What is some good running advice you received..

IvoryTower

You may have got it from a friend, coach, podcast, article etc, when you put it into action you found it useful


From Ciara Mageean. She mentioned she used to get quite stressed before races, she got advice to start writing down her plan before every race. I don't get stressed but possibly over excited and my warm up was always in disarray because of this. I would start too early/late and only do half of my usual routine because I was too scattered. This has added a sense of calmness to the pre-race madness where i don't have to worry about what i should be doing. I would write it down and take a picture on my phone to glance at should i have any doubts.

example

10am - breakfast
11am - water
12pm - caffeine
12.30pm - warm up
1.10pm - race

Then you can write the race plan as well, i'm happy to have the race plan in my head but if you're the sort to panic beforehand and change it last second this could be useful.


Anyway that helps me, maybe it will help someone else! Any other nuggets out there that you're willing to share?

KSU

Came from a presentation I was at with Honore Hoedt (Sifan Hassan's coach before Salazar)

"You have 2 hours a day of work to help you improve and 22 hours to mess it up"

Over the years has resonated with me more and more that the right training and sessions are not just about the specifics of the work being done but also what you are doing elsewhere and often.

Training should not just be based on athlete ability but also on athlete lifestyle.

Remember this being highlighted chatting to Ronnie Delaney when he was telling me about a particular session he was doing in college. He had an exam and had been up till about 2 studying. The next day he got to the track for training and coach took one look at him and said "not today"

Webstarx

Back off when you get discomfort or niggles

ooter

Webstarx wrote: »

Back off when you get discomfort or niggles

definitely something i've listened to this week.

sideswipe

KSU wrote: »

Came from a presentation I was at with Honore Hoedt (Sifan Hassan's coach before Salazar)

"You have 2 hours a day of work to help you improve and 22 hours to mess it up"

I like it, I'm keeping that one.

Myksyk

Webstarx wrote: »

Back off when you get discomfort or niggles

This is hard but good advice. Niggle at present ...very very slight and having to convince myself not to run.

IvoryTower

Webstarx wrote: »

Back off when you get discomfort or niggles

If I've any doubt the day after a session I'll switch to bike for the day and that usually does the trick. Good advice alright

justdoit

Here's a few from a plodder, picked up at various stages over the years:

1. I carried a lot of tension in my shoulders and across my back. I was told to imagine that I was lightly holding a crisp between my thumbs and index fingers, not allowing the imaginary crisps to break. Sounds weird, but works for me and is how I hold my hands as default now.

2. Stick to your race day plan: very obvious, but especially for people who don't run too many events, it is easy to get caught up in the buzz of race day, but the experience of pacing yourself accurately and picking people off towards the end as you empty the tank and they flag is way more enjoyable than blowing up early and trying to hold on as you go backwards (I've been both soldiers).

3. Find a balance between strength, mobility and running sessions. We all have time pressures, but don't under-estimate the benefits to your running of stretching and resistance training.

4. Don't forget to enjoy the journey and the day of your key events. We all want to do our best, but many of us will never be full time athletes and for some of us, this is our down time away from busy work and family lives, so enjoy it- there'll be some tough sessions, but this is what we do for fun.

5. Don't be a slave to your GPS/ watch- some days, just run. Take the pressure of splits and HR away, and just run.

6. (The one that I know is really valuable but I remain really poor at) You have to run slow to get fast- park your ego and run your Long Slow Runs at a pace that is significantly slower than you can run (loads of info on how to calculate pace available)

DukeCaboom

Train with people who will destroy you - Derval O'Rourke

She said it on irishman abroad podcast. Its so so true.

average_runner

Steve Magness Quote from yesterday
"Getting into shape is hard and expectations can kill the motivation to do so.

Its easy to compare yourself to some prior fitter you, but all that does is set you up for disappointment and frustration.

Be kind to yourself, Try to get a little bit better from where you are right now"

I think this is very good.

robinph

Best bit of advice for anyone starting out running is "You're running too fast, slow down".

MY BAD

Do your sessions with people faster than you and easy runs with people slower than you

IvoryTower

Rotating Runners - okay this is usually injury prevention advice but im finding it great as an excuse to buy way, way too many runners. It's really great, highly recommended. Fend off your missus with the "injury prevention" excuse