Here’s my top ten beliefs about running that I’ve built up over the past 15 years, by no means is this a science. It’s a philosophy I’ve preached and believe in full heartedly. It’s what has helped me and countless others!
1. In order to maintain a quicker pace at a longer distance you have to be able to run fast at a shorter distance. We can all train and run and run and run but if we never improve our speed, I believe we won’t progress as quickly as we otherwise might have been able to.
2. It’s so important to me that we don’t compare ourselves to others. I believe that if you come, work hard, everything else will take care of itself. We are all at different places, levels, and abilities when it comes to running. What one person can do may be out of the question for another. The only thing you should focus on is how are you going to beat your last time. When you train you should never look at your competition is doing. Trust the process and the training.
3. Hills are a must and you should definitely be doing them. A lot of times when we set our run we navigate away from hills. I can tell you a lot of races have hills and I can’t tell you the number of people that don’t know how to run them or are scared of them. If we can make hills one of your strengths, you’ll see dramatic improvements in your placing in upcoming races.
4. Running form, running form, running form. If you can learn to run more efficiently so many problems will be solved and you’ll be able to run longer faster.
5. Breathing... You have to learn how to control it. It can work for you or against you. There will be several times during a run/race that you've got to slow it down and breathe correctly.
6. Your mind is your most powerful enemy and your greatest strength. Toughness is in the mind, spirit, and soul, not in the muscles. I’ve seen people lose races because they let the pressure and pain get to their head. I’ve also seen people who had no business winning that day because their mind was mentally tough. Train your mind and know what to do in adverse conditions.
7. The best way to improve is to work really hard. My parents taught me as a young kid what it was like to work really hard.
8. Rest! Rest days are important so after those days of killing our muscles they have time to recover to hit it hard the next day.
9. I know this is lame but I want to have some fun! Running sucks enough as it is, we have to make it fun somehow.
10. Lastly and most importantly is learning how to train with pain so you can race easy. “You want to find out how strong you are? Push yourself to the limits, walk the line, play with fire. Go to your absolute breaking point where your legs are weak and mind is about ready to quit, believing you can’t walk one more step. Then tell your brain to shut the hell up and show him you’re not stopping because of a little so-called pain. At that moment push harder than you’ve ever pushed. Understand this so called pain in only a measure of strength. Just because you feel pain doesn’t mean you need to stop. Embrace it, learn how to train with pain so you can break the barriers of what you thought your previous limitations were. I can promise you one thing if you’re still walking, you can still go harder. If you want to be able to race and push through pain, you’ve got to train with pain.”
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