Question
What elements of training seem to cause the most issues for runners? Does the rate of incline or the running surface affect those issues?
Answer
There are probably a number of key elements that are a part of the athlete’s training or lacking from an athlete's training that do cause issues. I think that the number one element is the lack of recovery time built into the training cycle. Generally speaking, people will take time off or time to recover when they feel like they need it. I have all of the athletes that I coach build it in on the front end of training. We put those days into their training plan first because those are the most important days of their training; their ability to be able to recover is most important. Secondly, I think that most runners are lacking strength training and essentially the ability to increase their capacity in the process of training or in their training cycle. They want to be outside, so they do not want to be strength training in a gym, but this is one significant way of not only building strength, building bone density, etc., but building their capacity to be able to go out and perform. Then, generally speaking, there is the issue of interval type work. If an athlete runs the same pace all the time, they get really good at running the same pace all the time. We need to have interval work built into their training.
As far as incline or surface, the literature is a little debatable. Anecdotally speaking, I think that from what I have seen over the years, trail runners tend to have fewer issues even though they may be running longer miles. I think that this is more a case of continued changes in terrain causing the athlete to have to balance and adapt to the terrain as opposed to on the asphalt where the runners are simply repeating the same movement over and over again. As said, this is a bit anecdotal, but I do think that this has tended to be the trend over time. Those are some of the things that I think would be a part of the training plan or lacking from the training plan that do tend to contribute to some of these issues in terms of training.
