Feel Like You've Lost Touch With What’s Normal in Running? 🏃

Give me a minute to de-influence you… Then at the same time hopefully influence you to look beyond what social media has set as the new running standard.

Because most of the running content you see online? IS 👏🏻 NOT 👏🏻 NORMAL 👏🏻

So much so, that people are forgetting that running can and should be, a somewhat cheap, accessible and enjoyable entry to exercise. The things we see online have a huge part to play in impacting that. A bombardment of highlights, PBS, Strava details, Sub-3 hour marathons, expensive gadgets, multi day events, constantly pushing a narrative…

That if you don’t fit in that; you’re not a runner?

And I get it; some people are proud of their efforts. Or they feel part of a community, a sense of togetherness through social media or might feel inspired. I guess in a way I’m part of that “problem”, because I do share my own training and goals online 🫠

Racing is fun. Until it's Not. Remember WHY you do this.

But there comes a point where we have to take things with a pinch of salt. Or zoom out and ask ourselves is what we’re seeing, actually helpful or harmful. A level of self accountability, adultness and filtering is needed. Are you actually inspired, using the stuff you see to educate or keeping up with friends? Or are you falling victim to what social media, the fitness industry as a whole and society is now telling you is the standard?

Do you find yourself questioning-

“is it normal?”

“am I behind?”

“am I actually sh*t at running and not as disciplined as them?”

“should I be doing that too?”

Because there’s a difference between using the stuff you see to light a fire inside of you and being able to look at something subjectively…without taking it to heart and it negatively impacting you. Thanks to the exposure and access social media gives us, you can see everything and everything other people are doing. Or what they’re choosing to show you. So things that are normal; have become normalised.

❤️ Marathons aren’t normal. These huge multi day running events you see online? Not normal. Most running races you see your mates entering, or feel pressured to get involved in, again aren’t the running standard. They’re amazing achievements, that shouldn’t be overlooked or diminished.

❤️ Not having an entire walk-in wardrobe dedicated to branded running gear, with 25 pairs of trainers, matching coords is totally normal. Having a single comfy, reliable pair of trainers that fit well >>>

❤️ It’s normal to be in a stage of maintenance and steady sailing. These are perfectly acceptable goals. The next thing after doing your first Park Run, isn’t automatically training for a marathon. It’s normal to just enjoy running for what it is; without the pressure of paces and races.

❤️ General fatigue and heavy-ish legs is normal. Exhaustion, injury and persistent pain is not. Some days you might have to suck it up and get on with it, especially if you have a race, stacked diary OR multi discipline training. Others, you need to listen to the bodies signals, before the signals become problematic.

❤️ Increasing volume + intensity weekly = recipe for injury. Please ignore the huge volumes you might see other people doing, or the super spicy running paces being thrown out there willy nilly. You can’t increase both intensity AND volume at once. Build your base, fine-tune your skill and then [if you want and need to] add speed. It's a long game.

❤️ Not every run should be hard; if it is, then none of them are truly hard. Run easy to go far. Most of your weekly volume should be in Zone 2, at a steady repeatable pace. That's where endurance and fitness is built. Speed and intensity has its place, but you need to earn those paces.

❤️ Patience = progress. Train smarter, not just harder. You might WANT to do more, or think you SHOULD be doing more in order to improve. But progress comes from building strong foundations and consistently stacking solid training weeks. Not just one all out wonder effort.

❤️ It’s normal to feel hungrier when you start running. You need to fuel your body adequately, before, during and after as needed.

❤️ It’s normal, not to want to eat or rely on gels, expensive carb powders or have a perfectly executed branded nutrition strategy. You can absolutely fuel your sessions with real food and a bit of pre-planning.

❤️ It’s normal to have days where you don’t feel motivated. You won’t be eager to hit the pavement every time. So don’t rely on motivation to get you going. Rely on routines, structures and the bigger purpose to help you show up.

❤️ You shouldn’t be hitting PB's every run. Or entering races every weekend. Or for some people, even entering races at all. That is fantastic if you do want to race, but not the norm.

Run for fun. Run To Explore. Run To Escape.

I hope somewhere amongst that, you read something that assured you. Or made you feel more at ease with your own running. Because whilst what we see online can be incredibly inspiring or used to fire us up, it becomes a slippery slope when that gets taken too far. De-influencing running and doing it for the right reasons

So go for that summer evening run. Tell nobody. don't post it online. Don't get bogged down by metrics and paces. Wear what you enjoy. Wear what you feel comfortable in.

Do it for you.