Patience in running is an important topic and something that people seem to undervalue.
Whether it’s coming back from an injury or illness, some time away from the sport, or just in general, people tend to want to rush their progression rather than being patient, doing it in what on the surface appears to be a slower way that will often, secure better long-term success.
Return from injury or illness.
Injury and illness take a lot out of us, and it shouldn’t be underestimated how we not only lose fitness in this time, but also need time for the body to repair. It’s very tempting to rush back into full training however, easier weeks, either in terms of lower mileage, lower intensity or reduced supplementary training such as cycling or strength work, should be factored in. Injury is a complex topic as it depends on the type of injury, injury location and the grade of this injury as well, so follow the advice of any professionals you’ve been working with.
Illness could be something as simple as a small cold and you may not have missed much training or need much time to return to full training. Quite often however, people rush back into their full training without giving their body full time to recover, which then leads to another illness taking hold and even more missed or poor-quality training.
Time away from running.
A lack of training isn’t always down to injury or illness. With our busy lives, family commitments and holidays, it’s easy to miss out on your normal training. Although your body would likely be quite refreshed, your fitness may well have dropped very slightly during this period. How quickly you can return from a period away from running will really depend on the fitness level you had before your time off and what you’ve done during that time off, such as other sports other activities.
A particularly challenging time to return to running is after a bereavement or other high-pressure time. You’ve probably not slept very much or very well, and have high stress levels, but want to exercise hard to feel something other than emotional pain. It’s an understandable, but ill-advised idea, so try to catch yourself if you can and be good to yourself.
General patience.
It’s human nature that we want to progress, and every time we achieve a goal that we’ve been aiming for, it’s completely understandable to want to progress forward quickly and move on to our next targets. It’s good to want to do this to some degree, but what’s commonly overlooked is the timeframes for the new goals we set ourselves. So often goals are poorly considered and are based more around specific races, other people’s achievements or simply the next time barrier for that distance, without considering the internal circumstances we may face, such as time away from running, holidays, working commitments, family commitments, how body our feels and injury history, as well as what the new goals will demand of us.
Whether my awareness of people’s lack of patience has come about through my own increased depth of knowledge and awareness of people’s habits, or whether it’s the influence of social media or some other factors on running, but it seems people are becoming less and less patient. This wouldn’t be such an issue, but when you also consider the large number of races that exist these days, and the need for validation and competition that so many people seem to have, it’s a recipe for never being satisfied.
If you’re aiming for a goal over a certain distance, there are very few instances where we must achieve that target in the timeframe that we set for ourselves. Usually, we can be much more flexible with ourselves and make space to enjoy training whilst also keeping things low risk and still make progress.
There are of course some points when achieving a time over a distance in a particular race is more important, such achieving the various good for age standards needed for the London Marathon and the US Boston Marathon. That said even with these targets in mind, there’s very little that means we must achieve this on our upcoming attempt, since there will likely be other opportunities to achieve these targets and the subsequent targets that come from them if we just wait and continue to work. I don’t say that to discourage you, or to encourage a state of laziness and cutting ourselves too much slack, as this is already very easy to do. I believe we should drive ourselves in the achievement of something for our own personal satisfaction, but racing and times aren’t the only way to do that.
Outside of marathon training blocks I see people put constant races into their diary with tough and often quite rigid goals set for each race, likely without considering the impact that this will have on training and future success. Ironically by being less patient during this build up time and cramming in so many races they’re slowing their long-term progression, achievement of higher standards and levels of fitness. Even during marathon blocks it’s common for people to become distracted and ask to add in two to three races during the 12 to 16 week block. Not only will these races inevitably be slower than the person is capable of, although potentially they could still be PBs, but they also mean the training for and subsequent racing of the marathon will be compromised.
No matter what distance you’re training for and what goals you’ve set for yourself, it’s important to be patient with yourself. Carefully consider your goals, how important they really are, what they would demand from you to achieve them, and whether the trade off in journey versus destination is worth it. Don’t give up on your goals easily though, just consider it in depth first when setting them. Strive to work hard and to achieve what you’re capable of, but don’t overstretch yourself.
Written by Kyle brooks, running coach, based in Norwich, Norfolk