Level Up: Week Six
Balance
Welcome to Week 6 of the RP Level Up Challenge. This free program is designed to boost your running, no matter your current level. This week: Finding balance.
One of the interesting things about running is that it exists in a space that constantly pits the desire for instant gratification against the need for long term planning. While one side of our training brain craves stimulation, the other is reminds us to consider the big picture.
Distance runners who are in it for the long haul eventually learn to prioritize the long slow arc of history bending ever so slightly in their direction. Long runs, big miles, and consistent volume are the name of this particular game.
Of course, without a dash of higher intensity dropped into the training mix every so often, we may find ourselves sinking slowly into the morass of stagnation. If we’re going to continue evolving and improving as runners, we’re going to need a mix of easy efforts and challenging workouts.
The balance between low and high intensity is a precarious one, especially when we get back into training after taking time away. Take it from an injured runner, the line between pushing yourself in just the right amount and slightly overdoing it is rarely crystal clear.
We can, however, make an effort to find that line. When we push our boundaries so that we bend but don’t break, it allows us to grow stronger, tougher, and more resilient in the process. This week’s challenges are about cultivating the tools we need as runners to navigate this long and winding road.
Level 1: Six weeks!
This marks six weeks since you either started running consistently, or resumed a dormant practice. That’s a big time accomplishment, deserving of a moment or two of reflection.
Spend some time looking back in your journal to the early days of this program. Do some things seem easier now with consistent practice, or are some things harder than you anticipated? What about your goals: Have they changed or evolved? Think about your logistics: Are there remaining obstacles in your way that can be addressed?
Then think about where you want to go in the future. If you’re already looking ahead to some of the ideas we’ve discussed in Levels 2 and 3, remind yourself that these eight weeks are critical to developing habits and protocols that will assist you in reaching new heights. Use this time to hone and sharpen your practice.
Week 6 Challenge: Make consistency its own reward by continuing doing what you’ve been doing. Then add a little excitement by doing at least one thing differently than you have in the past.
Increase your regular run mileage (slightly), add a dose of higher intensity effort to your run, or simply find a completely new place to run. This is your practice. Keep making it your own.
Level 2: Recovery week redux
No matter how much lip service one pays to the importance of recovery weeks, there isn’t a runner alive who doesn’t question their merit during the seven days when they’re not running as much as usual. It’s perfectly normal to feel that way. We spend all our time building a running habit, and now we’re supposed to just rest?
Well, yes.
At some point in the runner’s journey, we must make peace with the idea of recovery. To do so, we must accept the reality that rest and recovery are not only beneficial, but absolutely necessary if we want to continue making sustainable progress. Without that belief, rest and recovery weeks can feel like a tiresome bore.
Ultimately, when we really pay attention to our bodies, runners will see evidence of the performance enhancing effects of rest and recovery in their results. It starts with trusting a process that may seem foreign or even counterintuitive. When you realize that not running isn’t a sign of weakness but of strength, that’s when you know you’ve cracked the code.
Week 6 Challenge: Drop your weekly mileage by 30-40 percent and add at least two strength training days focusing on core work to your exercise schedule.
Examples of core work include planks, side planks, bicycle crunches, bird dogs, and bridges. Set a timer and track your progress in your journal. Try developing a 10-minute core workout you can do anytime, anywhere.
Level 3: Run to the hills
Hills are the bane of runners’ existence because they’re physically difficult and emotionally challenging. It’s not enough that hills slow you down. Do they also need to make you feel like absolute garbage while slogging your way to the top? It kinda depends on the runner.
If you’ve never felt beaten down after making it to the top of the hill, you simply haven’t run enough hills. Good news for you, that’s about to change. The benefits of running hills are many including increases in speed, strength, and running economy. Yet, it’s that feeling of accomplishment one gets from cranking up a particularly nasty beast that really separates hill running from all other forms.
While we can train our bodies to crush vert with squats, lunges, and hill workouts, it’s the mental side of things we need to address first. When we look at running up hills as a challenge rather than an obstacle, we reframe the experience from a chore into an opportunity.
Week 6 Challenge: Find a good sized hill, no more than a quarter mile or so. Run up the hill with the same amount of effort you would for a tempo run. (re: NOT max effort.) Walk or jog very easily down the hill. Do not sprint downhill. Take a deep breath or two at the bottom of the hill. Repeat 3-4 times.
Do this workout as part of a 6-mile run so that it looks like this:
2 mile warmup
4 x 400 meter hill (with 400 meter recovery)
2 mile cooldown
In your journal, pay close attention to how you feel in the days following this workout. My guess is you’ll feel like a total badass.