Doing the Bare Minimum
Runners Can Be a Bit Obsessive
Have you ever run back and forth in front of your home to finish with a whole mile or km? I’ve personally done it many times! Even if you haven’t, I’m willing to bet you know another runner who would do that.
It isn’t uncommon for runners to get a little obsessive about training. The need to end a run with a nice round number usually turns into the need to end the week hitting a certain number of miles too.
Run “6-8 Miles”
As a coach, I don’t believe it’s important to hit a specific weekly mileage, and I often offer distance ranges in a training plan. For example, instead of saying: run 7 miles on Tuesday, I would say run 6-8miles.
Given the option of 6-8miles, what would you pick?
It’s fair to say that the runners who hire me as their coach are motivated and goal-oriented, so I don’t have anyone who would always pick 6 miles by default. But there are runners who would always pick 8 miles, feeling like the other options (6 or 7 miles) would be the lazy choice. Or even that choosing 6 miles would be doing the bare minimum.
The Bare Minimum is a Suggested Option
The best way to give yourself the freedom to “do the bare minimum” or even simply to “do less than the maximum” is to use different words to describe the choice. For example, instead of feeling bad for doing the bare minimum, we can have confidence in doing “what felt appropriate.” It is always okay to choose the lower end of a given range. It is not a choice to do less, it is simply choosing to do one of the suggested options.
Related: Listen to Your Body and How to "Listen to Your Body" for tips and suggested workouts.
The Purpose of Ranges in a Training Plan
Training plans often have ranges built into them, and of course, over weeks and months the runner who chooses always to do the high end will have done a lot more training than the runner who always chooses to do the low end. But this isn’t the purpose of ranges — to do “the most” or do “the bare minimum.” The purpose of ranges is to allow the athlete the freedom to listen to their own body and adjust based on fatigue level.
See How You Feel
Ideally with ranges, a runner will sometimes run more, sometimes run less, and sometimes do something in the middle. Ideally, the decision won’t be made in advance, because it’s hard to tell exactly how the run will go before even starting. It’s much better to set out with an open mind, ready to run anywhere in the range, and “see how it goes.”
P.S. 6-8miles isn’t the choice of 6, 7 or 8 miles. It could be 6.2miles, 7.6miles, even 5.9miles because there’s no need to run back and forth for the extra 0.1!
Nicole Sifuentes is a full-time Running Coach for adults of all ages and abilities. She is a former professional runner and 2-time Olympian, and Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist. Read more about her services, and schedule your free coaching consultation.