Stop Making These 5 Training Mistakes
By Dr. Trish Kana, PT, DPT
You finally signed up for that race you’ve had your eye on, got a fresh pair of running shoes, and feel ready to start your training program. As a running physical therapist, I want to let you in on the most common mistakes I see people make while training for a race that interrupt their routine and land them in physical therapy searching for answers.
You didn’t give yourself enough time.
We call this under-training, which can ironically lead to over-training. While couch to 5K programs have their place, sometimes we see runners expanding this to longer distance races and not giving themselves ample time to build up a solid base before jumping right into training. Take for example, a half marathon training program. If you have not been running regularly over the last few months and you just signed up for a 10 week training program that has 5 days of running, including speed intervals, tempo, and long run days plus strength training, chances are your body is going to be resistant and push back in the form of injury due to over-training, exhaustion, and/or tissue damage.
THE FIX: If you haven’t been running consistently, give yourself a longer runway to ramp up. Take 2-4 weeks before starting an official program to introduce 2-3 easy runs (or run/walks) per week so when you start the program, it won’t feel like such a shock to the system. If more time isn’t an option, remember to listen to the signals your body is sending you. Take recovery days between runs and pull back on any speed work a bit in the first few weeks.
You weren’t specific enough during your training block.
Your training should reflect the reality of the race you’ve signed up for. Trail race but only training on flat roads? Summer race in the heat and you’ve only been running in temperature-controlled gyms on treadmills? These are extreme examples and hopefully it’s easy to see how unprepared you’d be in each of these scenarios. However, knowing how to organize your program is SO important when it comes to race day success.
THE FIX: During training, consider the following:
the environment you’ll be racing in: heat, humidity, altitude
the running surface: pavement, trails, rocks, dirt, a mix
the route: elevation gain as a whole but also the length and % grade of the climbs
your GOALS! I.e. if you want to get faster, you need to incorporate more intensity in your training, not just more miles (which brings us to our next point..)
You focused solely on running volume.
Yes, volume is important and cannot be ignored, especially for longer distance races. But working on intensity during your training has HUGE payoff when it comes to building endurance and aerobic capacity, specifically as it relates to increasing your VO2 max.
THE FIX: Add intensity at least 1x/week to your training program. This can be as simple as working in a tempo run once a week or working on strides during an easy run to introduce a little bit of intensity in the beginning of your program.
You never took a down week.
Every 2-3 weeks (depending on the individual runner), your running volume and intensity should decrease to give your body a chance to recover. Especially as your volume continues to build, denying yourself the recovery week will likely only hurt you in the long run.
THE FIX: Run 2-3 weeks of progressively increasing mileage, then the next week take your down week by decreasing weekly mileage anywhere from 25-50% (example: week 1: 20mi/week, week 2: 25mi/week, week 3: 30mi/week, week 4: 22mi/week).
You forgot the whole point of running.
You’ve become so fixated on one race and getting in your head after every run that you’re just not having fun anymore. What’s the point?
THE FIX: Ditch the watch, forget your Strava stats for a day, grab your running buddy or go solo, and find somewhere new and beautiful to run and take it all in. Remind yourself why you’re running and what you love about it.
We all need runs like this every now and then.