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I’ve spent lots of years searching for better ways to run and writing about them.
Back in 1967, the year when running writing became my full-time work, I thought
there was little left to learn about the sport. Now my time to teach had come.
Yet the learning continued. It still does, and may it never stop. Below are
specific tricks that have direct, measurable effects on running performance and
enjoyment. Some of these ideas might sound weird to you. The only defense is that
they’ve stood up to years of self-testing. Give them a try.
- Seldom push the distance or the pace. Run between a half-hour and an hour most
days. Set the effort at “comfortable,” whatever that might mean that day or at
that moment.
- Count no miles outside of races. Run by time periods, not by distance. Break
free from measured courses and the pressure to break records on them.
- Plan the run after starting. Pre-run feelings often lie. Wait to see how
running really feels until the first 10 minutes has shaken out kinks, doubts,
and delusions.
- Heed warning signs. Give in to pains that interfere with normal running
form, fail to ease during the warm-up minutes, or grow worse as the run goes
on. Stop now and try again tomorrow.
- Take walks in long runs. Insert 1-minute walking breaks at about 10-minute
intervals to shake off temporary aches, to speed recovery from races and
injuries, and to exceed normal distance limits.
- Take no penalty for days off. Replace weekly or monthly running totals
with daily averages. Count only run days, not rest days, in that average.
- Limit the racing. Choose one of these limitations: 10% of the month’s
running, one easy day per kilometer raced, or one easy week per hour raced.
- Save the biggest efforts for races. In occasional training runs go long
but slowly or fast but briefly. Only go long and fast in the races,
where it counts.
- Use races as training. Build racing speed by running short races, of less
than an hour. Build racing endurance only in the long races, lasting
more than an hour.
- Set minimum racing goals: just to finish, or to run “at least” so
fast. Let exceeding that baseline come as a surprise, not as
an expectation.
- Warm up little, if at all, for races: little for short ones, none for
those lasting longer than an hour. Use the early race as a warm-up to
guard against starting too fast.
- Race like a vulture. Cruise along in the first half, letting the early
flyers do their passing. Pass up the dead and dying the last half when it
means something.
- Believe in magic. Trust the race day excitement to give a minute-per-mile
bonus in pace versus running the same distance alone, or to double the distance
a pace can be held solo.
- Stretch after running, not before. Stretch when the muscles need it most
and are warmest. Warm up for running by running, and treat stretching as a
preventive-maintenance exercise to ease post-run tightness.
- Carbo-load during and after running, not before. Take the legal drug of
sugar (from energy gel or bar-packets) during the longest runs to extend
endurance, and carbo-reload soon afterward to speed recovery.
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