Level Up: Week 3

Take it easy

Welcome to Week 3 of the RP Level Up Challenge. This free program is designed to boost your running, whatever your current level. I’m at your disposal for any questions or concerns about anything related to running. Feel free to email me by hitting reply to this newsletter or by leaving a comment (paid subscribers only.)

Whenever someone starts a new training program there's a natural tendency to focus on the impending challenges. Those runs, whether they take the form of long runs or key workouts, serve as bellwethers by which you can gauge your progress. They’re important for a reason.  

Less attention is paid to the art of taking things easy. Not every aspect of a training program needs to be challenging or performance-based. In fact, the vast majority of marathon training miles shouldn’t feel difficult at all. They should feel conversational, light, dare I say, fun. 

Those are tough concepts for runners who are just starting out or trying to get back into shape after taking an extended break. When every mile feels like a personal challenge, there’s no such thing as an “easy” run.  

That’s why we created different levels for this program. No one’s expecting you to have it all figured out when you’re just getting started. For those of you with a bit more experience, our goals are geared toward developing a sustainable running practice.

For Level 1, just staying the course and continuing to build running habits is more than enough for now. For Level 2, this week’s challenge is about taking a step back to move forward. And for Level 3, it’s time to get serious about managing effort. 

Level 1: Build your routine

One of the great joys in building a running habit is constructing a universe where running becomes a top priority. Let the rest of the world claim ownership over the remaining hours in your day. For those 30 minutes or an hour, your run is the only thing that matters. That’s pretty cool. 

Prioritizing your run doesn’t happen by accident. It requires being intentional with your time. Whether that means getting up an hour earlier or working ahead to clear your schedule and minimize distractions, one of our goals with this program is to make your run a non-negotiable part of your day. 

In doing so, we’ll condition ourselves to eliminate excuses before they surface as negative thoughts in our brain. This is how we build resilience and construct a framework for mental toughness. It starts with developing routines that help get us out the door.  

Week 3 Challenge: Spend time developing your pre-run routines by thinking about what you can prep in terms of clothes, food, shoes, routes, and hydration. Ask yourself if there’s something preventing you from getting out for your run, and then work toward a possible solution. 

Make note of your challenges, obstacles, and insights in your journal. Inertia can be a powerful force, but it doesn’t stand a chance against a motivated runner with a plan. 

In addition, continue dialing in your running time and getting out there three times a week. Feel free to add a fourth running day to your schedule if that feels doable, but take care not to push too hard on back-to-back days.  

Level 2: Embrace rest and recovery

When’s the last time you gave yourself a break from running? Not because you had to dial things back due to an injury or illness. Rather, when was the last time you realized it was in your best interest to cool things out and give yourself some extra down time? 

Every 3-4 weeks, your goal should be to reduce volume and allow your mind and body time to refresh themselves. Rest weeks are not punishments. They’re a reward for a job well done, as well as an acknowledgement that you’re working hard. 

Rest weeks are not necessarily all about rest either. They can be used to sharpen other fitness areas, especially strength and mobility. If you’re going to build a sustainable running practice into middle age, you’re going to have to reckon with your running muscles. 

Week 3 Challenge: Decrease your weekly mileage volume by 40 percent from last week’s high. For example: Our 20-mile a week runner who was up to 25 miles last week can drop down to 15 this week. 

If 40 percent seems like too steep a drop, aim for a 20-30 percent reduction. You can accomplish most of this goal by scaling back your long run or by giving yourself an extra rest day from running. (Scary, I know. You can do it.)  

Spend some of your free time working on a strength training routine that makes sense for your schedule and your body. It’s cool if that involves going to a gym or an exercise class, but you can get a lot done in the comfort of your home by executing basic body weight exercises with proper form. 

A few ideas: Squats, planks, pushups, calf raises, clam shells, lunges, and wall sits. Aim to knock out three sets of each a couple of times a week. Keep track of your progress in your journal. 

Level 3: Let’s talk about effort 

On a scale of 1-10, how tough is your everyday run? Most of us would say something like a 4 or 5 because that’s the expectation we’ve built up in our minds of what an everyday run is supposed to feel like. 

What if our effort was actually much higher and we just didn’t know how to tell the difference between a 4 or 5 and a 6 or 7? What if every run has been just a little bit tougher than we realized, and we’ve been lying to ourselves for years? What if – and this is the big one – we can actually run faster and more efficiently once we learn to manage our effort by finding an easy run rhythm that’s legitimately easy? 

The craziest concept in running is that in order to speed up, we first need to slow down. One of the simplest ways to manage effort is with the talk test. Your easy runs should feel light enough to carry on a full conversation with a friend or with yourself. (I’ve done it.) 

If you can talk in mostly full sentences, but you need breaths between the words you may be going a touch too hard. If you’re having trouble getting out words or you find yourself speaking in One. Word. Sentences … you’re going way too hard. 

Week 3 Challenge: Play around with both effort and speed by engaging in the talk test during your everyday runs. Use it as an excuse to get together with a running buddy or call them on the phone and talk with them during your run. You can even chat with yourself, which is totally normal and not at all weird. 

As for speed, work in strides or tempo pickups whenever it feels good to pick up the pace. You can throw it all together in a stew and call it a fartlek like our Scandinavian friends. However you structure your runs, pay close attention to how it feels when you increase your effort. 

Write about effort in your journal. Note the little details and all the random stuff that pops into your brain during your run. Don’t stop to analyze any of it. Simply paying attention is the point.