Unfortunately, this approach to training between goal races is what typically produces plateaus.

Now, that doesn’t mean you need to be full on training all year.

What it does mean is that often the training you do between your goal races is as important, if not more important, to your long-term progress than the 16 weeks leading up to your race.

If you’ve plateaued in your progression or you’ve ever wondered “what is my potential”, then this article will explain why and how to get yourself out.

Why training between races matters

When we look at how training progression works, we can easily see how plateaus occur when you don’t training effectively between goal races.

I think the easiest way to show this is with a graph.

This represents a year of training when you focus on just your two goal races each year.

As you can see, you start in January with a “fitness level (green line)” of 4 hours for the marathon. As your training progresses, you slowly get fitter until on race day you’re in 3:50 shape.

You’ve improved 10 minutes, not bad!

Then you take a small break. You don’t stop running completely, but you don’t have a direction for your training. 

As a result, your running fitness slowly decreases.

The problem then is, since you’re again beginning your training from the same starting fitness you did in January, the progress you make only gets you back to 3:50 fitness.

Now, maybe you decide to train a little harder the next training cycle, hoping the increased volume and intensity will break you through this plateau.

But that’s not going to result in huge progresses in fitness. You’ll make marginal gains (if you don’t get hurt from training harder), but you’re not going to see huge gains.

Now, let’s take a look at what your progress looks like when you training appropriately between goal races.

As you can see your progression from January to April is the same, so you finish with 3:50 fitness.

But, this athlete focuses on training in between the races.

Yes, your fitness takes a slight hit after the race as you recover properly. Plus, the progression isn’t as rapid as when you’re in an “all in” training mode like the 16 weeks before a goal race. You’re simply putting in smart, specific work (more on what that means below) – nothing crazy and not even at 100% intensity.

The result is that when you start training in August for your November race your fitness level is equal to, or maybe only slightly behind, that of what it was in November. Consequently, you make progress from August to November and finish in 3:40.

This is how you continually make long-term progress.

How to train between races

Right, so training between your races is important.

But what specifically do you need?

The good news is that you can still reduce the intensity, mileage and focus and make progress.

Here’s how…

1. Focus on your weaknesses.

If you’re a speed demon or have noticed that your shorter distance races are better, you probably need to improve you strength endurance. 

If you’re an aerobic monster, if you’ve run a few marathons in a row, or maybe you’re an older runner, then you should focus on improving your speed and mechanics.

If you’re unsure get a Force – Velocity Profile Test done. This tests your ability to produce force and velocity and the balance between the 2 systems. Ideally they should be balanced and can be trained to be so

The reason this works so well, even when your intensity is reduced, is that it allows all of your energy systems to balance out.

When you’re strong in a particular area or focus almost entirely on one distance, the primary energy systems used for that event are maximized in training. The energy systems you don’t use get little work and lag behind.

AT Optimal Bio we identify your weaknesses and then assign specific workouts and training blocks to address them, even before you start your race specific training.

2. Improve your injury resiliency

If injuries derail your training or keep you from training consistently, between races is the time to fix any and all of the issues that might be plaguing you.

If you’re dealing with a specific injury, start doing rehab and prehab strength work now so that you can get everything 100% before you start ramping up your training again.

If different injuries keep creeping up, implement an overall injury prevention program.

First, start with an assessment of your flexibility, strength and injury risk.

This will give you a clear understanding of where your weaknesses are so you can work on the right areas.

Then you can implement the correct strength, stretching and form work to keep you healthy next training cycle.

3. Work on Technique

Another thing that most runners want to improve, but can be hard to do in the midst of heavy training, is improving our running form.

All other sports have time and training sessions allocated to improving technique. Sessions where hitting time or intensity targets are not important. Runners are very bad at implementing this 

Whether it be correcting overstriding or simply getting more efficient, not only is it difficult to find the time, but you need plenty of easy runs to “practice with” without the additional mental stress of your upcoming race.

As such, now is the time to start analyzing your bio-mechanical weaknesses, implementing form-specific drills, and using mental cues during your runs to start making lasting changes to your mechanics.

Between Races is the time to improve the most