A common question I see on social media is “how should I train for X distance race?”
This is too simplistic of a question. Not everyone should train the same way for the same distance race. There are many considerations that will affect how we should train, the biggest of which is our goal.
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Modern watches are amazing devices, measuring distance more accurately all the time, not to mention all the other amazing things they measure with ever increasing accuracy.
However, if you’ve ever relied on your watch on race day, you know it lies. Why and what should we do about it?
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When I was in college, my coach had a term for people who would run their threshold runs harder than he asked: “Threshold All Americans.” It was meant as a derogatory term or, more gently, as a phrase to try to discourage them from going so hard.
But, if they were feeling good and the workout felt easy, why not run faster? You get more out of it, right?
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What is success to you as a runner? Is it the same now as it was (if you’ve been running that long) 10 years ago? Is it the same as you expect it to be 10 years from now?
I kind of hope not. I also hope not everybody says success is the same thing.
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I’ve been walking that fine line of training recently. Between my own training, which was going very well, and joining my daughter for her off-season training, things were getting pretty intense.
Through volumes I haven’t hit in probably a decade or more and workouts at paces I haven’t hit in years, I was building very good fitness. I was feeling great, strong, fit, invincible. Then, I believe I went just a touch too far.
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