5 Tips to Develop Your Running Strategy

4. Expect Peaks and Plateaus

You drop three minutes off your 10K time. The six-mile loop that used to feel impossible now feels easy. At some point, though, the improvements will slow, or stop. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It means you've adapted to your training and you've climbed to a higher running plateau. But you'll remain there (or perhaps descend a bit), if you don't change your workload.

Keep in mind that most of us see the greatest improvements early in our running careers (the first 10 to 15 years instead of the last 20). Once you reach a certain level of fitness (predetermined by your genes and influenced by your age), you'll have to work harder, and perhaps rest more, to gain seconds off a race. Regardless of whether you're as fast as you used to be, the cycle of peaks and plateaus applies to every year and decade of your running.

Action: Adding hills, increasing the time of your tempo run, or trying longer or faster repeats are a few ways to intensify your training and advance to another fitness level. However, if you're already training at a high level--50 or more miles a week with a mix of intervals, tempo miles, hills, and long runs -- a plateau may be a sign you need rest. (See previous rule.)


5. Practice Patience

Piling on the miles or pushing the intensity too soon won't get you in shape faster (your body needs time to adapt), but it might get you injured. So whether you're a new runner or returning after a break, increase quantity and quality gradually.

Action: "Gradually" translates into an increase in mileage or time by only 10 percent a week. It's conservative, but that's the point. The increase should be applied to more than one run. So say you put in 20 miles a week. You could add a mile to your long run and a half mile to an easy run, while increasing your intervals from four to five 800s for a total of two additional miles. Avoid increasing intensity and distance simultaneously (i.e., don't pick up the pace of your 800s the same week you add another one). New runners should focus on going farther before going faster.

Adapted from The Complete Book of Women's Running, 2nd edition, by Dagny Scott Barrios (Rodale, November 2007)