The Biggest Mistakes Runners Make When Training Alone
The Biggest Mistakes Runners Make When Training Alone
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If you’re constantly injured, exhausted, or low-key starting to hate your runs… it’s probably not running’s fault. It’s how you’re training.
And before you feel called out, this isn’t shade. Most of these mistakes are made by runners who are genuinely trying to improve and care about their training. You want to feel legit. You want results. So you push harder, run faster, and stack more miles because that’s what you think a “real runner” does.
But I’m going to give you the brutally honest truth…if you want results, stop doing this!
The biggest mistake I see, especially with newer runners, is running every run too hard. Every run becomes a test. Every run has to hit a certain pace or distance or Strava-worthy effort or it somehow “doesn’t count.” Easy days disappear. Hard days pile up. Recovery gets pushed to “later.”
Running isn’t supposed to feel like a weekly track try out.
When every run lives in the grey zone, not easy enough to recover from and not hard enough to build real fitness, your body never adapts. You just accumulate fatigue. That’s when you start noticing niggles here and there, your motivation begins to dip and then all of a sudden your progress plateaus. Then you assume you’re not built for running. Does this sound familiar? In reality, you just haven’t been giving your body a chance to recover.
Slowing down doesn’t mean you’re regressing. It’s how fitness actually sticks.
Another big one. Thinking you need to run every single day to be a runner. You don’t.
Rest days aren’t a reward for being lazy or unmotivated. They’re part of the training. The adaptations you’re chasing happen when your body has time to repair and rebuild. Skipping rest doesn’t make you tougher. It just shortens how long you can stay consistent. And consistency always beats intensity in the long run. (Pun intended 😆)
Strength training gets skipped a lot too. Not because runners don’t know it’s helpful, but because it feels optional. Or boring. Or like something you’ll add “once you’re fitter.”
I’m not here to sugar coat anything for you today, if you want to keep running, you need to support your body. Strength work helps you handle impact, maintain good mechanics when you’re tired, and reduce injury risk. It doesn’t need to be complicated or long, but it does need to be consistent. Running alone isn’t enough.
Mobility and stretching usually fall into the same category. The first thing cut when life gets busy. Then people wonder why they feel stiff, heavy, or off. Those 5–10 minutes matter more than you think.
Of course mindset sneaks into all of this too. A lot of runners tie their worth to pace. Or distance. Or how wrecked they feel after a run. There’s this belief that if it wasn’t hard, it wasn’t effective. Or if you slow down, you’re failing. That mindset is what is going to continue to hold you back!
Progress doesn’t come from proving yourself every run. It comes from trusting the process, even when it feels too easy, even when no one’s watching, even when your ego wants more.
And finally, the mistake that quietly underpins all of this. Trying to figure it all out alone when you’re not sure what’s going wrong.
There’s nothing weak about asking for help. In fact, it’s usually the turning point. Most runners don’t need more grit. They need clarity. They need structure. They need someone to say, “You’re not broken. You’re just doing too much of the wrong thing.”
If any of this feels uncomfortably familiar, you’re not alone. I see it every week. And it’s exactly what coaching helps untangle.
If you’re tired of guessing, second-guessing, or feeling like you’re working hard without seeing results, this is your sign to change the approach. I offer a free discovery call where we talk through what’s been happening, what’s not clicking, and what might actually move the needle for you. There’s also a $25 2-week trial if you want a low-pressure way to experience what supported, intentional training feels like.
You don’t need to do more.
You might just need to do it differently.
And yes, slowing down is often the fastest way forward.
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