Buckle up because this is one of our more complex modules. But you’re ready!

Lesson 1: Consistency and Variety

As a new runner, you may look at those who are already tackling the goals you have set for yourself and wonder, “How on earth can I ever get there?”

What is the “secret sauce” that will allow me to race that 5k or someday complete a marathon?

It doesn’t matter if you’re an elite runner or a total newbie – the one thing that will allow you to make real, tangible progress and ultimately reach your goals is consistency.

Why consistency?  Consistency isn’t fancy or flashy and that’s one reason why both new and seasoned runners may overlook its importance.  But consistency is also gritty and real, and the results are undeniable.

Steady. Constant. Dependable. Reliable. Stable.

These might not be words that inspire you to lace up your sneakers and race out the door, but they are a means to an end.  Consistency is the path that will take you from point A to point B (and points X, Y and Z!) with your running.

It’s what enables you to put in the effort day after day and see results that DO inspire you to keep pushing yourself beyond what you thought possible.

Why Consistency Works

Success in sports and life is built over time.  No matter how naturally gifted you may be, you still need to put in the time to learn the basic skills and build a solid foundation.

Running success is no different – it comes as a result of days, weeks, months and years of consistent training.  Not only will you train your body physically over the long term, but you will also build a strong mental foundation for success.  Building and maintaining a running habit makes you a stronger runner psychologically, and that’s what will help you through the tough times when you feel that progress is slow.

When you don’t run consistently, whether due to injury or life getting in the way, progress stalls.  And missing multiple runs can have a snowball effect that pulls you further and further away from consistency, as days away from running quickly become weeks.

But when you dig deep and find the drive to train consistently, goals that seemed like a stretch slowly but steadily become attainable.  One success leads to another – first a 5k, then a 10k, then a half marathon – and suddenly the sky is the limit!

What keeps us from consistent running?

If consistency is the key to progress then why does it feel so hard to accomplish sometimes?  Many obstacles may thwart our consistency so it’s helpful to address them up front and figure out how to tackle them head on.

Injury – Since runners are such a frequently injured group, this is a major reason why so many runners are inconsistent!  This is why we emphasize making yourself a better all-around athlete (as well as a better runner)!  And this is also where the importance of proper training, strength work, rest and recovery all come into play.

Don’t worry – you don’t have to really focus on injury prevention in your training. The training plan you’ll follow in this program will handle prevention for you.

Poor scheduling – We talked about scheduling in a previous lesson, but know yourself and plan your runs appropriately!  You’ll never be a consistent runner if you plan your run after work and know you’ll frequently be stuck working late.  Work with your schedule and put all your runs on your calendar.

Life events or being “busy” – Sometimes life throws us curveballs and our schedule gets unintentionally overloaded.  It’s best to know your limits and not over-schedule yourself.

But also remember that short regular runs are far better than skipping a week of training and then injuring yourself trying to “catch up” on the weekends!  If you don’t have time for a run, aim for 5-10 minutes instead. Something is better than nothing and a short bout of running can help rejuvenate and energize your day.

Boredom – If you feel like you’re in a rut and unexcited about your running, find a way to switch up your routine!  We’ll talk about this more in the next lesson.

Vacation – Vacation can be a challenging time to stay consistent with your running.  And your focus should always be on enjoying your time away!  But you also don’t need to eliminate running while you’re away – running can be a great way to explore new areas.

Feel free to cut back on running and slack off just a little bit on the strength work without skipping your runs entirely.  Then you’ll be refreshed, fit and ready to roll when you return home!

Remember: something is better than nothing.

How to implement consistency

Consistency is a simple concept but it’s easier to understand than it is to implement!   Just getting yourself out the door, day after day, and putting in the time to become a consistent runner is a huge achievement.  Not every run will feel perfect, but if you keep at it you will continue to improve.

The first place to be consistent is the most obvious: your daily runs.  This is the basic act of completing your scheduled workouts.  While there is a time and a place to skip a run (such as illness, injury, or vacation), they should be a priority in your schedule if you want to improve.

As you continue to complete your daily runs, you’ll build up weeks and eventually months of consistent running.  You should feel proud to call yourself a runner!

But once the novelty wears off, you may hit the danger zone of inconsistency.  Maybe your running routine feels a little stale, or you aren’t seeing additional progress as quickly as you would like.  This is a good time to reevaluate your running goals and find new ways to challenge yourself.

In addition to your running, the other areas where you should strive to be consistent is in your warm-up, cool down and strength routines.  To keep yourself as healthy as possible, these should be part of your regular routine.  Find a little bit of time pre- and post-run to get these essential aspects of training done (your running will thank you).

Physical and Mental Aspects of Consistency

There is both a mental and a physical component to consistency.  Here are several key aspects to keep in mind as you strive for consistency in your training:

Physical Consistency

1.   Training is stacked. Each workout in your training plan builds on itself to increase your strength and endurance. Getting faster takes time so be patient, but consistency is the best way to make it happen!
2.  Don’t continually stop and start running – this is a common route to injury!  Consistency in your training a supplementary strength work will keep you healthy and injury free.
3.  Value simplicity. Stick with the straightforward concepts discussed here, and don’t get lulled into thinking that every new workout or piece of gear is the “next great thing.”
4.  Know your physical roadblocks and address them.  Where are you weak and what needs work?  Listen to your body and make it part of your regular routine to address weak spots such as your core and hips.

Mental Consistency

1.  Building a habit is powerful. Once it’s built, it works for you so stay strong and don’t skip multiple days of training!
2.  Mental success builds on itself – just like mileage and workouts.  When you’re able to get past a mental hurdle (thinking you “can’t” accomplish a certain workout or run early in the morning, for example), each challenge becomes more manageable.
3. Set goals – Remember the “small wins” we talked about.  This is what keeps you on track, day in and day out, and leads to long-term consistency!
4.  Know your mental hurdles – whether it’s fatigue, your family/work schedule, or even weather, find ways to work around them and push forward.  Get creative to make running work for you.

The Necessity of Variety

With so much focus on consistency, it may seem as if you should be doing the same thing day in and day out with your running.  But nothing could be further from the truth:  variety is equally essential to our long term health and improvement.

Running is, by nature, a repetitive sport that can often lead to injuries (since injuries are technically repetitive stress injuries)

Even though we want to stay consistent with the time and effort we put into our running, we also need variety to keep us healthy, energized and motivated.  Consistency and variety are not mutually exclusive – it’s all about how you implement each of them into your routine.

Why Variety Works

Variety in running works on a variety of levels, physically as well as psychologically.  While some runners may find satisfaction in sticking to the same routine day after day, most will benefit from the inspiration and variety that comes from trying new things or taking on new challenges.

We want you to stick with the routine of running regularly but that certainly doesn’t mean that every run should be the same length or pace!

From a physiological standpoint, runners will plateau if they don’t challenge their current level of fitness on a routine basis.  Our bodies do a great job at adapting to new stimuli, but once that adaptation happens, your progress will level off.

While it may be challenging initially, your body will eventually get used to running the same 3-mile loop in your neighborhood day after day and you won’t continue to see the same degree of improvement.  But if you start to change your pace, or add some hills, or run on a trail instead of the road, your body is forced to adapt and progress will resume.

As a new runner, you are constantly confronted by new stimuli – and this is a very good thing!  But as the weeks roll by, it’s easy to get caught up in doing the same thing repeatedly.  Your training plan will help keep that from happening!  We have designed it to continue to challenge you as you progress, without being so overwhelming that you find it unmanageable.

Let’s dig a little bit deeper into how variety keeps you healthy both mentally and physically, and examine some ways to add variety to your routine.

How Variety keeps you Healthy

Runners tend to be injury prone when they only run.  Because running focuses on just one plane of motion – moving forward – it isn’t effective at making you a well rounded-athlete in all planes of motion.

Running (road running especially) requires you to propel yourself through the same gait cycle over and over again, thousands of times.  Not much variety to be found there…

A gait cycle starts when one of your feet first makes contact with the ground, and ends when that same foot makes contact again.  If you haven’t done the appropriate work to strengthen all the pieces that support this cycle (your glutes, hips and core, amongst others) then the repetitive motion may eventually catch up with you.

So what is the first weapon in your arsenal against injury?  Strength and core work of course!  This is one of the best ways to implement variety in your routine and a basic tenet of this program.

Variety, whether in the form of strength routines or cross training, is a no-brainer when it comes to healthy running.  We’ll discuss some other, more subtle ways of implementing variety in just a minute, but first let’s consider the importance of variety for the mental side of running.

You already know that running and training are driven by both mental and physical factors.  Mental stamina is just as essential when it comes to building a regular running habit.  And given how short our attention spans can be, we need to find ways to keep running fresh and interesting if we want to make it a lifelong habit.

Adding variety to your routine is one more way to reduce the mental barrier to running regularly.  This can involve varying your long-term goals or simply changing where or with whom you run.  The possibilities are endless.

11 Ways to Incorporate Variety in Your Running

Here are 11 more ways you can add variety to your routine.  Which resonate most with you and your running?  Which can you easily implement?

Running shoes

This is an easy one!  Running in slightly different types of shoes allows your feet and leg muscles to experience a small degree of variety that will reduce your risk of injury.  Your shoes will also tend to last a little longer if they have some time to “recover” between runs.  You can vary between more and less cushioning or just different brands and models.

Running route

While you may love running your same neighborhood route every morning, try to switch things up!  Run the route in reverse, add a different loop, or explore a new neighborhood.

Types of terrain

Running a variety of terrain can be extremely beneficial to your running.  Trails work a far greater variety of muscles than road running, and every trail is a little bit different.  A softer surface is also easier on your body, so try to switch up your running surface at least once each week even if it’s just a loop around your neighborhood park!

Elevation and hills

Hills are often referred to as “speed work in disguise” – for good reason.  They provide you with similar benefits in strength and endurance as faster running, but with less pounding.  Try to incorporate some hills into your running routes, and focus on an even effort rather than an even pace.

Running pace and workouts

As you progress through your training plan, you’ll notice different types of pacing for different runs on your schedule.  We’ll get into the specifics of these in the next lesson, but try to avoid running the exact same pace every day.

An easy run should look different than a tempo or fartlek workout.  And if these words sound like gibberish right now, no worries!  We’ll explain them soon – they’re just different types of workouts.

Running alone and with a group

Running alone can be serene and relaxing while running with a group can be social and exhilarating.  Try to incorporate some of both into your routine.  It will likely help you both mentally and physically as running friends can be great motivation and teach you to run at different paces.

Running by feel vs. Garmin

Running by feel is an important skill, and while a GPS watch (like a Garmin) can be useful for trying to maintain specific paces, most runs are better when done without a strict focus on pace.  As a new runner “easy” may be a relative term, but learning how to gauge easy, moderate and hard efforts will benefit you tremendously!

Running with music or silence

Running with music can be inspiring, a happy distraction, or both.  But try to run without music on a regular basis as well.  It will help improve your ability to run by feel and allow you to experience your running environment more thoroughly.

Treadmill vs. Outside

Treadmills have their place in icy weather or dangerous storms, but outdoor running is where you should be most of the time. Treadmills are the most repetitive of all types of running environments, and any outdoor running will provide far more variety than a treadmill can.

Time of day

Most of us are creatures of habit and stick with running at the same time of day.  But once in awhile it’s helpful to branch out.  Try an evening run if you usually get out before work, or get out at lunch if you have the opportunity.

Changing goals

As you progress with your running, it’s helpful to focus on a variety of goals such as shorter and longer races, obstacle course races like a Warrior Dash, or races on different types of surfaces like trails.  This will help keep you fresh and give you new challenges to tackle!

Lesson 2: Pacing & Different types of workouts

As you head out for each of your scheduled runs, it’s important to have a sense of purpose for what you’re trying to accomplish.  This means knowing when to go easy and when to push hard.  Different workouts are scheduled at various times for specific reasons, and properly pacing yourself for each run will help you improve more quickly.

Pacing is an essential concept to understand and respect.  It can be as simple as running by feel (an “easy” run), or as specific as setting a precise pace for pre-determined intervals (6 repetitions of 400m at 8:00-8:10 pace).  It’s easy for any runner – new or experienced – to get into the habit of always running at the same pace.  Unfortunately, this is often a “medium” pace that falls into a grey area – not slow enough to allow for recovery but not fast enough to increase your fitness level.

As we discussed in the previous section, variety is one of the keys to improving your running and staying healthy.  This means practicing variety with your running paces, too. But when you’re first getting into a regular rhythm of running, it’s important not to overcomplicate it.  Learn what easy truly feels like, no matter what that number may translate to on your watch.  “Easy” can be a relative term varying with the weather, amount of sleep you had the previous night, or other stress present in your life.

Running by Feel

One of the most important skills you can learn as a runner is running by feel.  That means knowing how to pace yourself (without a watch) for easy runs as well as workouts like tempo runs or interval sessions on the track.  Those who have fine-tuned their sense of pace can often run within 5 seconds of their goal pace without ever looking at a watch or GPS device.

As a new runner, you can expect to need some time and miles under your belt to improve your sense of pace.  Most of your initial runs will be designated as “easy” runs.  This can feel like a bit of an inside joke as a brand new runner since not much feels easy when you’re first starting out!  But that’s the goal. And that’s also where walking intervals come into play.  We’ll get into more detail on that shortly.

A common way to determine if you’re running easy enough is the “talk test.”  This means that you could speak in complete sentences to someone you’re running with if it’s truly easy.  Once your effort becomes more moderate or hard, you’ll find you can only get out short phrases or words.

Pay attention to your breathing as you run.  If you’re running at an easy effort, your breathing should be regular and rhythmic.  You may be able to breathe entirely through your nose.  Once the effort increases, most runners will find that they need to breathe through their mouth.  You should never feel like you’re gasping for breathe during an easy run – if so you’re working too hard!

Walking Intervals

To help you maintain an easy effort as you build your running endurance, most of the training plans incorporate walking breaks.  They will be scheduled at specific intervals during your runs, and will eventually get shorter and more spread out as you gain fitness.  One of the best feelings as a new runner is being able to complete a run with no walk breaks that previously seemed insurmountable!

Even when you are walking instead of running, you should try not to let your pace slow to a crawl.  Walk briskly and maintain good form throughout the duration of your walk interval.  Although the walking intervals are intended as a “break” while you build your fitness to run for a longer duration, they should still feel like part of your workout rather than a rest period.

Timing Gadgets

In Module 1 we talked about taking a minimal approach to your running gear, especially when first starting out.  While it’s tempting to race out (pun intended) and invest in a runner-specific GPS device with all sorts of functions, a simple watch with stopwatch and/or timing functions will do.

A few of the common brands of GPS running devices include the following:

• Garmin
• Polar
• TomTom
• Suunto
• Fitbit (only certain models use GPS – most track distance based on steps)

While they can provide some pretty amazing data, much of it is more extensive and detailed than you’ll ever need.  A drawback to GPS devices is that they tend to make runners focus more on pace and less on running by feel, which you want to avoid as a new runner.

If you decided to invest in a GPS watch, try to either use it intermittently or simply leave it on the clock setting throughout your run so that your pace isn’t constantly displayed.  It’s too easy to get frustrated by your pace as a new runner, especially in challenging weather conditions or on hilly routes.  But don’t worry!  Keep at it, and you will continue to see your pace improve over time.

Types of Workouts

As a new runner, each run that you log will help build your strength and endurance.  You’ll notice in your training plan that starting from week one, there are different types of workouts on your schedule.  The further you progress, the more you’ll be challenged by a variety of workouts.  Most of the workouts are fairly self-explanatory, but let’s clarify the details of each.

Easy run

This is your bread and butter run – the type of run you’ll be doing most frequently — and should be executed exactly as it sounds.  We talked previously about running easy by feel and that’s exactly what you should do on these runs.  If it’s hot and humid or windy or there are wet, slippery conditions, you may need to slow your pace significantly.  The key here is to keep the effort consistently easy.  This may mean you run a little faster on a downhill segment and a little slower on an uphill, but try to maintain the same level of exertion throughout.

Long run

This is another run that is exactly as it sounds!  No matter what your experience or training plan level, your long run is simply the longest run of the week in terms of duration and mileage.  These are run at your easy pace/effort, and you may even want to start a little slower than normal since you’ll be out running longer than you usually do.  They may not feel significantly different than your easy runs at first, but will continue to get longer and more challenging to improve your endurance throughout your training plan.

Strides

Strides are simply accelerations that are usually about 100 meters in length.  They are performed after an easy run.  When running strides, you want to find a fairly level surface where you won’t be dodging traffic or need to change directions.

Strides typically take about 30 seconds each, and you’ll usually start with 4 repetitions.  To perform a stride:

1.    Accelerate gradually from an easy jog to about about 95% of your maximum effort.
2.    Hold that pace for 1-2 seconds, and then gradually slow back down to a walk.
3.    Allow 60-90 seconds of rest in between each repetition.  Keep moving by walking rather than simply standing still, or else you may start to tighten up.

That’s it!  Strides are simple to perform, and they are a fun way to add some faster running to your routine.  Because strides encourage you to run fast for short periods of time, they help reinforce proper running form without creating an overwhelming amount of fatigue. They prepare you to run faster, both mentally and physically.

Fartlek

Fartlek is a Swedish word that means “speed play.” Like strides, fartlek workouts are a great introduction to faster running.  They can also be as simple or as structured as you want them to be, and can be run with specific paces or by feel.  Some examples of an unstructured fartleks include:

• Run hard for 2 mailboxes, then easy for 4.
• Run a moderate/hard effort during commercials (when watching TV on the treadmill).

More structured fartlek workouts might be as follows:

• Run 8 repetitions of 90 seconds at 5k pace with 2 minutes easy in between.
• Run 5 repetitions of 4 minutes at tempo pace, with 4 minutes easy in between.

While you won’t see fartlek workouts in the first few weeks of your training plan, they will eventually become part of your routine to help build some speed as your race date approaches.

There are many other types of workouts (we’ve only scratched the surface) but we’re going to keep it simple in this program. Since you are just starting to run, it’s not productive to get overwhelmed with more complex workouts.

Pacing and workouts are the more complicated aspects of training. You will understand and internalize them after more experience so don’t get frustrated if you don’t “get it” right away.

Soon, you’ll be significantly better at running by feel and workout structures will look more familiar. You’ll get there!

Until then, recognize that you’ve already come a long way. And you should be confident about your progress: