How to Slow Your Pace During the Coronavirus Pandemic
“Slow your pace.” You may have heard these words over the last several weeks as we’ve all been sheltering at home and having our lives and routines greatly altered. At New York Road Runners, we’ve all been working from home and adjusting to slowing down and focusing on our health and family.
Runners, too, have slowed our paceas our races have been canceled or postponed to a later date. This hasn’t been easy, and many of us just want to continue our training programs. Pulling back is hard for athletes becausewe think that if we’re are healthy, we need to get in our daily miles because the program says we should.
But things are different these days, and it's okay to miss a run, or many runs, right now. The stress of these times is enough to put your body on high alert, with more of the stress hormone cortisol pumping through our systems on a daily basis. This may interfere with sleep, eating, and recovery from workouts. There is no need to push your body farther with hard, long miles and intense workouts.
Here are some tips and strategies for dialing it back and putting your health and well-being first during this unprecedented time, while still maintaining your base fitness if you choose to do so:
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If you are healthy and you still want to run outside or on a treadmill, great! Run by minutes right now, not by distance, so you can go at the pace that feels best that day.
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Consider pulling back your weekly mileage for now. With no races on the immediate horizon, you can use this time to heal any nagging injuries and perhaps cross-train with low-impact activities such as cycling or fitness walking.You’ll be able to come back to your training plan, whether later this year or even next year, with fresh legs and a fresh mind. Burnout can easily happen when runners do not take adequate time off from hard training. If you don't want to run right now due to stress or health concerns, that is okay. The time will come when you will feel better, and you will run again. Those miles you ran in training for spring goal races will not be lost. They will come back after a few weeks of training when your head is in the right place.
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To stay connected, you may want to keep following your runner friends and pro athletes on social media.
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Prioritize rest and sleep. Both are essential for your body at any time, and now more than ever. Sleep expert, NYRR running coach, and yoga instructor Karina Krepp notes that quarantine is a great time to reset your sleep routine. “Never before have we had such an opportunity to set ourselves up for good balanced habits,” Krepp says.She recommends aiming for a bedtime no later than 10:00 p.m., with the goal of eight hours of sleep. She also suggests avoiding screens for two hours before bed and not working from your bed so that it remains solely a place to rest. “Our hope is that we all emerge from this time in our best health.”
We know that these times are incredibly challenging and that we’re all figuring out how to navigate them, day by day. Be patient in your search for a routine that works for you.