Tip #1: Focus on Total Health and Your Own Ability — Sports are all about utilizing competition as a motivator to improve your fitness and abilities. That said, it’s important not to compare yourself to others. Instead, focus on maximizing your ability and prioritizing your mental health, and stay healthy, happy, and humble all year long. Remember, running should be fun!
Tip #2: Be Sure to Fuel Your Body — Always get enough to eat and fuel every workout. Focus on eating easily digestible carbs and electrolyte hydration for high-intensity performance while focusing on a balance of fats, proteins, and carbs for recovery.
Tip #3: Don’t Forget to Cross Train — Avoid overuse injuries by incorporating low-impact training like cycling, elliptical, or swimming into your schedule. And more importantly, make strength training mandatory, with a minimum of once each week.
Tip #4: Get Enough Sleep — You can’t out-train inadequate sleep. Target 8-10 hours of sleep per night to ensure your body is maximizing recovery. If you love to train hard, challenge yourself to be just as disciplined with sleep habits.
Tip #5: Take the Time to Prioritize Recovery — Be patient and do the little things. Take rest days, foam roll, warm up, cool down, stretch, and take recovery weeks. And foam roll some more.
Tip #6: Invest in Quality Running Shoes — Wear running-specific shoes and replace them when needed. Running shoes contain specialized designs to handle the repetitive motion of the sport and help keep your feet happy and healthy all season long.
Tip #7: Identify Your Strengths — The best racing strategy is to figure out where your strengths lie. Can you drop others on the climb, or are you better at bombing the downhills? Is your strength in finding that last bit of energy to push past the competition right before the finish line? Lean into your strengths on race day, and run your race to the best of your abilities.
Tip #8: Prepare the Night Before A Race — Prepare mentally and physically the day before a race. Pack a bag with everything you will need for the race, review the course map beforehand, and write out goals and plans for the day.
Tip #9: Warm Up At Your Own Pace! — Don’t be tempted to keep up with others and run too fast during your warm-up. Maintain a pace that is best for you and save your energy for when the gun goes off.
Tip #10: Be a Good Sport — Give every ounce of energy and SEND IT on race day! But, regardless of how you perform, be a good sport. Be kind to teammates and fellow competitors, and take pride in yourself for showing up and finishing, no matter if it went to plan.