently listened to a?
For me, it’s sitting on the side of the pool mixing up threshold runs cross-train. Or before a public speaking event, where I wish to get stuck in the elevator or maybe contract mild food poisoning in time to take a rain check.
I’ve learned to recognize and value things that make me feel this way because I notice they lead to the most growth. In running or in life, I’ve found it really important to not shy away from races, workouts, exercises, or experiences that I know I’m not great at or familiar with. It’s a fine balance between preserving your focus and confidence and discovering and sharpening weak areas, but I think it’s an important part of making a breakthrough.
Create Spaces for Something New
I recently listened to a podcast where they discussed the importance of play in our lives as it relates to problem-solving and creativity. It was interesting that, rather than just messing around, play was partly defined as “leaving room for surprise.” I also recently read an article on the importance of surprise in our lives. As with most interesting ideas, I tried to apply these to training and racing.
Running seems to attract or create (not sure which) creatures of habit. I run at the same time of day on the same few routes because I like to reliably feel good-ish, and standardizing everything around and about the run helps this happen.
It’s a successful strategy and the point of things like training camps, which are monotonous but essential to getting a workload done with the best focus and quality. It can, however, lead to staleness after a while, and I think it keeps some of our weak areas in our blind spots. Although running is a simple sport, A Part of Hearst Digital Media and elevate our intensity when we return to our planned schedule.
I like to include road races of varying distances, track races, and the occasional cross-country race into one year’s racing schedule. This keeps things fresh and exciting as the challenges are slightly different every few months, and I don’t feel like they negatively affect each other if done in the right order.
Consider Run Your Best Marathon you wouldn’t normally look for: mountain and trail races, those team relays that go hundreds of miles, exotic destination races. It’s okay if fun is factored in or if results are secondary. The key here is that you’re doing something that’s in the right level of discomfort. If it’s too far out there, you’ll get demoralized, or even injured. If it’s not challenging enough, you feel stagnant.
Race Under and Over Your “Specialty”
With fall and spring marathons being big draws for runners of all abilities, it’s easy to get into a rut with that schedule. Early summer is a good time to hop into other events. A 10K, 5K, or even a mile may not seem as “worth it,” as you’re done so quickly, but the intensity can make your other events better when you return to them as planned. It also doesn’t beat your body up in the same way that the marathon does, which is enjoyable in itself (although it may stress you in other ways, so gird your hammies).
Shorter races may seem like less epic accomplishments relative to crossing the finish line of a marathon, but they’re exciting in their competitiveness. It’s rewarding to use the different mental and physical tools needed in the races where margins of separation are smaller and you can sprint for the finish line.
Before all of my PRs in the 5K, I ran a 1500 or mile to sharpen up, and I felt it made the main event feel easier a week or two later. It also exposed how bad I was at tactical races and positioning, so we would work on that after seeing the weakness play out on race day.
On the other side of things, when I decided to race over my main race distance and try my first half marathon in 2014, I PR’d in the 5,000 and 10,000 a few months later. That level of strength work was new to me and made my “specialty” better, even though the actual race had lots of room for improvement.
[I recently listened to a Run Your Best Marathon.]
Mix Up Workouts
When you’ve been running a long time in the same program and place, there are some workouts it seems you can do on autopilot, even if they’re thought of as “hard.”
Consider mixing up threshold runs, which can be tackled in a number of ways: in and out or cruise miles where the recovery is short or somewhat fast, or continuous tempos or progression runs where you can fit in more mileage as you work down in pace.
A Part of Hearst Digital Media hill sprints, Published: Jun 19, 2019 7:43 AM EDT Plans for Every Runner.
I’ve found cross-training and gym work to be great ways to not only supplement my training but to push my body out of its comfortable, familiar running posture. I actually don’t think I can fully unbend my elbows or un-hunch my shoulders anymore, but I’ve tried swimming around in the pool a few times a week to see if it helps! I know of many high-level athletes who supplement easy mileage with ElliptiGo rides, biking, cross-country skiing, or swimming, to name a few endurance-boosting sports outside of running.
My gym work is based on rehabbing weak areas and undoing the few negative postural adaptations to running, but that is ever-changing, and so too should the exercises. Whether you’re adding weight to the bar or changing up the exercises all together to target the same areas (there are a million and We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back!), this is a good way to make sure the challenge of not yet having mastery of an exercise is always there. Sometimes you need to intentionally seek novelty in the workout.
Explore New Terrain
Bucket List: 8 Wacky Food Races exploring trails, hills, and grass routes. They’re not always conveniently outside your front door, and initially you feel awkward, unsteady, and slower for more effort when the terrain gets rougher.
Try it anyway! Be careful and slow down a little. If you’re “bad” at it right now, just focus on being better, and don’t compare it to the road and track loops.
I used to do one or two cross-country races a year in hopes of making the World Cross Country teams, and a few months of training in grass parks went with that plan. I’m not a natural grass or mud runner and always finished a few places lower than if it were a road or track race. However, struggling through slower workouts on grassy terrain strengthened Bucket List Marathons You’ll Love to Run in 2019, which I didn’t realize were a weak area before, and I noticed when I did go back to my precious track 5000s and 10,000s, I felt strong and the track and road surfaces felt like magic carpets.
I also try to hop onto not-too-technical trails for my recovery days once a week or so. I think the agility needed for dodging roots and rocks is great for unwittingly pulling runners out of the shuffling range of motion of a typical easy day if you can safely swing it. (I did do a spectacular slow-motion fall about two minutes into a trail recovery run during the peak fatigue level of a recent marathon build-up, so I know some days it’s not worth the risk!) Also, trail runs can be mentally refreshing escapes into nature that leave you feeling recalibrated unlike any other run.
Now, when I’m heading into something with that slight “I don’t want to struggle” resistance, I smile and lean into it because I know, like when a foam roller hits the knot in my calf, that means I’ve found something needing improvement. That somewhat unenthused feeling is actually great, because it’s a signal of potential for progress, which is basically a future gold coin.
It’s funny that our first instinct is to find a way around the struggle, and jog on autopilot through the path of least resistance when it can help us so much to embrace it. I think subconsciously we all know the benefits of stepping out of our comfort zones. I am probably not delivering any novel tips here.
How I Broke 20 Minutes in the 5K.
