It’s likely you’ve had a breakthrough moment in your life.
This may have occurred in your running, while you were learning a new skill, or at work.
Whatever the breakthrough was in, you likely did something or changed something before the big development to help trigger the gain. Looking back can be a helpful learning experience for yourself and others who are making strides to improve a similar endeavor.
Recently at the forums on LetsRun.com, a discussion started on the topic of asking forum members what they did before their running breakthrough. You can click on the prior link to see the thread, or for your viewing ease we’ve summarized and quoted many of the responses ,below.
Be mindful of your own running history and what these athletes did in their own training to boost their athletics.
When looking to improve, look not at what you have done, but what you have not done.
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“Consistent higher mileage w/o getting injured.”
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“solo running was good in that I ran my paces and my own efforts, rather than being coaxed into efforts that aren’t entirely under control by running with others.”
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“Started training with people faster than me and shortened/quickened my turnover.”
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“Stopped getting injured.
Did so by: running more mileage, running twice a day, quickening cadence, running on grass.”
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“running every single day. made a big difference.”
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“High mileage. Did 100 mpw base building for about 10-12 weeks. PRs at every distance from marathon to 5k.”
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“meticulously planned out where I was going to do what workouts, what parks were best for tempos, intervals, and long runs, and how they would fit into my schedule.”
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“Long stretch of higher mileage.”
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“The key is staying healthy and just loving what you do !!”
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“I used to do too much. I did core every day, drills, hurdle walkovers, push ups, lifting 2x a week, and swimming 2x a week. I then just started running higher mileage, doing hurdle drills, and sleeping more. Works every time”
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“Doubles. Added about 20min most mornings. Made an amazing difference.”
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“My sleep was used to be plagued with anxiety and periodic bouts of insomnia until I started taking vitamins regularly.”
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“Cut back to 80mpw (had done 100 previous season)”
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“ran slower..
used to run 6 days a week, all runs hard effort.”
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“Rest is as critical as training.”
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“Consistent high mileage, doing 2 runs a day consistently, sleeping a lot, being confident in races”
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“Consistency was key for me.”
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“Easy days easy. Hard days hard. I’m a 25:30 8k cross guy and hardly ever run under 8:00 pace on easy days”
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“Started running in neutral shoes (had been in overly supportive clunkers). Stopped running as many interval workouts. Increased my mileage. Decreased the length of my stride / increased running cadence.”
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“Stopped weighing myself and worrying about my weight as much.”
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“Hard work, dedication, and the biggest part is consistency.”
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