One of the best articles on training you'll ever read

drquirky

The founder of letsrun.com talks about "why he sucked in college". I've been thinking a good bit about the pros and cons of endless reps as thats what I've always believed made the most improvements. Recent changes in my training (and the subsequent way my body feels) have made me question that approach- kinda goes against the whole over technical Daniels thing...

http://www.letsrun.com/news/2006/09/wejo-speaks-why-i-sucked-in-college/

Pherekydes

"...he went from 29:49 at 10k to 28:06 in 2003."

Huh.

ecoli

Pherekydes wrote: »

"...he went from 29:49 at 10k to 28:06 in 2003."

Huh.

The article is 10 years old now

Ceepo

ecoli wrote: »

The article is 10 years old now[/QU

It might be 10 yrs old but people are still doing the same thing. (Running to hard) .

Just have a look at some of the training logs on here.

Great article.

ecoli

Ceepo wrote: »

It might be 10 yrs old but people are still doing the same thing. (Running to hard) .

Just have a look at some of the training logs on here.

Great article.

No arguments. Hard relaxed running has its place but people tend to forget the easy days easy part

KC would be a good example of how slow easy running does not equal slow easy racing. (his paces can be often slower than many 3-3.30 marathoners around)

Timmaay

ecoli wrote: »

Hard relaxed running has its place but people tend to forget the easy days easy part

Hardest part of coaching the juniors in the local club is teaching them this! Egos/pushy parents etc etc get in the way all too often, with the end result of the athlete is burnt out after a year or so, doesn't enjoy it anymore and leaves the sport!

statss

good read - so essentially do a lot more easy running? sounds good to me!

Gringo78

drquirky wrote: »

Recent changes in my training (and the subsequent way my body feels) have made me question that approach- kinda goes against the whole over technical Daniels thing...

In fairness, Daniels prescribes a Phase I of up to 24 weeks building up your aerobic base but no one ever seems to do it....more the ii site, you get people skipping Phase II or even Phase III...people think Daniels and want to skip straight to the real hard elite plan sessions but I don't think I've ever read a log where anyone has done the Phase I for any length of time.

tunguska

To be fair to Daniels theres a lot of Threshold & easy paced running in his plans so the article seems to agree with JD's philosophy more than it disagrees.

Krusty_Clown

tunguska wrote: »

To be fair to Daniels theres a lot of Threshold & easy paced running in his plans so the article seems to agree with JD's philosophy more than it disagrees.

That's what I would have thought, particularly with respect to the marathon plans. Sure the 5k-15k plans feature three sessions per week, with lots of reps, but the marathon plans (in particular Plan A) are all about threshold and easy pace. In fact, apart from the occasional intervals and marathon paced runs, it's all made up of those two elements.

woodchopper

drquirky wrote: »

I've been thinking a good bit about the pros and cons of endless reps as thats what I've always believed made the most improvements. Recent changes in my training (and the subsequent way my body feels) have made me question that approach- kinda goes against the whole over technical Daniels thing...

http://www.letsrun.com/news/2006/09/wejo-speaks-why-i-sucked-in-college/

The success of a training programme is based on your results over a certain period of time. Feeling good only means that your training stimulus has been weakened due to a lack of volume or intensity. A distance runner is not supposed to feel good during heavy training only in tapering period and usually your mind plays tricks with you around this time meaning a distance runner never feels great in training nor should they!