Before doing more, do it better

Before you worry about doing more, make sure you're first doing it well
Before you worry about doing more, make sure you’re first doing it well

When you’re looking to improve, where should you go first?

Given my training history, which I’ve shared very publicly over the years, you might think I’d say do more.

If you did, though, you’d be wrong. I did more, a lot more at times, but not until I focused on doing things “better”.

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The clean slate phenomenon

If you’re doing anything new, you will improve rapidly at first

Do you remember when you first started running? You could do no wrong. You got better no matter what you did, even if you know now that it wasn’t very sound training.

Now, if you’re an experienced runner, every bit of improvement takes a monumental effort.

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There are no magic paces (or black holes)

Back in the 1990s, a lot of runners talked about running at VO2max pace or lactate threshold pace or some other specific pace. We were told that you needed to run at that specific pace in order to get the best benefit from a workout. If you ran between these magical paces, you were putting in extra effort for no added benefit.

How right were we about those things, though?

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Foam rollers, sleep, caffeine

This month, I’d like to focus on three topics I came across that I found particularly interesting.

I’m a fan of foam rollers and have my thoughts based on personal experience on what they seem to do but what do they really do? How do they actually help?

How does a lack of sleep affect you? What can the differences between sleep patterns of people who live on opposite sides of time zones tell us about that?

What should you do to best take advantage of the benefits of caffeine on race day?

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