Coach Atul Godbole answers your training related questions…
Q. Ravi asks “Is it OK to do a very hilly trail race a few weeks before my target race which is a pancake flat road race?”
A. This is absolutely not advisable for 2 reasons that I can think of:
- The climbs and more importantly the corresponding descents will trash your legs at a very critical time in your training cycle and will hamper your recovery and ability to execute the subsequent workouts.
- This goes against the principle of specificity which says that you must mimic your race conditions as closely as possible.
Q. Tejas asks “How should I overcome my fear of tempo runs?”
A. This is a very common occurrence. Many athletes get anxious and are actually afraid of their tempo runs. Since the fear and anxiety arises in the mind, that’s where you need to tackle it.
View your tempo runs (all workouts for that matter) as a time to build fitness, not prove fitness. Its OK if you are not able to hit your target paces/power/HR for your workouts. Do not try to “win” all your workouts. That would be very counter-productive and exhausting.
Just focus on completing the workout at approximately the target effort or metrics rather than on hitting or surpassing the exact metrics. And equally importantly, start your workouts conservatively, a bit on the slower side.
Runners and triathletes, have training, diet, nutrition related queries? Send email to askthecoach@motiv8coaching.com