Training

All things training. Mostly advice and tips but maybe questions, general comments, or who knows what else.

The clean slate phenomenon

If you’re doing anything new, you will improve rapidly at first

Do you remember when you first started running? You could do no wrong. You got better no matter what you did, even if you know now that it wasn’t very sound training.

Now, if you’re an experienced runner, every bit of improvement takes a monumental effort.

There are no magic paces (or black holes)

Back in the 1990s, a lot of runners talked about running at VO2max pace or lactate threshold pace or some other specific pace. We were told that you needed to run at that specific pace in order to get the best benefit from a workout. If you ran between these magical paces, you were putting in extra effort for no added benefit.

How right were we about those things, though?

Are your PRs in the past?

I’m not this runner anymore. But that’s OK.

A couple of weeks ago, I ran my first half marathon in 14 years.

Why did I go 14 years without running a half marathon? After the race, I was thinking out loud about that while talking with some people and I think I came upon the most likely reason: I’m having trouble adjusting to getting slower.

Take a lesson from me: when your PRs are in the past, don’t do what I did. As hard as it is, accept that and keep challenging yourself.

Running and the hacker culture

You can’t hack your way to success in running

These days, the hacker culture is all around us. How to do more with less. It sounds great, doesn’t it?

No surprise, the hacker culture has also made its way into the running world. From things that have been around for a long time, such as couch to marathon in 12 weeks, to people promising you can get as much aerobic conditioning in 10 minutes as you can in an hour long easy run.

Does the hacker culture really work with running, though?

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