How to Challenge Yourself and be a Chatty runner?

Anne and Colin talk about the different ways you can still challenge yourself as a Chatty runner.

Why do you need challenge?

We are conditioned to think that exercise should be hard work. We are told that we need to push ourselves and challenge our bodies if we want to get fitter. The body doesn’t work like that though. It responds to being treated gently. You only need to do a little bit more than you are used to improve your fitness. We have enough challenges in our lives as it is. Why challenge yourself more?

Plan a challenge every so often.

Having said all that, we recognise that many of us have a competitive streak that needs feeding every so often. Once you can run Chatty non-stop for an hour, then you can plan challenges into your training. Remember the golden rules about recovery and don’t forget that you can’t force progress by pushing yourself on every run that you do.

Run a faster 5km every three weeks

This might be a Parkrun or your own 5km course. Run it at a consistent pace, faster than Chatty but still comfortable. It will take you around three days to recover afterwards. Have a rest or run very gently in this time.

Enter a race

This is the best way to challenge yourself either by running faster or running further. Remember the golden rule of recovery. It takes at least one day for every mile you have raced. So, take it easy for a week after a 10k and two weeks after a half marathon.

You can run time trails over any distance. Try a 3km time trial over the same course every three weeks. Remember the shorter the distance, the quicker the recovery. Choose your pace carefully too. ‘Breathy’ is a great pace to start with. Again, the faster you run the more recovery you will need.

Add Out and Back Runs into your training. Try one every 2-3 weeks over the same mainly flat course. After a warm up, run out for up to 15 mins, turn round and come back a little quicker. We recommend ‘breathy’ pace again.  If you do this regularly you should notice either that it starts to feel easier or you cover more distance as you progress.  Join our Facebook group for more detail on Out and Back runs.

Staying Chatty on an Out and Back can be a challenge in itself. You can do this every week on the same course and over time you will cover more ground.

When you do challenge yourself remember to tune into your body and be a ‘feeling based’ runner. If you do too much or run too fast your body will soon shout at you that you need to rest!

We think that becoming a Chatty runner and learning how to build up your training gradually is a challenge in itself.