Training Traps - Finale

We all got into running for one reason or another – some of you recently, a few of us many years ago. You enjoy the active and running lifestyle for your own reasons: health, fitness, wellbeing, state-of-mind, participation, performance, perfection or podium and, in some sense, pride.

Some things have changed; some things haven’t. Your training comes to reflect the reasons why you run. The basics haven’t changed: you still need to run to get running’s benefits: swim, cycle and gym are good, but not as good.

You want training to be what you want it to be, and effective. Yet, amongst the technology, self-professed gurus, and Coach-google, basic training errors are still made: many out of running’s present culture, some out of habit and ego. Are you trapped by these?

Remember, what works for the pros and what are promoted as “the best”, “the most effective”, “the ideal”, “the latest” or “short-cuts ” are rarely what they are made out to be. They simply don’t work for most. Perhaps these are your trap?

Through 2010-14 I held discussions, meetings, race and program reviews, and constructed strategic performance plans with over 700 runners and coaches (and 350+ triathletes). I've shared the Top Ten Run-training Traps with you, and a cure or ‘get-out’ with a long-term prevention strategy for each.

No-one sets out to fall into a traps, or make training errors. If you’re in one, get out. And stay out.

Plan your training. Ensure it’s progressive, cyclic, varied and, importantly, that it relates to you – your experiences, your capacities, resources and aspirations. Keep a log and journal of what you do. Review, reflect and re-work according to it and your plan.

Heed the lessons and advice of others, yet don’t blindly follow it or a squad. Learn to listen to your body, for it will tempt and test you as you train and trick it.

Rethink the training and ego battles, particularly those with numbers. Avoid the traps. And, the next time you race – knowing that you’ve done all that you can in training – go hard, and go well.

Trap 10: Not Listening To Your Body...

Believe it or not, the laws of physics, chemistry, mechanics and biology do relate to you, too. Attempting to avoid them, believing that you’re too, err, special, or regularly cutting-corners or cheating, only lead down five paths: fatigue, ill-health, injury, guilt and shame.

Learn to listen to your body. Heed the signs from Mother Nature and her brother, Time. Your body has an infinite wisdom, yet you need to give yourself permission to listen, hear, and act accordingly...

·      Too little respect for Mother Nature:

Get out: accept that her 3.5 billion years of experience carries a little more weight than yours. Learn to listen for her signs, hear them, and act upon them. Better now than later, too

Prevention: read about and listen to the experience of others, and the expertise of professionals. Learn from your errors, and don’t make them mistakes. Aim to train regularly and consistently and not merely to record numbers

·      Too little respect for ‘listening to your body’. Learn and know what to listen for

Get out: that raised resting and easy-session heart rate and perceived effort, heavy legs and inertia to get out of bed may be saying, “ease up today, champ”. Respect that.

Prevention: that tender, sore, red, inflamed spot by a bone, tendon or joint that persists or get’s worse upon getting out of bed, warming up, or when you’ve cooled down is telling you something more serious. Respect it even more

·      Too little understanding of “pain”. What we experience in long or hard races is ‘Self Induced Discomfort’. It’s not true pain or suffering. Understand and respect the differences and train to physically and mentally reduce or cope better with SID, and minimize pain.

Get out: pain is Mother Nature’s warning sign that something is not right – that damage is about to be done, or has been done.

Prevention: minor injuries come with the territory if you train and race hard. Overuse, chronic and recurring injuries aren’t a badge-of-honor. Prevent them through improving your mechanics and technique, and through progressive cyclic, varied and individualised training

·      Too little injury prevention training. Most injuries can be prevented.

Get out: pay attention to little niggles, sore spots, a sore-throat fatigue , and dodgy mechanics and/or poor technique. A few lighter days now may save you missed weeks or months of training later

Prevention: get a video analysis of your swimming and running mechanics and technique. Perform a functional strength assessment too. Emphasize alleviating deficits, anomalies and imbalances. Use targeted and specific strength and mobility training on a regular basis

·      Too little respect for Time. Remember…planning, patience, persistence and power produce performance. Patience and persistence pay respect to Time:  

Get out: focus on training consistency and regularity.

Prevention: ‘Stacking’ or accumulating sessions over time (not all the time) is what brings success. Persistence provides performance. It will take at least 6-8 years to realize your potential.

·      Too light and too lean. Optimal body weight and body composition for performance and health aren’t the same things:

Get out: avoid the trap – too light and too lean is not necessarily better

Prevention: record and log your body weight and body-fat (and strength or power) in a standardized manner. Graph them alongside consistent training blocks and race-results. Associate both to find what works best for you

·      Too much dwelling on a poor session or poor race

Get out: value that no one session or race will make you, but they do have the potential to break you.

Prevention: Review, re-work and move on

·      Too much reliance upon technology and toys:

Get out: leave the gadgets and toys at home occasionally. Learn their shortcomings too – look-up “cardiac drift”

Prevention: re-learn and appreciate how and why there’s merit in simply going for a swim, a bike and a run without measuring it. Learn more about feel and be dictated less by numbers for, in the heat of competition and racing, your body dictates what you do -not prescribed numbers

·      Too much reliance upon synthetic foods and nutrients. Gels, powders and supplements are not major food groups, macronutrients nor micronutrients.

Get out: go to the fresh-food stands of the local market more often than you go to your local sports-store or cycle-shop. Differentiate between day-to-day real food and race-relevant “nutrition” that works best for you

Prevention: visit your sports-medicine specialist and discuss relevant performance- and health-related blood, urine and saliva tests to provide a baseline on various elements such as iron, other minerals, antioxidant status, hormone balance, blood glucose and cholesterol. Follow up with a visit to a registered dietitian or nutritionist and work out a plan. Work that plan too.

How well do you listen? 

What do you hear?

Trap 9: The Terrible Toos 3 - sameness

Training is simply the accumulation of repeated exercise or training sessions. That doesn’t mean that you should repeat the same types of sessions week in or week out. Of course, practical and life constraints make daily/weekly structure – more accurately, routine - imperative for most. 

But, within that, your training sessions can and should vary in their nature, structure and content on a daily, weekly and mesocycle basis.  They should reflect the objectives of the block or phase you’re in, your training age and developmental stage, and any necessary daily flexibility. Don’t base them on whims, group agreement, a squad approach, what you did last week, nor lazy/slack planning.

·      Too much haphazard training repeated week after week (see Traps 1, 2, 5, 6 & 7).

Get out: Follow the plan that gives direction to your program and sessions

Prevention: Have a plan, not just a program. Work the plan, not simply follow a program

·      Too much emphasis on weekly volume (kilometres or hours), and too little focus on meeting individually planned aims, objectives and performance-related criteria

Get out: Numbers don’t dictate success; they simply fuel pride. Train with purpose, flexibility and joy. Don’t’ confuse progress measured by training-based numbers with development by performance-based criteria

Prevention: have an individualised plan. Work your plan

·      Too little direction: goals that are too lofty or too general

Cure: some training is better than none. Be realistic in relation to where you’re at, the time and resources available, and the progress you’re likely to make.

Prevention: get a coach, or mentor. Review your past, plan your present and progress toward your future

·      Too few priorities

Get out: focus upon 1 or 2 key elements per session, and do these well.

Prevention: Priorities should change dependent upon your strengths & weaknesses, your previous training load/s, and the objectives of your training cycle or phase

·      Too little variety in sessions (structure), locations, loading, routines and programs.

Get out: think, and create. Aim to do 1 thing different each session for a month.  

Prevention: Training loads can and should be systematic, progressive and varied. This isn’t the same as trying to go further or faster each week

·      Too much (run-) training when tired. Learn to ‘train to run when tired’, not simply ‘run when tired’

Get out: don’t beat yourself up too much with racing, run-training and complementary training. They’re all pieces to a puzzle. Watch the ‘quality’ of your running (ie. technique and form) when fatigued. Bad mental, technical and physical habits will return when fatigued during competition

Prevention: Train for improvement over time, not all the time. Make the time to learn, understand, practise, rehearse and train ‘running well’ when tried. Remember ‘better is better’.

·      Too much emphasis on ‘survival’ rather than ‘performance’

Get out: don’t beat yourself up physically and mentally with training or racing. Be wary of the language, thoughts, approach and habits you use in your approach to training and sessions. Think and train for performance, not simply surviving

Prevention: Build success into your program and progress, not failure. Use your log/dairy and plan to reduce the impact of the lows, and increase the duration of the highs

·      Too much reliance on the ‘squad’ or ‘group’ approach.

Get out: there is also a “u” (you) in sqUad and groUp, ensure you’re catered for.
Prevention: if you’re not catered for, move on. A good dose of solo-training isn’t a bad thing – race it, train it.

Do you fall into the sameness trp?

Trap 7: Terrible Toos 1 - speed

As endurance athletes, we runners are meant to endure: endure effort, time, fatigue and the elements. Sure, various continuous, fartlek, interval and repetition based training sessions help us improve performance (and feel better), and in various ways for different length races or events. 

Running faster in and for training helps to improve. Yet, tipping the balance towards 'too fast', 'too much too fast' and 'too fast to soon' sets the scales toward the risks out-weighting the benefits: establishing bad training, motivational and technique habits, plateauing, an early peak, race-season frustration, poor results and injury.


The main challenge comes in the freedom that running faster often provides. It also makes us feel good. The early metabolic changes that allow us to run-faster (say, during intervals) from week-to-week outpace the adaptations our muscles, tendons and bones need to make for us to be able to cope with the increase load, stress and shock of running faster. It's not our metabolic machinery that often breaks down, it's the musculoskeletal support and movement systems.

How much, how fast, how often is very much an individual thing. If you're not certain, err on the side of caution.

Be wary the Speed Traps:

·      Too many hard days, with too few easy days and ‘unloading’ weeks.

Get out: Don’t confuse high volume ‘moderate’ training with true hard sessions. 
Prevention: Done properly - specific to your capacities, plan and races – you’ll need the easy days to recover, and lighter unloading weeks to adapt. Work your plan.

·      Too little general preparation or base training per macrocycle.

Get out: hold your nerve – patience, persistence and passion is power.

Prevention: A large proportion of your training time should be spent doing lower intensity training particularly through your general preparation (base and build) phases, even during the race season, and certainly when  recovering from races, ill-health or injury.

·      Too fast too soon during general preparation or base phase, and too much race-specific training too soon - particularly for novice, intermediate and those returning to running after a long lay-off.

Get out: Ensure you establish your base or foundation.

Prevention: Give your body time to adapt before increasing the volume of your more intense work.  There’s no need to rush. Learn from the previous macrocylce/year. Revise your log/diary/journal, and revisit your plan

·      Too much fast (intense) training, and too fast during easy sessions.

Get out: easy sessions are meant to be that, easy. Have the courage to execute them. If your hard/fast sessions are truly that you'll need the easy sessions.

Prevention: Patience and consistent regular training are keys to your ultimate success. Revisit your plan.

·      Executing (work) intervals and sets too fast and too short, and having too much rest between them.

Get out: There’s little to be gained from going much faster than your current 5km (run) time-trial or race speeds - particularly through your preparation phases as they approximate your VO2max, a level you’ll rarely perform above. 

Prevention: In a cyclic manner, aim to build the volume of these intensities from 2 to 8% of your total volume, with 1:1 to 1:0.25 work-rest intervals for, say, 3-5minutes and 30sec-2mins intervals respectively. Of course, these are dependent upon your capacity, experience, future race distance/s and strength & weaknesses. Leg speed ‘sets’ (eg. strides, accelerations) and ‘drills’ for neuromuscular efficiency can be used smartly all-year.

·      Training faster than one’s current level of fitness, in “hope” of some distant grandeur goal.

Get out: Don’t get ahead of yourself. Work in the here and now, with an eye to building to your future

Prevention: Revisit your previous race/year reviews and your plan. Use current and relevant metrics or results. Use current levels of fitness (eg. time-trial or ‘key session’ results) to build your fitness and performance (base).