Why you're not improving.
Whenever you are taking on a goal to improve your physical performance, your training must challenge you.
Challenges forces your body to adapt and get better.
Unfortunately, too many runners don't improve with their training. And if they do improve, their performance falls flat on race day.
Here are the common mistakes made during training.
No specificity with the training plan.
Specificity is key with training. This means that whatever your goal performance is, your training needs to mimic those demands.
Does your race have hills?
Make sure to include hill repeats in your training.
Are you looking to simply finish the race distance?
Make sure you have an adequate build of mileage.
Trouble maintaining your desired race pace?
Make sure to add tempo and interval workouts in your plan.
The common issue I see with runners is that they follow a generic plan online. Most plans will cover the basics with the mileage build but nothing else.
I have openings to help 5 runners with their training plan for free.
Just email me.
Poor recovery habits
Challenges in training forces your body to adapt.
That adaptation happens during your recovery activities.
Without proper recovery, all your training is wasted.
The biggest contributor to your recovery is sleep. Give your efforts to better sleep just as much attention as your mileage.
Another element to consider is cortisol.
Cortisol, a stress hormone found in your body, increases with running, especially higher intensity training. High levels of cortisol could lead to fatigue and irritability.
Fortunately, lower intensity running like easy runs can decrease cortisol.
This means that for your easy runs, run easy for recovery.
I've found myself feeling more energized from easy runs.
Now if you find yourself in a high stress situation with work or life in general, consider practicing meditation. This can help mitigate against rising cortisol levels.
My favorite method is using the Box Method of breathing to help meditate.
Training through injury
This one seems obvious, but I believe most runners are guilty of this common mistake.
Running culture seems to still promote the "push hard through training no matter what" approach. But I'm hopeful this part of our culture will decline.
Pain with running is your body's way of warning you that something isn't moving well.
Continuing to train through an injury with no real adjustments made to the training plan could set yourself up for a bigger problem later.
Or worse, the problem could show up on race day.
Take an audit of when the pain shows up during your training runs.
Does the pain happen only with faster paced training?
Does the pain happen during uphills? downhills?
Does the pain happen only at the end of a long run?
Details like these can help you communicate the problem to a physical therapist to help.
I prefer addressing the running pain immediately to avoid the problem getting worse.
Conclusion
Avoid these three common mistakes with your training.
Remember that training for a race is a long game.
Any errors along the way can easily veer you of course from your goal.
Thank you for reading 🙏
If you enjoyed this post, please share with your other running friends and family.
Look out for more social media posts from me on Instagram, Twitter, Threads, and YouTube.
Happy running out there!
