Do You Believe These 3 Most Common Training Myths?

I spend a lot of time participating in message boards, interacting with my own community of runners, and answering training questions. As such, I’ve heard almost every running myth and training falsehood you could imagine.

In my experience, the training myths that are often the most difficult to fight are those that are based on assumptions that seem to make sense based on what runners feel during training, but aren’t grounded in physiological realities.

In this article, I am going to caution you about the three most common training myths that feel true, but could be leading you down the road to injury.

Barefoot running automatically forces you to run correctly

The accepted theory is that running in minimalist footwear decreases the impact forces on your legs because the lack of cushioning encourages you to land on your forefoot. This is definitely true, but running in minimalist footwear doesn’t automatically mean you’re going to evolve into a forefoot striker.

Consider a recent study conducted by researchers at the University of North Carolina. When researchers interviewed 35 runners who wore minimalist shoes and asked them whether they were heel or forefoot strikers, all 35 responded that they were forefoot strikers. However, after analyzing footstrike patterns with a slow-motion camera, 33% of the runners were actually heel strikers.

The problem for runners who wear minimalist shoes and don’t land on their forefoot when they think you are is that vertical loading rates can be up to 37% higher than heel striking in traditional shoes and 50% higher than forefoot striking in minimalist shoes. It doesn’t take a PhD to realize that increasing your ground impact with each step by 50% can lead to some serious injuries.

What you can do

First, this study is a good demonstration of how difficult it can be to identify your specific running form issues when your foot strikes the ground so quickly. This means you can’t always rely on sensory data to make improvements to your own running form. Reading the latest article on the “secret to proper running form” and trying to apply can be dangerous. Be careful with adjustments you make and take the time to get proper guidance and analysis from a professional before you make changes.

More importantly, if you’re going to transition to barefoot or minimalist footwear, take the time to develop your proprioception, foot strength, and proper barefoot running form. Don’t just assume that switching to minimalist shoes means you’ll start running correctly. Dr. Mark Cuccuzzella, widely considered to be one of the leading experts in minimalist running, suggests spending at least two weeks building a foundation of strength and balance in your feet, lower legs and hips.

Running longer than 20 miles in training is necessary to run a marathon

When training for the marathon, 20 miles seems to be a magic barrier. Psychologically, most runners feel that once they are able to run 20 miles during a long run, they’ll be able to run 26.2. However, while hitting the 20-mile mark might feel like it’s an essential component of marathon training, is it really any better physiologically than 19 miles, or even 16 or 17 miles? The scientific research suggests that it’s not.

In terms of aerobic development, one of the main benefits of the long run, research demonstrates that 90 minutes to two hours of running seems to elicit the greatest amount of mitochondrial growth. Research has yet to show that running longer than two hours provides any greater stimulus to aerobic development.

Ok, so there isn’t a specific physiological benefit to running 20 miles. But, why not just run 20 miles if it makes you feel more confident?

First, the longer you run, the more tired you become and the more your form begins to break down. Your major muscles become weak and susceptible to injury while overuse injuries, like tendonitis, begin to take their toll. Second, recovery time after a very long run is significantly lengthened compared to a more moderate long run. This means you can’t complete more marathon specific workouts, like tempo runs, throughout the week.

What you can do

This doesn’t mean that no runner should ever go 20 miles or longer. Instead, make sure the long run is a complimentary piece to your marathon training rather than a slow, 4-hour run that takes up 50% or more of your weekly mileage.

As Luke Humphrey, Olympic Trials Runner and author of the book the Hansons Marathon method explains, you should you downplay the role of the long run and focus instead on increasing your overall volume and workouts throughout the training week. To simulate the fatigue of the marathon distance, utilize the theory of accumulated fatigue to get your legs prepared to handle the full 26 miles.

One way I like to do this is to buttress the long run back-to back with a medium length steady run. So, your weekend might now entail 8 miles of running at just slower than goal marathon pace on Saturday and 16-18 miles, with the last 3-6 miles at marathon pace on Sunday. In this scenario, you’ve now run a total of 26 miles for the weekend (up to 14 of them at marathon pace), yet you’ll actually reduce the risk of injury and recover faster than had you run one 20 or 22 miler.

Running faster on your easy days will help you hit your goal sooner

One of the most common beginner training mistakes is running easy days too fast. It’s not hard to imagine why. In almost every other sport, trying harder is almost always a surefire way to improve. So, when athletes take to the sport of running, it’s a common assumption that the harder you run, the faster you’ll improve.

Unfortunately, this isn’t how running works. Each day in a well-designed training plan has a specific purpose, and the easy run is no different. The purpose of an easy day is to facilitate recovery and develop the aerobic system. Running too fast actually diminishes your ability to do both.

An easy recovery run increases blood flow to the muscles specific to running, helping to clear out waste products and deliver fresh oxygen and nutrients. If you run too hard on an easy day, you create more muscle tears than you’re fixing, extending the amount of time you need to fully recover. This can cause you to run poorly on subsequent workouts because your muscles are still fatigued.

Furthermore, as I highlighted in my article on long run pace last week, research has shown that the optimal pace for aerobic development peaks at around 65-70 percent of your 5k pace.

What you can do

While running your easy days faster might seem like the shortcut to achieving your goals sooner, it will actually hinder your progress. By running faster on your easy days, you don’t maximize aerobic development and you run the risk of being too tired to perform the essential workouts that will make you faster.

Take a cue from 2:37 marathoner and Olympic Trials qualifier, Camille Herron and slow your easy runs down. Despite her marathon pace being 6 minutes per mile, Camille runs her easy days at 8:30-9:00 minutes a mile (and often times slower). In doing so, she was able to keep herself healthy after seven stress fractures over the course of two and a half years and drop more than 10 minutes from her marathon time.

Take these three lessons to heart and always be questioning your training assumptions.

A version of this post originally appeared at competitor.com