Pace Your Fitness Development

Runners are often surprised when I tell them we need to pace their fitness development. They expect that I want them to get as fit as possible as soon as possible. But that’s not the way running works. Fitness is not a perpetual upward trajectory!

If your goal is to arrive at your goal race in peak physical and mental condition, peaking too soon—meaning that you do too many hard workouts too early, and your body achieves its peak physical condition before your race date—is something we want to avoid. Therefore, the goal of training is actually to control your fitness development and develop certain aspects of fitness before others. This way, you can arrive on race day with both your mental and physical abilities at their apex, so you’re able to perform at your best.

Oftentimes, this careful timing means that I’m actually stalling one aspect of a runner’s fitness. Usually it’s the race-specific training that I delay, because that’s the training that will wear you out the most, both physically and mentally. Also, every other type of training is really just preparing you to do your race- specific training, so the more preparation you can fit in, the higher quality your race-specific sessions will be!

Take a marathoner, for example: The more speed he or she can build before entering a marathon-specific training cycle, the easier the goal marathon pace will feel. This in turn feeds the runner’s confidence, which can make the workouts even better. . . . So it’s a self-perpetuating cycle.

If you’re still unsure about what it means to “peak” (because that term can be a little vague), think of it this way: A few weeks out from your goal race, you still want to feel a little bit underprepared. If you already feel super prepared, you probably won’t be able to sustain that level of physical and mental fitness all the way to the race. You want to be attacking your training, not simply surviving it. Therefore, by being a little “undertrained,” you’ll feel fresher and more confident come race day.

I learned the importance of pacing fitness development the hard way in high school. My junior year in cross country, I was the top underclassman at the state championship meet. Naturally, I figured I would return next year and win the whole thing. I continued my training and had a successful spring track season. I then decided to run summer track to get even faster for cross country, and it seemed to work. Not only was I running very fast times in training as we started the cross-country season, but I was winning every meet and even setting some new course records. I was pumped. It was going to happen: I was going to win the state meet.

Then something weird happened. I started to feel a little flat in races; the usual bounce in my step was missing. I lost a big race and just didn’t feel “into it” as I was racing. It was weird. As we headed into the championship season, I still won the regional meet, but something was off. I just didn’t feel fresh. One part of my brain was excited for the state meet, but another part just wanted it to be over.

Looking back, I was fried. I had extended hard training for too long—from spring track to summer track to a full cross-country season without a real break from race-specific training. I had not timed things well so that I would peak at the final cross-country meet, and that poor planning came back to bite me.

At the state meet, I took the lead with 600 meters to go. Normally I have a very, very good kick, and no one passes me in the last 600 meters of a race. That day, however, one runner passed. Then another. Then another. I just didn’t have it. I came in fourth.

I was tremendously disappointed as a high school senior, but the experience has helped me immeasurably as a coach. I learned that fitness and mental development must be meted out across a season and year. You need to plan to be at your peak at just the right time and respect that you can’t just keep training the same way for months and months. The body and mind need some cycling up and down in intensity and focus. Train too hard for too long, and you’ll have the same experience I did.

Instead, respect that you need to pace yourself, literally and figuratively, in training. By adhering to this lesson, you’ll arrive at your big race in top condition and be ready to give it your all.