Having a specific race to train for is a great way to stay motivated in your running journey as it gives you a solid goal to be working towards. Signing up for a race also creates increased personal accountability with training. You’ve paid to join the race and committed to going the distance, now you must train for the big day. A 5k or 10k are excellent races to train for as they are manageable distances that can help you focus on speed and endurance in your running.
Preparing for a race starts as soon as training starts. Everything we do in training is helping us prepare for race day and it is important to be intentional about that preparation. The golden rule of race prep: nothing new on race day. So, make sure to start testing out things like shoes you plan to wear, breakfast for morning of, warm up routine, running at times similar to race time, and practicing mantras early in training.
To prepare for race day it is also important to set a realistic time goal and start mentally preparing for pacing for the race. There are various ways to set time goals, the most realistic way to use recent running performance to set a reasonable goal. Tools like the Jack Daniels VDOT chart that can help you get an idea of what a 5k time might be at your current fitness based on a mile time trial. You can also use https://vdoto2.com/calculator. This can help predict times all the way up to the marathon. Your time goal will help guide the paces you want to try to hold in training on workout days like interval and tempo runs. During workouts is an important time to practice pacing for a race. Most commonly runners go out too fast and struggle to complete the last portion of a race. Training runs are a great opportunity to practice conserving energy to be able to push more later and finish strong. A good challenge to do to practice this while training is to try to have your last repeat during interval work be your fastest. This goal helps you learn how to hold back a bit in the beginning of a workout and be mindful of the energy needed to have a strong effort at the end.
Lastly, training is an important time to work on your mental strategies for race day. Training runs not only help us adjust to the physical effort of race day but also the mental effort needed to push through a race. When training gets tough take time to notice how you react in your thoughts. Do you get discouraged? Turn into your own worst critic? A negative mentality can be very damaging to your running and race day confidence. It’s important to practice being your own best cheerleader on your runs so you can help yourself push through tough moments. Some methods for doing this include using positive mantras and reframing negative thoughts. Some of my favorite mantras include “you can do this” and “stay on the mile you’re in”. When getting discouraged by negative thoughts about not being able to accomplish a goal in training I like to reframe them with curiosity of how well I could do if I tried. For example, if the thought “I don’t think I can keep this up” comes up in a tough workout try reframing this to “I wonder how much longer I can keep this up if I put in my best effort”. These simple changes can help you stay mentally fit and prepare you for a positive mindset on race day. This also allows you to appreciate effort over outcome so even if you don’t reach every goal you set for yourself you can still feel proud that you tried.