RT’s Run School featuring Mark Blomeley. Mark is a strength and conditioning coach with over 10 years experience in the sports and fitness industry. Currently in Brisbane, he is a specialist strength and conditioning coach for runners from international standard elites to the every day runner.
Stop thinking so short term.
As runners we often seem to fall into the trap of wanting immediate progress and positive changes in our running. When we are in this mindset it’s the time when we are at our highest risk of falling victim to injury.
Across Australia this is the time of year when runners can most commonly fall into this mindset. The major fun runs and marathons happening over the next 3 to 4 months often lead to trying to fast track our preparation.
Why does this happen?
Often we start to set our goals for the year and start to seriously target key races from about February. Over the summer period we just cruise through it, enjoying running and doing ok, maybe doing some tris here and there. However we have not started to take our preparation for the bigger events seriously at this point.
When you only start to take your preparation seriously 3-5 months out from the actual race then there is a lot of pressure on having your training line up perfectly and completing all scheduled sessions.
This is why we end up pushing unnecessarily.
Maintaining injury free status is actually as much of a mindset shift than anything. It’s preparing mentally from 6-12 months out from your goal event. It’s purposefully starting your training 6 to 12 months out so that you can adjust to any hiccups in your training along the way.
The problem with the short term mindset is that you can feel a niggle that doesn’t feel quite right or you get sick and you immediately feel like you need to train through it. If your sickness or niggle start to escalate, this mindset continues and can end in something more serious.
When you’ve put in 6 month of solid training then suddenly a short term set back is not critical it can be worked around. It’s ok to miss a session here and there, it doesn’t set you back.
Start to take this mentality with your running. Get the long term planning and then training in place, that way short term obstacles become nothing more than a short speed bump in your race preparation.
For more advice from Mark Blomeley like his facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/mblomeley
