The Importance of "Maintenance Runs"

Long term success doesn't happen overnight.

I know some runners who always have a race on their calendar. It seems like they race nearly every weekend. Which is great if that works for them and keeps them interested and excited about running. I know it’s not for me for a few reasons. First, my running budget would get stretched pretty thin very quickly covering that many registration fees. Second, I try to make family time the priority on the weekends and I don’t want to make that family time unpleasant for everyone else by dragging them along for my hobby. I typically only race about 3-6 times a year. Between those races I’m just focused on training and preparing for the next. I know other runners who don’t race at all. That’s one of the beautiful aspects of running; you can shape it to be what benefits and fits your lifestyle best.

Lately, I’m in what I would consider my offseason. My last race was in August and the next one on my schedule isn’t until May of next year. While I’m a pretty goal oriented person and having a race on the horizon keeps me motivated to keep training, I feel like it’s important to have some down time during the year to allow the mind and body to recover rather than constantly pushing. However, you don’t want to totally fall off and lose all fitness during that recovery period. To keep myself motivated during this longer period without racing that I am in the midst of, I’ve taken to referring to my runs as “maintenance runs”.

Maintenance runs aren’t sexy and don’t bring the excitement of training for a big race. You don’t feel the anticipation of an approaching race day. You aren’t celebrating gains recognized or breakthrough workouts.They don’t culminate to an anxiety inducing taper period with a long day of racing looming. So what is good about them? Easy, they keep you from having to restart from what feels like zero and rebuild fitness when you dive into training for your next race.

For me, doing maintenance runs feels natural. I ran without racing at all long enough to appreciate running for benefits other than those associated with racing. However, since getting into ultrarunning about six years ago I have raced enough to feel like something is missing from running when I don’t have short term race goals to work towards. Reframing my runs as “maintenance runs'' has helped me to continue to run with passion and anticipation for when I do have a race coming up on my calendar. It’s mainly just a change of perspective or purpose, but I have found it to help me during this longer period without racing that I am working my way through. It helps me to consider the larger picture. For me, running isn’t about nailing an insane training block or running the perfect race. It’s great when that happens, but consistency and longevity are more important big picture goals to me than a few stand out performances. Including some downtime during the year to just run for the sake of running and maintain a base level of fitness is important to achieve those bigger picture goals. After all, long term success doesn't happen overnight.

Scott Snell
December 3, 2021

Reset: Mind and Body

An extremely festive truck seen during my long run!

I hadn’t been feeling it the past week or so: the motivation to run, the excitement about current or potential running adventures, the anticipation when the moment comes to lace up your shoes and see where they take you, and yes even that feeling of accomplishment and mood boost that usually peaks at the finish of most runs has even been diminished or absent. I’m not sure what caused it. I could blame the shorter daylight hours or the colder temperatures. I could blame my lack of motivation to run on feeling tired after work and getting home after dark when I’m hungry and ready to eat dinner. Maybe it was fear of falling into this routine of honestly not wanting to go out for a run. Daybreak, work, sunset, travel home, relieve the wife of some parenting duties, dark, dinner, get the kids ready for bed, and now I’m too tired and it’s too cold and too dark to want to run. It was only a three day stretch without any running, but it felt like it could continue indefinitely and I felt powerless to change it.

Thankfully I had already planned to use some leave from work to take a long weekend. And even better, the weather warmed a bit for it to provide a nearly perfect running day temperature. I went out only with the intention to cover some new streets for the Every Single Street (ESS) project I am working on. I had an idea for my route planned which I thought would probably be about a 10 miler. I figured that would be good to get me back on the horse and get back into the right headspace again. Of course I had the option to lengthen the route with more streets of Egg Harbor Township I hadn’t run yet if I was feeling good and wanted to go longer. And as I should have learned by now, anytime I don’t specifically plan and map out a route for an ESS route, it is always longer than expected. I was out running. The weather was perfect. Things felt right again. Of course I extended the route and kept going longer than originally planned. I had thought it would be about 10 miles, but I told my wife I might be out for about 13. As the day would have it, I covered about 18.5 before arriving back home. The following day I ran another 8.2 miles at my most local trails.

                            

Like all other runners, I have been told that rest days are as important as workouts. Likewise, I have also read about how important cross training and workouts besides running are for a runner’s longevity and to reduce the chances of injury. I don’t practice either of these as regularly as I know I should, especially as I get older. And I think that may be why I went through the bit of a funky period I did. I ran a much higher mileage November than I intended. I wasn’t building for anything, the weather was just good and I was finding more free time to run. Before I knew it, November was over and it was one of my highest mileage months of 2020. Maybe the overall lethargic lack of motivation I was feeling was my mind and body needing a reset. Maybe a couple lighter mileage weeks and a three day period without any running was just the reset that my body and mind needed. I certainly hope so. If yesterday and today’s runs are any indication, things are beginning to feel in place again.




Scott Snell                            

December 12, 2020