How To Avoid Hitting The Wall?
I am not just talking about hitting the wall in a race but also outside of the track and road.
I wanted to write in in-depth, overview of what I have seen over the years that not only belittles athletes but also makes them second guess their capability.
I grow tired of hearing so many driven, focused and fully capable athletes continuing to sell themselves short instead of being patient enough to see their results come to fruition.
Below are 30 mini-tips to on how to avoid hitting the wall in training races and life so that you may achieve your full potential.
Master Your Mind
1. stop making excuses -do the work the others aren't interested in doing.
2. seek alternatives to learning – both as an athlete and all other areas of your life. The world is filled with status quo mindsets, be the opposite
3. train at higher percentages of your anaerobic threshold. The Kenyans are great because they train around 85% of their week at very high intensities
4. train slow – you don't get the benefits from hard training, day in and day out. Have the sense to calm down when you need to
5. stop playing the ‘in the crowd' game – don't worry about what so and so ran at their race or in training. Focus on what YOU need to do
6. increase the amount of hours you are sleeping – you are not the norm. The average sedentary adult needs approximately 8 hours of sleep. You need more.
Seek Out Health Alternatives
7. read something that challenges you – if you look around, everyone, for the most part, is doing the same thing. Find out what the innovators are doing in this sport and outside of it. It will motivate you to live a happier, more fulfilling life.
8. stop worrying – if you have done all the training you can possibly do in preparing for a race then be pleased with that
9. stop explaining bad races – if you perform not up to your standard then do the work necessary to raise your level of commitment. We don't need to hear why you ran bad, just make the necessary changes and let that be that. You are not going to impact someone else's life by telling them about your bad race experience. Make the commitment to crowd into the upper percent and make them step back and say ‘wow, how was THAT done'.
10. train your body conserve carbohydrates – the majority of athlete don't maintain pace in races because they are using more of what they have plenty of (carbs) and not using what they have an enormous amount of (fats).
Find out how to do the latter.
Focus Less On The Negatives
11. stay positive – how do avoid hitting the wall has much to do with your mindset over the training itself. if you see someone consistently creating art with their running and in their life, look to see how passionate they are about what they do. Find that in yourself.
12. it's not about you – athletes are very caught up in themselves. You know it. This can be a very self-centered sport. You'll find that when you take the focus off yourself and put it on someone else that magic and the beauty of life begins to flourish in your life.
13. don't be normal – God didn't create you to be just another number in the crowd. There is no one fingerprint in the world that is just like yours. Always know you have power and value to give someone as a runner and human being. Don't second guess yourself.
14. be open to criticism – not everyone is going to agree with your training or lifestyle philosophy. Everyone is different, share with them ideas and suggestions but don't get pissed when they disagree with your beliefs. It isn't your job to open their minds, that is up to them.
Invest In A RunDreamAchieve Training Plan Today
Don't Be Part Time
Don't Be Part Time15. think long-term – this isn't a sport where overnight success comes about. The reason so many quit is because it is hard, takes time and patience to truly excel at.
Don't be a short-timer. Have faith that your results are going to become a reality and they will.
16. be overly cautious – if you feel you have a tight muscle or an injury take the necessary precautions ahead of time to remedy what is going on.
It is much better sense to take a few days off and lose no fitness than it is to keep training and then get caught up with an injury that takes you out for a few months. Again, think long-term, not short-term
17. Don't be a groupie – there are far too many media outlets and other runners who salivate, cuddle and belittle themselves by thinking top athletes are somehow better then they are.
Be the opposite.
Respect full-time, sponsored athletes who are doing nothing more then getting payed to do what they would do for free but also keep in mind they are not doing what you are.
Training AND working a full-time job.
I respect both but I far more respect the latter.
Think Outside The Box
18. Be more then just an athlete – I have friends that are so far up the food chain that they have no other identity outside of their sport.
What they tend to forget it there is life after all out racing. Unless you can break 2.06 for the marathon or break 1.00 for the half-marathon it is very tough to live a comfortable life in this sport. You have far more capability and gifts to provide the world then just sharing how fast you ran your 15 miler.
19. Eat the right foods. You are a ferrari. Who put unleaded gas in a vehicle which takes high octane fuel? How well would the car drive? Drink the right fluids and eat the right foods. You are a well-oiled machine and deserve to get the results you desire, don't do anything less than that capability with what you put in your body.
20. Do short, very fast fartleks.
For example, 20x30second hard, 30 seconds easy. teaching the body to recruit more fast twitch muscle fibers means you have more muscle capability and a greater capacity to buffer lactic acid build up.
Long slow distance, produces long, slow runners. It takes art to run fast, paint your masterpiece by doing what others will be fearful of doing (or not doing long enough).
21. Do longer fartleks – they should be run between 80-95% of your Vo2Max (maximum amount of oxygen capacity your body has at maximal efforts). Don't leave it up to other athletes having more ‘talent' than you. Train in a similar fashion and see similar results.
Quality Over Quantity
22. Don't get caught up with mileage – doing 140 miles week is useless if you have running a marathon at a fast pace as a goal.
If 98% of those 140 miles are run 2 minutes per slower than you are planning on racing and only 2% is done at or below goal pace than go beat your face.
It is far better to do 50 miles a week with 90% of it at a quality effort and 10% at slower, recovery pace than it ever will be to to run high mileage for high mileage sake alone.
23. Be patient – some goals take months, years and even decades to achieve.
Are you willing to accept that? Are your peers?
If the answer is yes, then you are on the path to success in this sport, if the answer is no than perhaps you are in the wrong sport.
Quality Is Better Than Quantity
24. do your long runs at a faster pace – if all you have ever done is 20-milers at a slow pace yet are seeking to run a marathon at a fast pace than consider a change in intensity.
I have found that running at a heart rate between 155-160 beats per minute for 20-24 miles makes one dangerous.
25. Expect it to hurt – the masses fall short of their goals because it is painful, it hurts, it takes a long time to see results.
Delayed gratification is not the fad in our sport and few truly understand it.
Find out what it is if you don't know and follow that path. It will lead you on the path few travel on and help you to see results that few people attain.
26. Stop ‘measuring up' – It isn't your job to care what the guy or gal down the street ran in a race, it doesn't change your reality. If their performance doesn't enhance your life, in some way, than change your focus on what you need to do in order to achieve similar results.
I use to do this when I first started off in the sport.
Some guy ran that!!?
I know I am capable of that as well. Stop measuring yourself against someone else.
Focus on what YOU can do, YOUR goals and help someone else experience what YOU have achieved one you do meet your objective.
27. alternate paces – a long run should be easy every other week for recovery sake. Don't do it every week.
Spice up your run by doing a 20 miler at alternating speed. It will not only help you to use fat more efficiently but also teach you how to handle alternating efforts when fatigued.
If it works for the Kenyans why not you?
The human body is the same, people just need to train it properly to see waves created in their results
28. Take your nutrition seriously – 99.99% of athletes have never heard of glutathione.
Every visitor to rundreamachieve should be reading everything they can about this master antioxidant.
The problem is more people will read how to run a faster race yet miss one of the most crucial methods in order to do just that.
Eat foods that are high in glutathione.
This will help keep your immune system healthy and you running more efficiently.
29. do 5-7x100m strides after every other easy run – the idea is you are spending, over a period of months, MILES at SPRINT speed on top of your weekly training. Do this consistently and you are going to see results, guaranteed.
30. Don't lose enthusiasm – the majority lose heart when they don't see results fast enough.
31. Sign up with Herbalife.
It can impact both your health and finances.
If you believe in the process, have the patience to see a tough goal to its end, failures along the way will by no means sway you from maintaining balance.
LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR TRAINING PLANS[amazon table=”34612″]
