As I organized my thoughts Wednesday night, something hit home for me: the lack of focus, among all the other things going on in my life, has really impacted my running.

Over the past few months, I’ve lamented about the struggles in training, the inability to hit my target mileage and diminished fitness. I found it difficult to get motivated, and put in the long runs, for my marathon last month. A dog attacked me. A severe ankle sprain during a trail race sidelined me.

But as I renewed my marathon training last week, and find myself back into a specific program, I find myself more focused. In my most recent newspaper column, I talked about how each run needs a purpose. That’s a lot easier to do when you are focused, and following a training plan again has helped me feel more comfortable again.

That comfort level is something that’s been lacking for months, and it extends into a few different areas: better and more specific training, improved nutrition and workout recovery, and subtle changes to my fitness level.

A friend recently started an aggressive training program. In the past, he has generally avoided a specific training plan, it simply wasn’t his style. But since he began following a plan, he is more motivated than ever. He has sights on several personal records and goals this year. And recently he mentioned that he’s feeling a bit more tired and wanted to know if I might offer some thoughts.

Here’s a segment of what I shared with him:

You will be more tired. You are training harder, burning more calories and using more energy – physically and mentally – than before. That means you have to be good about your diet, and especially recovery. Eating and getting the proper nutrients are so much more important – ideally within 30 minutes of a workout. That’s where recovery drinks are so helpful. Now, I don’t use the stuff every day, just after hard or particularly long workouts. Speed work and long runs qualify for particularly careful recovery, which are the days I use it.

If you fail to recover properly on those days, the deficit will compound on itself and you will slip further and further behind. That means diminished performance in workouts, and the quality will be less so you will not train as hard while failing to get the full benefit of the workouts, and you will be more susceptible to injury.

I’ve been there, and I think poor recovery and nutrition – or simply the lack of it – played a large role in my fitness and confidence going into my last marathon. Quite honestly, recovery takes focus, planning and work. It needs to be habit, just like your workouts.

Secondly, I can’t stress this enough: your hard days need to be hard, and your easy days need to be easy. That means a couple things. It means your easy days really need to be easy – you can still go out and run 6-10 miles, but it has to be slow and sustainable (something you’ve built yourself up to in training). And the hard days can be really hard – if you’re going to go run speed work or a long run, and then turn around and bike 2 hours at a moderate to brisk pace the next day, you could be cheating your recovery…

Notice I’m not saying not to do both – instead I would put them on the same day or within the same 12-hour cycle (run at night and bike in the morning), although the second option isn’t ideal… if you’re going to add a second workout on a particular given day, it should be on the days in which you already have a hard workout. The idea is that it’s already a hard day and if you do it on an “easy” day, you’re really not recovering properly.