This is such a common problem.
You’re putting in the miles. You’re getting up early to run before work. You’re doing your intervals, tempo runs, and long runs. You’re working hard. But when race day comes around, the results aren’t what you expected.
Maybe your times have plateaued. Maybe you’re struggling to match performances from a few years ago. Or maybe you’re training harder than ever, but somehow getting slower.
It’s so incredibly frustrating, especially when you feel like you’re doing everything right.
The problem is probably not that you’re training too little.
It might be that you’re not training as effectively as you could be.
Here are six common mistakes I see runners make that can prevent them from getting the most out of their training.
1. You’re Not Recovering Enough
One of the biggest mistakes runners make is assuming that more training, particularly more hard training, automatically produces better results. This is not always true.
In fact, in my experience, it’s more likely to result in stagnating fitness and poorer results relative to your capability.
Training creates the stimulus for improvement, but your body needs adequate recovery to adapt to that stimulus.
If you’re constantly pushing hard, you may be accumulating fatigue faster than you can recover from it.
That’s why I’m a big believer in keeping training relatively simple.
For many runners, one quality workout and one long run per week, with the rest of the running at an easy effort, is an excellent starting point.
The quality session might be a threshold workout, intervals, or hills, depending on the runner and the time of year. The long run develops endurance, while the easy days support aerobic development without adding excessive stress.
Some experienced runners can handle more intensity, but the right amount depends on their training history, recovery capacity and circumstances.
The goal isn’t to see how much hard training you can survive. It’s to find the amount of training you can consistently recover from and benefit from.
Not sure if your training is helping you improve or just making you tired?
Sometimes an outside perspective can make all the difference. I offer a free 30-minute training review where we can look at what you’re currently doing, discuss your goals, and identify opportunities to improve.
2. There’s Not Enough Variation in Your Training
This one might sound contradictory after talking about keeping training simple, but hear me out.
Too many runners spend most of their training in the same moderate-intensity zone.
Their easy runs aren’t particularly easy, but their harder sessions aren’t sufficiently different to provide a distinct training stimulus. They end up doing a lot of running at roughly the same effort.
Different workouts and paces have different purposes. All are beneficial in some way, it’s about balancing things correctly.
Easy running develops aerobic fitness while keeping fatigue manageable. Threshold sessions improve your ability to sustain a strong pace. Faster intervals can develop speed and aerobic power.
You don’t need to hammer every workout to achieve those benefits. But you do need enough variation in intensity, duration and workout structure to develop the different qualities required for racing.
Make your easy days genuinely easy, and approach your harder sessions with a specific purpose.
3. You’re Not Consistent Enough
Consistency is probably the most underrated ingredient in successful distance running.
I’ve seen runners put together a fantastic 3-4 weeks of training, and then disappear for ten days.
Sometimes it’s an injury. Sometimes they’re exhausted. Sometimes life gets, you know, “busy”. And sometimes they simply lose interest and decide to try some other approach for a while.
Then the cycle starts again.
A few excellent weeks won’t compensate for months of interrupted training. Fitness develops through repeated, manageable training over time.
I’d much rather see a runner average 50 kilometres per week consistently for six months than alternate between 80-kilometre weeks and extended periods of little or no running.
The first runner is likely to develop a much stronger foundation.
That’s one reason I tend to be conservative when developing training programs.
I’d rather slightly undertrain a runner than push them beyond what they can consistently sustain.
The best training plan isn’t the most impressive one on paper. It’s the one you can actually follow.
4. Your Training Isn’t Progressing Toward Anything
There are no shortage of running workouts available online.
You can find threshold sessions, hill repeats, fartleks, track intervals, marathon workouts and countless variations of each.
The problem comes when runners start collecting workouts instead of following a training plan.
One week they try a session they saw on YouTube. The next week they copy something they saw their buddy do on Strava. Then they download a new training program because someone claims it’s the secret to running faster.
Individual workouts might be excellent in the right context, but that doesn’t mean they fit together into an effective program.
Training needs direction.
I prefer to start with the runner’s goal and work backwards.
What race are we preparing for? What fitness qualities will that race demand? What are the runner’s current strengths and weaknesses? How much time do we have?
From there, we can organize training into phases that gradually develop the required fitness.
Early in a training cycle, we might emphasize general aerobic development and threshold work. As the goal race approaches, training becomes increasingly specific to the demands of that event.
Progression doesn’t always mean running faster or adding more mileage.
Sometimes it means extending the duration of a workout, improving consistency, or completing the same session with less effort.
The important thing is that each phase builds on the previous one.
Random workouts just make you tired. A progressive training program makes you better.
5. You’re Racing Your Training
Some runners approach every workout as a test of fitness.
If the plan calls for five one-kilometre repeats at a controlled pace, they try to run each one faster than the last.
If their easy run feels comfortable, they pick up the pace.
If they ran a particular route in 50 minutes last week, they want to finish it in 49 minutes this week.
The problem is, rather than training to build fitness, the runner is trying to use training to prove they are fit.
A threshold workout isn’t better simply because you ran it faster. In fact, running too fast can change the purpose of the session and increase the recovery required.
Constantly pushing the pace also adds physical and mental fatigue.
Over time, that can interfere with subsequent training, increase injury risk and make running feel more like an obligation than something you enjoy.
I like runners to finish most workouts feeling that they could have done a little more, so they can complete tomorrow’s session and the next one, and the next one, as intended so they benefit optimally from those sessions as well.
Save your best efforts for race day. That’s when the clock really matters.
6. You’re Not Executing Well on Race Day
Sometimes the problem isn’t your fitness at all.
You’ve trained consistently, recovered properly, and followed a sensible program, but when race day arrives, things fall apart.
One of the most common mistakes is starting too fast.
The excitement of the race, the crowd, and the runners around you can make your planned pace feel almost ridiculously easy during the opening kilometres.
So you push a little harder, thinking (hoping …) that today is your day for a massive breakthrough.
By halfway, you’re already cooked, and the second half becomes a survival struggle. Most of us have done this more times than we care to admit.
Poor fuelling can make matters worse, particularly in longer races. So can inconsistent pacing, ignoring the race plan, or trying to respond to every runner who passes you.
Good racing is a skill, and like any skill, it takes practice.
That means learning to control your effort early, understanding appropriate pacing, rehearsing your fuelling strategy, and sticking with a realistic plan.
It also means recognizing that not every race will unfold perfectly.
Weather, terrain and competition require adjustments. As you gain experience with racing, you learn which adjustments work and which ones don’t.
Often, the difference between a disappointing race and a personal best isn’t another month of harder training, it’s executing the fitness you already have.
The Bottom Line: Train Smarter, Not Just Harder
If your race times have stopped improving, the answer isn’t necessarily to add more mileage, more intervals or more intensity.
Before changing anything, take a close look at how you’re training.
Are you recovering properly? Are your workouts serving a specific purpose? Are you training consistently? Is your program progressing toward a meaningful goal? Are you controlling your training efforts? And are you executing your races effectively?
Improvement comes from getting the fundamentals right, week after week, month after month.
Train with purpose. Recover properly. Stay consistent. And make your hard work count.
Not Getting the Results You Want From Your Running?
Sometimes it takes an outside perspective to identify what’s holding you back.
I offer a free 30-minute training review where we’ll discuss your current training, your racing goals, and what might be preventing you from improving.
We’ll look at what you’re doing well, where adjustments might help, and how you can make your training more effective.
If you’re an experienced recreational runner looking to take the next step, I’d be happy to talk and see how we can make you faster.
