The Most Common Mistakes New Runners Make

It’s easy to look at running as something simple. You know it’s hard, but the task at hand is basic: put one foot in front of the other as quickly as you can until you reach the finish line. Even so, there is still a lot that you can do wrong as a runner. Yes, it’s something you’ve been doing since you were a kid playing tag on the playground, but there are plenty of mistakes that even seasoned runners make.

To find out what those mistakes are (and how to fix or avoid them), Slowtwitch spoke with Brad Hunter, a triathlon coach at Purple Patch Fitness in San Francisco. A former collegiate runner who has coached athletes to the start line of the IRONMAN World Championship (he had several athletes racing in Kona over the weekend), the 70.3 worlds and many marathon PBs, Hunter is the perfect person to speak to the many ways runners can err in training.

Not Taking It Easy

Something that so many runners do wrong is pushing too hard when they are supposed to be running easy. As Hunter notes, you should of course run fast at times, but only on days that are listed as hard sessions.

“The issue is when you’re not running easy enough on your easy days,” he says. “You need to find the confidence or courage to actually run really, really easy.”

It may sound funny to say running slowly is courageous or takes confidence, but if you think about it, it makes sense. The entire point of triathlon is to be as fast as possible, so it’s very easy to trick yourself into believing that slow training sessions are bad or that they are going to be judged by others.

How slowly should you be running on easy days? Some coaches and athletes will give you a number of minutes per mile below race pace to hit as your easy-day speed. While Hunter may have a number in his head, too, he prescribes a different tactic that centres around form.

“Try to see how easy and how slow you can run while you’re still holding reasonably good form,” he says. “Instead of worrying about how fast you can go or how long you can hold whatever pace, think, ‘Can I go really, really, really easy?’”

Too Much Mileage

Something in the same vein as running too fast too often is running too much too soon. Adding mileage to your workload is necessary, but you need to do it progressively and with care and intention. Hunter says this is not just an issue for beginner triathletes or newer runners — it’s something that experienced athletes returning from hiatuses from the sport need to think about, too.

“When you get back into running consistently, you kind of get that little bit of a grace period where, for a few weeks, the body absorbs it,” he says. “But eventually you hit a cliff — and you probably won’t get a warning.”

Falling off that cliff leads to injury. As Hunter points out, your body won’t be able to handle training overload, and whether it happens in a few weeks or a few months, you’ll eventually push yourself too far and find yourself sidelined for an undetermined amount of time.

“At Purple Patch, we like to say that you should underwhelm yourself with your training load or your running volume,” Hunter says. “You should always feel like you could do more.”

It may feel good and as though you’re making progress if you’re constantly “maxed out” in training, Hunter says, but the longer you push that limit, the quicker that cliff will come.

Pushing Through Injury

If you make one of the first two mistakes from this list and run too fast too often or too much each week, you’ll almost certainly end up injured. Even if you don’t make the above mistakes, the odds are good that you will eventually suffer an injury that keeps you from running. That’s the key to the injury, though — you have to stop yourself from running and give yourself enough time to heal.

When you have a running injury, Hunter says that is a great time to focus on swimming, cycling and strength training.

“Pivot into those other sports to drive fitness with whatever your injury allows while you let the run come back really slowly,” he says. “I wouldn’t encourage anyone to rush back into running.”

Even when you feel ready to start running again, Hunter says to do so “cautiously” by easing into it.

“When you come back from an injury, you can run two days a week initially,” he says. “Then, after a couple of weeks, move it to three days a week, and then another couple of weeks before four days a week. Chase frequency and resilience-building over big duration.”

Skipping Strength Work

Another mistake that ties directly into the last one is passing on the gym or at-home strength workouts. For most triathletes, strength is likely the first session to be dropped in a given week. Your time in the gym may not directly make you faster on race day (which is why so many triathletes would rather skip this session instead of a swim, bike or run), but that’s not what it’s there for. It is a training session that can keep you healthy and injury-free.

“If you’re someone who is experiencing run injuries, the number one way to help is strength training,” Hunter says.

Slowtwitch spoke with a Purple Patch colleague of Hunter’s specifically about strength training and the mistakes triathletes make in the gym, so we’ll have more on that note in the coming weeks. For now, we’ll leave you with this: don’t make the mistake of ignoring strength work. Every time you hit the gym, you’re doing yourself and your body a favour.

Ignoring Other Factors

Another mistake Hunter mentions is to focus solely on running as you chase improvements and faster times.

“You shouldn’t look at running just as, ‘To be a better runner, I need to run X number of days a week,’” he says. “It’s also about building positive habits to support your training. That’s how you stay healthy, that’s how you stay happy, that’s how you continue to improve consistently over time.”

What are these positive habits? The biggest one Hunter notes is sleep.

“You need to make sure you’re sleeping well,” he says. “You need to be getting your seven to eight hours of sleep a night.”

Hunter acknowledges that this is “understandably really hard to do for a lot of people,” but he stresses the important of shooting for those numbers as often as possible.

“Under-sleeping means you’re not giving yourself an opportunity to actually recover and absorb the training,” he says. “Sleep is your number one superpower.”

Eating well is another factor Hunter says many runners may overlook. You may be focused on what you’re putting into your body (sugar contents, protein, etc.), but it’s easy to “under-eat,” Hunter says.

“You need to be eating enough to support the demands you’re putting in your body,” he says. Like with sleep, what you eat will directly impact how your body reacts to and recovers from training. If you’re not eating enough, you could set yourself up for some issues down the road.

Thinking That Walking is Weakness

Not walking is the final mistake Hunter brings up. He says he sees so many runners refusing to walk, whether that’s in training or in racing.

“It’s important to not look at walk breaks as a sign of weakness,” he says. “They can actually be a performance advantage.”

As already mentioned, many triathletes have this built-in idea that going slowly is bad, but Hunter notes that walking can and should be a tool for all runners.

“Getting people to integrate walk breaks can help them keep overall stress low on easy days,” he says. When it comes to racing, Hunter says a 20-second walk every mile could be the difference between blowing up on the run (and walking way more than if you’d taken a break every now and then) and a PB.

“Don’t let it be a sign of weakness,” he says. “Let it be a sign of patience and determination.”

To learn more about Purple Patch Fitness and their coaching services, visit their website.