Mention “the wall” to runners, and they’ll likely envision the infamous point around mile 20 of a 26.2-miler when limbs suddenly get heavy, energy tanks, and creeping self-doubt makes crossing the finish line feel like a matter of “if,” not “when.”
That is not an experience exclusive to marathoners. All runners pursuing new goals will encounter at least one seemingly insurmountable roadblock along the way.
That block may be a niggling injury that flares when you exceed a certain mileage, making longer distances feel impossible. For some, it’s symbolized by a porta-potty, signifying the gastrointestinal distress that can hit midrun and sabotage a time goal. Or it can be unexpected weight gain, or lost motivation weeks before a race.
It’s easy to look at these walls as uniformly negative. But the bricks hold important lessons, says New York City–based sports-medicine physician Jordan Metzl, M.D., coauthor of Running Strong. “A big part of being a successful athlete is identifying your wall and making a plan for knocking it down,” Metzl
says. “Once you get to the other side, you realize you’re capable of things you didn’t think possible.”
To that end, we’ve pinpointed five common running barriers and provided the tools to knock them down. Happy wall-busting.
1. The Injury Wall
There is no greater predictor of a future running injury than a past one, and old niggles inevitably flare when we start to push mileage and skimp on rest.
“Every runner has a weak link, and when training stress accumulates to the point that it gets irritated, it can stop them in their tracks,” says Boulder, Colorado–based exercise physiologist Adam St. Pierre, an ultrarunning coach with Carmichael Training Systems.
jog to ease any nerves and get things moving. (Achilles tendons and How Bad Do You Want It are classics.) Others result from biomechanical flaws (an overpronating foot, a long and heavy stride) that runners carry with them into each new training season.
As many as 79 percent of runners have to take time off each season due to injury, and some 4 percent of half marathoners and 6 to 18 percent of marathoners land in the medical tent with one on race day. Trouble is, runners often forget about their weak link postrace, when they back off training and the pain subsides. In reality, that’s exactly when they should focus on it.
Bust down the barriers standing between you and your running goals: “If you have a nagging injury, begin your off-season by addressing it,” says A.J. Gregg, D.C., a strength and conditioning specialist in Flagstaff, Arizona. Consider seeing a sports-medicine specialist—preferably one who runs—who can zero in on the root cause of your complaint and help you craft a prevention plan.
That plan will certainly include strength-training, which builds muscular scaffolding to protect vulnerable joints. It can reduce running injury risk by half, according to the Run in My World: New York City.
And while you may need to back off the mileage, you won’t necessarily have to quit running completely, as so many runners fear. “Running can be rehab,” says Gregg, noting that you increase circulation to injured tissue and sometimes mimic the very motion of prescribed physical therapy exercises. To wit: A study of Achilles tendinopathy patients found that those who ran through therapy recovered just as well as those who stopped for six weeks.
Just remember, when you begin to ramp back up, stick to the 10 percent rule (boosting distance no more than 10 percent per week) and be mindful of the kind of running you do: Attacking hills when you’re not used to them or jumping into speedwork too fast is a sure way to anger a healing joint, says Gregg. You also want to start any run with warm, activated muscles. Make a quick dynamic workout non-negotiable—planks, bridges, squats, and jumps like high knees and butt kicks.
If you feel that old injury rear up anyway, shorten your stride and quicken your cadence—basically, turn your feet over faster—which will lighten the vertical load pressing down with each footfall, says Metzl. (Proof it’ll help: A two-year study of 249 female runners found that the 21 who never got injured were those who ran lightest on their feet.) Make it simple by using a metronome app, and shoot for 165 to 180 footfalls per minute.
If that injury wall pops up midrace, your response should be pain-dependent, says St. Pierre. “If you have pain, but you are able to run without changing your biomechanics, it is probably okay to push through,” he says. “If you have to change your gait substantially to get to the finish line, you could end up with a more serious injury.” That means pull off, walk for 100 feet, then try running again. If you can’t, then walk it in so you can run another day.
2. The Porta-Potty Wall
Number two is the number one culprit for sabotaging a run. As many as 90 percent of distance runners will be plagued with nausea, stomach cramps, gas, or, most commonly, diarrhea at some point in training or racing, according to a 2014 review in Sports Medicine. As four-time Boston Marathon winner Bill Rodgers famously put it, “more marathons are won or lost in the porta-toilets.” Those tackling shorter distances are not immune, either. “I see it in couch-to-5Kers to veteran ultramarathoners,” says San Diego–based sports nutritionist Kim Mueller, R.D.
Just what causes runner’s trots, however, is a matter of debate. One explanation is that the constant pounding irritates digestive organs (runners are twice as likely as swimmers or cyclists to suffer diarrhea while exercising). The more strenuous the workout, the more likely the innards are to revolt, experts say; during intense exercise oxygenated blood travels to the muscles and away from the gut, leaving the blood-starved lining vulnerable to irritation.
Another problem is that porta-potty-averse racers tend to skimp on prerace fluid or veer past the Dixie cups at aid stations, which exacerbates gut troubles, says Mueller. When you’re dehydrated, your stomach slows the movement of food through the digestive system. This leaves more undigested bits in the belly to jiggle around with each footfall.
Piling on gels or chews can make matters worse. Studies show that consuming more than 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour can draw fluid into the gut and cause osmotic diarrhea, which, if the name didn’t indicate, is an unpleasant condition indeed.
Then there’s plain nerves. “When people are excited about a race, they are in fight-or-flight mode—their gut shuts down.” says Lisa Dorfman, R.D., a culinary sports nutritionist and author based in Miami. “A few miles in, they relax, and the gut says, ‘Okay to release!’”
Bust down the barriers standing between you and your running goals: To steer clear of stomach pangs, first minimize what’s in your gut when you train, says Mueller.
“Runners hear they need to be eating more carbs to support training, but they don’t realize that the ‘healthier carbs’ tend to be rich in dietary fiber, which leaves more residue in your gut,” she says. In the 72 hours before a marathon, 24 hours before a 5K, or two meals before a long run, stick to low-residue foods (white toast instead of wheat, melon or banana instead of an apple with skin). And go easy on nuts and seeds, which leave gut residue as well. Also, minimize fat, which takes longer to clear the stomach, and sip enough water that your urine is odorless and pale yellow.
On race or run morning, get up early enough to allow for one hour of digestion time before the starting gun for every 200 to 300 calories consumed, Mueller advises. (Got an hour before your run? Have a plain English muffin with a smear of creamy peanut butter and seedless jelly. Have a few hours? Make it a bagel with a more generous PB&J; smear and add a banana.) And before you take off for the real thing, complete a light warmup jog to ease any nerves and get things moving.
Once you’re running, be judicious about energy gels, bars, and chews; when you have one, be sure to wash it down with water, not a sports drink (that will only pile more carbs in your gut).
If you plan to toe a starting line, Mueller also recommends doing mini race simulations every couple weeks, practicing this fueling routine at your target race pace to get the body used to it. “What the gut tolerates in training, which tends to be lower in intensity, can be vastly different than what it tolerates at race intensity,” she says.
Finally, runners with sensitive stomachs may want to consider cutting nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), which can damage the intestinal lining, and eliminating FODMAPs (fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols). These carbohydrates, found in wheat, onions, milk, and sugar alcohols, are hard to absorb and can sit in the stomach, fermenting. A recent study of endurance athletes found that those who excluded FODMAPs had fewer GI problems.
If, despite all your efforts, the urge to hit the porta-potty ensues? Don’t resist, says Mueller. “The longer you wait, the more irritated your gut will get, and the harder it will be for you to recover.”
3. The Weight Wall
Spindly, taut images of runners on magazine covers may lead one to assume that simply lacing up shoes will put you on the road to weight loss. In reality, many runners—particularly women—step on the scale weeks into their training only to discover they’ve put on pounds.
One 2009 Tufts University study looked at 64 runners training for a charity marathon and found that after three months of running more than four days a week, 50 of them saw no change in their weight, seven lost weight, and seven gained. Of those seven gainers, six were women. “I see it all the time in clients,” says Dorfman.
Some of that weight may be muscle, or water. But gain too much and it can thwart goals; each extra pound slows us down 1.5 to 2 seconds per mile. (Quick math: Gaining 10 pounds could add a minute to your 5K.)
By far the number one reason runners gain weight is their tendency to overestimate how hard they work and how many calories they burn, says Dorfman. “They think, Oh, I ran three miles today, or I spent 20 minutes on the treadmill, so I can treat myself to a feast.”
She and Mueller also see the opposite. Runners eager to lose weight don’t consume enough calories just as they start to expend far more. Starved of carbohydrates, the body turns to amino acids for fuel, breaking down muscle and slowing the body’s resting metabolic rate. The stress of chronic training without adequate fuel can also kick off a cascade of hormonal changes, including higher cortisol levels, which signal the body to kick into survival mode and store more fat, particularly in the abdominal area. The result: weight creeps up.
Bust down the barriers standing between you and your running goals: Thankfully, this solution is simple. To prevent weight gain, be realistic about the calories you burn, says Mueller. A runner typically burns about two-thirds of his or her body weight in calories per mile. That means a 120-pound woman will burn about 240 calories on a three-mile run (a slew of postrun energy bars contain more calories than that).
Another tactic is to reframe your run as fun rather than exercise. Cornell University researchers found that when people were asked to take either a one-mile “exercise walk” or a “scenic walk,” those who were in it for the scenery ate about 200 fewer calories when they were later offered M&M;’s.
On the flip side, even if you want to shed pounds, try not to allow the difference between the number of calories you eat a day and the number you burn to be more than 500, says Mueller. Not only could this fuel fat storage, it could make you tired (so you want to run less) and impair your immune system, upping risks of injury or illness.
And if you’re already crashing into the weight wall, consider mixing things up with training. Once every week or two, run “on empty,” heading out for a low-intensity run without eating breakfast. (Studies suggest this can kick-start your metabolism
to burn fat.) On other days, throw in high-intensity intervals, which prompt the body to burn more calories postworkout. For instance, after a 15-minute warmup, run a minute at faster-than-5K-pace, jog a minute, and repeat nine times.
4. The Mojo Wall
There comes a moment in almost every runner’s life when he hears the alarm and looks to his running shoes with dread. For those with a race on their calendar it tends to occur about halfway in, when the excitement of signing up has worn off and the routine begins to feel monotonous. “It’s like being in the middle of a lake where you are equidistant between two shores and you can’t go back but you don’t want to go forward,” says running coach Matt Fitzgerald, author of We earn a commission for products purchased through some links in this article?
The culprit can be overtraining syndrome; it hits about 65 percent of runners at some point. Too much running and too little rest impacts hormones like serotonin (a feel-good chemical) and melatonin (a sleep-promoting hormone), which can fuel depression and insomnia.
For others it’s a matter of buyer’s remorse, says St. Pierre. After weeks of early morning or late evening workouts and decreased time with family and friends, those without the right mind-set start wondering, “Why did I sign up for this, anyway?”
Bust down the barriers standing between you and your running goals: To keep the mojo wall from emerging, pick a goal you are genuinely passionate about from the start, Fitzgerald suggests. That means saying “no thanks” to the road marathon your friends want you to run, because you know you much prefer trails or 5Ks, for instance.
The longer you’re at it, the more likely you’ll hit moments of doubt—so don’t train for longer than you need to. “If it will take you 16 weeks to get ready for a half marathon, don’t choose one that is 24 weeks away,” says Fitzgerald. Or at least hold off on officially training until the time is right.
If you’re facing a motivation wall right now, back off running for a week to let the body and psyche regroup, and boost your protein intake. Research shows that when overtrained athletes suffer from mood swings, amping amino acids (the building blocks of protein) helps them feel more energized and mentally clear.
The most important thing is to make running feel fun again: Download new music, pick a fresh route, run with friends you’ve never run with before, and reframe your training as something you get to do, not something you have to.
5. The Mental Wall
Conventional wisdom suggests that the quintessential marathoner’s wall—the heavy limbs, crashing energy, and self-doubt—results from depleted sugar stores in the muscles. That is undoubtedly a big part of the story. But compelling new research suggests there’s more at play.
“There is mounting evidence that the muscle is not the limiting factor—it seems to be the mind,” says Samuele Marcora, Ph.D., professor of exercise physiology at the University of Kent in England.
Marcora cites a 2015 study in which Spanish researchers put a group of college students on exercise bikes and said, “Pedal until you can’t possibly pedal one second more.” Afterward the scientists biopsied the students’ leg muscles to measure the ATP, or fuel, left inside. The verdict? The kids should have been able to keep pedaling a whole seven additional minutes. It wasn’t their bodies that quit—it was their will.
This suggests a promising bottom line, says Marcora: Everyone from 5K’ers to ultramarathoners can achieve more if they remember that what the brain thinks is the limit isn’t the truth for the body.
“You stop because you feel as if you cannot keep going, but in reality, from a biochemical point of view, you can,” he says.
Bust down the barriers standing between you and your running goals: Bust down the barriers standing between you and your running goals.
“Research has shown that people have a higher perception of effort and reach their wall earlier when they are mentally fatigued,” says Marcora. That means that, just as you would with your body before a big race, you must rest your mind. Avoid that last-minute work assignment, steer clear of mentally taxing conversations.
Science has also confirmed what generations of running champions know already: Self-talk can do wonders to overcome a bonk. For one study, researchers asked athletes to work out to exhaustion, then they divided the group in two and had half practice “if-then” self-talk strategies (“If I start to get tired, then I’ll repeat this mantra.”) Two weeks later, members of the self-talk group perceived the same workout as far easier and were able to go for longer.
As Marcora puts it: “If, on top of all the other things you do to improve your muscles and cardiovascular system, you also do things to improve your brain, you might find a new gear within yourself that you didn’t know existed.”
