Every day runner

During our run Tuesday morning the subject was broached about running every day. Of course, this peaked my interest because I have some (okay, quite a bit of) experience when it comes to being a daily runner.

Becoming a daily runner is easy enough. You just go out the door every day and don’t look back.

However, once you have decided to switch to being an every day runner, these are some things to keep in mind.

For example, plan your daily mileage out. Try to keep a least one easy run day between each hard run day. Learn to take more easy days if your body starts to feel sluggish, tired, or sore.

Another particular scenario tripping up runners is running all of their workouts too fast.  I tell people to run their easy days easy. Put your Garmin away. Go for a run and just enjoy it. Be cautious of running with others because you can easily get pulled into running their pace. Your easy run can be transformed in to something much harder than you ever expected.

Based on my own running experience runners falling into this trap will eventually start to flatten out. By this I mean that their ability to continue to improve will level off. They may even start to slide slightly backward.  This cycle will like continue until their bodies have adequately recovered.

But if you keep my advice in mind and cycle in some easy days between your hard days, you should see some gains in your running performance.

 Just to clarify before someone goes away thinking this is the secret to all things successful in running. There is certainly more to training than alternating your hard and easy days. I suggest reading up on training plans. There are a number of great coaches that have created some awesome generic training plans. Read a lot about running and training. Look for a training plan that fits your personal running goals and life style.

Log those miles. 

Sharing one thought at time,

The Cool Down Runner