We have all had races that didn’t turn out the way we planned. You train hard and follow your plan, then something happens during the race and you don’t reach your goal. While there can be many reasons for this, it could be that you are sabotaging your own running goals.
Are You Sabotaging Your Own Running Goals?
How can this happen? You assume that when you have a plan and follow it, the race itself should go according to that plan. However, there are many ways that you can sabotage your own running goals, both during training and during the race itself.
The Plan
Depending on your race distance, you have a plan that you will follow for at least several months. You may think that you’re following it but are you? Have you skipped a few workouts? Have you made changes to the plan? Is the plan designed specifically for your needs and abilities? Does it include enough recovery time? Is it specific to the course on which you’ll be racing?
Running “Hard” All the Time
Most of your running should be done at an easy pace. Many runners think they need to push hard all the time, which can definitely sabotage your running goals. Warm-ups, cooldowns, most long runs, and recovery runs should be much slower than your planned race pace. Save the hard, fast-paced running for speed workouts.
Recovery Time
While recovery time should be written into your training plan, if you’re still pushing too hard on recovery runs, or training through recovery days, you can certainly sabotage your running goals. Cross-training can be great for recovery, but only if it’s done in such a way that your body can rest.
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5 Tips to Improve Recovery During Training
Nutrition
Your nutrition during training should be designed to fuel you, not just fill you. An occasional indulgence is fine, but eating healthy, whole foods will benefit you in (and for) the long run. Trying to fuel up on a diet of burgers and fries is not the way to reach your running goals.
Race Day Plan
You should have a race day plan for every race you enter, even if the plan is to have fun and finish. What pace will you start at? How will you finish? When (and what) will you eat and drink? What will you do if you start to feel bad? Planning for and preparing for everything will help you reach your running goals.
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Create Your Half Marathon Race Plan and Avoid a Race Day Fail
Many things can contribute to a poor performance, including injury or illness, but by being aware of some of these pitfalls, you will have a better chance to reach your running goals.
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What drives me crazy, more than anything, is when runners don’t seek help when they need it. It was the inspiration for my post today. But if you’re injured and you’re in the middle of training, go see someone! If nothing comes of the appointment, at the very least you’ll know what kind of injury you’re dealing with. Talk about self sabotage!
And so many runners try to keep running through it! Then they have a big injury.
Not recovering well is the biggest self-sabotage that I see – and that I’ve made before in the past! More is not always better, and other non-running stressors need to be accounted into recovery time as well.
I see so many head pats on Facebook and Instagram for people who just keep going when you know they need to take some time to recover. It drives me a little crazy!
I don’t usually have a race day plan (my bad). Because I’ve done so many races (and almost every distance), I probably take for granted the strategy of planning for possible problems (because I’ve experienced “all” of those as well). Thanks for the reminder 😉 Failing to plan often leads to planning to fail.
I agree that in many ways after so much racing our racing plan is just kind of there. But, if you have a big goal (like a sub 2 or something?) a race day plan might be in order. 🙂
I think not taking the proper time to recover is a huge issue. I know that I can’t run every day so I usually do 4 days a week.
Recovery is huge and includes hydration and nutrition in addition to just rest.
I have definitely been guilty of each of these at some point. Right now, I think my issue is not enough recovery and running my easy runs too hard and my hard runs too easy
When all the runs feel like the same pace you’re definitely doing that!
It drives me crazy when I see people failing to properly recover during training. The other thing is runners stressing over cutting a long run short or missing a training run. My motto has always been quality over quantity. Says the old runner sitting on the sidelines…
I agreed with everything until the last sentence. 🙂 I think social media, especially Instagram, make people think that pushing hard all the time is heroic. Just notice all the head pats people get doing things you know are pretty stupid.
I see a lot of newer runners who are at a 100 all day, every day. They don’t have an easy, they don’t have an off. I fear that without posts like this, they will burn out or get injured and lose interest in the sport.