S2 | E6 - A Mile Wide, an Inch Deep
A Mile Wide, an Inch Deep
It’s the best description of fear I’ve come across in all my years as a coach. We often use these colloquialisms to analogize or describe a feeling and as we enter the middle of the season where 2 things have become abundantly clear to me. We are afraid to rest and we’re afraid to lose our momentum or miss out on any racing opportunity. These feelings are propelled by fear and we throw logic to the wind because we fear slowing down. While we absolutely experience entropy in our lifetime, we do not experience it within a season unless we choose to not take time to recover, reset, and rewire in small doses.
Small Breaks
These can be 1-2 day stretches after a few key races, or even just taking 10-15 minutes in the day to reflect and reset before practice. Momentum is good but when the momentum is steamrolling you and it’s a big ball of school work, friendship commitments, and training. This momentum can leave you feeling like Indiana Jones just trying to survive. A few things to try and implement and give thought too:
Can you grab 5-10 minutes of pre-practice or pre-race isolation? This can be time spent closing your eyes, listening to music, or simply organizing your life and thoughts
Minimize the overwhelm by capturing all you need to get done. Lists are powerful and give you a visual representation of what needs to be accomplished.
Give your list due dates or timelines. When you don’t our brain tends to snowball and prioritize it as an EMERGENCY
Learn how to compartmentalize your thoughts. A powerful statement or understanding: “I can’t do anything about this until after …this practice…this race…etc.”
Showing up genuine is tough and truly being able to give practice 100% means that you can only worry about what’s happening in the moment. Repeating your biology terms during your 400m repeats isn’t going to help you remember them - it’s only going to frustrate you as you try to operate at 200
Set a reasonable standard. When you show up to EVERY practice with the expectation that it has to be perfect, you’re only leaving room for disappointment to enter the picture. When it comes to training and racing - give yourself a range of paces to hit, and a reasonable expectation for performance based on your current stress level. We see stress in one direction.
Change the Stimulus
Parker Valby, ever heard of her? She’s notable for her performances and her unusual training method which involves running but is bookended by a healthy dose of crosstraining. She’s a big proponent of the Arc Trainer and the biggest reason is that she can get a large aerobic stimulus without the accompanying impact load she’d get from the same running volume. So why don’t we just do all of our training without impact? There is a necessary balance where to perform as a runner we have to have adapted to the impact stimulus for appropriate running mechanics, bone density, and muscular adaptations. So you need to do enough running to illicit a response but not so much that you’re overloading your body to it’s breaking point. This season I have had more of my athletes integrate crosstraining ON TOP of the mileage I’ve programmed which has allowed us to run lower mileage marks 35-42 miles per week but with training hours that are closer to someone who runs 45-52 miles. At this point in the season they are fresher and recover faster than their opponents.
Use the rule of 1.3x - If you have a 40-minute run planned, plan for a 52-minute bike ride or elliptical where you target the same heart rate or replicate the intentions of a workout
Don’t use crosstraining ONLY when you’re injured, it is a great way to build aerobic capacity without the extra impact stimulus
Changing up your training for 1-2 days every now and again is a great way to mentally refresh your body and break up your training cycle so you’re not stuck in a rut
If you’re going to add strength training in mid-season do not go to failure or “until I’m sore” in a set, you will pay for it dearly over the next 3 days. It’s best to do your strength training reasonably far from big races until your body adapts.
Go rock climbing, go swimming, or do a yoga or pilates session. Do something that requires you to focus on something besides splits - it’s refreshing!
Recovery Practices
For fear of being a broken record, I’ll keep things succinct. You need to be multi-dimensional in your approach to muscular recovery. If you finish your workout and consider a shower, dinner, homework, and straight to bed a quality recovery routine - you are working towards the professional life as a 2x4. There are many little ways to recover better that don’t require a masseur, dry needling, or ibuprofen.
If you have access to tools and resources know how to use them and teach others!
Normatec Boots - Great for passive recovery - you can do homework or relax in these after your long run
Foam Roller - Your best friend and nemesis; know how to roll more than your quads.
Lacrosse Balls - Pinpointed rolling can be uncomfortable but necessary for stubborn knots
Theragun - A great passive recovery tool that can be used in conjunction with a foam roller or lacrosse ball for tight areas
Hydration and Nutrition
100oz minimum per day and an electrolyte supplement for replenishment
Protein intake = 1g/ lb of body weight. If you weigh 140 lbs, work towards 140g of protein/ day. This is a big part of good bone health and proper muscle recovery
Quality calories aren’t always easy calories. Taking time to eat a quality meal instead of saving 10-15 minutes for packaged food will serve you in the long run. If good food is hard with your schedule. Use Sunday to prep meals for the week. There are TONS of meal prep recipes and ideas.
Know when you need a day off
This is when you duck under that rolling ball and let it pass over you. This is when you take a rest day to let your body recover, catch up on homework or life responsibilities. This is when you are struggling to feel good on runs, you’re mentally and emotionally run down. This is when I talk to athletes about the philosophy called, the luxury of control. It’s pretty simple - you can either choose to slow-down, or be forced to slow down. Being forced to slow down looks a lot like sickness, muscular injuries, or stress. It’s not just about overloading the body with stimulus - it can be a factor of under-fueling. The biggest driver in not recovering? The fear of losing out on training or racing opportunities and feeling like you’re falling behind.
