No one is going to say that it’s not disappointing. Unless people have trained for an event such as the one you’ve entered, no one will understand how you’re feeling about it. Guilt, relief, disappointment, frustration, anger, glee – it’s a real mixture. So now, we need to refocus and put that training into good use. Here’s my top tips on what you should be doing instead!
Run Your Own Marathon/Half/10k
Don’t run the route of your event – it will honestly ruin the “big day”. Also, with the current cautions placed on outdoor exercise, you shouldn’t be going out for more than an hour and definitely not for 26.2 miles! But you could split the distance up and set yourself a goal of running so many miles in so many days. You could even add a time focus and try and get faster!
Readdress Your Training Plan
I’ve written a lot of running plans for clients. Everyone is different, but they are all periodised i.e. they focus on set strategies for a set amount of time. If your event has been postponed, you now need to re-plan your training based on where you got up to before it was postponed, and how long you now have before the event.
Change Training Tactics
There are many ways to train for an event. Sticking with our run as an example; you can do steady state runs, tempo and interval training runs, off and on road routes, hill sprints and so on. There are also ways to cross train for a run i.e. weights and core exercises, balance and stretch exercises. If you didn’t get chance to try any of these previously – now is the time! Do a run that is totally different to how you trained previously; get an “at-home” weights programme (and you don’t need any kit to get a good workout) and give it a go; sign-up for some free online classes and try those. Obviously, you need to start at a level that is appropriate for you, but different will help your training overall, and you may enjoy it!
Injury Prevention
Stopping training altogether or pushing yourself too hard may have implications in the long term, and we need to be careful. Now is a chance to focus on pre-hab! You have time to help prevent an injury. We’re not promising that you will always remain injury free if you follow our advice; but now is the chance to focus on anything you can do to help! So then answer honestly – do you stretch before or after going for a run? Do you regularly do any barre, yoga or pilates? Do you do any glute activation or foam rolling? If you answer no to any of these, now is the time to start!
If you need any help re-adjusting your training, please get in touch with me. I’m a qualified personal trainer with 12 years in the Fitness Industry training others. I have also completed a marathon, the Great North Run, the Yorkshire 3 Peaks, a number of 10ks and yearly obstacle courses:
kate@yorksbtc.org.uk