Category: Training

What does it take to be your best?

So many people think the answer is that you need to be great every day, that you need to be at your best day in and day out.

Right now, with very few races on the schedule and some people completely bypassing the fall racing season, we all have an important decision to make. What to do with our training?

After giving yourself some recovery time, I’d like to suggest you train to get yourself more ready to train to race next year (as we hope racing will return then).

Taking a little break from the usual training posts. I’m not sure what to think of this but I’m apparently feeling a little philosophical.

This year, we’ve had a lot of bad moments to get through. However, largely due to at least some of what’s been going on, I’ve also found some very special moments I’ve been able to enjoy, nothing more so than running with my daughter.

I’ve been hearing from a few people recently with health concerns. Either people who are getting COVID-19 tests because they are showing symptoms after being exposed (thankfully, nobody I’ve heard from has had a positive test yet) or those of you who live in the areas where air quality is affected by the wildfires.

My message for these individuals has been the same: health first, then fitness.

My last planned “race” of the year is coming up this weekend. I’ll have run a total of two races this year, both virtual, and I did a stair climb very early in the year.

Meanwhile, my training also wasn’t up to the level it has been in past years.

So what will I be doing as next week starts? I’ll be recovering.

This past weekend, I ran my first “virtual” race. However, it wasn’t my first run of this type. Back before virtual races were a thing, we called what I did Saturday a solo time trial.

Whatever you want to call these efforts, some of you have been doing these events this summer already and I suspect many more of you will be doing so this fall. It’s the nature of the world we live in right now. I just wanted to offer some thoughts and advice on how to handle the virtual races you might be racing this fall or how to think about ones you have run after they are over.

Did you feel different on today’s run than yesterday’s run? Do you generally feel different today than yesterday?

If you answered no to either, I’d ask you to think more deeply about how you feel today and how you felt yesterday.

What do you do late in a race? When you need to go a little faster, how do you respond?

If you’re like most runners, you dig deep. You push yourself and strain for that last possible bit of effort. It makes sense. Run faster by exerting more effort.

Is this the best way to run faster, though?

When we start to dig, we strain. We tense up and fight against ourselves. Our muscles tighten up and work against each other instead of working in coordination with each other, one muscle relaxing as the opposing muscle tenses.

These days, you can see a lot of workouts on social media, not to mention websites like Strava and Garmin Connect. Some of these workouts are impressive, maybe look interesting, or just look like something fun to try.

Have you ever thought of “borrowing” a workout you’ve seen online? While I won’t say never do so, I would like to urge you to use extreme caution if you do so.

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

Engine? Chassis? Are we talking about cars or runners?

A lot of coaches and experienced runners say things like the engine adapts faster than the chassis, make sure your engine doesn’t break down your chassis.

Obviously, this is an analogy to cars but what does it mean to the runner?