This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

Let’s be honest: it’s a little challenging to practice this, especially with crowds, anywhere but in a race

We’ve all likely heard the advice. Do nothing new on race day. Generally, that’s great advice and I’d encourage you to follow it. Practice whatever race day routines you can in training. Wear the shoes, socks, and gear that you plan to wear for race day in training. If you’re running a race that is long enough to warrant fueling, then practice your fueling strategy, ideally while running at least close to race pace, in training.

However, there are some things that we just can’t practice in training. It can be challenging to practice running in crowds. We can’t fully practice starting in an amped up atmosphere and holding ourselves back while the adrenaline is pumping. With some work, we can (and should) practice aid stations but, again, usually without crowds of other runners trying to get the same cups we’re going for and without volunteers handing cups to us in sometimes unpredictable ways.

This is why we should have tune up races. These are the races that are less important than the goal race but are still ones we should take seriously and, within the context of our training cycle, should be attempting to do our best at.

As much as possible, do nothing new on any race day. Ideally, do nothing at all new on the day of your goal race. In order to do that, plan some tune up races and do some new things that you just can’t practice in training at those races.

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

This kind of roller coaster is fun – the running roller coaster is not

It’s theme park month for me. I recently visited Six Flags and have a coming trip to Wisconsin Dells.

Those are fun roller coasters. The running roller coaster? Not so much fun.

What’s the running roller coaster?

The running roller coaster is the training routine I see so many people get stuck on and I’d like to encourage you to break. It’s the pattern where you train very hard for a few weeks, maybe even a month or two, then you get burned out or injured. You reduce your training significantly or stop running for a while to recover, then when you start back up you feel like you’re behind plan so you jump right back in to very heavy training and the cycle starts over.

So how do I avoid the running roller coaster?

I find myself repeatedly saying that I’d rather see you training at 90% of your capacity 100% of the time than training at 110% of your capacity 80% of the time. You’ll get much better results with that consistency than you will pushing harder but breaking down and missing time.

Some people like workouts where you go all out. They say it teaches toughness or it instills some ability to push harder on race day. I don’t believe in that. I believe they break you down. I would prefer you finish your workouts feeling like you had a little more left. Likewise, make sure other aspects of training are sustainable. Just because you can do a 50 mile week once or twice doesn’t mean you should. You will be better served sticking with 45 consistently.

I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t challenge yourself. However, do so judiciously. Make sure you’re not challenging yourself too frequently or too severely.

And save the all out efforts for race day.

This article was originally posted by Ryan at the original HillRunner.com Blogs.

Should I do a 15 mile long run or a 16 mile long run this weekend?

Should I do 4 strides or 5 before my workout/race?

Should I be doing my easy days at 8:20 pace or 8:30 pace?

Should I be doing my easy days at a heart rate of 150 BPM or 155 BPM?

Are these questions you find yourself thinking about? If so, stop for a moment.

Before asking those questions, you should be asking yourself the big questions. Are you getting in a long run on most weeks? Are you running on as many days as you can and need to meet your goals?

I see so many runners sweat these little details while missing the big picture. You may see incremental improvements by taking care of these little details. However, you’ll improve by leaps and bounds if you start asking yourself the big questions.