A couple of weeks ago, we published a blog looking at what we think are the most important considerations when you are starting out on your running journey. However, as we know, getting started is just half the battle. Keeping running is often the more challenging half of the equation.
As coaches, when we talk about keeping people running, we mean in the longer term i.e. more than 12 weeks. In general, I’m not overly interested in the shorter term results, and am more focused on the longer term trajectory of that person. So, for example, do they get a great result at an event one week, but then can’t train for three weeks afterwards because they are injured and begin to lose those hard fought gains? Are they perpetually going through the boom-bust cycle? We are encouraged to take the longer term view for kids in their development and are aiming to keep them active for years, rather than weeks. The same thing should apply to us adults.
So, when we start to look at your overall trajectory, and keeping you active in the longer term, certain things become more important, two of which are recovery and mental resilience.
Recovery
In order to keep consistent and active over longer periods of time, you need to reduce the number of injuries you get. Simple. This means prioritising recovery after tough training sessions but also on a regular basis. Recovery seems to have become a bit of a dark art and with the mass of recovery formulas and products on the market, you could be fooled into thinking that you need to invest in a protein powder factory, a infra red sauna and splashing out thousands of dollars on a new set of Normatec recovery boots. Don’t get me wrong, these things have their place and can certainly be very useful. However, for most recreational runners, it’s overkill.
If you are looking for a few simple tips to help with you with your recovery, you can check out our ‘6 tips to great recovery’ blog here: https://www.gorun.com.au/blog/greatrecovery
Mental Resilience
I remember chatting to Kiwi professional triathlete, Vanessa Murray about this. She suggested that triathlon was “80% mental, 20% physical.” I would suggest that running is no different.
Think about it. If you can’t persuade yourself to do the physical training or keep mentally disciplined, your training will suffer. The mental side comes first and the result is the physical outcome, yet strangely we still either ignore it or put it in the ‘too difficult’ box and simply concentrate on the physical aspects of our running instead.
We recently penned a blog on the 80/20 principle and how it relates to our running. You can check it out to help with your mental game, here: https://www.gorun.com.au/blog/8020ofrunning
Go ahead and pass on these blogs and insights to those who you think they could help. Spread the generosity! If we can get people recovering well and working on their mental game, then my job here is done!
Happy running!