Quick Tip–The Importance of Doing the Little Things

The 10,000 foot view of running is pretty simple: keep putting one foot in front of the other until you get to the finish line, then stop.

But if you have goals for your running, there are many little things that you can do in order to make sure that you achieve your goals without falling apart first.

What are the Little Things?

• Body Work—Massage/foam rolling plays an important roll in the recovery process, especially as you increase your mileage and/or intensity. Stretching can also help speed the recovery process, maintain normal range of motion, and improve circulation within the tissues. Ignoring body work may not cause immediate issues, but it will likely catch up to you eventually.
• Sleep—Sleep is one of the most overlooked training components for many runners. Your body adapts to the demands you place on it (through training) best while you are asleep. If you’re only sleeping 5-6 hours a night, you’re likely not getting enough sleep to help your body make the improvements needed for you to get faster/run farther.
• Food—Most people know they should eat healthy food, especially runners, but we get caught up in the convenience of pre-packaged food and people will sometimes think that they don’t have time to prepare real food. Even on race day, we turn to gels and chews instead of real food options. If you eat better food more often, you’ll run better, it’s as simple as that.
• Strength Training—Too often, the thought is more running will make you faster. Yes, running is important if you want to improve as a runner, but so is targeted strength training. Strength training can improve endurance, increase speed, and prevent injury, yet many runners still don’t do it!

Whatever your running goals are, if you want to reach your goals in 2015 and beyond, you can’t overlook the importance of doing the little things on a regular basis!

Want to hear me expound some more on the importance of doing the little things? Just click play below!