Biggest Training Lessons of 2024
I learned many training lessons this year.
I increased my running volume considerably and hit some personal records for weekly mileage. But I also made many mistakes and learned a lot. Some — if not all of these mistakes — will be very obvious. Learning from these mistakes helped me improve my training and made sessions easier. I also feel more excited about training, which has been great.
Here are my biggest training lessons of 2024:
1. More threshold sessions.
First, I learned that it was important to do more threshold sessions, where I run for periods of time at a higher heart rate (roughly 85% of max heart rate for several minutes).
This year, I hit a plateau because I trained mostly in zone 2 (roughly 70% of max heart rate). Due to zone 2 training, I was able to increase my mileage a lot and ran 120-140km volume weeks without getting injured. This was good. But my pace remained constant.
Shout out to Ryan who suggested that I incorporate more threshold sessions into my training. He was right.
Threshold sessions helped me improve my pace and made slower runs easier. Although I felt that I was running slow during Zone 2 runs, I realized that I was running at a sub 5 min/km pace at a sub 130BPM heart rate. I also enjoy threshold sessions because they mix things up.
I now try and do at least one threshold session per week, and try and do threshold repeats. For some sessions, I run 4x1km and aim for a 4:00/km pace.
2. Prioritizing recovery.
Second, I learned a lot about how I could improve recovery. I tried to sleep way more, and changed how I refuelled after a workout. Now, I try to eat more carbs after a training session to replenish glycogen stores.
I also aim for 8 hours of sleep. I try to eat a smaller dinner to avoid a blood sugar spike and to keep my resting heart rate low. I’ve noticed that this makes a huge difference. Lastly, I try to spend more time lying down in the evening, which facilitates recovery.
One of the biggest changes has been to go to sleep earlier when fatigue begins to hit. Otherwise, I tend to get a second wind which makes it more difficult to sleep.
Setting an alarm clock for the evening and cutting out all electronics roughly an hour before sleep has helped a lot.
3. Tracking macros.
This was a big lesson. And again, thank you Ryan for pointing this out.
Until I started to track my food intake with a food scale and app, I didn’t realize that my macronutrients were completely off. I didn’t eat nearly enough carbohydrates. In fact, I probably ate something like 1/3 to 1/2 as many carbs as I should have. Some days I overate. Other days I ate too little. This inconsistency hampered my recovery and I would sometimes bonk during training, meaning that my glycogen stores were empty and I felt drained.
I started to weigh my food and track my macronutrients with an app (I use Cronometer. It’s easy to use and very helpful). This has made refuelling and recovery much easier. I have a better sense of whether I ate enough calories given the amount of training I do, and whether I ate enough carbs, fat, and protein.
I expected that it would be stressful/annoying to weigh food and track macronutrients. But my experience has been the opposite. I understand that everyone is different. However, tracking macros has helped me maintain a more balanced approach to nutrition given my training volume. It is also interesting to see the macronutrient levels of different foods.
4. Pre-training nutrition.
This year, I also learned to improve my pre-training nutrition.
I want to thank Gabe for his IG posts that drew my attention to this. I continue to run fasted for my training session early in the morning. But I now fuel up before my second training session. I like to eat a peanut butter sandwich with rice cakes/toasts, banana, and honey before my second run or swim. Sometimes, I’ll have a smoothie with vegan protein, banana, almond milk, and berries roughly 45 minutes before training.
I now have much more energy during the second training session.
5. More core and stability.
Lastly, I learned to do way more core and stability work.
Previously, I trained my core 2x per week or so, and omitted lower back, inner thighs, and obliques. Now, I try to do core work almost every day and train core muscles I used to overlook.
One of my favourite training quotes is: “If you have a weakness, the mileage will find it”.
I do more core work to prevent injuries and counteract muscular imbalances that arise from running, swimming, and weights. I also complete more one leg exercises that require balance and that work stabilizer muscles. This has helped a lot, and my posture feels better, too.
Training smart versus training hard.
I made many training mistakes this year. In my view, these lessons highlight the importance of training smart versus training hard. These lessons allowed me to make certain changes that have helped me improve significantly.
I’m really excited about training for the rest of 2024, and for 2025. I continue to see incremental improvements. I appreciate the humility that is baked into the training process, and the mix of good and bad training days. And I’m grateful that I’ve been able to learn a lot from friends and mentors who continue to help me improve a bit each day.
All views expressed in this blog are my own and do not constitute any form of medical, nutritional, physiotherapy, or other type of advice.
They do not represent — and are not endorsed by — any academic institution.
