Recreational running – All stages of development in the usual training of a recreational athlete

April is the start of recreational running for most people in the year, especially recreational runners. Regular physical activity is very important for everyday life, not only for racing performance and achieving personal records. It is extremely important to train something that we love. In that way, we help our body and brain not age prematurely.

With recreational training, there are indeed various obstacles that we have to overcome. I’m writing about some of my experiences as a recreational runner, including three training processes and mistakes: club training, individual training plan, and mistakes in independent training. After three years of active training and a change of three coaches, I concluded the important. The main things for a recreational athlete are the feeling of satisfaction after training, realistic goals in the running, and the self-pace of the training plan.

Training in a running club

Today, it is not difficult to start running, even if you can’t run one km at once. Several running clubs offer multiple recreational running groups, and monthly memberships are affordable. I started running in a group in order to force myself to be more durable and to go to regular training sessions. On a monthly basis, you receive training plans based on the running group you belong to. There lies a potential problem. Based on my experience, training in a group is quite debatable. For example, a recreational running plan is made in training (cardiac) zone 2, but mine and a 55-year-old’s zone 2 are not the same. In that case, it is impossible to achieve the goal when group running is forced.

When you’re training, sometimes you’re not in the mood to run, and that’s okay. However, when you run into a group and have a bad day, you try to chase the group and the plan and start doubting yourself. This was one of the moments when I began to question my decision to run in the group.

Uniformity of training in the running club

Due to the large number of people, trainers are not always able to devote themselves to each individual. Sometimes, they are not interested in the work due to bad conditions or lack of experience as trainers. It’s a huge job, but clubs should work more on adapting training to the individuals who pay them. It is not a solution to make only four groups and do the work.

There is a need for more talks related to running equipment, mostly related to sports shoes. It is interesting when clubs promote the best brands, and it would be nice if others could afford Salomon or Nike. The reality is completely different, and people should be aware of shoe brands that are economically priced and well for runners. It was not a problem for me because I have been actively involved in other sports for many years. I know how valuable a good pair of sneakers is, but many people have been injured with the wrong footwear due to a lack of information.

Group or solo running?

I am not a supporter of the catchphrase that you can go far in a group. Sometimes, the group can push you and even slow you down. In recreation running, it is important to have support and be surrounded by at least one physically active person. This does not mean that person should run with you. As a big introvert, talking in a group often bothered me, so I sometimes ran below or beyond my abilities in order to escape from the group. For example, many women find running alone inconvenient and boring, so they gladly resort to groups. Of course, I also support group training, and some people are perfectly fine with it, and it’s still great.

If you are like me, a person who participates in races in another sport, running in a group will complicate your plans. I’m primarily bored with the training plan because you’re always preparing for 21km. That was not my primary desired distance and terrain. As the races are on the weekend, you miss the weekend training. Because the training during the week is not adapted to your goals, you can only feel insufficiently prepared and even overworked. If you do a sport other than running in races of 10km, 21km, or 42km, bypass the clubs and try an individual training plan.

Training with a personal trainer

After training at the club, I decided to start training individually with the trainer and with his online plan. I switched to trail running, which is closer to my primary sport. Many trainers are advertised, so it is necessary to make a good judgment. Recommendations do not do a good job here since we are all individuals in our desires and physical fitness. I knew that there would still be a problem with making a training plan, the specifics of the sport I play, and my needs.

After a few months of training, everything was going well until I noticed a sudden jump when trying to accelerate. That happened despite my criticism that my primary goal was always to be physically ready to run trail training for two hours. The fact is that you reach a certain level of acceleration spontaneously during training. For me, the force of speed immediately presented a big problem with the cooperation with the coach.

Coaches and forcing pace as fast as it can

Many coaches push to achieve as high results as possible because that is a clear indicator of their success. The desire of a person to be as fast as he can even in his older senior years and the frustrations of the coaches to show themselves with huge success are huge problems. Another is people in their junior years who have a different and more professional approach to training.

Seniors, especially those who are just starting recreational running, should be aware of their anatomy and capabilities. At that moment, I didn’t want to push myself, so I quit cooperating with that trainer. Another thing that wasn’t respected was that I didn’t get weekly training plans regularly in the end. I didn’t commit to looking for another coach after the summer period. The thing is that I didn’t find someone who would fit before.

In my opinion, the problem with many trainers is they do not specialize in a narrow “theme.” Many guarantee and train people who are preparing for 10km and 100km, although each discipline requires a totally different approach. If you need a coach, it is best to cooperate with a coach who will teach you the true purpose of sports, which is health and recreation.

Self-training – beginner’s mistake

With the self-training and the increase of “appetite” due to great strength, I decided to register for long trail races. All of that would have been fine if I hadn’t unrealistically set out to run 16km in the middle of the week and have a 20km race on the weekend. That started my mistakes in determining the weekly length of training, which I could only notice and accept this year. For September last year, and within a month, I had registered for three long trail races, all over 20km.

I achieved some super results of my own, but all of that was “charged” due to over-forcing. After six months with an injury, it is showing up so that we can learn something. The injury forced me to reconsider my wishes, devote myself more to education, exercise, and sports, and enjoy training again. It taught me patience the most because it took nerves and persistence to do the recovery exercises. I had to face for the first time that I had to take a break from my favorite physical activity.

I do not consider any of these training options wrong. You cannot immediately figure out what is best for you or have someone else decide for you. It is normal that due to inexperience in recreational running, you will make mistakes that will disappoint you and cause some injury. You must learn something from it. Something that will direct you to a training path that primarily suits you. Sport is a wonderful experience that pushes the boundaries of mind and body and makes us also more mature in other areas of life.