Optimizing Your Running Through Listening to Your Body

Feeling good while running can seem like an elusive goal at times. Between managing fitness, fatigue, motivation, and life’s other demands, it’s easy to show up for a run feeling less than 100%. But having awareness of your body and adapting your training accordingly is key to getting the most out of each session. Here are some tips on using how you feel on any given day to optimize your running performance and results.

Tuning Into Your Body

Before lacing up your shoes and heading out the door, take a few minutes to check in with yourself (obey your stress/rest cycle). Pay attention to your energy levels, muscle soreness, sleep quality, nutrition status, and so on. Be honest with yourself about how recovered and ready you feel to tackle today’s run.

It can help to categorize your sensations on a scale from “awful” to “amazing.”

• Awful: The Body feels heavy/slow, movements are uncoordinated, and motivation is very low
• Tired: Pace isn’t coming easily, motivation is low, and I just want run to be over
• Normal: appropriately recovered and ready to run
• Good: feeling light and fresh; a faster pace with same effort
• Amazing: fast pace with less effort, very motivated

Adapting Your Training

Once you’ve assessed how you feel, you can use that information to modify that day’s workout accordingly.

Feeling Awful

• Skip the run entirely
• Focus 100% on recovery: nap, eat, and rest
• Don’t worry about missing one run

Feeling Tired

• Run shorter/slower than planned
• Prioritize recovery
• Consider moving a key workout to a better day

Feeling Normal

• Follow your plan
• Perform as usual

Feeling Good

• Aim for faster paces in range
• Consider slightly higher mileage or adding reps

Feeling Amazing

• Sub in a goal-pace/key workout
• Maximize mileage/pace for day
• Build in extra rest afterwards

Benefits of Being Flexible

Tuning into how you feel rather than rigidly following a plan allows you to optimize each run. Pushing through when you shouldn’t leads to poor workouts and risks injury or overtraining. But listening to your body lets you step back or push harder based exactly on what you need that day.

Over time, this flexibility reduces negative runs, boosts confidence through better workouts, and lets you maximize key sessions when you feel at your best. That builds fitness more effectively over a training cycle.

Some runners used to strictly following a plan can find it hard to trust their own sensations at first. But learning to become more intuitive has big payoffs down the road.

Coach Q&A: When I’m Unsure How I Feel

Sometimes I feel terrible when I wake up, but if I run later in the day, I feel fine. How do I know if I’m actually feeling bad or if the feeling will pass?

This uncertainty about how you “really” feel or what your body is telling you is very common. Here are some tips:

• Ensure you properly warm up before assessing how you feel and deciding whether to adjust the workout.
• Pay attention in the first mile or so; if you still feel rough, adjust accordingly.
• When in doubt, be conservative to avoid injury or overtraining.

Learning to have an honest dialogue with your body takes some time, but it is a crucial skill for any runner. Don’t hesitate to consult a coach if you need help building this intuition.