Go One Less: Why B+ Workouts Beat A+ Workouts
There’s a moment in nearly every ambitious runner’s life when they quietly cross a line and don’t realize it until later.
It usually doesn’t feel like a mistake.
It feels like commitment.
I’ve been thinking about a recent conversation on The Running Effect podcast about “going one less” and choosing B+ workouts instead of chasing the perfect A+ day. It hit me in a very personal way because I’ve lived both sides of that equation.
For a long time, I wanted to be great.
Not casually great. Fully committed. No shortcuts. High mileage. The kind of mindset that says, “If 100 miles a week is good, then 110 must be better.”
And for a while, it worked.
I remember one race in Houston where I ran 5:18 pace for an hour. I covered about 11¼ miles that day. My friends were there too. We were all running over 100 miles a week. We all ran well. We were seeing success and feeling strong.
For the first time since high school and college, I felt like I was breaking through to a new level.
Then I made what could be called a mistake.
The next day, I went out and ran 22 miles. Steady. Hard. Through the rolling hills around Texas A&M.
I wasn’t trying to be reckless. I was trying to be dedicated.
But within a short time, I developed a stress fracture.
Six weeks out.
No running.
No momentum.
Just a painful lesson from my body.
Now here’s the interesting part. I did come back. I adjusted my training. Instead of constantly pushing high mileage, I alternated higher-mileage periods with lower-mileage recovery periods.
Eventually I ran my personal bests:
- 31 minutes for 10K
- 69 minutes for the half marathon
- 2:30 marathon
So this isn’t a story about avoiding hard work.
It’s a story about dosage.
The Right Dosage
That’s the lesson I wish I had understood earlier.
Success in running isn’t determined by how much suffering you can tolerate. It’s determined by how accurately you can apply stress, recover from it, and repeat the process over months and years.
Think about cooking salmon.
Just because your oven can reach 500 degrees doesn’t mean that’s how you should cook it. More heat isn’t always better. More time isn’t always better. The goal isn’t maximum intensity.
The goal is the correct dosage.
Running is exactly the same.
And so is life.
High Achievers Have a Different Challenge
Most runners who seek excellence don’t struggle with motivation.
They struggle with restraint.
They’re willing to work harder than everyone else. They’re willing to wake up earlier, run farther, push through discomfort, and sacrifice for their goals.
Sometimes there may even be deeper reasons underneath that drive. Old struggles. Old fears. A desire to prove something. A need to become something more.
Whatever the source, the challenge isn’t finding effort.
The challenge is learning when enough is enough.
That’s why the idea of B+ workouts resonates so deeply with me.
A B+ workout isn’t lazy.
It’s not settling.
It’s not lowering your standards.
It’s choosing the workout that moves you forward while preserving your ability to come back tomorrow and do it again.
It’s choosing consistency over heroics.
It’s choosing long-term excellence over short-term validation.
The Wisdom of “Go One Less”
The older I get, the more I believe one of the greatest gifts a coach can provide is helping an athlete avoid unnecessary suffering.
Not by making them softer.
By helping them become wiser.
The best coaches aren’t simply asking, “How much more can you do?”
They’re asking, “What’s the smallest amount needed to create the adaptation we’re after?”
That’s a very different question.
It’s also why I’ve been enjoying Marius Bakken’s book, The Norwegian Method – Applied. The focus is on precision, consistency, and finding the optimal dose rather than simply piling on more training.
Because the goal isn’t to win today’s workout.
The goal is to become the athlete who can keep showing up month after month, year after year.
Your Competitive Advantage
If you’re a runner, here’s a question worth considering:
What if “going one less” isn’t a compromise?
What if it’s actually your competitive advantage?
What if the workout you stop a little early, the mile you don’t run, the interval you skip, or the recovery day you actually honor becomes the reason you’re healthy enough to train consistently for the next six months?
Most breakthroughs don’t come from one epic workout.
They come from hundreds of intelligently executed days.
B+ days.
Days that leave something in the tank.
Days that allow you to come back stronger.
Days that add up.
So let’s get out there and run.
Let’s chase our goals.
Let’s see what we’re capable of.
And let’s remember that more isn’t always better.
Sometimes the secret is simply finding the correct dosage.
About Ralph Havens
Ralph Havens is a physical therapist trained in Integrative Manual Therapy, helping runners and active people recover from chronic and recurring injuries in Bellingham, Fairhaven, Washington, and worldwide via Zoom. His work focuses on helping people get healthy, get their lives back, and do what they’re here to do.
Website: ralphhavens.com
Phone: 360-599-2217
Office: Beyond Limits Physical Therapy
1134 10th Street
Bellingham, WA 98225
Recent Comments