The SECRET to sticking to your running plan, why runners fail to trust their training.

Rochelle and Matt discuss the common challenge runners face: sticking to the training plan. They explore reasons behind this, including ego, peer pressure, and insecurity, and emphasize the importance of trust, patience, and consistency in training for optimal race day performance.

key topics

• Reasons runners struggle with sticking to plans
• The importance of trust and patience in training
• Risks of doing more than prescribed
• Effective communication with coaches
• Building consistency and gradual progression

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I'm Rochelle, and today this is my co-host Matt. And together we are Runversation, a conversational paced podcast for your easy-paced running journey. And we're here to chat about all things running, community, and everything in between. Hello, Matt.

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Hello, Rochelle.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

And hello, listeners. Before we get into today's episode, Matt, what did you see on your run this week?

SPEAKER_00 0:24

So yesterday I went up the Swanview Heritage Trail and I saw a small bobtail going on just minding its own business, crossing the trail or the footpath. And yeah, he just kept going. It was only a small one. I think it was like a little juvenile one, but very chilled, just crossed in front of me. I let him do his thing. He let me continue past. And yeah, pretty, pretty common to see those on the trail. But I yeah, I did see one yesterday. How about you, Rochelle?

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Well, I did not see uh Bobtaw goanna or lizard, and I didn't see many animals this week, but what I did see was on Saturday we did a group park run time trial, and our clients chose the Bibra Lake location, and we had 12 runners, and of those runners, six of them were doing the time trial, and we got six PBs. We also had pacers from our community helping out as well, which was really nice. And the coaches got a had a chance to run, and we had a first male and a first female, so that was really cool. So that's what I saw on my run this week, and it's always really nice to see people succeed when you're a coach and they don't always get to have a hit out, so mid-programmed towards the HBF run for a reason or Jindel up. They've had an opportunity to really slog it out.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

It's really good to see the team working together to help each other out. So obviously, we had one of our runners pacing, like you mentioned.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Two actually. Or sorry, two. And also I just wanted to say a huge shout out to one of our team members who was unable to run on the weekend uh due to a bit of leg soreness, but took it upon himself to provide us a bacon, egg, hash brown, full cooked up breakfast for when we'd finished our run. So huge shout out to Sunny Ruru for being a massive team player and just going to show how important culture is in the environment that we're running in in Perth.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Let's hope Sunny listens to Ronversation. All right, today we're going to talk about something that every runner struggles with at some point. And this is important to you, Matt. I know, and it's sticking to the plan. So, why do you think this is such a challenge for runners?

SPEAKER_00 2:46

Yeah, it is important to me. And I think there's a few reasons why runners, probably particularly either when they're first starting out, either with a new coach or getting into a fully structured program, tend to struggle with this. But then it can also be a little bit of an ongoing, um, I guess, bad habit. And it does grind my gears a little bit, uh, just to say the least. So I think there's a few reasons. Firstly, it's definitely probably an ego-driven thing. I think whether it's runners wanting to impress other runners or impress even in their coach, I think that's definitely part of it. Also comparing themselves to other runners, I think sometimes what tends to happen is people either, you know, if they're competing for a certain race or training for a certain race, they may become aware of other runners uh who are going to compete against them for that race. So they'll start to look at apps such as Strava, looking at their competitors' other runs, and then comparing themselves to those runners without actually understanding what that competitor's personally training for specifically or what their goals are versus what their own plan actually stipulates.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

So do you think that this is runners not trusting the plan so they don't follow it?

SPEAKER_00 4:13

I think it is a little bit of both. I think, like I mentioned earlier, when runners first start out, they probably um don't trust the process as much. I think we hear that phrase. You and I probably use this a lot, trust the process or trust the plan. But runners tend to not probably fully trust that when they're first starting out. So I think it is definitely part of it. But I also think sometimes runners tend to overthink things as well and they feel like they need to do more. And as you and I also say, sometimes less is more. So sticking to what the program says is vitally important. It's written for a reason, and you're not racing in training. So you want to make sure that you're fit and ready to go for race day, but you don't have to run your fastest runs if your plan is saying not to do that.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

Yeah, the temptation to do more. I see this all the time as a coach. Runners either feel good so they do more or they want to add extra kilometers, run faster than they're prescribed. Why is that such a risky mindset?

SPEAKER_00 5:16

Well, again, I think there's a number of reasons why it is risky. Firstly, probably the biggest risk is injury. So, again, if you're running faster than what your prescribed plan or your prescribed pace is in your program, there's definitely that that risk of doing an injury. Burnout or fatigue as well comes into play. So if runners are overdoing, overdoing it, running more kilometers or running faster for key sessions, there's that risk of burning out. And also, I think probably one of the most important things that I've learned over the years is your key sessions are there for a reason. And you want to make sure that you give your body enough time to absorb those key sessions. So if you're tending to do more than what your program says you should be doing, you run the risk of your body not being able to absorb that key session. So it just basically ruins the key session. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_01 6:13

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 6:14

So, Rochelle, do you think doing more actually comes from insecurity sometimes?

SPEAKER_01 6:19

I'm not sure it's insecurity as much as it sometimes can be peer pressure to do more. So this comes from outside running community friends. So we've got our PR run coach community, and most of us are all on the same plan. But then when there is outside influence, I think sometimes that is what gets clients or runners into that mindset of they need to do more, they need to be running faster. They should be running their easy runs faster because that's gonna make their overall progress better. But it actually sets them up for failure because if they're doing too much before a key session, it's only gonna make that key session harder to achieve at the paces that we're asking them to run at or the relative effort we're asking them to run at. So I think insecurity, yes, to some extent. Um, and that might just be an insecurity because they don't believe it's something that they can achieve. But I think it digs a little bit deeper than that. So let's break this myth because it is a big one. More training does not equal better results. What actually makes the plan work?

SPEAKER_00 7:29

Firstly, consistency. So you want to make sure that you're literally following the program on a consistent basis. Progression, as you mentioned. So when you're starting out a training block in preparation for a race, you want to make sure that it's you're progressing gradually. So you don't want to make your the first week your biggest week or your largest week or your fastest week. You want to build into the training block gradually. So that also then involves recovery, like you mentioned. Your easy runs are designed to be run easy, not at four minutes a K or not at 350 per K. Your easy runs should be run easy for a reason. And then also purpose. So you want to make sure that you've actually got purpose to what you're doing. But I feel like sometimes that purpose can get overshadowed by overtraining and doing too much. You want to make sure that that purpose is kept fresh so that it gives you that motivation to build into your program and get to race day, injury free, feeling fresh and ready to hit that start line, ready to achieve your goal.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

Yeah. And that comes into trusting the process. One of the hardest parts of the training block is that you don't always feel like you're improving, but the plan is working in the background. So have you ever experienced that before yourself?

SPEAKER_00 8:56

Yes. Um, so I think delayed fitness and adaptation is definitely probably one of the things or two of the things that I have experienced previously. And like you mentioned just then, one of the hardest parts of a training block is you don't always feel like you're improving because you're thinking that if my tempo pace is, for example, 330 per kilometer, and you're doing that for four weeks in a row, sometimes you feel like, well, I'm not going to get any faster because I'm running the same pace for a whole month. And why aren't I running next week at three and the following week at 320s and so on? So it's definitely it definitely happens, but the program is written that way for a reason to be consistent, to build that foundation, to get yourself in tip top shape for race day. And if you're running 330s at tempo pace for a month in a row, you're teaching yourself to run harder for longer. So you are going to hit your paces on race day. Why is patience such a big part of running?

SPEAKER_01 10:01

Well, because it's like anything. We can't have what we want just now. We have to work towards it. And if we don't work towards anything, then the overall goal is never going to feel as successful as what it does if you work towards something. So it's a common practice in everyday life. You know, if you want to buy a house, you have to work towards that. You have to save your money. Same thing occurs when we're training. You've got to start from the beginning. You can't just go straight into race pace, you can't go straight into race distance, especially if you're a newer runner. And this is really hard with Strava, I find, because a lot of newer runners will look at a whole bunch of athletes that have been training for two or three years and they see the success and the numbers that they're running at and they want that now. And they'll try to do that. And then that's when those risks of injuries do show up. So having a little bit of patience behind what you're trying to achieve is really, really important. So let's flip it because life does also happen. You miss a session, or you might be tired, or work's really busy, so you can't leave. What should runners not do in that situation?

SPEAKER_00 11:10

Don't cram, don't panic, and don't double up. So if you miss a session, let it go and carry on with the program as normal.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

Yeah, I always say never try and make up what you've missed because you're just going to set yourself up for failure even more. So what's the better approach?

SPEAKER_00 11:28

I always feel runners who do have a coach, I think it's definitely key that you communicate with your coach and get the best advice from them. What I would suggest is, like I just mentioned earlier, don't try and make up a session, carry on the program as normal. Or if your coach advises you to either have that day off that you've missed and potentially you could do the run the next day, but it may mean that you're tweaking that week's program slightly. And that's really between communicating between the athlete and the coach. But I would not suggest just automatically taking it upon yourself to try and make up that session because you don't want to do, for example, two sessions in three days because then your body's not absorbing the key session.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

Yeah, so you've got to look at the end game. And at the end of the day, sticking to the plan is about playing the long game. What would you say to someone right now who is feeling like they're a little bit behind?

SPEAKER_00 12:24

I would just give them that reassurance. Um, I would actually just tell them to zone out a little bit and just focus on being consistent with their program. Sticking to the program, sticking to the process. It doesn't matter if you feel like you're slightly behind. The program is there for a reason and just have full trust in your coach and in your process that is being written by your coach. And for someone feeling really good and wanting to push.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

Oh, this is a really good question. I love it when people come to me and they say, I'm really fit right now. I feel like I've never been this fit before. Race Day still is like six, seven weeks away, and they want to start doing more and adding more in, but they've not done that in the past. Or if they have added more in the past, they've broken down. So it's about talking to them where they are now, saying, okay, cool, you feel really fit and you feel like you've got a little bit more extra time to do more. What I would say is let's finish this block because this block is already in process and we want to make sure we finish the process with the goal of running healthy on the start line and then crossing that finish line, feeling strong. And then we can take what we've learned from this one into the next training block, and maybe we can add a longer warm-up and a longer cooldown to just start to build a little bit of extra mileage. Or in the long runs on the weekends, we can start to add an extra five or 10 minutes here or there, but not necessarily adding in double days because double days sometimes can actually cause more fatigue. A lot of runners think that they're good for flushing out legs after doing a hard session. But if your body's not used to that, what you're actually doing is damaging the muscle fibers even more, which is hiring that risk of injury. So it's just about understanding why they think that they need to do more or why they feel like they need to push, and then communicating that in a safe zone where they don't feel like you're shutting their idea down. So if you could take anything from the episode that we're talking about now, let it be this. The plan works if you work it.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

You don't need to do more, you just need to do what's required.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Yeah. So stay in your lane. And like I always say, trust the process.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

And keep showing up.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

Make sure you follow, subscribe, and share this with someone who needs that reminder. And until next time, let's keep the runversation going.