How to "Listen to Your Body"
Read “Listen to Your Body” to learn why data is not the best way to guide your training!
Learning to listen to our body while running ultimately brings confidence. Confidence to run fast when we feel good and confidence to shut ‘er down when it just doesn’t feel right.
If you’ve been too focused on data and need to learn to listen to your body, here are a few suggestions to help you get started:
1. Leave your watch AT HOME
This is not forever, but just for some occasional runs. Do not wear it but promise “not look at it.” When you leave your watch at home, you are doing the work required to learn how to understand your body. It is that simple. This is the first step and it is non-negotiable.
On the watchless run - do your best to run at an easy and comfortable pace start to finish. Pay attention to how your body feels, to your breathing, to your cadence. Do not bring music. Do not run with others. This run should be physically easy but require your full mental focus.
(It’s quite simple to manually add a run to your training log after the fact - just choose a route that you know the distance. It is not necessary to put in the time. While adding the manual entry, include some comments as to how you felt during the run. This is the start of a useful training log.)
2. The Cycle Run workout
It is impossible to know whether or not you are pushing too hard without ever having pushed yourself hard. The Cycle Run is a simple workout that helps runners become more familiar with a variety or efforts and paces.
TRY IT: Walk for 1 minute, Jog for 1 minute, Run for 1 minute. Repeat as desired.
The walk is recovery, the jog should be comfortable and easy, and the run should be challenging. Read more here.
3. Progression Run
The progression run can be any distance. The goal is to start out at a very comfortable, easy pace and finish at a high effort, either E7-8 “hard or very hard” on the scale of perceived effort. Throughout the run, increase effort gradually.
Do not make any any pace, power or HR goals for this run. Do not rely on your data to guide your effort. If you do, you will still get a good physical workout but won’t have learned anything about how to listen to your body.
While it is important to forget about data during this run, your slow increase of effort should in fact result in an increase of pace. The start of the run should be the slowest pace and the fastest pace should be at the finish.
If you find that you’ve progressed the pace too quickly and need to slow down before you’ve covered the full distance of the run, that is okay! In fact, it is a very good learning experience. You’ll have learned how it feels when you’ve reached your limit. In your next progression run, you’ll be better at measuring your effort so you feel that way at the end of the run — but not in the middle!
After the run, review your data. If pace remained constant or slowed, it is clear that the starting “easy” pace should actually be slower on the next progression run.
A Few Hacks: are you…
Sick? Either don’t run, or do a short easy run. Do not attempt a workout. (Not even an “easy” workout.)
Totally exhausted? Take a day off and use the time that would have been spent running to get extra sleep.
Struggling in an easy run? Stop, take a walking break, then resume at a slower pace.
Feeling amazing at the start of your workout? Stick to the plan. Remember the guardrails from the first part “Listen to Your Body” of this blog post.
Feeling amazing with less than half the workout remaining? Go! Let your legs run! Get after it!!
Nicole Sifuentes is a full-time Running Coach for adults of all ages and abilities. She is a former professional runner and 2-time Olympian, and Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist. Read more about her services, and schedule your free coaching consultation.