"Don't forget that the most important problem to solve is to make easy what is difficult, and for this goal we need to be very simple, natural in our approach, bringing our athletes to train more without too much pressure from hard workouts. That's the reason because too much hard training is a mistake, because athletics become a continuous examination, no more a pleasure. You can train hard preserving the ability of enjoying training, instead too many times athletes think that training is a must, and lose their nervous energies in fighting in training. Many runners leave good result in practice but have little energy for good result in races."
That's timeless advice. I filed away a couple of things from the message boards that cover the same concept and I read them to my high school guys all the time. These aren't from 2009, but they also talk about not losing sight of the simple and natural approach to running and making sure you don't force things too often. I don't remember who posted these, but I do remember both were from the same person:
"You are to become an athlete who is not restricted by external criteria; rather, you will know your body and you will know the purpose of the session. You will therefore begin with some reasonable guidelines but will learn to find the correct recovery pace and duration by intuition. You will also avoid asking yourself, "What could I run for race distance X based on workout Y?" This is not an indicator session, so it doesn't matter how fast it is, only that you got the correct training. You should improve your times for this session as you get fitter during the season, but you should not force the workout just so you can have a better average in your logbook and convince yourself you're faster. Therefore, do not repeat this session every week. Wait until your fitness and sharpness improves to the point that the times on this will be faster without your having to try any harder than before.
Once you learn and apply the correct methodology, you will discover that you do not require a lot of training at faster than race speeds."
The next quote, same author, talking about the natural approach to steady tempo runs in the preseason:
"The right pace is the fastest one that you could touch on several days in a row and feel good every day (assuming you weren't doing anything more intense within those few days).
Think of a correctly-executed threshold run like you were going surfing - you want to have fun with it. Yes, by doing it, you will make improvements (and that's the ultimate goal), but the enjoyment should normally outweigh any effort involved. It's a sensation of being carried along at the fastest speed that doesn't cause you to stress yourself any.
To continue the metaphor, just get out in the surf, paddle around gently for awhile, looking for a wave and trying to catch it. If you catch one, you'll obviously have to put a minor amount of effort into adjusting yourself to stay upright and on the board. But you should never thrash about in still waters and waste effort trying to create your own wave. You should position yourself such that you're likely to find a wave and hop on it if it comes to you. But if it doesn't, take your board and go home. There will be other days.
When you can regularly feel what all that means in the running context, you're getting it."
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