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We spend a lot of time focusing on the training for race day but sometimes athletes find the art of racing to be complicated. We rarely practice racing for the obvious reasons because we can only have so many A races a year without burning out or compromising our training.

However, if we never practice digging deep into the well, the already daunting task becomes even more daunting. It is similar to a lot of things in life. Like public speaking, we can prepare and rehearse everything perfect, but we rarely get the exact opportunity to speak in front of the large group. For this reason, many people fear public speaking. Although, those who do practice regularly seem to have less of a fear.

I know public speaking and road racing are not entirely the same, but they do share some similar principles. Today we are going to talk about the things you can do to become a better racer.


Pacing Practice



How you do anything is how you do everything


Practice negative splits in workouts & you will find it comes naturally on race day



Practice a Positive Mindset



Confidence boosting when you have experience. People who ran in high school or were athletes in high school. Some people are naturally more aggressive physically and they naturally want to push themselves more. Others more cautious


How do you talk to yourself during training runs?


What do you tend to focus on?


Practice saying 5 positive things after every run




Have Realistic Expectations & A Plan



Look at how your training went & develop a data driven plan



Practice doing uncomfortable things/pushing yourself



Many people say once they become a mom, they have ‘new strength’. I don’t think this is physical. It may be mental. Perhaps you realize you can handle more than you thought


Practice mental discomfort every day in non-running related ways

Assessing your strengths and weaknesses is key for building self awareness and also knowing what you should work on! When we know where we could use a little work, we can channel our energy to that area of life. This is important for your personal life as well as for your running. You will be able to better reach your potential when you know what direction to go. We have 3 areas of runner traits we are going to address in this episode as well as ways to turn your weaknesses into your strengths. For more information on this we have a commit60 mental training toolkit on our website that goes into this in depth.

Weaknesses

1- impatient- you want results right away, you speed up at the end of runs

Forced into a waiting pattern with winter, illness, pregnancy, etc.

Some people say they can’t slow down on their easy days: 


Make yourself wait


Meditation/mindfulness


Deep breathing


Yoga


Read


Do a puzzle


Accept what you cannot change & practice empathy



2- Too negative/self critical- you beat yourself up, perfectionist tendencies, unable to see positives, can lead to black or white thinking


Mindfulness


Recognize your triggers


Come up with neutral statements instead


Try a gratitude journal



3- inconsistent- lacking organization or discipline


Routine


Run streak


Accountability buddy


Building a habit/habit stacking



4-insecurity- doesn’t believe in themselves, races workouts, pushing it on easy days


Practice self care: nutrition, sleep, boundaries


Maybe you always wanted a coach or to buy a certain pair of shoes: do it!


Step away from toxic people, spend time with people who make you feel good


Write down a list of things you are good at



5- Lack of experience- pacing, grows with time, technical


Get experience


Sign up for races


Hire a coach


Try new workouts



6-over analyzing- focusing too much on the details


What do you over analyze?



Weekly mileage (run 49.5 miles one week)


Paces (don’t hit your paces)


Run streaks (break it)


Certain workouts (eliminate something you think is super important- IE yassos 800)


How many 20 milers (run 18-19 milers)



Focus on trusting the big picture 

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Most runners know that we want to build our aerobic system while running. The marathon and half marathon are said to be 99% AEROBIC in nature. It only makes sense that distance runners should focus on that aerobic development the most. However, when it comes to the shorter distance races like the 1 mile or 5k, more of our performance is going to require development of the anaerobic system. We want to chat today about the different systems used and the type of workouts you should focus on for each type of distance you are training for.

What is the anaerobic system?

How long can you run at an anaerobic pace?

What is the aerobic system?

How long can you run at an aerobic pace?

The marathon & half marathon are 99% aerobic in nature: TEMPO, progression, LT, MP, steady state

What kind of workouts will help build the aerobic systems?

What kind of workouts should you avoid during marathon training?

If you did only speed work during a marathon training cycle, could you still run fast in the marathon- why/why not?

Training specifically for the distance matters

The 5k is 90% aerobic. I said earlier it is important to develop the anaerobic 10% because that is a 1-2 min of the race.

How would you train 5k runners?

What type of speed workouts?

How often do you do a speed workout vs threshold?

How long of a long run?

The 1 mile is like 60% aerobic. A lot more of this race is anaerobic. How do we develop runners for this?

What type of workouts do you run?

Would running long make you slower?

Why do college xc coaches not allow their runners to do a marathon?


What are running workouts?



Track workouts



What is an easy run? Why do we do easy runs most of the time?



We need to go slower to build the aerobic base


You need to go slow enough to recover from workout days


“I can’t slow down. My legs won’t let me”



Your workouts aren’t hard enough


You aren’t running enough



“9 mile marathon plan”


Mileage is key to success: You can get away with less mileage if you have a strong aerobic base like a masters runner or a triathlete



What are the best time of running workouts to do?



Training for a 5k 10% anaerobic



Speed work comes into play



Training for a 10k


Training for a half 99% aerobic 


Training for a full



Video on youtube that goes over all of this



Medium long runs


Steady State Runs


Threshold workouts


Long runs in the mid-zone not hyper focused on the 20




Training for an ultra



What are the most common mistakes we see athletes make



Running in the gray zone


Not doing the correct workouts


Only doing workouts they are comfortable with


Not progressing stress


Doing too much too soonMara

I can't complete 20 miles in 3 hours, can I do 5 easy + 10 mp + 5 easy?239



3 hour long run rule


Marathon pace work- when is it good



Can I run a marathon 6 weeks after running a marathon?



Marathon manics


Ultra marathons


Racing vs running


50 states 



What should be the fartlek pace?



Fartlek = speed play




How to get constant speed for a longer run



How are we measuring this?


Do we need to go fast on long runs?



Is HR too high 170-180 for MP?


Easy Pace only improved by 30-60 sec after a year of zone 2… is this normal?


What is the best shoe for a first time marathon?

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We sometimes see runners on strava or IG referencing their ‘goal race pace’ for various distances. We wanted to do a deep dive into how useful this actually is to train using goal race paces or if it is actually detrimental to your progress as a runner. Should you be training using your goal race paces or should you be training at your current fitness level?


What causes someone to want to train at goal race pace



We want to run a sub 3:00 marathon and know that is a 6:52 pace. We think that if we train & do workouts with 6:52 pace as marathon pace, we will be in sub 3 hour marathon shape


The FLAW with this logic: You could be racing workouts. 



Many marathon workouts are broken up with rest intervals. Let’s give for example a workout like 3 x 2 miles at marathon pace within a long run. Someone who is in 3:10 marathon shape could do a 3x 2 mile workout at 6:50 pace. However, this 6:50 pace is their threshold pace.



Another common example- women in 3:45 shape and wants to BQ



When she trains with an 8:00 marathon pace: this is actually her threshold pace. When she does a threshold workout at 7:30 pace, she is actually dipping into interval pace and anaerobic territory. Physically she can do these workouts, but they will be too stressful over time and lead her into worse shape and not improving


Not only will she be working very hard and not improving, she will be frustrated on race day because her training workouts indicated that she was in better shape than she actually was. Little does she know, she was racing most of her workouts and overtraining during her training cycle


When we don’t train at the correct paces, we neglect the purpose of the workout & negate a lot of the benefits



It is not good to set a goal and train at “GOAL” paces. Instead, you should train at the fitness you are currently at which will allow you to progress and reap the benefits of the workouts



How should you figure out what pace to run



Do a race or time trial


If the 3:45 chick raced a 5k in 23:00 and we discovered her marathon pace is 8:22 and threshold pace is 7:50, we can use these paces in training


We would retest fitness in 4-6 weeks. It is better to slightly undershoot workouts than overshoot them. 


Even if you think you are in better shape, you need to be honest and do a race. It doesn’t benefit you to run faster than you should.



What if you really want to run a BQ time but the fitness just isn’t there?



Have it be a longer term goal and focus on other benchmarks to get theseHow o

Many runners dislike hills for a number of reasons. They are hard & they can slow you down! Many people avoid hills because they don’t like how hilly routes slow down their average pace. It is important to work on things we are not good at in order to improve as athletes. When we neglect our weaknesses, we do not improve as much as we could have! Hills not only will help you on hiller races, but they also improve your running in other ways. They increase your power, help with form & allow you to build stronger legs. When you work on hills, you can become a more well-rounded runner AND run faster on flat ground as well. Today we will be talking about different type of hill workouts and how to add them into training

We get used to doing the hills. At first it feels really hard. If you are used to it, it’s not a big deal. 


Training for hilly races vs flat races



If you are training for a hilly race, hill work is a must


Even downhill races need downhill work


Simulation of the race


Boston marathon is very hilly and doing a lot of miles on rolling hills helps



Regular training adding in hill work even when training for a flat race



Hill repeats helping with vo2max & power



Tempos



Steady state on rolling hills- effort based. Some people are better at downhills vs uphills. You're not going to be able to get a pace band that tells you exactly what pace you should be at each second. 


Mile repeats on rolling hills


Long run steady on hills


Easy runs on hills



Speed work



VO2max type workouts on hills



Combo/mixed workout



Hill sprints then tempo work after