Life after your spring race!

Congrats on making it through your spring training cycle! For most of us training in the Midwest, we were dealt with a very difficult winter training cycle. There were many days it would have been easy to throw in the towel. However, you made the decision to not quit on yourself and regardless of your spring race result, you should be proud of the effort. It’s easy to get caught up into thinking our training only counts for one day. This is something I struggled with for years. The truth is that if you are fit, your fitness doesn’t go to waste if you don’t end up meeting your goal on race day. Racing well depends on a lot of things outside of your training’s control. As a result, I encourage my athletes to sign up for races leading up to their goal races. These end up being great dress rehearsals for the main show. Racing during training serves as a great confidence booster for the athlete and an excellent speed workout. To run your best, you must be in the best spot mentally. If you are in a great mindset, you should be pumped at the starting line whether it’s the Boston Marathon or your local Turkey Trot. At the end of the day this is our hobby. We are missing out if we aren’t enjoying the opportunity to compete. For many of you who just raced you may be thinking what’s next? I always suggest taking a week off from running after completing a grueling training cycle. Mentally you will benefit as much as you will physically from a few days away from the sport. Then, I encourage building your base back up while adding a few shorter races to the calendar to keep you motivated. No matter your result this spring, understand you will be even stronger for your next race if you make the commitment to be consistent with your training this summer. My athletes who have the most success are the ones who have made the effort to train year round. It’s not always pretty but I promise you will not regret the work when you see the progress when fall racing starts up again. Good luck! *Spewak Training coaches are accepting new clients. Please feel free to reach out to us contact@spewaktraining.com to learn more about our training services.*