Buckle up for this one ladies and gentleman. This article may seem a bit blunt at times but please understand that it’s not meant to be personal. There are many common issues that plague beginning runners and the goal here is to shed light on some things that may help you stay healthy and get the most out of your training.
One of the most common mistakes that baby runners commit when they are just joining the running community is following the wrong training regimen. A lot of runners choose to almost literally hit the ground running and go hard day in and day out. Every run is done with nearly the same exact effort…HARD. This isn’t the best approach. If you’re purely running for funzies and that’s what you want to do, by all means, you do you booboo. But if you’re serious about improving then there is a better way.
Another common mistake new runners make is not applying critical thinking when doing workouts and training plans. As stated previously, there are many resources and books out there about running and getting into it. However, there are two problems with the books and similar resources. One, they often get very into the science and theoretical side of running and not so much the applicability of it. Two, people don’t often use critical thinking when using these plans. They often try jumping into a plan head first without understanding how to build into the plan and end up injured, burnt out, or they don’t perform to their standards. Then they get upset and say that the plan doesn’t work but never think about what went wrong on their end. Don’t get me wrong, we all love the effort, but that effort does you no good if you burn yourself out of the sport by your first race.
Plenty of us have goals of wanting to get faster. But to do this, you have to use different efforts for different runs to get to those goals. Running every run as fast as you can is only going to wear your body down for you to get hurt.
First off, let’s start with how often you’re training. The ability to decide this comes down to several factors: availability, goals, experience level, cross training, and a few others. There’s only 7 days in a week so we must be smart and use them well.
Here’s the general breakdown of how a typical running week should go. This is not in any particular order by days of week. It is in order of lowest effort and demand to the highest.
Rest Days: Sometimes this one can get mixed up with active recovery. On rest days, you do absolutely no training. This is the day dedicated to allowing your body to recoup from the week of work you just put in. It will help to recover from any soreness, tiredness, or otherwise so your body can continue to meet the demands you have for it in training. It can be tempting to want to do something for fear of losing fitness; don’t give in. Your body needs to have rest days otherwise you risk developing issues down the line like overtraining, injuries, and burnout among others.
Slow Runs: There’s two general types of slow runs. Sometimes they can be broken down further depending on the running philosophy you are following. The first one is a recovery run. A recovery run is nice as it’s an active recovery for your body. What’s not always so nice about it is the pace. It is meant to be extremely slow. Again, this is active recovery, a sort of medium in between a complete rest day and doing something. This is an almost bored to tears level of slow. The second type of run is the long run. This is also synonymous to what’s known as a forever pace. The gist is pretty much there, you feel you could run that pace pretty much forever. The point of these paces is that it’s supposed to feel slow. You’re not supposed to feel tired or out of breath at the end of it. If you are, you’re going too fast. Plain and simple. This type of running sounds easy, but it’s just as easy to fall into the trap of going too fast. A general method of being able to gauge whether you’re going at an appropriate pace for this level of effort is how well you can talk. You should be able to talk the same as if you’re having a sit down conversation with a friend. You should be able to talk in almost full paragraphs with ease. If you’re breathing heavily in between every sentence, slow it down until you can talk whole paragraphs.
Cross Training: Cross training is an activity outside of running. Again this can be broken down further into aerobic and non-aerobic classifications. Cross training helps with other muscles that aren’t so commonly used in running. It is necessary even though it’s not a fan favorite among runners as it prevents injury and helps to strengthen other muscle groups. Legs are the favored muscle group in this sport but this doesn’t mean you should neglect your other muscles. You need your arms and core to propel yourself forward as much as you need your legs. There are so many activities that can go into cross training, including but not limited to: swimming, cycling, weight lifting, plyometrics, stair climbers, elliptical, the list goes on. All of the activities and more have their benefits to helping you become a better runner. Generally you’re trying to mix it up a bit, work on some muscles that are not worked so heavily from running.
Medium Effort Runs: This is for your tempo and threshold runs. Again, being medium effort, you’re going harder than a long run pace but slower than a full out speed workout. It’s going to be challenging, but after a while, they should feel easy to start with. These slightly faster styles of workouts are meant to be a bridge between building aerobics while also building some speed, especially as you start to work into those longer distances of ½ marathon and up.
Speedwork: Last but not least are speedwork days. These are typically going to be shorter in duration, but substantially harder in effort. You’re often going to have rests either standing or active built in to ensure you don’t fully tire out but it’s still important to maintain pace.
There are as many unique combinations of training regimens as there are runners but an intelligent plan will combine a variety of easy work and rest with higher intensity days. If you are unsure of how to structure a plan or whether the plan you’re following is right for you it may be wise to connect with more experienced runners or even invest in personalized training from a certified running coach. (There are plenty of great ones right here in the Twin City Track Club!) Either way, if you do your research, you will find there are many resources out there to help you train both hard and smart so that you can stay healthy, fit, and enjoy the miles for years to come!