The more I read about running, the more I’m inundated with things I “should” be doing in order to run faster, reduce risk of injury, increase endurance, etc.
I feel like I should stretch more, warm up better, do interval workouts, hill repeats, tempo runs, aerobic cross training, strength training, you name it. Sometimes it’s overwhelming to realize the vast quantity of things out there that I could be doing to become a faster, stronger runner that I’m not doing. Especially when I consider some of these things might help keep me injury free. I’ve been lucky enough never to have a running injury, and running has become such an important part of my life that injury avoidance is really important to me. It would be awful to lose my favorite stress reliever and be forced to take a break from running!
Recently I was reading a book review on Mile-Posts of The Official Rock N Roll Guide to Marathon & Half-Marathon Training. In her review, Dorothy Beal mentioned that the book reminded her that she should be incorporating form drills and dynamic stretching. Dorothy Beal, if you haven’t heard of her, has run 24 marathons and been on the cover of Women’s Running magazine. And she’s STILL finding things that she should be doing or changing in her efforts to be a better runner.
That’s when it hit me – I should not be stressing out over all of these things faster runners are doing to become fast. I should not be sitting down and building the perfect weekly workout with strength training and cross training and dynamic stretching and hill repeats. That’s too much, too soon. I shouldn’t look at all this information out there as a checklist of what I must do to become a better runner. I should look at it as a menu, for all the available options out there that could help me get faster, run longer, and stay injury free. And I should pick one menu item at a time to work on, and once it’s comfortably incorporated, maybe pick something else to add.
The nice thing about running is that every bit helps. The more you put in, the more you get back, it’s not an all or nothing. Just because I don’t do an interval run or a hill repeat every week doesn’t mean my body won’t benefit from doing one this week.
To become a lifelong runner, I’ve got to pick what’s manageable and balance it with my regular life. It’s more fun to tackle one new training strategy at a time. I found it too much to keep increasing my long runs for half marathon training as well as doing intervals and hills… so I stopped, and just stuck to increasing my long runs. Still haven’t been injured. I’m not running faster, but I’m running a lot farther, and I’m excited to work on speed next.
I can’t do it all… no one can do it all. But the great news is, if you’re looking for ways to improve as a runner, there’s a lot of choices to pick from!
Other posts you may enjoy:
I think the hardest thing for me is comparing myself to other runners. When I find myself doing this, I try to remember that everyone is different and everyone is at a different point in their running journey. The great thing about the running community is that it is so supportive! Everyone is very encouraging no matter how fast or slow you are or how far you run!
(As you can see, I am way behind on my blog reading…just now catching up!)
Kelly, I think we are in the same headspace! All the training I did for the upcoming half has consisted of simply ‘going for a run’ 3 times a week, loosely following a 10 week program, and increasing the distance of my long runs until I did 21.2km on my last one – I didn’t do any intervals, hills or tempo runs. My long runs were sometimes only a few seconds per km slower than my shorter weeknight runs. I don’t warm up before any of my runs, I don’t eat before or fuel during my long runs (tried Gu twice but wasn’t that fussed), I eat homemade pizza and enjoy wine the night before my long runs instead of eating clean, I don’t make any effort to consume protein within half an hour of getting home from my long runs – these are all things I apparently ‘should’ be doing, but like you, I am injury free and have been reasonably satisfied with my training. My only goal for this half is to cross the finish line. I have in my head that I’d like to do it in around 2:10 (it’s a 3 lap flat course) but if it takes longer because it’s way hotter than I have ever trained in (30 deg C forecast), then so be it, just crossing that finish line will be a win for me. After Saturday I might start doing intervals or hills, or I might not. I am never going to be a super fast runner, and I totally accept this, so I am not going to bust a gut trying to be something I’m not. Exercise should be fun, and if it stops being fun because we’re trying to do all the things we apparently should be doing, then what have we gained? We have to do what’s right for us and still enjoy the process. Hope your next run is an awesome one 🙂
Sounds like we are really similar! I do take Gu on my long runs, and I’m TRYING to start doing all those things you mentioned that help, but I like to think that doing it at all is much better than not doing it, so if it’s between imperfection and nothing, I will choose imperfection every time! And like I said in the post, I plan to pick things to gradually work in and continue to improve, and enjoy the process without worrying about not being the ideal runner every day!