Thinking about stepping up in distance next year, to do a marathon, ultra, or Ironman®? You might want to reconsider. There’s nothing wrong with going longer, but there’s no need to rush.
We’re endurance athletes. We look for new challenges. Almost by definition that means going longer. Once we’ve done our first 5km, we tend to look to do a ½ or full marathon. If we run trails, we look to races like Pikes Peak or a 100-miler. If we do triathlons, we look to an Ironman®.
I understand the urge to go longer. I followed a progression – from running, to triathlons, to ultras, to adventure racing. There were pressures from within (endurance comes easy to me) and without – both from fellow runners who were going longer, and non-runners who are more likely to ask if you do marathons rather than asking about a mere 5km.
Far too many endurance athletes jump up in distance too much and too quickly. While you certainly could complete a marathon – there are lots of training programs that promise that – it will be more painful, more prone to failure, more susceptible to injury, less enjoyable, and something you will be less likely to continue than if you took your time moving up in distance.
It’s one thing to survive at longer races, it’s quite another to thrive and have longevity.
Success at longer races is not just about what you do in the current season, but the accumulation of training over years. It can take years for your body to properly adapt to the stresses of longer races. The more seasons of training you have under your belt, the more you’ll be able to handle the training stress necessary to properly prepare for longer races. And, perhaps surprisingly, the more training you have done over time, the less training you may actually need in the proximate training cycle.
The rapid buildup when moving up to longer races quickly, requires your body to rapidly adapt to increased stresses. This makes you more prone to injury and illness. These training setbacks can push you to rush your training even more leading to a cycle of injuries and setbacks. Also, there’s a greater chance of not being properly prepared for the distance even without injury. There’s less of a margin of error. Patience can lead to greater success and reduced risk of injury.
Often, after such a big feat, there’s a big let down, somewhat of a post-race depression. The training and commitment in getting there can be such a burden (body, mind, life) that it can lead to a big break from or drop off in training. This can lead to a one-and-done. Or, the big break/drop off means that once you do start training again, you end up starting from a fairly low level requiring another big ramp-up. Patience can lead to more sustainable enjoyment and continued progress.
Moving up quickly in distance is the easy way out – it’s an excuse not to learn those lessons, and not to really challenge yourself. Completing your long race is a big challenge. But have you really challenged yourself to get better? If you’re not and don’t like running fast, running slow and longer can be the easy way out. As I said above, endurance comes easily to me. So, doing ultras was actually a safe choice. However, in doing that, I avoided the challenge of getting faster. I hate 5Ks, yet that lack of speed is what has limited my performance in longer races. When I have trained for 5Ks, I was faster in longer races.
There can be strong parallels in life. Doing the things that are hard, that we don’t do well, that we’ve been avoiding, may mean failure and frustration in the short run, but greater success and enjoyment in the long run (pun intended). Running, after all, is much more meaningful if in improves your larger life.
In some cultures, people can spend a lifetime pursuing a single, simple task such as sculpting a small bush or creating a 17-syllable poem. The goal is not simply to say you did it once, but to do it better. It can take years of practice and lots of tries before getting it right enough.
We sometimes forget that in Western cultures, both in life and in running. We think that once we’ve merely completed a distance, the only way to satisfy our drive is to tackle a longer race. Yet, how many of us can say that we really got it right the first time, that we did as well as we could, that we learned everything important that there is to learn? I’ve been running for 50+ years and I’m still learning things about running and myself.
You say that you’re getting older, and your PR days are behind you? Improvement isn’t always measured by time. With age and experience (and hopefully wisdom), you can train smarter (not necessarily more) and race better. While you may be past setting PRs, you can still set age graded PRs. Even if your times are slower, there can be satisfaction in knowing that you prepared and raced well and got closer to your current potential, something you can do at any age. My PR days are gone, but there are still competitive challenges that drive me.
Deena Kastor, America’s fastest female marathoner, raced 5ks and 10ks for years before moving up to the marathon. While there are very young Kenyan and Ethiopian elite marathoners, it’s likely they had years of running to-and-from school and/or racing at shorter distances in their youth. Take your time, let your body adapt, and learn your lessons in the shorter races before moving up.
After my twins were born, September, 2012, I spent 2+ years doing very little running (1-2 short runs/week, some weeks none at all) to focus on the family. When they started pre-school, in 2015, I began running consistently again. I set a long-term goal of running sub-3:00 at Boston in 2020, when I turned 60. That was an aggressive goal that I didn’t know I could reach, however, I gave myself five years to get there. I’m glad I did as I had a few bumps along the road. Initially, I ramped up too quickly and got injured. I had to take 3-4 months off of running (I was able to bike, row and swim). I learned the lesson that, after 2+ years of little running and being older, my body was not able to ramp up quickly in distance like I used to be able to do. Boston was cancelled in 2020 because of Covid so I didn’t get to see if I could run another sub-3:00. If I do try it again, I have more miles on my legs and more speed to help me get there.
I know some of you are going to quickly jump up in distance anyway. Here’s my advice if you do:
- Allow yourself more time than your training plan calls for. If you have a 20-week training plan, for example don’t wait until 20 weeks before the race to start. START TRAINING NOW! Extra time allows for a more gradual buildup and margin of error if/when you have to miss some training.
- Listen to your body. Don’t rigidly follow any training plan. If you’re feeling knee pain, on oncoming cold, or had a stressful week, it’s better to skip a day or go easy than risk injury or illness.
- Focus on building the endurance and strength to adequately complete the distance, less on time.
- Don’t completely ignore speed. Speed builds efficiency and strength. It makes the slower efforts easier. For a quick build, focus your speed more on shorter intervals (up to ~40 seconds) for leg speed and stride efficiency. Also do short hill sprints for power. However, minimize longer (e.g., 3-6 minute) intervals until you’ve gotten through the first long race.
You don’t have to run a marathon to be a real runner. You don’t have to do an ultra to be a real trail runner. You don’t have to do an Ironman® to be a triathlete. At least, you don’t need to rush into them. It is possible to find satisfaction and continual challenges in shorter races. It’s OK if you never do a longer race. As long as you are continuing to challenge yourself and having fun, you are still a real athlete.
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