Elites, question on how hard you push yourselves.

Recovery is a huge factor. How do you feel right after your run. How do you feel later that night.

fattie wrote:

...if I just feel great then I feel like I am obviously not working hard enough.

I disagree. If you're training correctly, you should feel pretty good most of the time. If you're not feeling good in training and on easy runs, you're not going to feel good in a race either. If you're just running base mileage, you should almost never feel tired.

I'm not sure I'm sold on that. I've always felt that you should be reasonably tired after your longer or faster days.

bump

Please post PRs.

fattie wrote:

bump

Please post PRs.

Post your first, I only reply to those who have a hope of getting to my level.

I think you should feel sore and tired a good part of the time. If you don't, you're not working hard enough.

4:06 mile

14:19 5k

I also figure you should be pretty tired when you are training hard, but then I end up hurt alot.

PR's 14:20, 1:04:14, 2:14:56

4:05 full mile

thanks fellas. anyone recall anything from an elite's book or training? I think ryun ran fairly hard and in OAR which is written by an elite runner he talks about always being tired. Anything else

OONe e Noddles wrote:

I think you should feel sore and tired a good part of the time. If you don't, you're not working hard enough.

4:06 mile

14:19 5k

thanks, i was going to say the same thing. I didn't always feel like total crap when training hard, but I always felt something. tired, sore, hungry, sometimes a little cranky, etc...

I would be interested to know if the guy who says you should always feel good is/was fast!

14:16

8:17

3:54 (just 1500m, sorry)

ps. I know I'm not elite. but I do know guys who are, and I think they feel the same way.

Brendan Foster's line about this was that "a runner is someone who goes to bed feeling tired and gets up the next day feeling more so."

4.04 mile, 14.10 5k. Not elite.

I never really pushed myself too hard. always just tried to enjoy it and feel good. I always liked the saying:

"training should be enjoyed, not endured"

and

An top level elite runner once told me "I'd rather run fast than hard, anyday." I always liked that saying.

5K - 23:08

10K - 48:13

Thon - 4:05:26

I don't have my BQ yet but I've found that if I can't sing along to my IPOD than I am going too fast. I hope this helps.

I'm the guy who said you should almost always feel pretty good. Obviously the day after a hard interval day you're not going to feel great, but you shouldn't feel like crap either.

PR's of 1:55, 4:13 mile, and 1:10:31 for the half marathon, all in high school. I haven't PRed since after having a college coach who favored feeling like shit to feeling good. Maybe it works for others, but it doesn't work for me!

I've found it to be a very delicate balance. In order to maximize your races you have to train hard, you have to run a lot of miles, and you have to do both of these things consistently. However, very few workouts should ever be really truly hard sessions. Very few athletes can go to the well so to speak in practice and do it in races as well. When i have had my best seasons my races have always been much better than what most people would predict from looking at my workouts.

Sub 14:00

Sub 8:00

Sub 3:45

return of the P wrote:

I'm the guy who said you should almost always feel pretty good. Obviously the day after a hard interval day you're not going to feel great, but you shouldn't feel like crap either.

PR's of 1:55, 4:13 mile, and 1:10:31 for the half marathon, all in high school. I haven't PRed since after having a college coach who favored feeling like shit to feeling good. Maybe it works for others, but it doesn't work for me!

I think you have to go through the "feeling like shit" period to get to the feeling good most of the time period.

Lost at this one wrote:

return of the P wrote:

I'm the guy who said you should almost always feel pretty good. Obviously the day after a hard interval day you're not going to feel great, but you shouldn't feel like crap either.

PR's of 1:55, 4:13 mile, and 1:10:31 for the half marathon, all in high school. I haven't PRed since after having a college coach who favored feeling like shit to feeling good. Maybe it works for others, but it doesn't work for me!

I think you have to go through the "feeling like shit" period to get to the feeling good most of the time period.

I didn't. The seasons I ran my best, I NEVER felt like shit. People actually thought I was a slacker because I wouldn't push very hard in practice. I'd get "beat" on tempo runs by guys who were almost a minute slower than me at 5k. Don't get me wrong, I ran hard in practice sometimes, but I knew when to back off and what effort was going to hurt me more than help me.

That just shows you could have run better with a better training plan.