I am currently dealing with the results of not following my own advice. It happens to all of us at times. Here’s my quick story:

The entire year of 2008 I have made a decision to remain consistent in my training, but to not train for any specific race. I have followed through, but got the idea to sign up for an ultra marathon a couple weeks before the race. I ended up turning up the mileage on my legs pretty quickly (like doubled in the couple weeks). I didn’t have any troubles at first, but then….

I started having some hip problems. Issues that have lead to this, in my view: Running too many miles way too quick. Dropping strength training and yoga in order to get in the extra runs.

The worst part of the situation is that I always have runners that I coach and mentor focus on “leg durability” as the main goal for the first phase of their training programs. This almost always means running multiple days before running a certain mileage or duration. I fell into the trap of feeling unprepared, thus jumping into something my legs were not ready for.

As an example of what I often preach, here is a note I sent to a group I trained for the Rock N Roll Marathon back in January.

So often a new runner is concered about how far they are running or how fast they run, but one thing a new runner should be concerned about is how durable their legs are. If a person hasn’t developed the right amount of durability, then when they run “far enough” or “fast enough” to make them happy, they commonly are in a position that their legs can not hold up. Things like injury and soreness creep in and their running becomes less consistent, exactly the opposite of what they might need to produce better durability in their legs.

Two things about the program that you can pay attention to is this:

1. Are you completing all the runs during the week?
2. Are your legs recovering from the Sunday runs?

Your answers to those questions will lead to your answer of this question; “How durable are my legs?”

It’s so important that you develop an adequate durability before you start doing the typical “long runs”. I like to see people run at least 4 days a week at 40 minutes per run before they do anything that resembles a long run.

The athletes that I help become used to the “double long” weekends very quickly. What a great way to turn around your running… those runs build durability, they also allow people to get in more training than when they spend all day Sunday recovering from the weekends “mega long run”.

Guess it is time to take my own advice! As I can not run consistently right now, I’ll be cycling and swimming (and yes, getting back to strength training and yoga).

For now, I’ll keep sharing the message. Think Bobby McGee said it this way, “strong before long.”