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

run by brett lohmeyer, on Flickr

When race day comes, do you have confidence in your preparation?

When you read a magazine or an online article and see an interesting workout, do you instantly start figuring out how to fit it into your training schedule?

If you are doing the work you need to be doing, you should have the confidence you are well prepared on race day and you shouldn’t always be chasing the newest workout idea.

I hope the first goes without saying. If you are not lining up for a race confident in your preparation, something went wrong in planning your preparation.

If you’re training on your own, you need to go over your plan and maybe consider getting some assistance in guiding your training.

If you are already receiving assistance, whether informal advising or more formal coaching, you need to have a talk with the person who is helping you. If the person helping you can’t give you confidence that you are on the right path or work with you to come up with a plan that you will have confidence in, it’s time to look for someone else.

The second may not be so obvious. Don’t we want to be open to new ideas? Absolutely.

However, when you lay out a training plan, you have a reason for everything in it, right? I hope the answer is yes.

If you add something new, you’re going to need to take something away. What are you going to take away?

Maybe there are times when it is wise to change plans and take away one component of training in order to add something else that will be more valuable. However, if your training plan was well thought out, it should be rare that doing so on short notice would be considered a good idea.

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

Have you ever felt you just needed one workout to get to the next level? Do you know someone who insists that one specific workout must be done or that runner simply isn’t prepared?

Most of us have been there at some point and know others who still are there.

The truth is no single workout will make or break your training plan. They are all building blocks. All matter but none are so important that you simply can’t do without them or that they are worth risking injury or some other serious problem.

It might be nice to think one workout will make all the difference but, as I posted recently, it’s more about consistency than any single workout.

So don’t fall into the trap of putting too much stock in any single workout. If it goes well but the rest of your training hasn’t, you might be creating a false confidence. Worse, if it doesn’t go well or has to be skipped but your overall training has been solid, you might sell yourself short.