7 Mistakes made by runners and cyclists and how to avoid them.

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TRAINING BREAKDOWN

“Make the magic happen”

By Emma O’Toole

Hi there,

I thought I’d do something a little different in this newsletter and share 7 mistakes made by runners and cyclists and offer solutions to these problems. I’ve made a lot of these mistakes too, some of which came even when I represented Great Britain!

These mistakes may resonate with you or they may open your eyes to something you’re currently doing right now! The important thing is to recognise and to change. These answers came from athletes in my free community which you can join here.

Before we get into it, I’m hosting a FREE LIVE RUNNING & CYCLING TRAINING Q&A - coaching call next Friday 31st January at 7pm GMT London- drop your questions in here and make sure you’re signed up for the live event here! (if you can’t make the live call still get your questions in as the call will be recorded!)

Right let’s jump into the 7 mistakes!

#1 Not following a plan

Does any of this sound familiar?

Lacing up and heading out the door with no plan in mind. Hitting a certain volume or distance weekly target. Having and using a heart rate monitor or power meter, but knowing nothing about different training zones nor doing anything with the data collected in your runs/rides. Aiming to hit a certain pace, average speed or power in every session. Wanting to run a marathon in a certain time but not training at that targeted pace, or always training at that pace and burning out. Cherry picking sessions based off how you feel, not taking into account your goals and progress.

I’ve been there! Sometimes heading out the door seemed enough of a battle in itself, let alone an added barrier of deciding which session to do and why. This is a real concept called: “Decision Fatigue” - I recorded a free short webinar on it- click here to watch.

However, the lack of structure and planning is holding you back. Often those I coach have the biggest results from training smarter, not harder. Like for Sarah, who shared her 2024 training stats and we saw that taking despite only training for 30 minutes more in 2024 to 2023 (the other 90 mins were here 2× 45 min strength sessions that she began in Jan 24), Sarah’s training is a hell of a lot smarter now- adding intensity to make sure her hard sessions stay hard and her steady sessions staying steady (see for yourself here!). This resulted in Sarah’s best training year for a long time with multiple personal bests set as the year went on.

Solution: Remove the noise, plan your training sessions.

Structured training is the single best thing that you can do for your running and cycling this year and beyond.

#2 Underfueling

This is a huge topic in the endurance world and is not about which diet you should follow, or how many calories you should eat. It’s about fuelling your body for life. Encompassed in that is fuelling your training and recovery. Chronic underfueling can lead to Low Energy Availability which can lead to Red-S, these are very challenging states to be in which affect your life more so than just your ability to train, although that will most certainly be affected too. Burnout, recurring injuries, mood swings, loss of libido, difficulty sleeping, lack of motivation in general life, irritability just to name a few can be signs of underfueling.

The car analogy often gets thrown around here:

Your body is like a car, if you don’t ‘fuel’ it with food then it will run out of gas and come to a standstill. The problem with this analogy is that, as humans and especially as athletes, we can’t just pop to the local petrol station, fill up the tank and be good to go again. Our bodies do not work that way. Let the petrol warning light come up on your body and other things are going to start to break down on you… the wheels may well and truly start to fall off.

Solution: Fuel for life. This is not a diet. This is a lifestyle and to be sustainable you need to be fuelling your body with a range of macronutrients (carbs, proteins, fats) to support your development and recovery as a runner and cyclists, but also as an adult.

#3 Recovery

From hitting hard session after hard session, not having a rest day, stressful week at work to only sleeping for 5 hours per night; a lack of recovery will hinder your training both mentally and physically. It is in fact whilst we recover that we make the adaptations from our training, aka gain fitness, training tolerance etc. Skip recovery and you skip this, risk burning out, exposing yourself to a high risk of injury and likely end up not enjoying your running & cycling.

Solution: Prioritize your recovery. Find a solution that works for you. Aim for 8+ hours of sleep per night, take some time away from screens, learn something new, journal, follow a structured training plan are just some examples.

#4 “I want it all, I want it now!”

Having little to no patience and wanting too much too soon. For me, modern culture and society is largely to blame for this one. Jump online to Amazon and you have that Garmin watch tomorrow, or in some cases later that evening. Can’t afford it right now? Don’t worry, you can still have it and “pay for it later”. Fitness however isn’t like that, there are no shortcuts, ‘delayed payments’ or quick fixes.

Solution: Do the work. Trust the process. Be patient. Focus on your longer-term goal and set mini-milestones along the way.

#5 Strength training

“I don’t have the time.”

Probably the biggest barrier I as a strength coach for runners and cyclists face: time. The time you do feel you have, you want to be running and cycling- I get it. However, if we’re being honest, the vast majority of us do have the time- our phone screen time analysis and Netflix watch history show that, but it comes down to the fact that strength training isn’t as much of a priority as our running and cycling. I also get this perspective.

But, when you start to shift your mindset and see strength training as something that supports your running and cycling and enables you to train and perform well, not just right now but for long into the future, that’s when those 2× 30-40 min sessions a week, or 3× 20-25 minute sessions far outweigh that Netflix episode or doom scrolling online… and then the magic really happens!

Solution: Think about what sort of runner and cyclist you want to be right now, in 6 months time and in 5 years time. Shift your mindset and see strength training as part of your training. I’ve got a couple of free strength training plans for runners and cyclists here to get you started.

#6 “Oops I did it again moment!”

If your training looks a little like this then it is worthwhile to zoom out and focus on your goals and where you want to be in 6 weeks time. Shooting up from a small number of miles to suddenly hitting 50km weeks is a recipe for overtraining and injury. This is often quite easy to do in the sense that we’re feeling good and fresh from the Christmas break, everyone is on their New Year health kick and you may get swept away supporting others or enjoying the buzz around running and cycling. Look back at the end of the week and you’ve suddenly clocked up double the amount you were used to doing.

Solution: Be consistent and patient. Accept missing the odd training session here and there. Often athletes who aim to always be perfect are able to maintain that for a short period of time and then fall off the wagon when they miss a few sessions- it breeds the ‘all or nothing’ approach. Fitness takes time to build, avoid huge ramps and spikes in your training. Go back to #1 in this newsletter and have structure to your training to avoid this.

 #7 “Going out too hard”

Have you ever been on a run and it’s felt really hard from the off? Or you’ve headed out on the trails and your mind and body feel good, but you’ve left your legs at the front door! If we have nothing to gauge the intensity of our sessions, we open ourselves up to the risk of going out too hard and that might make for a less than enjoyable run or ride.

It can also really affect your relationship with training and the progress you feel that you’re making. Often we find endurance runners and cyclists love the “grey zone”, that area where you feel it is challenging, but it is manageable. The problem here is that you’re training too hard to allow for the positive adaptations that occur from training at a lower intensity, volume is hard to build as you find yourself constantly fatigued and to add further insult to injury, you’re not working hard enough to get the adaptations that come with working at higher intensities. Simply put, your “steady” isn’t steady enough and your “hard” isn’t hard enough.

So, I ask: what are you using to gauge the intensity of your sessions? Are you always riding to feel (RPE), or are you using something more objective too- for example heart rate output, pace, power output?

Solution: Use a combination of subjective and objective measuring scores to gauge your intensity and keep you accountable to it. You can even set up your training smartwatch to ‘buzz’ at you to let you know if you’re straying out of your targeted zone. I take a deeper dive in this article here!

I hope this newsletter has been helpful and eye-opening to you wherever you are in your running and cycling journey. Don’t forget, our FREE LIVE RUNNING & CYCLING TRAINING Q&A- A coaching call with me is happening next Friday 31st January at 7pm GMT London- drop your questions in here and make sure you’re signed up for the live event here!

Have a great weekend running and riding!

Emma

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