My Pre-Training Checklist
My personal checklist of things to have in place before starting Training for that next Major Race
Some things that are amazing about the internet and the community on it is all the information that’s available to us athletes. If you’re looking for that next major race, you can easily find options online and register right away. If you’re looking for your next Road or Trail Shoe, there are not only hundreds of options to be found online but also dozens of reviews on that one shoe you have your eye on. It’s certainly amazing to have such resources available.
In addition, I see very often, articles out there with recommendations for training plans. If you have a goal of breaking 20min for that next 5k, you’ll be presented with an example training schedule you can take and personalize. As well, you’ll find Pre-Race Checklists for the Race itself. However, I rarely see any checklists or recommendations about where you should be before starting your training.
The Race itself is the tip of the Iceberg to all the time and effort that goes into the Race. Most of that effort and time will go into all the Training and Preparation you do leading up to the Race. So, in my mind, it’s really important that you take some time to ensure you start your Training on the right foot. Here are some of the things I try to do before starting Training:
Be Well Rested
Coming off a past race, you can be exhausted. You’ve just spent months preparing for that race and executing it. Committing yourself to your Sunday Morning distance runs, spending hours at the Track, running longer and harder distances, it can all take a toll on you physically.
Before starting your next training session, be sure to give yourself enough time to rest and recoup before pushing yourself again. As I stated in one of my past blog posts (Lessons from an Injured Runner), “You’re not Bulletproof”. You’re always susceptible to injury and overtraining which can hurt you in your next preparation. Giving yourself some time between races to recover physically is definitely important for your longevity.
Be Well Rested Mentally
Just as, if not more, important is to ensure you’ve given yourself enough time to rest mentally. All that work and build-up leading to the race and the race itself takes a toll mentally too. You’ve just spent months constantly evaluating yourself to see where you are and stressing over all the details about the race. If you jump into a new challenge so quickly, you’re more likely to get burnt out mentally during your next training session. So be sure to take your mind off for at least a little bit of time and enjoy other activities so you can come back refreshed!
This isn’t just coming from me, in reading the book “26 Marathons: What I Learned About Faith, Identity, Running, and Life from My Marathon Career” by Meb Keflezighi (A Professional Long Distance Runner), he does the same thing. Each Marathon is following by a couple of weeks of resting and mentions the importance of rest your mind afterward so you can be ready for that next challenge.
Be without Injury
Training is hard enough without having to constantly evaluate an injury to see if it’s being aggravated and ensure it’s still healing. If you can sacrifice a couple of weeks of training to ensure you’re injury-free when starting, trust me, it’s a good trade. As Meb talked about in the book I mentioned above, “It’s better to be 90% ready and make it to the start line than to panic and become either overtrained or unable to start the race.”
Understand the Upcoming Race
It’s important you do understand what you’re getting yourself into. This is especially important if you’re getting involved in a new sort of Race. For Example, I’m a road runner, but when I try to do Triathlons or Trail Races, I’ll definitely need to take some time to understand what I’m getting myself into. How it works, what things I’ll need to adjust in my training and what gear I’ll need to get and practice with. All of this will help you set your Training Schedule. Speaking of which…
Set your Training Schedule
Once you’ve identified what kind of Race you’re getting into, you need to understand how you’re going to prepare for it. As I mentioned in the Intro, there are many resources out there on the internet for you to come up with a plan to meet your goals. Putting together a formal Training Schedule will help to ensure you’re staying on track and give you confidence going into the race.
Set Goals
As I’ve gotten more and more into running races, I’ve started to see the importance of setting a goal for an upcoming race. Having a goal to strive for can help you structure your Training Schedule accordingly and make it easier to evaluate if you’re on track to accomplish this goal.
These goals can be something as simple as “Run the entire race without stopping” or something even more ambitious like “Run a sub 2:30 marathon”. Just make sure that it’s realistic based on your current physical ability and the time you have, but also challenging. If you can set a challenging goal and achieve it, it will fill you with confidence and make you wonder how much better you can do at the next race.
Set a Stretch Goal
Just in case this is a term that people I’m around at work just simply made up (it’s happened), a Stretch Goal is a goal that you can push for in the event you’ve already met your previous goals in the set timeline.
Realistic Goals are extremely important to set. But sometimes we inadvertently set too easy goals. In these situations, I always like to set an even more challenging goal for myself. If you’re looking to take 10 minutes off your Marathon PR, then set the Stretch Goal of 20 minutes of your Marathon PR. This ensures that you’re constantly pushing all the way up to the start of the Race.
Just make sure you don’t treat this as the “real” goal you set for yourself. While it’s important to push yourself and improve, you should NEVER feel like you need to compromise your mental or physical health for a goal. This goes for running and life in general.
Ensure you have enough time to Train
Giving yourself enough time to train means that you can ensure that you’re allowing your Training Schedule to be as gradual a build-up as possible. This is especially important so your body can absorb the training and ensure you don’t push too hard in the time leading up to the race.
You’re not doing yourself a favor by waiting 2 weeks before a race to begin your training if you’re hoping to meet an ambitious goal. By waiting till its too late, you may either push yourself too hard and risk injury or your result in not meeting your goal and loose confidence to try the next time.
Likewise, giving yourself too much time can run the risk of you losing interest in the upcoming Race and skimping on your training.
Find a Personal Reason to take part in the Race
Some of the most successful races I’ve ever run in have been those races that I felt I had a personal reason to take part in. My most recent race, which you can read about at Honoring my Mother at the 2019 Captial City 5k, was an extremely personal one in which I was seeking to win a race for my late Mother. Having that motivation to run it for her kept me going through the lowest parts of my training. Those days when I just didn’t feel like I was even going to be able to run it.
If you’re committing yourself to something that’s going to take up as much time as training for a race, then you need to make sure you always keep your cause/reason in mind when doing it. You’re going to have bad days in training. You’re going to question what you’re doing. In those situations, having a reason like Honoring your mom, or even running for yourself, will keep you going in those dark moments.
Well, that’s my list as it stands today! Do you have any things that you do before you begin your training? Let me know in the comments and I hope this helps you prepare for your next Big Race!
