New Year, New Statistics

As you can tell from the December 13th edition of this blog, I'm kinda sorta into technology and data. But in order for that data to be useful, I need to correlate that data into statistics. For example, here's a post that members of one of my Facebook running clubs saw from me back in November:

2021 was a good November for me. I blasted through the annual mileage goal (1700 miles) that I failed to achieve last year. New target: 2,021 miles in 2021! The good news: as of the end of November, I am on track to reach my annual goal by 12/29 and to end the year with 2030. With 1 day off each week, the holidays & travel days, I’m guessing I have 22 running days left this year. So, I need 7.4 miles each of those days I run to reach my goal. Here are the November details:

200.01 miles in November, which is 2.5 miles less than last month. I am at 1854 miles for the year so far. I’m on track for 2030 by 12/31/20, currently running about 4 miles ahead of schedule on my annual goal of 2,021. November’s miles are an average of 9.1 miles per day for 22 running days, which was 73% of the month. An average of 6.7 miles per day over all 30 days in November. That is above my 8.3 miles-per-running-day average for the year and also above my YTD average (67%) of days running (223 days out of 334). My November average of 43.1 miles per week was less than October but above my annual average of 38.7 miles per week 2021 YTD. 

As I described in the December 20th edition of this blog, there are many different things out there that can motivate us as runners. Call me a nerd, but setting a goal and tracking the statistics along the way motivates me! If you, like me, are motivated or at least interested in tracking your running statistics, keep reading for more details. On the other hand, if your eyes roll back in your head when you think of such details, or if you have arithmophobia, you may want to stop reading now.

There is Raw Data

Here's a snapshot of a spreadsheet that I've been using and refining for a few years now to generate all 

those statistics:

As I update this sheet during the year, all I have to do is add a new line, enter the distance run that day, and the sheet does the rest. If you're interested in having a spreadsheet like this of your very own, leave me a comment on this blog or in the Facebook group Realistic Running and I'll fix you right up!

There are Daily Statistics

Date

Day of the Year (1-365)

Days Left in the Year

Total Miles in the Last 7 Days

Monthly Miles to Date

Annual Miles to Date

Miles You Should Have Run to Date

Miles Remaining to Reach Your Goal

Miles Per Day Needed to Reach Your Goal

Days Until You Reach Your Goal

Projected Date to Reach Your Goal

Projected mileage at End of the Year

There are Monthly Statistics

Average Miles Per Day This Month

Running Days This Month

Average Miles Per Running Day This Month

Average Miles Per Day This Year

There are Annual Statistics 

Number of Running Days This Year

Average Miles-Per-Running Day This Year

Average Miles Per Week This Year

Maximum Miles Per Week This Year

Average Miles Per Week for Each Month

And Then There are the Graphs!

A picture is worth a thousand words. Here are two pictures! The top graph has the "target" line for Miles Per Year in red, and the actual mileage in blue. The bottom graph has the target 2021 MPY as the horizontal centerline, and my actual mileage in blue, wavering around the centerline.

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A Special Motivation Just for You

With the year coming to a close, it’s a time when many are working hard at finishing up the current year's goals while looking ahead to new goals in the new year. Regardless of the goal, it’s motivation that is responsible for getting it done. There is a wide range in the amount of motivation an individual needs to reach their goals. Some of us are intrinsically motivated, while others require one or more carrots-on-a-stick to get us up and out the door. And that intrinsic motivation can change based on current circumstances. This post looks at a few of the different forms of motivation you can try, whether you just need a kick in the pants to get out the door on a snowy Saturday, or whether you need something extra to get you through those last few runs to meet an annual mileage goal.

Many Options

Dictionary definitions of "motivation" say things like:

• the reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way
• the general desire or willingness of someone to do something

Let's face it... the fact that you are reading this blog probably means that you are a Runner. (I'm pretty sure my wife - not a runner - doesn't even read this!) That's a capital-R Runner, meaning you make somewhat of a habit out of this pastime. Just that fact alone means you are already more motivated than 85% of Americans. (About 50 million Americans participate in some form of running or jogging, according to to a 2020 report from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association.[1])

A Matter of Life &Death

For some, it's a simple fact: run or die. Literally. There are a number of chronic conditions that running helps to keep in check. Running has benefits in the prevention of obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes, osteoarthritis and hip replacement, benign prostatic hypertrophy, respiratory disease, cancer, and disability. Running, even in quite low doses, is associated with a substantial reduction in cardiovascular and all-cause mortality.[2]. I can relate! With a family history including hypertension & dyslipidemia, and having had asthma since childhood, maintaining and even improving my health is definitely high on my motivation list.

Annual Mileage Goals

Another good source of motivation is to set an annual mileage goal. I've been doing this for a few years now as a background goal in addition to any events I might have on my schedule. It started in 2016 with a magazine-based challenge for 1,000 miles per year. I thought, "That's less than 20 miles a week, I can do that!" So I started tracking, and ended up that year with a bit over 1200 miles. Every year since then I raised my new annual goal by 100 miles over what I achieved the previous year. In 2020 I had my first "failure"; I topped the previous year's 1600 but failed to reach the current year's 1700-mile goal. I more than made up for that in 2021, when I blew past the 1700-mile goal in early November. At that point I did some quick math and set a new goal: 2,021 miles in 2021. As I write this on 12/20/2021, I am only 24 miles away from this lofty goal. "Running The Year" has been a thing for many years. I never thought it was within my realm of possibility. But CONSISTENCY (that's another post [3]) got me close enough to go for it, and achieve it!

Event-Based Goals

Whether it's your first marathon or your fiftieth, a Couch-to-5k or your weekly Parkrun, races and other events on your calendar are a dependable source of motivation. Most recreational runners run "races" without any hope of winning. But realistically, runners of every ability and experience level can use any event as a motivational goal. Signing up for a race of a distance you've never run before means an automatic PR! In other cases, you can run your local annual 5k against "former you". This always gives you a reason to train and try harder. Successively harder goals are to PR, win your age group, and maybe even some day place overall, depending on your ability and how hard you want to try. Finally, there is always the run-for-charity option at larger events. Raising money and running for a worthy cause can help make training for and participating in an event more about the cause than about you. Any running event provides many goals for everyone! 

Running Streak

Again, I've detailed this topic in another post [4]. To summarize here, a Running Streak is a type of personal challenge where the runner vows to run at least one mile every day for so many days. It's fun to start small (for example, New Year's Day to Ground Hog Day. it's only a month!) and then see how long you can keep it going. A Running Streak helps teach you how to run slow and easy, to pace yourself, and to be determined in the face of daily adversities that may arise. By starting with only a month goal for this, you give it time to create a habit but it's not an insurmountable time period... it's only a month!

Friendly Competition

This is the realm of the office Step Challenge or Biggest Loser competition. As long as you can keep it friendly, this is a reliable source of motivation. It's great to be able to pit yourself against each other, driving each other forward to succeed. Even the "loser" is still a winner in this case!  

Running With Friends

Whether it's a neighbor or a local Running Club [5], running with friends can motivate you to get your lazy self out the door. In this case, peer pressure is a good thing. When someone is depending on you to be there, your activity- or lack thereof - is no longer all about you. Now there is someone else relying on you. Also, running with others of different ability can help you to either slow down or speed up, whichever you are having trouble doing. It's amazing how much more quickly the miles go by when you run them while you're having a conversation with one or more friends. It can also be amazing to learn that your "conversational pace" is actually faster than you thought it was. On the flip side, if you need to learn to slow down, running while chatting with others who are naturally a bit slower than you are can help you dial back your speed - while it's helping them to run with someone faster (see above). Need motivation? Try running for someone else for a change instead of just yourself!

Epilogue

Please don't ever forsake your running due to lack of motivation! There are so many different ways to get motivated. Bookmark this post. Share it with a friend. Share it in your running Facebook Group. Get to know what motivates YOU, and get ready to use it. 

References

[1] Running/Jogging Participation Report 2020

[2] Effects of Running on Chronic Diseases

[3] https://plantbasedplodder.blogspot.com/2020/01/consistency-is-key.html

[4] https://plantbasedplodder.blogspot.com/2018/07/streaking.html

[5] Find A Running Club

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Tech Can Be Your Friend

If you follow any online (or print, that is still a thing) running-oriented sites, you will see quite a few exhortations to “leave the technology at home” for a more relaxing run, and other possible advantages. That’s fine, but I think that as long as you manage the relationship, technology can be your friend and running buddy. 

I don’t want to say here that any brand is better than another, but I’ve been a Garmin user for so many years I can’t remember how long it’s actually been.  It all started maybe 15 years ago with the Forerunner 305, but that is not the story I want to tell here. (Can you believe I actually ran with this huge thing on my wrist?)

A quick Google search of “run without technology” will turn up a number of headlines exhorting us to unplug. Here are but a few:

 No, You Don't Need Any Technology to Have a Good Run

The Benefits of Running Without Technology

Ditch the Technology to Improve Your Running

Yes, you can go running without technology

Minimalist Running: Ditch the Technology and Run Free

But my thinking is that like anything else, as long as you can control yourself, technology can be your friend and faithful running sidekick. Here's a quick overview of some of the great things I think running technology has to offer.

Elapsed Time

This has been available on digital watches pretty much since we first saw digital watches. So I don’t think this one counts as “technology” any more.

Distance

When I started running, I had to get in the car first and go measure the route using my car’s odometer. Luckily I was young and could remember where most of the mile splits were. Having this data on my watch saves me time & gas now! I set my watch to do an automatic lap every half mile by default. But when I’m doing speedwork, I create a workout with the appropriate intervals. This way, I don’t have to go sneak onto a school track after hours to do intervals. Also, the watch tells me when to start and stop each interval, so I don’t even really need to look at it. But it’s there, watching me run. This feature also allows me to run in circles at the end of a run to end up with a total distance that is an even number of miles. Everyone does that, right?

Pace

This can be instantaneous or averaged by the lap, by the mile, by the run. I use this during tempo runs to know that I am staying on the prescribed pace. Instantaneous pace changes way too often to be useful. Conversely, the pace for the entire run is also not useful because it’s too late to do anything about my pace at that point. I have one of the watch’s data screens tell me the Current Lap Pace. With the default auto-lap set at every half-mile, I get a good average of my pace over the last zero to five or so minutes as that half-mile progresses. That gives me a chance to see something meaningful and adjust as needed without trying to figure it out with constantly changing instant data.

Heart Rate

Knowing my heart rate at any given moment is a great tool for keeping my easy runs easy. On Easy Run Days I can use my heart rate data to slow down. Many different things can affect your heart rate during a run: the terrain, the wind, the temperature, the humidity, your hydration, how much sleep you had the night before. Are you overtraining? That can also be reflected in your heart rate. I also like to train myself for good endurance by starting long runs slow – by keeping my heart rate lower, and then speeding up at the halfway point by just enough to end with a negative split – the second half faster than the first half of the run.

Beyond the above four data items, some watches can start getting complicated.

WARNING! Science and Math in Use Ahead!

Power

Do you remember your high school Physics? “Power” is defined as the amount of energy transferred or converted per unit time. What does that mean in English? In other words, “Power” is the rate with respect to time at which “Work” is done. “Work”, involves moving something through a distance. When you consider how long it takes to move that thing, you’re talking about “Power”. So, running is ”Work”; the force is basically the weight of your body and the distance is how far you are running. When you also consider your pace, now you’re talking about “Power.” The thing is, having to move your body during a run changes based on going uphill or downhill, having a headwind or a tailwind, and even how slippery a wet path or sandy trail might be.  I have added an app to my watch that can estimate the Power I’m using. This works because the GPS watch knows how fast I’m moving, whether I’m going uphill or down, and even what the wind is. We all know that running uphill or into a headwind is more difficult. That’s because we have to generate more POWER to move at the same pace uphill than we do on a flat path. While this is more often used by cyclists, some runners train by power output, slowing down when going uphill to keep their power output as close to constant as possible. At the very least, it’s interesting just to see the data showing how much more power it takes to run uphill!

VO₂ & VO₂Max

I have another watch app that uses a tried-and-true 53-year-old method to estimate my body’s maximum use of oxygen and estimate in real time how my current efforts measures up to that. The Cooper Test is a test of physical fitness. It was designed by Kenneth H. Cooper in 1968 for US military use. The point of the test is to run as far as possible within 12 minutes. The outcome is based on the distance the test person ran, their age and their gender. The results of the Cooper Test do a fair job at estimating VO₂Max, which – oversimplified - is how much oxygen your body uses over time. [1] Professional athletes have this measured in a lab running on a treadmill wearing a breathing apparatus. Thank you very much, I’ll settle for the estimate. Some watches have a built-in estimate of VO₂Max. The watch calculates and adjusts this value over time, based on your running pace, distance, and heartrate data. Some research has shown this well-known formula to be up to 90% accurate. My watch tells me that my own VO₂Max “is superior for men in my age range,” that “my fitness age is 20,” and that “that’s the top 5% for your age and gender.” Well, thank you, Watch for making me feel great about myself! But I’ve noticed that my watch can change it’s opinion of me after a few easy runs. But it does track in line with my fitness over time, fluctuating along with the intensity of my training, so I’ll keep watching it. If I start running harder & faster but see my VO₂Max decrease, maybe then I’ll start to be concerned.

The above list of data points only scratched the surface of what's available with modern technology. There are runners who never use anything more than a simple wrist stopwatch. Yes, they exist - I know one of them personally. But I love my advanced-feature watch and will likely always run with one. The type of run I’m doing at any given time will determine how much I look at it while running, but I will look back and evaluate the reams of data after pretty much every run. I still use “old fashioned” technology – an Excel spreadsheet – to log my daily runs. The spreadsheet calculates so many data points: weekly, monthly, annual mileage; daily averages, and the number of miles left in my annual goal are some of the things I track. 

Call me a Nerd, but I enjoy looking back at the data to see how far I’ve come, and to aim for where I’m headed. I think you should, too. Tech can be your friend.

#realisticrunning

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[1] Reference: A comparison of methods of predicting maximum oxygen uptake

Plan Every Run, Run Every Plan

 I’ll take the liberty of stating that even if they don’t follow one, most runners are familiar with the concept of a training plan. Maybe you have never used a training plan. Maybe that’s because you’ve never prepared for a race. Maybe that’s because you “just like to run.” Maybe you use a training plan only when training for an event, but that’s a special time and most of the year you don’t use a training plan. Maybe I’ve used the word “maybe” too many times in this opening paragraph.

Whatever the reason - whether you are new to running, intimidated by training plans, or you just don’t like “structured running” – I’m telling you today that you really should be using a training plan. Especially for races, but also for specific goals (annual mileage), as well as year-round. Every run should be part of a plan. Plan Every Run, Run Every Plan.

To explain a little further, a “training plan” is a written plan for when, how far, and how fast you will run during a given period of time. Why is so much formality necessary? A plan is a secret weapon. A plan will get you moving when there are other obstacles to putting one foot in front of the other: weather, attitude, energy, etc. A plan will hold you back to keep you “safe” when you’re feeling too good for your own good. Plan Every Run, Run Every Plan.

A plan can be weekly, monthly, annual, or event-driven. Many of us are familiar with an event-driven plan (e.g., marathon training), which can guide you to the proper training needed to get to the starting line healthy and ready to achieve your goals for that event. Likewise, an annual, monthly, or weekly plan can guide you to the proper training needed to achieve your goals for that specific time period. A plan is a must to help you rehab from an injury or return to running safely after some time off.

But the secret power of a training plan is to keep you safe from yourself, regardless of whether you need protection from laziness or over-zealousness. The only thing you need to do is plan your runs, and discipline yourself to follow the plan. If you do those things, you have one more reason to get up, go outside and run. Valid though they may seem at the time, we all have an endless supply of excuses to avoid running: I didn’t sleep well; I just sneezed; my foot hurts; it’s too hot; it’s tool cold; it’s raining; it’s snowing; my running buddy just bailed so I’ll bail too (to name just a few.) Similarly, we all give ourselves ample opportunity to hurt ourselves by doing too much too soon: I feel great today; I just got my new shoes; I can catch that person up ahead of me; I can run faster/longer than the person on the next treadmill; I need to lose five pounds; I need to grab the Strava Local Legend. All of these are great motivators, but it’s when we overextend our abilities (especially our ability to recover) that we have the greatest probability of injuring ourselves. No one wants to hear those dreaded words from a doctor, “No running for two weeks.”

Now that I’ve got your attention, I’ll dial back the formality a bit. No, you don’t really have to write every run down before you do it. You should definitely have a plan for your run’s pace & distance in your head before you head out. But if you need an extra kick of motivation to get over a hump or slump, you should go ahead and try writing it down ahead of time. If there’s no event in your future, plan out the next month of running. How many days a week do you want to run? You should be varying the types of runs; which ones are going to be long, short, easy, hard, etc.? How long, exactly? How fast, specifically? How many intervals? Also make sure you don’t do “effort runs” on back-to-back days. Plan Every Run, Run Every Plan.

If you need a reason to get up and run, write it down and then do it because that’s What The Plan Says. Plan it, do it, and be proud of yourself. If you are going through a trying time – recovering from a race, preparing to start race training, feeling sick – write that plan to keep yourself in check. When the plan says “Run short and slow”, do what it says, rejoice in meeting your plan, and call it a day. If the plan says “Recovery Run”, do NOT race the next treadmill or try to catch that runner up ahead. Do NOT add hills on interval day “because you feel good.” Plan Every Run, Run Every Plan.

With the new year almost upon us, now is the time to build the discipline & consistency you need to be a successful, healthy, happy runner in the next year and beyond! Plan Every Run, Run Every Plan!

#realisticrunning

Listen to Your Body

A term that’s used frequently on social media with regard to running is “listen to your body.” This is a catch-all term that appears to mean, “if any body part feels less than perfect, cancel your run.” It's easy to turn this into a "final straw" excuse not to run.

Certainly we are all capable of listening to our body. The thing is, do we understand what our body is saying to us? Sometimes our body does not seem to be speaking the same language. Wait, what was that? Did you say, “No quiero correr hoy,” or “necessito correr hoy?” I understand a few words but what was that first word again? Getting it wrong could mean lack of progress in your running career or extended down -time due to injury. thinking we understand when we really don’t could be the worst situation: a setup for failure, whether that’s minimal gains or debilitating injury.

Here’s an example.

I ran a goal marathon this past May. That went as well as can be expected after it went virtual, but that’s a different story. After 842 training miles over twenty weeks, my body had earned a rest. After returning home, during the next Autumn Arch Run Club weekly run, I learned that the brewery was hosting a 5k in the very near future. After marathon training, “only a 5k” would be a rest day, but I’m a competitive person, so of course if I run a 5k I want to run it “fast.” Don’t get me wrong – I wasn’t going to win, except for maybe my age group. But I’m always looking to Beat Yesterday.

I asked my body if it was up for the challenge, and when I listened to my body, it said it wasn’t sure. I had eleven (11) days to train. I thought, if I run a hard run every other day, I can get four workout runs in before a few easy pre-race days. My plan was to start with some intervals the next day and then repeat every other day with a lower number of longer intervals. I had a lot of easy miles on my legs at that point, so of course I planned to listen to my body along the way.

The first training day was awesome: 4x800m intervals, each one faster than the previous, averaging just above my 5k PR pace. . It felt great to run “fast” again!  I asked my body how it was feeling, and I listened to my body tell me, “All systems go.” After another easy day, it was back to running hard. This was a Saturday – my traditional long run day – but this time I had a new goal in mind: 5x1km intervals, each one faster than the previous, averaging well below my 5k PR pace. This felt even better than the previous effort! This was going to work! “Hey body,” I asked, “Are we going to do this?” I listened to my body. “YES!” was the resounding answer from my body. Another easy day, then another workout. Now it’s Monday, my usual interval day; today was going to be epic! I banged out 4x1.25km intervals, each at a steady 9 sec/mile under my 5k PR. “Hey, body… how are you feeling today?”

That was it. I listened to my body, and I didn’t like what I heard. My body told me it wasn’t happy. I had developed a pain on the side of my right knee. This was going to be a deal-breaker. After only five days in, 5k Training was over. Five days away, the race was off.

So, what’s the moral of this story? You need to listen to your body, but you need to be certain that you understand what your body is saying. Was my body ready to train for a 5k following two days off and two easy runs post-marathon? Yes, my body said it was ready, I believed it then, and I still do. Was my training plan reasonable? Yes; hard/easy/hard/easy/hard for a week is not a crazy plan. Did my body change its mind after five days of hard training? Again, the answer is yes. Two different answers from my body in the span of only five days. Do you understand what you are hearing when you listen to your body?

You need to listen to your body, you need to be certain that you understand what your body is saying, and you need to react the correct way even if your body tells you something you don’t want to hear. You need to be just as ready and willing to pull the plug at the first sign of an injury before it becomes an injury that requires you (gasp!) stop running! And sometimes, getting to that injury point is necessary for you to fully understand what your body was telling you. We don't truly know where our limits are until we exceed them. But NEXT time, you’d better pay attention, remember, and react.

#realisticrunning

Warming Up: It's Not Just for Winter

It's January.

This is the time of year when two things happen:

1. Many people need to learn how to warm up because they are just starting a running program as a New Year’s resolution
2. Nobody really minds warming up, because it’s winter and cold out!

But, of course, warmups are necessary year-round.

The Purpose of a Warmup

A good warmup should consist of moving your body to increase your heart rate and respiratory rate and prepares your body for the upcoming activity. A great warmup would consist of moving the actual parts of your body that you are about to exercise. Read on for an enlightening experience I had that taught me how to warm up.

An Example

During the week I usually run at work, during lunchtime. That time works best for me for multiple reasons, and we are fortunate enough to have showers at work, which makes it acceptable to my co-workers. I am also fortunate enough to have an office that adjoins a county park with a 2.6-mile paved running trail as well as wooded trails. Sometimes on “easy run” days, I’ll take an easy run for about a mile and a half to a pull-up bar in the park. I’ll do a few sets of pull-ups and pushups and then finish my easy run around the park and back to the office. The thing is, I noticed that the “easy run” was more difficult after the calisthenics than before. What’s up with that? I’m not an exercise physiologist, but I am a self-proclaimed “perpetual student of all things running.” Here’s my theory.

What's Up With That?

My experience at the pullup bar demonstrates first-hand how working a muscle sends more blood supply to that muscle. It makes sense – muscle activity requires oxygen, and it’s the blood that brings oxygen. Have you ever worked out any muscle and felt that “pumped” feeling? That pumped feeling is, among other things, the extra blood sent to your working muscles. However, a person has a finite supply of blood in their  body. So, if there’s “extra” blood pumping up your arm and back muscles after some pullups and pushups, there must be less blood somewhere else! Therefore, if working out other body parts makes running harder, working out your “running body parts” should make running easier. Of course, “harder” and easier” are relative terms.

A Warmup Should Be Specific

Back to the warmup itself. You want a light workout of the muscles you use during running in order to get those muscles prepped for the run. What’s the best way to do that? Running! Of course, your running warmup needs to be “easier” running than your running workout is going to be. Based on your pace, maybe that means walking to warm up.  I like to warm up on a continuum, starting really easy and then ramping up to the running workout. And my preferred warmup has changed over time. As I’ve mentioned, I read and study and evaluate new things and if they work, I start using them regularly.

My Warmup 

I start my warmup with the “starting stance” from The Sling Method (feel free to go look it up. Tell Paul I sent you.) Then to add some more activity, I stand on one foot doing an exaggerated “running motion” with the leg that’s off the ground”. That means, knee high up in front, cycles through with the foot rubbing the ground on the way back, full follow-through kick. I repeat 20-30 times and then repeat on the other leg. Then I start off my run with 1 to 1.5 miles of very easy running. For reference, my mindless easy pace is about 9:15/mile, and I start off at about 10:00-10:30 per mile. If I am going to be doing speedwork that day, I will add some 0.05 mile stride intervals during the last mile of warmup: 0.05 mile fast, 0.05 mile easy, repeat.

 Now Go Do It

That’s it. A good warmup doesn’t need to be complicated. But it does need to precede your workout! Every time. Even if the weather is warm.

New Year, New You

It’s the single-digits of January, a time when many people vow to change their lives. For runners, it’s the time to set new annual mileage goals, plan to crush some PRs, or sign up for that first marathon. Whether you’re a brand-new runner or a veteran, there are a few steps you should take to get the most out of your New Year’s Resolution.

First & foremost, stop talking about – or even thinking about – the negatives. You’ll make more progress by turning around those self-deprecating thoughts into self-affirming words. For example, unless you’re a professional or competitive runner, your speed/pace doesn’t matter. No one cares about it except you. Stop telling everyone how slow you are. Everyone is slower than someone, and everyone is faster than someone else. If you’re up and moving, as the cliché goes, “you’re faster than those sitting on the couch.” If that statement itself doesn’t make you proud that you’re moving, and you truly want to be faster, then start working on getting faster!

If you’ve decided that this new year is finally the time you will become a runner, congratulations! Your negative thoughts might be telling you how hard it’s going to be, but I’m here to tell you that it will never be easier. If you’re just getting up off the couch, that’s an accomplishment! You have nowhere to go but up.

If you’ve already been running for a while, maybe this new year is your promise to yourself to improve. Remember that there are many aspects to improvement: farther, faster, longer, stronger, etc. There are also many paths on which to find that improvement: run intervals, run hills, run longer distances. There are also hidden paths that can help you get to your goals. Improve your diet, hydrate better, lose weight, strengthen your body, get more sleep; all of these are indirect ways that you can improve your running.

Regardless of your running experience, there a few things to remember that are critical to your success. Do your research. Take the advice of experts. Test and verify. Be Consistent.

Do Your Research

We are lucky to live in the information age where real scientific data is available at our fingertips. Too many people make the mistake of asking friends (real or virtual) for running advice. That practice is like rolling the dice. Your friends, whether in real life or on Facebook, are not necessarily running experts just because they run. Even if they run a lot. One thing about science is that it is, by nature, always changing. Hypotheses are tested and new discoveries are made. I see a lot of running lore passed on that is not necessarily the latest and best information. Which leads to the next section…

Take the Advice of Experts

Friends will try to help you by telling you what works for them. Sometimes they say it very authoritatively and you believe it. However, what has worked wonders for one person isn’t necessarily the best thing for another. It’s likely to really be a good thing, but even so it might not be the place where you’ll see the most improvement at this time. Talk to a coach. Visit running-science web sites or Facebook groups. These people are experienced with dealing with multiple runners, not just a data set of one. They can help you set realistic goals instead of just telling you what you want to hear. They likely study the latest science and know how to evaluate you to suggest what you should do next. But you should always…

Test and Verify

Pick one thing at a time to change, dedicate yourself to it, give it some time, and don’t give up. If you change more than one thing at a time, you won’t know which one worked and which didn’t. Invest in a running watch that gives you lots of data. Learn how to evaluate that data. Keep good records. Be dedicated for at least six weeks. Compare the new you to the old you. If you’re better now than you were before, keep doing that new thing, and add another new thing. If you’re not improving, drop it and move on to the next new thing.

Be Consistent

Finally, be consistent. Keep doing the things that make you better. Stop doing the things that are holding you back. If something doesn’t give you value, consider dropping it to make time for something that does. Keep learning. Keep verifying. Keep improving.

Happy New Year!