Running Variety

We get into routines with our jobs, household chores and exercising and sometimes we need a stimulus to keep things exciting, fun and productive.    With exercise, variety will help us to improve our fitness and competitive performances.    But what should you do to add some variety to your training program?

First, run at a variety of distances and paces.   If you run five miles a day five times a week you could mix it up and run a 3-miler, 6-miler, 5-miler, 4-miler and end the week with a 7-miler.   Run a little faster on the shorter runs and more slowly on the two longer runs.   Add some 20 second strideouts for leg turnover.   Run a more hilly course periodically to change things up.   Every now and then run fast repetitions of a certain distance or time on the track, roads or trails with an easy recovery in between.   Your muscless will respond to the challenge and not get in an overuse rut from doing the same thing all of the time.

Second, run in a variety of places.   Don’t do the same clockwise loop every day – start out by running it counter-clockwise every other time.   Find a place to run from work and also consider stopping to run at a park, trail or in a different neighborhood on your drive home from work.   Seek out parks, wooded areas, trails, or flat beaches to give you a mental break from the same old boring neighborhood routes you’ve run hundreds of times.

Finally, run a variety of races.   Don’t run just 5ks or only marathons.   Don’t race only on the roads.   During the course of a year race all sorts of distances – 5k, 10k, 15k, half marathon, marathon and even beyond!   Run road races, trail races and track races.    You will enjoy preparing for different events and racing them.  You will find that the speed necessary for the shorter races makes the longer races seem slow and the strength needed for the longer races makes the shorter races seem like they are over before you know it.

The old saying is that ‘variety is the spice of life’ and in the world of running it is very true.  Run a variety of paces and distances, expand your running route selection to a variety of places and terrain and compete in a variety of races.   You will enjoy your running much more and will race faster!