NO ONE SETS OUT TO TRAIN INCORRECTLY.

We set out to be the Road Runner, speeding down the highway, our legs a blur, a rooster tail of dust in our wake. We certainly don't want to be Wile E. Coyote, falling on his face -- or off a cliff -- while using the latest can't-miss contraption from the Acme Corporation.

And yet many of us end up more Coyote than Road Runner.

"The thinking must be done first," said the late Peter Coe, father and coach of two-time Olympic 1500 gold medalist Sebastian Coe, "before the training begins."

Too often, our training strategies come packaged in a box marked "ACME." These boxes promise revolutionary new methods to improve form, increase energy, eliminate injury and turbocharge our racing. One wonders how Seb Coe ever won a gold medal without them.

Here's what's not in the box: the thinking. Because it's not a lack of minimalist footwear or sports gel that holds us back. It's not gravity's effect on form, insufficient feedback from non-GPS-enabled sports watches, or skipping the latest celebrity core workout. It's something much simpler. What stops most of us from achieving top fitness are mistakes. Mistakes nearly every runner makes.

So in the interest of doing some thinking before we outline our next training program, here are 12 mistakes -- culled from runners, coaches and personal experience -- to avoid at all costs as you enter a new year.

MISTAKE 1: START TOO FAST

A group of masters runners gathers every Sunday three houses down the block from me. When asked to join, I say, "Sorry, you guys run too fast for me." They laugh. They think I'm joking. I'm not. Specifically, they start out too fast. It's: Ready . . . Set . . . Sprint! No thanks.

When kids race, they invariably sprint off the start line, slow down when fatigue threatens to overwhelm them, and then struggle through an ever-slowing survival slog to the finish line. As adults, we're supposed to know better.

For a distance run, "going out too fast" means accelerating to goal pace (or faster) in the first few strides. For harder sessions (intervals, tempo, etc.), it means starting the "hard" part of the workout at an effort level we can't maintain.

Going out too fast can lead to shortened or aborted workouts. Worse, it fundamentally changes the workout. We train the wrong muscle fibers, the wrong energy systems and the wrong neuromuscular pathways. We sabotage the workout's intended benefits.

The Fix: Emphasize the negative

"Every single time we walk out the door, every single run, every single workout should be a negative split," says Sean Wade, a 1996 Olympic marathoner for New Zealand and coach to thousands of runners through his Houston program, The Kenyan Way. "That means the first mile of a distance run should be super easy, and as we naturally warm up we should get quicker."

Wade's advice holds true for harder sessions, too. We should feel our way into intervals, tempo and other hard running. And his advice to warm up should be written in stone. Warming up provides numerous benefits, including:

Increased respiration

Increased circulation

Improved flexibility (through reduced muscle viscosity)

Reduced chance of injury

When we go out too fast, we overtax our bodies and, ironically, almost always finish too slow.

MISTAKE 2: MAKE ALL RUNS 'MEDIUM RUNS'

David Olds, my Cal Coast clubmate and camp director for the Nike Bear Butte Running Camp, as well as a former 2:13 marathoner, argues that many runners suffer from an "all medium runs" mentality. These runners complete all workouts at the same effort level -- medium -- and fail to garner the benefits of longer, easy distance runs or shorter, more intense speed work.

"They run too fast all the time," says Wade, agreeing with Olds. "They don't run slow enough, and they don't run fast enough. They want to prove their fitness all the time!"

Every workout has a purpose. Achieving that purpose requires an optimal intensity and duration -- no more, no less. Straying from the optimal pace changes the workout -- you are now training for a different purpose and sabatoging other workouts before and after this one.

Distance runs provide the exact same benefit (strengthening slow-twitch fibers, etc.) at an easy, conversational pace as at a harder (medium) pace. But the easy pace ultimately delivers greater benefit because we're able to run longer and recover more quickly.

Speed work demands shorter, more intense efforts, alternating with intervals of near-complete rest (e.g., jogging or walking). Decreasing the intensity of hard work or increasing the intensity of the rest interval alters the workout's effect -- and illustrates a different running mistake: attempting to turn every workout into a distance run (see Mistake No. 4).

The Fix: Ditch the default

To ditch the "medium run" mentality, recalibrate your "daily" run pace to a conversational pace. If it isn't a workout day (intervals, fartlek, tempo), don't test your fitness, try to sneak in some quality or judge your self-worth by your minutes per mile. Back off every time you feel yourself pushing your legs and/or lungs. Drop behind your training partner or group if they're pushing it, or run alone if you can't. Set a goal (easy) pace and make the challenge to stick to it -- no faster.

MISTAKE 3: NEGLECT SPEED

In the summer of 1984, Andy DiConti (my best running buddy) and I moved to Santa Barbara to escape the Los Angeles smog. That summer, we logged more than 100 miles per week. And we ran it all -- long runs, short runs, hill runs, trail runs--at 6 minutes per mile or faster. I'd run a 4:10 mile the previous spring, and figured to destroy that time in the fall. Instead, come September, in a time trial, I could barely break 5 minutes.

Contrary to popular belief, we runners cannot live on high mileage alone. Even during base training, we benefit from a modest dose of faster training. Here's what happens when we skip strength and speed work entirely:

Atrophy of intermediate and fast-twitch fibers

Decrease in neuromuscular recruitment and efficiency

Increase in lactate accumulation during high-intensity exercise (and corresponding rise in acidosis)

Decreased muscle buffering capacity

Heck, it's a wonder I managed to break 5 minutes at all.

The Fix: Pick up the pace

Incorporating some faster training allows us to maintain strong fibers, retain neuromuscular efficiency and stop our buffering capacity from dwindling to the point of no return. Regular sessions of short hill repeats, fast strides or form drills reinforce muscle fiber and nervous system development. Moderate tempo, fartlek or hill runs preserve lactate removal and buffering capacity.

MISTAKE 4: RECOVER INADEQUATELY

"Most runners are fairly anal about their training and tend to feel guilty by taking a true easy day," says Joe Rubio, a two-time Olympic trials qualifier in the marathon and coach of Central California's ASICS Aggies. "Most fail to acknowledge that all gains in fitness are achieved during periods of recovery."

Rubio views recovery as a necessary component of training. "The Overcompensation Cycle is the basic principle that guides all athletic improvement," says Rubio. "The body will grow stronger if it encounters a training stress above and beyond what it normally encounters -- called an overload -- and is then provided adequate time to recover and regenerate."

The Fix: Patience is a virtue

Running damages muscle fibers and connective tissues, as well as depleting fuel and hormones. We replace the latter quickly, but repairing muscle and connective tissue takes time. Younger runners need two to four days between hard workouts, while older runners might need twice that. But there's more to recovery than simply taking a hard-easy approach.

Smart runners take breaks from training to allow complete, unhindered repair to occur. Once a week, Rubio schedules a "true recovery day" for his athletes: 30 minutes jogging or the day off (high-mileage runners do two easy jogs). And one week per month, he cuts their overall volume by 20 percent.

Tom Cotner, coach of Seattle-based Club Northwest, agrees with Rubio and takes recovery a step further. "I always encourage runners to take planned breaks after a season or a marathon," he says. "If you don't take planned breaks, you find yourself taking unplanned breaks."

MISTAKE 5: OVERTRAIN

"I was once asked to write a scientific article on overtraining," says uber-coach Jack Daniels, author of Daniels' Running Formula. "My response was that's the simplest article ever. It's two words long: 'Avoid it.'"

Overtraining occurs when we push our bodies too hard for too long. "Too hard" can take the form of intensity, volume, long-term accumulation of hard running -- or all three. Overtraining also results from overracing. In Lore of Running, Dr. Timothy Noakes lays out the warning signs of overtraining. Some of these are:

Impaired performance

Heavy legs

Muscle and joint pain

Lethargy

Insomnia

Clumsiness

Weight loss

Elevated heart rate during training or upon wakening

Increased thirst at night

Overtraining can come on fast, with the first sign being a sudden drop in workout or race performance. Or it can materialize as chronic fatigue. Sometimes, mental burnout precedes physical burnout. Most of us look forward to our workouts. When we don't, it's often our body's way of telling us that something is wrong.

The Fix: Easy does it

If we catch overtraining early, we can use the following strategies:

Decrease training intensity and/or volume until we feel refreshed

Forgo "hard" training, logging only easy distance until we rebound

Cease all training for one or more days

Cases of severe overtraining require six-12 weeks of rest.

And under no circumstances should we ever train harder in an attempt to push through overtraining syndrome.

MISTAKE 6: INDULGE IN 'ALL YOU CAN EAT' WORKOUTS

When it comes to workouts, some runners believe that more is better. Twenty miles beats 15. More track reps trump fewer. And big, brawling workouts are a badge of honor.

In John L. Parker's fictional cult classic, Once a Runner, Quenton Cassidy is a college-age runner who undertakes a brutal training regimen. In a single workout, Cassidy runs 60 × 400m, broken into sets of five reps, with 100 meters jogging between reps and 400 meters between sets. Assuming at least 5K pace, it's an unfathomable workout.

This oft-referenced passage has inspired many a runner. Who wouldn't be impressed with such a feat? Here's who: smart coaches and runners.

The Fix: Don't eat the whole thing

"It's a common, possibly lethal mistake to work too hard in a training session," says exercise physiologist and coach Tom Schwartz of Bozeman, Mont. "As a general rule, it takes about 14 days to recover from a super-hard workout, and that assumes easier workouts for that recovery period." And if we shortchange the recovery? "The consequence would be no performance benefits and possible loss of performance capacity." In sum -- an excessive workout will require recovery similar to a hard race, eliminating all the other workouts we could be doing in the interval and risking injury.

In Parker's book, Cassidy gains psychological insights from his workout that allow him to defeat the world's top-ranked miler. Cassidy becomes a tougher competitor. In real life, the "toughest" athletes in a race are usually the best-trained; it's easy to be tough when we hurt less than the person running next to us.

MISTAKE 7: REFUSE TO ADJUST WORKOUTS

Many runners believe that once a workout is started, it must be completed exactly as planned. Any deviation is tantamount to quitting. And if we quit in workouts, we'll quit in races. These runners are wrong.

"The biggest mistake athletes make, especially good athletes, is their inability to adjust workouts on the fly," says Christian Cushing-Murray, former 3:55 miler, reigning USA masters cross country champion, and high school distance coach.

Good coaches and runners understand that unpredictable variables -- weather, fatigue, allergies, stress, etc. -- can affect our daily workouts. There are just going to be days like these. A refusal to adjust to these variables changes the workout. For example, a runner who regularly logs distance at 6:00/mile will need to run 6:30/mile if the temperature rises to 100 degrees (F). Failing to adjust could result in elevated heart rate, altered fiber recruitment, increased energy demands (making it a tempo or speed workout), and, of greater concern, cramps, heat exhaustion or even heat stroke.

The Fix: Go with the flow

"The best thing [Santa Monica Track Club coach] Joe Douglas ever did for me," says Cushing-murray, "was not tell me what the workout was going to be. If we were doing quarter repeats, he'd never tell us how many. He'd tell us to do four quarters in 56, and you wouldn't know what was coming after that. It allowed him to adjust -- if he saw you were tired that day, or you started falling off the pace -- without having to worry that you'd feel like you were failing."

Workouts are tools to achieve running goals; they're not the goals themselves. In a workout, we create a specific stimulus to trigger a specific adaptation. Adjusting on the fly lets us keep our eye on the target, to apply the correct stimulus. Adjusting the workout does not mean failing the workout -- it isn't a test, it's a tool. Remember, the adaptation's the thing.

MISTAKE 8: SEARCH FOR THE PERFECT WORKOUT

Former Running Times editor Scott Douglas coined the term "Cafeteria Runner" to describe that subset of runners who treat training like a smorgasbord. "They are the ones who choose the elements they find most appealing from a million sources and then cram them all into a week," says Douglas. "Brad Hudson says to do hill sprints, Magill says to do drills, Jack Daniels says 20-minute tempos, Solinsky does rhythm runs, plus I gotta do my long run, and I hear it's good to finish those with 1-minute pick-ups."

Cafeteria Runners aren't trying to build a training plan. They're looking for a workout-based multivitamin pill. They embrace the myth of the stand-alone workout: A workout that by itself transforms fitness, instills confidence and ensures race success. They just aren't sure which workout it is -- so many choices! -- and therefore feel obliged to try all of them. All that's missing from most Cafeteria Runners' schedules are raw eggs in the morning, sparring with sides of beef and sprinting up the stairs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The Fix: It takes a training program

Repeat after me: There are no good workouts; there are only good training programs. Workouts are links in a chain. They create fitness adaptations that will be exploited in future workouts or reinforce gains from past sessions. We wouldn't mix ingredients from German chocolate, carrot, and strawberry shortcake recipes. And we shouldn't create a training plan by throwing darts at the pages of this month's running and fitness magazines.

MISTAKE 9: BECOME RUNNING FUNDAMENTALISTS

In contrast to Cafeteria Runners, Running Fundamentalists have zero interest in trying new or untested workouts. Running Fundamentalists cling to training routines that have served them since they were first fitted for running shoes. The training worked then. It'll work now. And injuries or poor performances are just temporary setbacks.

The truth is that any type of training -- any running at all -- will make an untrained runner a better runner. The first time we donned trainers and headed out the door, we kick-started a physiological process that led to improved fitness. That's a hard first impression to shake.

But as our running bodies change, our training must change, too. What worked during our first year won't work for our fifth. Or tenth. Or twentieth. You can't go home again. When we first ran, changes in aerobic fitness (strengthened slow-twitch fiber, capillarization, etc.) were all we needed to run better. As advanced runners, we must target intermediate and fast-twitch fibers, raise thresholds, increase mitochondrial density and improve neuromuscular efficiency. As elite runners, things like cell membrane permeability and running economy become paramount.

The Fix: Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

"When my information changes, I alter my conclusions. What do you do, sir?" This quote has been attributed to John Maynard Keynes, among others, but it would serve the Running Fundamentalist well to claim it as his or her own.

All runners require new conclusions to meet the new information they should be getting from their bodies. As a masters runner, I'm forced to change my training every few years -- to combat fast-twitch fiber loss, declining VO2 max, decreased flexibility and other age-related issues. But as a result of these adjustments, my performances have slowed less dramatically than many of my peers.

If our bodies never changed, then our training could remain forever the same. But every workout creates a slightly different running body. Every age, every setback, every success alters us just a little. And that's the whole point, right? Ignoring the physiological reality to maintain faith in a "one and only" training approach isn't just misguided; it's unbelievable.

MISTAKE 10: DELAY INJURY PREVENTION PLANS

In the introduction to his 2010 Runner's World article, "10 Laws of Injury Prevention," Amby Burfoot noted that "running injuries can be caused by being female, being male, being old, being young, pronating too much, pronating too little, training too much, and training too little." In other words, running injuries occur when we run.

The time to deal with running injuries is before they occur. Yet most runners don't. Most runners wait until the first pinch in their glutes, pain on the outside of their knee or twinge in their arch to start researching terms like piriformis, IT band syndrome or plantar fasciitis.

Studies confirm that 50 to 80 percent of runners will suffer an injury during any given year. But these same studies reveal that warm-up and stretching aren't enough to prevent injury.

The Fix: A stitch in time

"I skip the last interval," says Nolan Shaheed, a sub-5:00 miler at age 62 and holder of multiple world age-group records, offering his main injury-prevention strategy. "If my training calls for 10 quarters, I quit after nine. It's always the last one that gets you."

Shaheed's strategy is a good place to start when creating an injury prevention plan. Other principles to embrace:

Don't push to the breaking point in workouts

Do exercises to prevent muscle imbalance

Allow proper recovery between training efforts

Include dynamic and static stretching

Begin glycogen (carbohydrate) and liquid replenishment within 30 minutes post-run

Incorporate strengthening exercises to ward off common injuries (e.g., heel dips for Achilles tendinosis)

It's impossible to prevent all running injuries. But a simple post-run routine can go a long way toward keeping us healthy. (For a sample routine, see Jay Johnson's "Give Me 15 Minutes".) And for those who complain that training takes up too much time already, let alone adding a post-run routine, I offer a little John Wooden: "If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?"

MISTAKE 11: TRAIN AT GOAL PACE

We've all heard the cliche: Walk before you run.

Let's amend that to: Walk and jog before you run, run slowly before you run faster, and only run a little bit faster from one workout to the next.

Because in my coaching experience, the most common flaw in our training programs is this: We base our workouts on the fitness we'd like to have rather than the fitness we already possess.

The vast majority of runners who contact me about coaching already have a goal race in mind. And the goal race is usually less than a month away. They're not looking for a training program. They're looking for a "Get Fit Quick" scheme.

Joe was one such runner. He wanted to run a fast 1500m. He hadn't raced in almost 20 years. He'd heard I'd taken 10 years off, then come back to post some fast times. He wanted one of those fast times. He wanted it in three weeks. I told him that was impossible. I told him that if he was patient, we could run some races that spring, then work for his goal 1500m the next year. He agreed. Then, against coach's orders, ran his first interval workout on the track at the next year's goal 1500m pace. He got a stress fracture. He was shocked. He told me, "But I felt good!"

Listen: We're supposed to "feel good." That's the whole point of correct training. Feeling good isn't a green light to run workouts that are beyond our reach. And running goal pace won't get us to goal race shape more quickly. If it worked that way, every bonehead who ever ran 200m reps in under 30 seconds would be a 4-minute miler.

The Fix: Grow the goals

When we train for goals as if we've already achieved them, this is what happens: We overtrain, slow down, burn out, get injured, and never reach our goal.

No one is born a perfect runner. And none of us will become one. But through incremental steps, we can become better runners. And that's the beauty of our sport: There are no shortcuts, nothing is given to us; we earn every mile, and we earn every result.

MISTAKE 12: RACE STUPIDLY (A COMPENDIUM)

We've run the gauntlet, swept the minefield, cleared the hurdles, run out of cliches. It's time to toe the line with our mistake-free training. Nothing can stop us now -- except for these race mistakes.

Leaving our race in a workout

With our race only a few days away, our confidence wanes. We decide to test our fitness with a time trial or hard interval session. Then wonder what happened when the workout goes great but our race performance falls flat. What happened was that the workout depleted energy stores, increased inflammation and roughed up our nervous system. Just like a race. Because a 100 percent workout is physiologically a race. The lesson: Leave racing for races.

Training through a race



Wouldn't it be great if we could have our race and keep training, too? Here's the problem: While young, fit runners will need two to three days between hard workouts, they'll need five to six days after a 5K race before they're recovered enough for the next hard effort, and eight to nine days following a 10K. And if they skip the race taper, they'll need to add more days to their recovery, a result of starting the race a quart low, so to speak. "Training through a race" may sound good, but it sounds less-good when we use a different word to describe the practice: overtraining.

Changing our daily routine



Admit it, most of us are creatures of habit. Operating outside the norm just leads to stress and anxiety. So with race day on the horizon, act naturally. Don't take days off from school or work. Don't try new foods. Wash the car if that's what you do. Take out the trash. Good races happen when we're focused, fit, and relatively loose -- not when our entire life has become a swirling vortex sucked into the race start line.

Changing our warm-up on race day



This one is easy: Don't do it. Ever. No matter how unfamiliar our surroundings, there's something remarkably calming and reassuring about doing the same progression of jogging, strides, dynamic stretches, peeling off warm-ups, and changing into race flats or spikes that precedes every hard workout. It reminds us that a race is just another part of training. We've been climbing this mountain for months. Race day is simply when we summit.

Going out too fast



"Most race mistakes are made in the first few minutes, or the first few miles in the case of a marathon," says Daniels. "High school cross country races are a great example. The fastest runner in the field goes out too fast and dies later on, but still wins because everyone else went out with that first runner, and they -- not being quite as good -- died even worse. The day the fourth-or fifth-best runner goes out a little more reasonable, one of them will beat the best runner."

Turning a race into a fartlek session



Elite Kenyan distance runners are famous for their brutal win-or-die-trying race strategy. They set a scorching pace from the start, launch vicious surges, and cover every move. So if you're an elite Kenyan distance runner, stop reading. For everyone else: Stop behaving like an elite Kenyan distance runner. No sprinting off the start line. No midrace mini-battles with some stranger who tries to pass you. No surging up hills to "break" opponents. There is one finish line in a race, and it's at the finish. The best strategy for getting there in the least amount of time is to run even-effort, which means draining your resources at a consistent rate -- obviously, effort during the first half of the race will feel easier than during the second half. This could entail even-pace on a flat course, or it could require a less consistent pace on a course with hills, wind, mud, grass or hay bales.

POSTSCRIPT: THE PERFECT RACE

There is no perfect race (believing there is one is another mistake). And there are no perfect training programs. And everyone makes mistakes. So expect bumps in the road. Good runners keep right on going. Remember that our best performances don't begin at the race start line. They begin with "the thinking." And a big part of what we think about is how to avoid major mistakes. Because in the end, there is one mistake that trumps all others, and that runners will regret the most: Any action today that prevents us from running tomorrow.



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