ACTIVE FOR CHRIST
RUNNING / ACTIVE EXERCISE COMMUNITY
inspire unity in Christ through a daily prayer life and an active exercise lifestyle.
Getting Started
If you haven’t already, join the Active for Christ challenge to give you a weekly prayer focus for during your runs.
If you already connect with God through your running, is there something new He is showing you to do?
Is it time to sing the praise music you’re listening to out loud? Can you invite a friend to run with you and share God with?
Let us know your thoughts about this, or if this is something you already do. We would love to hear!
Running His Race,
Coach Elizabeth
@Endurance4You
Running can be a form of worship and time with God. It can be a time of praise or fellowship with others.
There is so much more to running than just getting out there and running for a particular time or distance.
I challenge you to ask God to show you how to use running beyond what you have been doing.
When Running Gets Hard, Give Thanks
Have you been in a downright hard season? Where it seems never-ending, you wake up with dread each morning as to when the season will end. You have no words, but to sit at the feet of Jesus and cry out to Him.
Alphabet Tool:
When I was in one of those seasons, a wise friend recommended I start a gratitude journal, by writing down three things each day that I am thankful for, either at the start of the day or the end of the day.
She also suggested that when you experience moments of dread throughout the day, turn to the Lord and start counting your blessings out loud. You can start with each letter of the alphabet and thank God for something that starts with that letter. For example, "Lord, I am thankful for Apples. Thank you, Lord, for Balloons and the joy they bring to my daughter's face." And so on…
This advice helped as I continued to walk through the storm. But what occurred to me as I was using this tool was how I could apply this to running.
How does this apply to running?
We all have those hard workouts when our mind starts spiraling with negative thoughts and telling us to quit. The question is, how do you silence them?
Start intentionally shifting your thoughts towards counting your blessings. You can count them out loud, or if that’s too challenging (which some workouts are) silently saying them works too!
The blessings can be simple such as thank you for the air in my lungs, thank you for my morning coffee, etc.
What about races?
You can apply this tool to races too, which I did! I dislike racing the 5k distance because it hurts. So last Spring, I set out to run multiple 5k races in the Texas heat to push through this barrier. When it would start to hurt, because it did, I would start thanking the Lord for whatever came to mind. I would silently count my blessings because I couldn’t breathe to say them out loud.
Running is a mental game. There is a saying that says running is 90% mental and 10% physical.
So, this is a secret tool I am sharing with you to use during your next race or hard training run.
When it gets hard, start thanking God for your blessings. Try the alphabet method, or just say what comes to mind.
Email – Endurancefouryou@gmail.com
Tag @ActiveforChrist and @Endurance4You to let us know how this works for you!
Happy Training!
Running His Race,
Coach Elizabeth
Both of these verses came to mind when writing this:
Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds. - Psalm 9:1
Ready….Set…Run Your Race!!
How do you know when you’re race-ready?
For the past few months, Coach’s Corner has been diving deep into Periodization Training for runners, discussing each phase in Periodization Training:
If these phases have been properly implemented, you should be at peak performance and ready to rock your race!
The next phase is Peak Performance, which includes the taper. You should begin tapering about 1-3 weeks before your race.
What is a taper?
A taper is an important part of training. The goal is to reduce the workload while allowing your body to repair muscle damage and reduce fatigue. The workload will decrease each week, but the intensity may remain the same by continuing to do minimal speed workouts or race pace effort runs to keep your legs fresh and sharpened. During this period, you won't gain additional fitness, so don't worry about losing fitness. This phase is crucial to your training and will help prepare you for a strong race.
How many weeks out should you start to taper? It’s based on race distance and trial and error.
For example, with the marathon distance, some athletes need the full three weeks, while others require a shorter taper.
It is tailored to what works best for each individual, focusing on understanding your body and discovering what works best.
Coach’s Tip: Keep a training journal to record how you felt during the taper, the number of weeks you took, and whether you should try something new next time or keep everything the same if it went well.
What else to do during taper:
This is where I also like to focus on mental strength. I will pray about which Bible verse God wants me to focus on for race day and which Bible verse to use when I start to feel weak. If I have a Bible verse dedicated to that training cycle, I will meditate on it, and ask the Lord to guide me if I continue to use it for race day or if there’s another He wants me to focus on.
I will pray about what race strategy to use and discuss that with my coach. I will reflect on my training and journal about what went well and where I felt strong. I will take Epsom salt baths and listen to praise music. I will also make sure the week of the race to quiet my mind and just sit with God asking Him to help me envision the race, every mile marker, water stop, etc.
You see, racing is a lot about the mental game as well, and when we taper, we can get the “taper crazies” - so taking time to focus on our mental game but centering it on Christ can be the key component to what sets us up to have a strong race that is dedicated as a form of worship to the Lord.
After this, you are ready to rock your race!!
Check back next month for the last phase, the
Recovery phase! This phase is just as important
as all the other ones!
Happy Training!
Running His Race,
Coach Elizabeth
Runner's Specific Phase - Running Intervals
For the past two months, we have talked about the first two phases in a periodization training cycle for runners; the base training phase and the strength training phase.
The next phase within the runner's training cycle focuses on specific workouts tailored to mimic your goal race. This is called the Specific Phase. As you get closer to your race day, long intervals and short intervals will become an important component.
Long Intervals and Short Intervals:
The next two phases consist of long-interval training followed by short-interval training, but in this article, we will discuss them both.
Intervals can be extremely challenging if you do not like to push beyond your comfort zone. I tend to lean onto God more during these workouts, and start reciting Bible verses or turn to naming blessings that come to mind when I want to quit. I NEED God's strength to help me overcome these workouts.
Long Intervals versus Short Intervals - What’s the difference?
Long Intervals
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800m-2000m or 2:30-10:00 minutes long
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Grows the threshold
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They’re the middle ground for aerobic and anaerobic effort
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Used for marathoners, early season training for road racers, and a good way to test an athlete’s current pace
Short Intervals
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800m or shorter, time-wise; 2:30 minutes or less
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Good for athletes doing shorter road races such as 5ks
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Good to use late in the season for sharpening and improving fast-twitch muscles
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Have fun with these!!! There are so many types of workouts to be done to make these fun!
What are Intervals?
They’re specific bouts of speed at a specific distance, with a recovery time between each bout of speed.
Benefits of Intervals:
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Promotes a more efficient running form
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Increases strength
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Teaches patience to endure high-grade physical discomfort
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Strengthens mental toughness
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Improves fast twitch muscles
Who should do intervals?
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Runners that have completed the Base Training Phase of 500 miles or more
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Athletes who have completed the Strength Training Phase
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Runners who are not injured
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Athletes who can comfortably run 20 miles or more per week
When working with a run coach, they should know when and what types of intervals work best in your training and according to your body. A track is a great place to run intervals, but access is not always easily available, which is where time can be useful for intervals.
If you are using a track, make sure to switch up running directions. If you run clockwise one session, during the next session change to counterclockwise. This will help not just put stress on one side of the body which can cause injury over time if you continue to repeat the same direction each time.
Intervals help zone in on your race pace and increase your threshold to help achieve peak performance before race day! That’s why the specific cycle is right before the peak phase, which is when you’re race-ready!
Coach's Tip: Try one of these things when you push beyond your comfort zone:
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Choose a scripture you can write on your hand or recite when you need to push through
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Start thanking God and count your blessings out loud
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Pray, tell God you need His strength to get you through, and ask Him to help you endure
Happy Training!
Running His Race,
Coach Elizabeth
@Endurance4You
How do you build strength?
When you think about building strength in your faith, what does that look like for you?
It’s important to have a strong foundation in Christ and from there build your life brick by brick by applying and living out God’s Word. This can be done through:
Memorizing scripture
Praying
Bible Study
Fellowship,
and reading His Word.
This helps build strength so when the storms of life come, we won’t crash and burn.
A running training cycle is similar. You also build it brick by brick until you reach your peak and you’re ready to perform. The first layer is the base training phase, which we discussed last month. If you missed it, check it out here.
The second layer is the strength phase. When you hear strength, you may think more of hitting weights in the gym. That’s great to do too when planned right in your training cycle. I highly recommend doing runner specific strength training, but that’s a topic for another day.
Strength Phase Purpose: Strengthening the body while building power and endurance with the use of specific types of running workouts.
The Goal: Doing workouts such as Hill repeats, Fartleks, and Tempo runs. It’s important to gradually progress the intensity and volume of these workouts throughout the strengthening phase to help minimize the risk of injury.
Here are two examples of workouts to implement in the Strength Phase:
This Progression Hill Workout – This one uses a combination of hill repeats but set on different durations
The Gradual Decent – This is a good type of structured Fartlek Workout
Why: These workouts assist with muscle adaptation, improved running economy, increased power and speed, and injury prevention.
It’s also essential the day after you do an “effort” run, meaning a hard run, make it a day of rest or active recovery. If you want to still run, do an easy recovery run to get the blood flowing back through your muscles while allowing your body to repair itself from the harder work you did the day before.
If you have any questions, always feel free to DM me!
BASE TRAINING:
If our foundation isn’t on Christ, how will we handle circumstance that can break us?
If your house doesn’t have a strong foundation, what will happen? RE: (Matthew 7:24-27)
It’s important to have a strong foundation in both the areas above. Running also requires a strong foundation to grow within the sport. You build your running foundation during “base training.”
Base training can get overlooked since it consists of a lot of easy running, which requires patience. But it is essential for the growth of running. RE: (Galatians 6:9)
Let’s dive a little deeper into this.
Base Training Purpose: To establish an aerobic fitness foundation, endurance, neuromuscular efficiency, and injury prevention.
The Goal: To do all easy running; this phase lasts about 6-16 weeks, with the objective of building the aerobic base.
Why: This allows the body to adapt to training stress and reduce the risk of injury as well as safely building up milage.
Is it just easy running? - There are some essential running workouts to do during the base training phase that can help work the fast-twitch muscles and continue to build your aerobic base without stepping into anaerobic workouts.
*This is a good time to do strength training as well and lift heavier before going into race-specific training.
Building your endurance is critical for long-distance running and is the main component for setting a strong foundation for your training cycle.
Whether athletes are beginning their run journey or are intermediate runners, I always prefer to start them at the base training phase.
Let me know if you have any questions!
Happy Base Training!
Running His Race,
Coach Elizabeth
