The Wrinkled Runner
The Wrinkled Runner
Building Resilience: Why Difficult Runs May Signal a Need to Run More
Hi Running Friend!
Today we start Season 8 talking about "bad runs" and differentiating between needing more training versus more rest. We explore why every run doesn't need to feel fantastic and how sometimes running MORE can lead to significant improvements. Yes, there are times we need an extra rest day, but that isn't always the case!
Learning to tune into our running bodies does take time, but it is important to know when we need more stimulation or more rest for the adaptations we want.
Resources from the Episode:
Podcast-
Running Consistently is One of the Keys to Improving
Overtraining
Purpose of Runs Series-
Slow Runs
Long Runs
Faster Runs
Hills
YouTube-
Consistency is the Keys to Improving
Burnout
Website-
Consistency in Running Yields Results
Overtraining and Burnout
If you are looking for a coach to help you reach your running goals, even if it's just to start to run, take a look at my Coaching Services page on the website. I do virtual, in-person (Buffalo, NY area) and also offer single zoom sessions for those would just like to chat with a coach one time.
Find my additional outlets over at the YouTube channel and at wrinkledrunner.com. Sign up over on the blog for the once-a-month newsletter! If you would like information on utilizing a running coach, check out what I can do for you here.
If you have any running-related questions, please send an email to sherry@wrinkledrunner.com…I answer every one.
You may have heard the saying to get better at running, you need to run. I use that phrase a lot with beginner runners or those who are experiencing a bit of discouragement when runs are feeling hard in a training block. Sometimes we go out for a run and it feels like crap. Our legs are heavy, they won't move, we feel like we're not getting enough oxygen or we're not getting up to speed, so to speak. Provided you aren't entering overtraining, we all experience these quote-unquote bad runs. When I first started running and I felt like that, my instinct was to take some additional rest days. I just figured I wasn't fresh, so I'd take two or three days off, go for a run and again it would feel like junk. Now that I know better, I probably would have told myself to go out for another run the next day. Running sporadically instead of consistently can make running just as hard as if we need a rest day. Now, if you're running six days a week and your legs are heavy, your resting, heart rate's up, you're not hitting any paces or RPE runs and that's a scale of one to 10 where you're rating your effort level and if you're supposed to be running an easy run, so your run's supposed to be a three or a four, but you feel like it's a seven. That probably means you do need a recovery day or two and you're in danger of overtraining. Now that is a different thing, and if you think you may be experiencing that, you can go to the show notes for this episode and there's going to be some resources for you there. But when we want every run to feel fantastic and easy, we aren't actually training anything. Your body should sometimes feel not so great. One coach that I follow refers to it as embarrassing the body. We get better when we make our body feel like it can't do something. It's an incredible machine that tries like heck to adjust itself, to get better at what you want it to do. So today's super crappy run should feel easier if we were to do the same thing next week.
Speaker 1:For myself, I can tell if I need to run more versus need more recovery based on kind of when I'm feeling crappy. Based on kind of when I'm feeling crappy. If during a run it's garbage you know I'm talking about general yuck, not pain or hints of injury, but the run is just feeling hard I will most likely shrug it off, chalk it up to needing more of the same kind of run and resume my training the next day. I don't try to replicate the workout, since each run serves a purpose, and trying to recreate a workout so quickly can lead to injury. But I assume I need to keep running and the next time that I do that workout or run I'm going to be better. Now, if I'm feeling a few hours later that I'm having abnormal soreness my resting heart rate is higher, I'm not sleeping well then I will attribute that to needing a recovery day and perhaps the run that I did, even if it felt good during the run, I might feel crappy later in the day, and so that to me is a signal that I need to take another rest day, and I know that's kind of I'm sounding kind of vague in a way, because that's based on me and my training.
Speaker 1:So another takeaway from today is get in tune with your body and how it feels in different situations. The more that you run, the more you're going to be able to do this. Now, those of us who run or move more in general through exercise able to do this. Now, those of us who run or move more in general through exercise, we have that added benefit of being in tune with what's going on. You're going to start to be able to tell if you're getting sick sooner than you used to. You know what a six-mile run should feel like for you, both during the run and after. You'll know when you feel that niggle in your calf whether it's an overuse injury starting up, which signals recovery and rest, or whether it usually happened the first few runs on a new pair of shoes. All of these things take time and trial and error to figure out, but the more that you run, the more you're going to start to gather this information about yourself. Another thing I encourage all runners to do is find out more about running and the science behind it.
Speaker 1:When I would stop running because I wasn't feeling fresh when I should have kept running, I didn't understand that. That is how training works. Some runs are supposed to feel hard. When you're training for a distance you haven't raced before, for example, you always get to a point in that training where you feel like you will never be able to execute that mileage. So the mileage of the race For me it's when I hit 16 miles in marathon training. Every time it happens, I go out for that first 16 miler, I think about how I have to get through 10 more miles in the race and do that faster than when I'm running for my long runs in training and I just cannot believe that I'm going to make it through. But that is also the point. If I can run 26.2 miles right out of the gate, then I'm training for too short of a distance. But the second 16 miler is going to feel easier. And then my body has to get through an 18 and then a 20. And the accumulation of the fatigue in your legs, all the other runs that you're doing, all of that is going to get you closer and closer to the goal and what you want to do. But if I quit or if I take days off on end and say you know, decide, well, I want to feel fresh only for my long runs, so that's all I'm going to do.
Speaker 1:You are not properly doing your training and that 26.2 is going to be impossible. So, for example, a few years ago I was training for a marathon and I could not get in a lot of the runs surrounding the long run. Now I made sure every week to get that long in, but the eights and the tens and the twelves during the rest of the week weren't happening. You know some of the shorter ones were weren't happening. You know some of the shorter ones were, but some of the medium long runs just were not. I ended up having to defer that race. It wasn't actually the long runs that were getting me, it was the fatigue not being introduced by the other ones, so that 16 miler that I'm talking about never felt good. My body was not making the adaptations that are necessary that you get with the all-encompassing training of whatever you're doing. I learned through that training period that running a long run with all the rest in the world is not how it works. Luckily, I'm not someone who gets injured very easily, but I was definitely opening myself up for injury because I didn't treat the training as a whole and my body wasn't building on each run.
Speaker 1:So instead of defaulting to an extra rest day, perhaps you need to build in more running days Now, safely and gradually. Of course, I'm going to keep pounding that in. I'm not saying run, no matter what. I'm not saying you know, oh, you feel this little pain. You think you have an injury. You know you pulled your hamstring. Oh, I'm just telling you to go out and run anyway and it's going to get better. No, it's not. That is absolutely not what I'm saying. So don't take this as a message to go from running two days a week to six. But if you're feeling like your runs are always hard and you're only running two or three days, try getting in an additional day of a few more miles. Just stick with it and unless you're dealing with pain, injury or sickness which definitely means rest and recovery stick with those running days. Embrace the harder runs, know it's ultimately making you better. And if you have any questions about anything that I'm talking about, shoot me an email and I will answer you.