Pinpoint the Positives
If you crossed the finish line with a better-than-expected time or place, you should be proud. You should use this as further motivation to keep training and watch your performances continue to get better.
Give yourself time to celebrate, but even after the best of races, you must look for both the positives and points for improvement going forward. Write a list of the things you did correctly, and think about ways you could have made that race even better. Some things to consider:
- Did you execute an ideal pacing strategy?
- Did you fuel well before and during (if necessary) the race?
- How did you stay motivated and focused during any rough patches?
- How did you feel when you crossed the finish line?
If your race was less than what you had expected or hoped, you still need to find at least one positive takeaway, even if that's being proud of the courage it took you to start the race. If it's been a long time since your last race, heading to the starting line can feel intimidating, so kudos to you for getting back out there.
More: 5 Ways to Get Over a Bad Race Experience
How to Learn From Mistakes and Improve Weaknesses
After the positives come the parts of the race that teach you how to improve. The worse the race, the more opportunity you have to learn and grow from the experience. Keep that perspective to stay positive rather than slip into a glum, defeatist, "I-give-up" attitude.
Room for growth comes from both tactical and physical areas. The tactical:
- Did you start out too fast or too slow?
- Were you running the tangents?
- Did you stay focused throughout the whole race? If you lost focus, when did it happen and for how long?
- Did you stay tough mentally the whole way?
More: 5 Ways to Run Better on Race Day
Physical things to learn are related to your current fitness, and the answers to the following questions will help shape your upcoming training.
- Do you lack speed?
- Do you lack endurance?
- Did your form break down?
More: 4 Best Form Drills to Improve Your Running Technique
If you know you could have run faster, incorporate more speed and strength/power building into your routine gradually to avoid injury.
More: 6 Power-Training Exercises for Runners
If you need to improve your stamina, try adding more distance to your long runs and endurance intervals slowly. This is also a key point if you're coming back from an injury: Your cardiovascular endurance strength may be a little weak, but will get stronger as you run longer more consistently.
More: 8 Workouts to Improve Your Endurance
If your form got sloppy—you slouched, shuffled your feet, lost control of your arms—start doing (or add more) form drills, core workouts and flexibility moves to your training.
More: The Best Core Exercises for Runners
Evolve Throughout the Racing Season
After you've found your areas to improve upon, make it your mission not to make the same mistakes again and again. If you made a tactical error, you may have found the goal of your next race: negative splits.
More: How to PR at Your Next 5K or 10K With Negative Splits
If you've learned that you need to improve your training to address weaknesses, use your next few races as tests to see if you're heading in the right direction. Then keep adjusting your training as necessary. You'll be glad you did when you reach your peak race at the end of the season, and you're a stronger, smarter, fitter, faster you.
More: How to Peak at the Right Time
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