5 Things Ever Runner Needs to Improve

Hello there and happy Tuesday to you, friends! I hope you are having a great start to your morning. We have a pretty quiet day over here, nothing too crazy going on > translation: morning run + play time outside + nap time hustle + nap for mom. I love busy days, but I also crave those slower days at home every now and then.

This post is for runners of really any level, whether you are a new runner or experienced athlete, these 5 things will help you improve your running so you can preform at your maximum potential. Honestly, there is so much to learn about running and that’s what I love about the sport, BUT if I had to pick five top things to start doing to improve your running these would be my top five character qualities/running tips to start doing, now!

1. Practice patience > If I had to pick one thing that runner’s are not good at (and social media doesn’t help with this) it would be patience. And I am preaching to the choir. As runner’s we want that amazing race or PR or BQ right now. And because we want it now, we sometimes lose sight of the time and journey it takes to get to those big goals, the marathon build, or the injury comeback. Coming back from an injury, BQing or training for a marathon all take time and a whole lot of patience. We, as runners, sometimes lose sight of the giant role that patience plays into our daily runs and workouts and how important it really is to do the work and trust the process. BQing or marathoning or coming back from an injury doesn’t happen over night. It takes a whole lot of great runs and hard runs. It takes a whole lot of sacrifices and a bunch of commitment.
2. Cultivate a big picture vision Similarly, we runners need to step back at times and think of the big picture. I especially practice this when I have times of minor injuries or things that I want to push through (when I know I shouldn’t.) If we push our pace all the time (when we shouldn’t) or get discouraged with a hard workout, don’t forget the big picture. Keep the vision in mind. Know where you are headed and take daily, actionable steps to get you from where you are to where you want to go. Some days that may mean taking an extra rest day or cutting a run short and other days it may mean pushing through the tough parts of a run. Either way, it is important to keep the vision in mind and know where you are headed.
3. Be resilient Resilience: “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.” If we want to grow as athletes we MUST practice resilience. Because, let me just warn you now, there will be hard parts. There will be disappointments. There will be days you just don’t feel like it. And this is where the athletes who stand apart from the rest differ from the rest. They practice resilience and just get it done. They don’t make excuses or whine or complain. They just do it. If you practice resilience in your running, training, and racing you will see vast improvement.
4. Know what paces you should be running at. Something I am a HUGE advocate for is knowing the exact paces you should be running at. Runner’s typically run 50% of their running at moderate effort and 50% of their running at an easy pace. And many runner’s feel like they’ve plateaued. Instead of running most runs at a harder effort pace, runner’s should be running most (80%) of their miles at an easy pace (a pace that is easy to talk sentences through and carry a conversation) and 20% at moderate/hard effort. When runner’s know the paces at which they should be running, they make HUGE gains in fitness without burnout or injury. (A simple way to find your paces here.)
5. Incorporate specific workouts into your training (i.e. always know the purpose of each run/workout) This point goes hand in hand with specific paces. If runner’s know their paces, they should also know specific workouts to help them achieve their goals. The goal is to know what the purpose is to each and every run/workout. Not every run should be run as fast as  you can. Not every run should be a tempo, not every run should be easy. Runners should know why they are running each run and what the purpose of each run/workout is! The chances are if you know the reason to why you are running, you will be a lot more likely to stick to the plan and not deviate from it.

If we can nail these five qualities, habits, and practices into our daily routines, we will be much more fruitful with our training, see more progress, and feel more fulfilled in our training.

Let’s get after it!