Wednesday evening was always club night. A group of somewhere between ten to twenty runners would set off, usually running nine miles at about seven and half minute miling. It was intended to be a social run and would always start with a lot of banter. However, normally at about the six mile point, one or two of the guys would gradually start to wind the pace up. For them it was almost a point of honour to be the first one home. Everyone else seemed to get carried along and what had started as an easy social run often finished with guys running faster than race pace just to keep up!!

That is not running smart!! When training smart, every time you start a run, you have a clear idea of your session – how far, how fast and what training response from your body you are trying to elicit. Many runners run their easy runs too hard and their hard runs too easy!! There’s nothing wrong with running hard. The 40/30 session I describe in the free e book was used by Steve Prefontaine as a test to see how hard he could push his body. But he used to recover afterwards! By running recovery runs like some of our Wednesday runs used to turn out, any of us planning a recovery run were wasting our time.

So, in order to train smart, always know what the session is designed to achieve and then complete it in order to achieve that. I know there will be those that say, some days I feel great and just want to run fast. If that is the case, run fast today and run easy tomorrow. Then, re-evaluate the plan. Are you including too many easy runs?

Equally, on those days where you get out the day knowing that you need to run fast and you feel awful, warm up first and if you feel no better, reduce or ditch the session. I’ll post later on about techniques for adapting your training on the hoof!!

Have a great weekend! Train hard and train smart!

I know I run the risk of upsetting some people but running clubs often prevent runners from achieving their best performance.

“Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.” John D. Rockefeller

Many running clubs in the UK have a club championship – a series of races throughout the year where runners score points based on finishing position relative to other runners in the same club. With races spread throughout the year, many runners are often racing two or three times a month over varying distances. As a consequence, the training that many runners do fits into the gaps between the races.

One of my favourite authors, Steven Covey wrote about the 7 Habits of highly Effective People. Habit #2 is ‘Always Start With the End In Mind’

How does that effect smart training?

Well, it means having a goal, something to work towards. It could be that your goal is to win the club championship. By targeting specific races and then planning to train to peak for those races, using other races as part of the training process, you are training smart.

Seeking to achieve the best 10k or marathon that you are capable of – that might mean missing many of the club championship races. But, as Rockerfeller said, it might be a case of giving up the good for the great.

In future, I’ll look at goal setting and the different types of goal you can work towards – all of which will help you train smarter.

Please let me know your thoughts by posting a comment

and run smart!