To improve in running is to be regular!

In the essential running tips, I try to give the keys to improve in running. Today I would like to make one fundamental point, perhaps the most important in fact. A rule that, if you don't follow it, could quickly cancel out all the benefits I boast about in all the other running advice articles. This rule is simple, it says that regularity in training is the key. In fact, you can do what you want, if you don't train regularly throughout the year, it will be difficult to progress over the long term.

Improving in running has been applied to the letter the saying "Slowly but surely". Perfectly suited to describe jogging and fundamental endurance in general, it is also valid for progression. Because improving in running is only possible with patience. We must look at the long term if we want to train effectively.

 

For beginners in running, it is possible to progress quickly thanks to the large margin for improvement you will have. This rapid improvement at first is enjoyable. But in any case it is only for a short time, there is always a time when you reach a plateau. This set is a moment that we have all known.

A plateau is a time when you find yourself stagnating or even regressing slightly. Yet we always put the same conviction into training. This stagnation is normal, we rarely progress in a totally linear way. The efforts we are making today will not necessarily pay off immediately. Sometimes we can stagnate for months before we see the results of our efforts.

 

Any runner who wants to progress must think in the long term. Yes, it is always possible to improve quickly with some intense specific training. But this strategy is dangerous because it can generate overtraining and ultimately regression. I keep these methods for sharpening before a big lens. The rest of the time you have to think long term, who wants to go far spares his horse!

There is no magic recipe, improving in running in a sustainable way is starting from the basics. Build up your physique and endurance slowly at the beginning of the season, patiently, and gradually increase in power when the objectives arrive and thus reap the rewards.

 

It's a bit like building a house. It is better to spend time taking good care of the foundations, otherwise we may have a house finished faster but will inevitably arrive where the initial negligence will be paid for!

Running is a school of patience, a school of life. Working, working and still working with a solid plan is a guarantee of ultimate improvement.

 

But when I say work, it doesn't mean giving all your energy, all the time on the contrary. Having a solid plan means controlling the intensity of your training. Having intense periods with a lot of training is very good for progress. But it also requires easier periods to recover and assimilate the work done. These recovery periods will only be partial, the annual break in running remains relatively short if we want to avoid losing the benefits of the training we have done.

Of course, you shouldn't do too much if you want to improve in running. But it is a pure endurance sport, so you have to train frequently to see progress. Running regularly once a week is better than not running at all. But unfortunately, this is not enough to improve in the long term.

 

From my experience and what I have seen on others, the ideal / minimum training frequency is 3 times a week. It is about once every 2 days, which allows you to optimize your aerobic potential because the 48-hour recovery is often ideal to benefit from the effects of the previous training. It is also a rhythm that allows you to have a varied training with for example:

An intensity session (split, ribs, specific race pace, etc.)

Improving in running is training often!

Running is a more complex sport than it seems