And the Importance of Training Flexibility to ‘Make It All Work’
Ever wondered about how stress and running interact? Perhaps you’ve heard that running relieves stress? Or maybe you find your running suffering when work and family life gets busy? Let’s unpack this.
How the Pros Balance Stress and Running
Years ago I read “Running the Dream”, where the author, and 2:40 marathoner, Matt Fitzgerald spent a season ahead of the Chicago Marathon training (and recovering) with the Northern Arizona Elite pro running team. The takeaway that still sticks with me was the shock of the athletes that he did not nap regularly. Add to that his surprise and difficulty initially settling into the routine of a morning workout (after a night’s sleep without an early alarm), followed by lunch, a good nap, and then that evening’s training. The whole day revolved around training and then preparing as best as possible for the next training. Stories out of the Eliud Kipchoge [arguably one of the best marathoners of all time] camp paint a similar picture: Kipchoge removes himself from all other obligations, including his family, for months at a time to focus solely on training.
Understanding Body Stress
For the rest of us, training like this is only a dream. Life comes first, then running. How do we juggle it all, and when is too much definitely too much?
The best part of working with a coach is that you are not stuck to an inflexible plan from a book, you get personalized support toward your goals that adapt to your life’s demands. For me, looking at the whole picture of a person and their life comes first, before whittling down to the running. To anyone I work with, I say often that all stress is stress; your body does not know the difference between work, life, family and training stress, it’s all body stress. The pros understand the relationship between stress and running. In order to train and perform at their best, they seek to minimize non-running demands.
‘All Stress is Stress’
To demonstrate how ‘all stress is stress’, I love the “Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale”. It has 43 questions that create a final ‘score’ of your stress, but the questions are both positive and negative. Just got a promotion? Stress. Moving this week? Stress. If you have been comfortable running forty miles a week, but then have a busy week with added work responsibilities, or a sick kiddo at home, all of a sudden that forty miles is going to feel harder and is going to take a bigger toll on you.
Keep Training Flexible
As athletes we often feel the need to complete training exactly as written, on the exact days it is written. Wednesday workout, Saturday long run, or else I messed up my training this week and my effort is wasted. I am guilty of this too. However, getting to the start line in the best shape possible means zooming out on the whole body of your training work. Ten weeks down the line, your body won’t remember if you ran that workout on a Wednesday or a Thursday, but it will remember if you ran it well or not. Open communication with your coach is key to this.
Consider this situation: you’re planning a workout on a Wednesday morning, but Tuesday night got away from you and you ended up only sleeping four hours. You wake up stiff and groggy but still lace up your shoes to head out. However, you know that Wednesday is an easy work day and you have more time tomorrow. So you decide to shift that workout to Thursday. After a lower stress day today and a better night’s sleep, you end up nailing your splits instead of trying to force it today and digging a bigger recovery hole.
TL:DR on Stress and Running
The main takeaway is that life stress and running closely interact. While athletes like Fitzgerald and Kipchoge can shape their entire lives around running, most of us have to juggle work, family, and other commitments alongside our training. That’s why it’s so important to recognize that all stress—whether from life or running—impacts us the same way. Working with a coach who understands this can make all the difference. Plans should adapt to your life, not the other way around. Your best running performances don’t come as a result of sticking rigidly to a schedule, but from consistently maintaining a good balance of stress and recovery. The goal is to stay flexible, communicate and keep your eye on the long game.
Guy Love is a coach with Team RunRun based in Boulder, CO. He is a long time ultramarathon runner and physical therapist assistant here to coach the whole athlete on the roads and trails.