The Running Explained Podcast · Running Explained

s5/e21 Training Load: Too Much, Too Little, or Just Right? with Coach Elisabeth

·1 hr 14 min·5 clips

Coach Elizabeth reveals why a high acute-to-chronic training load ratio puts you on the express lane to injury.

Training load sounds dry at first. Coach Elisabeth turns it into something runners can actually use: a way to notice when training is building well and when the body may be taking on too much. The tone stays friendly. She admits the topic may not seem exciting, then connects it to injury prevention and staying consistent enough to keep going. Her example is personal. Outside of a training app, she kept a large spreadsheet because hot, humid conditions made pace feel too narrow. Florida heat changed the picture. Some runs looked slower even when the effort was high, so she wanted a broader way to read her own training and see whether things were moving in the right direction. Pace was not enough. She tracked distance, heart rate, duration, and a simple effort score to understand what each session was really costing her. The setup was rough but useful. Each workout got an RPE from one to ten, then duration and effort fed into a training stress score. That made patterns easier to see. The coaching point lands plainly. Time, intensity, and conditions all shape training stress. A humid run, a longer session, or a harder perceived effort can raise the load even when the mileage looks normal. Tracking it over time is less about perfection and more about staying healthy enough to keep training.

As heard by us

A coach's-eye look at the numbers that keep hard training sustainable.

This episode treats training load management as the practical backbone of staying healthy and making progress. Coach Elizabeth keeps the focus on what runners can actually track: how hard a session felt, how long it lasted, and the conditions it happened in.

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Why you'd press play

If your training feels guessy, this gives you a way to read the signals.

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