Four Runner Mistakes That Are Slowing Down Your Progress

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Matt Frezier, who is known as the creator of the No Meat Athlete blog, marathon runner, ultra-marathon runner and vegetarian, compiled a list of four of the most common mistakes aspiring runners make in his opinion. All of the listed errors are mental, so you can fix them quite simply, you just have to want it.

Mistake # 1: Too Many Starts

There is nothing wrong with participating in official starts every month or even every week if your only goal is to compete constantly. But, if you want to run faster, especially over long distances, then you simply cannot continue like this. Your body is a very expensive instrument, not to mention the fact that a lot of precious time that could be spent on quality training, you spend on recovery and on the races themselves (no, the half marathon you ran last Sunday does not go to offset of a long cross, scheduled for the same day). That is why professional marathoners run only two official marathons per year.

One or two main starts a year will be enough.

Solution:The first step is to decide if you really want to run often or run better. Do you want to start in 50 official races in a year or be a marathon maniac or a half marathon fan? Or maybe you want to achieve the best result you are capable of? These two approaches conflict with each other, so instead of being average at everything, pick one and do it as well as you can. If you stick with the second option, then one or two main starts per year will be enough.

Mistake # 2: you don't change anything after an injury

We get hurt when we enjoy running the most. You are feeling great, enjoying every workout and progressing, so you start increasing the intensity. Recovery runs are getting tempted and a much needed rest day has been missed. It’s too much, but you don’t understand it until something breaks.

During an injury, you do everything right: rest, do recovery exercises, and reduce the intensity of your workouts. But once the pain is completely gone, you go back to where we started, to what led to the injury. Same training volume, same program, same surface, same running shoes. And, "suddenly," the same result.

Think about what causes the injury and change that.

Solution:Stop treating injuries as if they were accidental; you are responsible for them. You did something that caused the damage. Therefore, if you do not want everything to repeat itself over and over again, you need to change something, even after 100% recovery.

Let's start by running. If you're not sticking to a high cadence - about 180 steps per minute - it's time to start doing it. What about body position and stride? Next, think about your easy runs: are they really that easy, so easy that you can communicate easily during them? Now the volumes, remember, weren't you injured every time you started running 60 - 80 km a week? If so, then you need to cut back on your workouts until you are really ready for them, and consider strengthening exercises as well as cross-country running. Think about what causes the injury and change that.

Mistake # 3: You Want to Improve Your Best Time by 30 Minutes in Every Marathon or Half

From the time I became obsessed with the idea of qualifying for the Boston Marathon, it was 7 years before I reached this goal. I needed to “take off” over an hour and forty minutes from my time in the marathon, but it took so long for a completely different reason. It took me seven whole years, because every time I started preparing for the next marathon, I made a plan so that I would qualify for Boston during the next start. As a result, I had to overcome volumes and run at a pace that I was not yet ready for, which of course led to exhaustion and injury. And, by the time I was on the start line, I could no longer think about anything other than rest. And after a while, the obsession returned to me, and everything was repeated over and over again.

I myself like to set ambitious goals, but if you do not adequately assess the time it takes to achieve them, then you continue to step on the same rake.

Be ambitious in the long term and judicious in the short term.

Solution:Remember, we all tend to overestimate what we can achieve in a year and overestimate what we can achieve in a decade. So it's worth thinking long term and learning patience. Decide if your main goal is to run out of four hours in a marathon or an hour and a half in half, or maybe qualify for Boston too. And specifically give yourself more time than you think you will need to achieve it. Plan to do this in two or three years, choose the starts in which you will participate at this time, set intermediate goals. Be ambitious in the long term and judicious in the short term. Finally, take a flexible approach, then nothing will stop you from achieving your goal.

Mistake # 4: You have a great plan, but you are not following it

Globally, there are only things that can go wrong: either you have a bad plan or a good plan, you just don't follow it.

If you used a conservative approach, chose a proven workout program and saw that it worked for others like you, then most likely everything is fine with the plan, and you can always change something, understanding in the process what works and what does not. …

Now it is up to you whether you follow the plan. And it is at this point that many stop. They simply do not have enough willpower to complete their next scheduled run.

Why exactly? I've heard many different reasons:

• It is difficult for me during long runs.
• It's so hard to wake up early.
• It's too cold / hot outside.
• It is also snowing / raining there.
• Life circumstances.
• I just scored.

And you miss first one workout, then two, then you decide to catch up and give up completely. After a while, you feel ashamed in front of yourself, you decide to change everything, start over, and everything repeats.

You may, somewhere deep inside, doubt that you are capable of achieving your goal.

Solution

This is the most difficult mistake to correct, because it is committed at the subconscious level - we are hindered by procrastination and self-deception, which many people are subject to.

Maybe you should make your workouts less painful or even more enjoyable by working on your form or buying new sneakers, listening to your favorite music or an audiobook while jogging? Think about whether your goal is attractive enough, does it make you freeze with excitement when you think about achieving it? Perhaps you overestimated your strength and started too actively, so that even the first training sessions seem unbearable to you? Try changing your approach - for example, setting a goal to run for several days in a row or using running for meditation - maybe this will help you make progress and make your workout easier?

But the problem may lie much deeper: somewhere deep inside you may doubt that you are able to achieve your goal, so the body resists. As I already said, this problem is more complicated than the others, and to solve it you will need to think about it - but sometimes just a little push or change of approach is enough in order not to give up even before the start, but to approach the planned program with all responsibility.