Summer of LetsRun: What's the biggest summer training mistake?

I'll start this off (unless someone is really quick posting).

The #1 mistake I would say for the vast majority of people is just not training consistently. It sounds obvious to those of us who know running is a year round sports at least 6 days a week.

But I had no clue when I was younger. I thought I really took it seriously just training during the season and doing who knows what in the summer.

So once you start training for the summer, it needs to be consistent. You go on vacation, you keep running. It gets hot, you keep running, etc. Consistency beats anything else.

If you don't have that, then everything else is pointless.

Depends on the person but if it's a completely new to distance running, I would say pacing. They need to head out fast but can't finish off the run and have to stop and/or walk before running (sprinting) again.

Back in the early 80s before my senior year I did doubles everyday 5 miles in the morning 5 at night. 70 miles a week most of the summer. Maxed out at 85 miles (even did a third workout to get there). I probably ran a tempo run every other day. Even my "easy" runs were not easy. I dropped PRs quickly but fizzled by the end of the season (about 3 weeks early). Went from about 17:15 5k PR Junior year.. to 16:00 PR senior year.. but probably 16:10-15 at end of season. I had no injuries at all.. but was pretty drained. Had no clue about hydration, recovery, nutrition sleep. It was all about the miles for me.

Base building is more than just "running a lot." It's also a time to work on general athleticism and functional strength, as well as maintaining some basic speed.

Make sure you don't just spend your whole summer running. As much as you can, supplement your aerobic training with recreational/social swimming, biking, hiking, other general summer-type activities. Run in the morning, so you have the rest of the day open for activities. I know most coaches would be against you playing pickup soccer, but if you want to play pickup soccer, go ahead, it's a great workout and gets you secret bonus mileage.

This is also a good time to establish a good routine for core and strength work, especially when it comes to hip and ankle stability. If you wait to start doing core/strength during the fall, when you also start doing harder workouts, you are increasing the training load too much at one time, and can risk getting injured.

As for speed, a weekly hill session is probably good enough to maintain basic speed, although I would recommend at least doing strides 2-3 times a week after easy runs. For experienced runners (2+ seasons of track or xc) I would have them do a short tempo or a session of threshold intervals once a week.

To be clear..I wasn't recommending runners do what I did. Absolutely not. I ran way too hard and was lucky not to have been injured. Didn't hydrate or take nutrition seriously. The fizzling out part had to be my body just saying "nope.. we're done".

Biggest mistake is running too hard, either planned intervals/tempos or easy days. Summer should be fairly unstructured, just run by feel but increase the volume.

Key advice already mentioned here: consistency and strength/mobility work. I’d add one more ~ get your ferritin checked once every 4-6 weeks to make sure you aren’t becoming iron deficient. Happens to distance runners way too frequently, especially in summer. Sometimes this manifests as “burnout.”

The biggest mistake is doing too much intensity and too little volume. Summer develops the base.

It always has been, and always will be, people running their easy runs too fast.

The biggest mistake I’ve seen is too much volume all at the same intensity with no variation. This is a fast route to burnout and injuryhl

Good answers so far. I will add not hydrating/fueling enough and not sleeping/resting enough. Godspeed high school runner..........

The biggest summer training mistake is starting in July.

Biggest mistake I made was no speed upkeep alongside my mileage. I was hitting easy miles but that was about it. No hill repeats, strides, or 10m flys. By August I was fit but dead in the water.

Ignoring drills, like A skip and proper running form.

Forcing a certain pace in the heat. Should be more effort based. Easy way to burn out.