In the running world, you will see all types of training programs and workouts that promise personal records, faster splits, and bullet-proof strength training protocols that lead to a lifetime of pain-free running and racing.
Most of them include complex intervals and different styles of training. The weird and cool-looking stuff usually gets the eyeballs and thus the attention.
In reality, the best way to improve in any facet of running is to stick with a solid routine for long enough and find ways to recover in between days of running. If you can do that, positive adaptation will most likely follow.
Heading into 2023, it’s a good time to refocus and retool with some simple things that can have a profound impact on your training.
It doesn’t take anything special or complex, but it does take honesty and self-reflection.
In my mind, here are some of the basics of running training, that if followed, can lead to some success and enjoyment:
- Be motivated daily and be excited about what you’re doing
- Commit fully to the process of training/recovery
- Don’t obsess over one bad day, but don’t make excuses either
- Find a group of like-minded people who will push you and hold you accountable
- Do some type of movement every day
- Include variability in your weekly runs, mobility and stretching, and strength workouts
- Perform time trials routinely to assess current level of performance (400, 800m, 1 mile, 5k, etc.)
- Do the stuff that makes you feel good
- Get sunshine every day and train outside whenever you can
- Run, hike, and cycle at different speeds (a lot of easy effort, and a little bit of very hard effort each week)
- Sleep and manage stress levels effectively
If you can do most of the above very consistently on a weekly and monthly basis, you will most likely start to get faster and stronger.
If you only do about half of this stuff, and make excuses about why the other half doesn’t get done, you probably won’t achieve your running goals anytime soon.
It’s easy for all of us to grasp at the promise of a “silver bullet” when it comes to setting a new personal record in time or distance when it comes to running.
Running, even though it’s something we humans have done for millions of years, is not an easy endeavor. It will often leave you tired, frustrated, and beat up.
But if you can manage to fulfill a lot of the basics of training each week, you put yourself in a position to enjoy your training and reap the benefits of the practice of running.
It’s such a beautiful thing, this running pursuit.
Why not give it the attention and structure it deserves?
Write these down.
Look at them every so often.
And enjoy and appreciate the beauty of running in the New Year.