Get Specific and Hit Your Goals
Most athletes have goals. Some may be speed or pace goals, others may be distance goals. Whatever kind of goals you have you need to be doing specific training to hit those goals. You should take advantage of every opportunity to gain an edge in order to hit your goals.
Many events offer course previews before the race and if you can you should take advantage of them to check it out. You may learn some really valuable information that can save you time and or energy during the race. If you can not do this or it is not offered at least take a look at the course profile to get an idea of what awaits you. The best advantage you can gain is to actually run the course before the race so there will be no surprises and you know where you can be aggressive and where to take it easy.
Make your training specific to the goal and the race you have upcoming. If it is a trail run then do yourself a favor and do at least some of your runs on trails. This will help you become accustomed to uneven terrain and to strengthen the different muscles, tendons, and ligaments that you will be using; it will also help minimize post race soreness. I learned this one the hard way so trust me.
Is your goal speed or pace related? Then you need to be doing some speed work. Interval sessions, speed play, sprints are all things you should do. You should also include some work at or even slightly faster than your goal pace so you get an idea what it feels like.
Do you have a distance goal? Then most of the time you do not need to be worried about pace, you need time on your feet and should be making weekly mileage increases of around 10% while training. Some events have a set time so if you have a distance goal you are trying to hit then you must know what pace you need to average in order to hit that goal and need to train accordingly.
Short on time for a workout? No reason to despair, simply increase the intensity of the workout. While this is not ideal it is acceptable to do on occasion.
Do you have any ideas or tips? Share them with us below.
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“Training is principally an act of faith. The athlete must believe in its efficacy: he must believe that through training he will become fitter and stronger.” – Franz Stempfl
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