102: Is Your Race Training Compromising Your Health?

This episode was spurred on by a few events.  With the start of the school year, it is also the start of official cross country practice and the kids bring out new ideas in me.  

I have been thinking about the new runners and how adding just about anything to their routine will improve them as a runner.  I thought about the returners, and how there comes a point where coaches move past general health and into a racing program.  

My question was, while new runners can succeed by improving their health, what is justified for the veterans.  What is justified for my own running? When is training not actually healthy?

We start by covering the basics of health.  We discuss exercise(both cardio and strength), nutrition and sleep.  

We continue with a discussion of race preparation.  How eating changes in positive and negative ways. How the quantity and intensity of training increases.  How fatigue builds up and we can ignore it by focusing on the next race. How fatigue comes in both mental and physical forms.  

We wrap things up with the topic of race hopping.  This involves perpetually chasing a pr by always having another race on the calendar and having it be close.  We mention that looking back on a training cycle generally results in us deciding what more we could add, and how regular down cycles can be refreshing for our routine. 

Overall, the episode focuses on taking control of your training by making sure that you realize what trade offs you are making with your health by thinking purely about the next race.  Blind training leads to the tendency to ignore warning signs and push through all fatigue. To be the best version of you, be aware of your thinking. Learn how to run your training and you can also run your life.  

Resources:

• Our Coaching Programs and Training Plans
• Our Favorite Products to Make Healthy Living Easier 
• We have SHIRTS! Show your Real Life Runner Pride!

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