Bit of Old School input

Testosterscone

Thought these might be of interest to some;

https://www.fastrunning.com/running-athletics-news/ireland/john-tracey-talks-current-standards-and-how-to-run-a-fast-marathon/8811

https://www.fastrunning.com/running-athletics-news/great-britain/steve-jones-hails-club-produced-athletes-like-griffiths-and-hawkins/8440

Some great points I think;

Group Running? - should we be less reliant on pace calculators and be more open to training as larger groups (where possible)

Grass Roots Elites - Should our elites be training and racing within the system more to inspire the next generation - performances like T Barr's 4th in Olympics are few and far between should our kids be seeing the top guys down at the club more putting in the hard work as a more productive way of inspiring

MisterDrak

Speaking as somebody who has probably ran 50% of his runs in a group, it can be a double edged sword. Rarely do you have a luxury of running in the group where the faster guys will be "just that bit faster" proving that impetus to improve.

As often, you can be stuck in with several others, that are 30 - 40 sec off your ideal pace for the run (what ever it may be), and your training effort suffers as a result.

ooter

Jaysus I've never trained in a group, always alone, never bothered me in the slightest though.

Testosterscone

MisterDrak wrote: »

Speaking as somebody who has probably ran 50% of his runs in a group, it can be a double edged sword. Rarely do you have a luxury of running in the group where the faster guys will be "just that bit faster" proving that impetus to improve.

As often, you can be stuck in with several others, that are 30 - 40 sec off your ideal pace for the run (what ever it may be), and your training effort suffers as a result.

Think this ties in with easy days at easy effort. To give you an example I ran with 2.20 marathoners and 3.20 guys in the past month despite the pace of the run being less than 20 sec per mile in the difference.

I think part of the point is that this country has a huge perforation of runners with everyone trying to be hyper specialized and do there own thing rather than just switching off and working off each other. If you look at the likes of Clohisey, GOH, Hehir, Dunleavy, Fitzpatrick etc. Many of our 2.20 guys are training with each other driving each other on.

Its very hard to mentally invest yourself in every session there are times when someone taking the reigns without compromising the effort of the session can help to no end. I know personally I have found this running with DR from around these parts where one of us was keeping the other honest on days where we were quite up to the session at hand.

Murph_D

Group running is great if it’s the right group for you, sure. I find that even in club sessions, though, a lot of people run too fast. Especially us mid-pack fodder who get little or no coaching at all. The level of training knowledge among these runners is surprisingly low (far greater level of knowledge among regular posters to this forum, even now in the post-golden era). So everyone runs at the wrong pace, usually too fast. You end up either going with it or going alone (or going with the next slowest too-fast group). Bottom line: group running is only great if the group knows what it’s doing, which is rare enough.

MisterDrak

Murph_D wrote: »

even now in the post-golden era

.

Ah Jesus, don't say that, I love it in here... But I know what you mean

Agree that running in groups generally does mean that specific paced runs do go out the window, however without the group running aspect, I for one would probably have run 20% less miles this year.

Some of my most enjoyable runs over the years have born out of a group, where 2-3 of the lads decide to press on (a bit of slagging ensues) and the rest of us are trying to hang on...

Not the specific paced stuff I know, but there are benefits to this type of run also.

I like doing hill repeats and speed sessions with a group that's slightly better than me, just to extend myself a little. The company helps ease the pain.

But the long trail runs at weekends, I'll happily do those with runners who are slower, because then I get to look around and take in the sights, and it's kinda a social event anyway. The company helps increase the enjoyment.