by Ujena Fit Club Coach Barry Anderson  One day when our high school cross country team was running 40 x 440 on our school’s cinder track in a cold pouring rain, the excuses for why we shouldn’t be running were flying everywhere from each of us on the team. Some were even hoping for lightening.  Surely the coach would let us go inside then. Our coach had one simple answer to all of these objections—”You are getting one day ahead of your competition because they aren’t working out today.”

When you look at those who have a problem with being consistent in their workouts it really does come down to something just a simple—though perhaps not as extreme. And, at times, consistency will be a problem for nearly every one of us who is pursuing fitness through running or other activities.

 Each of us can always find twenty excuses NOT to run, but we only need to have one reason TO run. Make sure you find your one compelling reason to run and you will have no problem overcoming the excuses.

Barry Anderson was the women’s track coach for 10 years at Kansas State University. He organized the first women’s Big 8 conference championship, and coached over 30 athletes that earned All-American status.

Photo: the oldest person to finish the Ujena 5k was 97-year-old Migel June 16 in Puerto Vallarta.  He is still walking and running regularly.

This is a very intresting article. Reading through this I thought back to a few times when I cut my workout short or just didnt run and some of the times when I just didn't want to run but did. I never really though about why I ran and why I didn't but after reading this article I relized the answer to that question. The days I quit or didn't run I had no reason to run besides just running the days I pushed myself to run was to prepare for a upcomeing race. So I defiently think this article is a great one and is defiently true.
Steven Richardson 6/27/12 11:05 am

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by Ujena Fit Club Coach Barry Anderson  So you have a big race coming up at the end of the week on Saturday that you have marked on your schedule as one you want to go for your personal best time. It is an accurately measured, yet flat and fast course. Your training has been going well and all things are pointing to a great race. The last couple of weeks you have been tapering your workouts to help assure fresh legs on race day. In all this build-up to your big race, there is one more thing you should consider in your race preparation.

While it may seem most logical to make sure you rest on Friday for your Saturday race, there is research that suggests that there is a better day for your primary day of rest. The next time you are pointing for that big Saturday race, try making Thursday your primary day of rest for the week. Go for a very short and very easy run with some stretching afterwards. Keep in mind that the purpose of this workout is REST.

On Friday you can exert yourself a little more. Many runners will use their normal race warm up as their Friday workout before a big race. Be sure to include/add a few (2-3) 300-600 meter runs at race pace along with the strides that you usually include in your race warm-ups. Complete your Friday workout with your usual stretching routine.

Try this practice of resting two days ahead of your races and you should feel fresh and ready to go on race day.

Barry Anderson was the women’s track coach for 10 years at Kansas State University. He organized the first women’s Big 8 conference championship, and coached over 30 athletes that earned All-American status.