Heading out for a run should be one of the simplest things you can possibly do. But over the years, I've run into personally, several mistakes I've made that end up making my run a really terrible time. I want to share with you today, five common mistakes that runners make before they head out, that makes a run terrible.
Number one, and we're all too familiar with it, as I echo here, not going to the bathroom. It maybe a little bit embarrassing to talk about, but if you've been on ?? 0:43> runs, pun intended, as terrible as it is more dud jokes to come, make sure to subscribe to the channel.
It's actually a terrible time and I know one just absolutely terrible example where at a conference 5K, one of my teammates ended up pulling out of the race, they had to go to the bathroom so bad.
And that was purely a lack of preparation, a lack of doing what they need to do before the race to take care of business, quite literally.
The number two most common mistake I see is eating too much or too little before a run. The crux of it is really you need to prepare for the run that you're going to do. So, if you eat too much, what ends up happening is that food is not going to digest.
I actually dedicated an entire video to what to eat before your run. So, check that out if you want to know my particular suggestions of what you can eat before you run.
So, if you eat too much, all that food is essentially going to be like pounding away at your abs and you're not going to have good time, it's going to feel like your stomach's cramping, when really is because you've got too much food tossing around in there.
Now, if you eat too little, then you we're going to have an opposite problem, which is that if you have a long run or very intense run, you may end up running out of fuel. Some of that fuel comes from glycogen that's being digested and used by your body while you're working out.
Two to 300 calories is about all we can digest in an hour, but you can actually use some of that fuel that you're digesting before the workout. So, it depends on what you're doing as to how much you're going to eat if you're going to eat. And that is my number two mistake.
Number three is an improper warm up. A lot of people think that static stretching is the is the right way to go for all kinds of workouts. There are actually a lot of better options besides static stretching to get ready to go to run.
Now, everybody has a little bit different routine, my routine for a race actually involves a very easy jog, to start, no stretching beforehand, just straight into a nice easy pace.
And then stretching comes out afterwards, but not just static stretching, it’s actually dynamic stretching in the form of plyometrics, which I'm going to show you in another video.
So, keeping the correct kind of warm up is essential to having a good run, whether it's a long run, or it's something that you're going to the track and you're going to go do speed work.
Number four, not planning your run out. This means a lot of things actually, it means kind of like we talked about before, not planning your food out. But also, what are you actually doing for the day, it's a pretty common thing to let yourself go faster on a long run, then you really need to go which word good planning comes into play.
If you plan to do a long easy run, stick with it. That's what the training plan says, stick with it.
Now, if you've plan to do something more intense and you're going to do 800 meter intervals will try to do the best that you can. A good example is today, I'm not able to get on the track quite yet because schools still in session.
However, I have a trail nearby so I use that for 800 meters. And I kept my intensity just as planned if we were on the track, even though I had to make an adjustment. So, having that plan and keeping that plan in place is important.
But that leads me to number five, and that is actually not letting your head get the best of you. When you think about your run, sometimes you might get a little anticipation about, don't want to do this or I want to go this fast or I don't want to go that fast. And you get an idea about I have to be this way.
There's a kind of elegance in letting the run be what it is. Sometimes your body is going to respond better and you're going to go faster than you think you would. Other days you're going to be fatigued, and you're not going to quite hit your times.
We're only trying to stay consistent within the run, but don't let those preconceptions about what you have to do rule the day. Because when your body can respond and go faster than you're holding yourself back. But when you're fatigued, then you're just going to build frustration and end having a worse day than if you allow your body to do what it's going to do in its fatigue and then recover at a later time.
So, if you want more tips like this, don't forget to subscribe to the channel for the next episode of Runner’s High.