Alan Bennet wrote:
@racerdb - Dave, you have been running at 90% for a long time now. I assume you were only working with Tinman for your AR attempt, and are now back on your own. Correct? Anyway, I have some related questions: Did you show Tinman your previous training, and if so what did he think of it? Any plans to modify what you were doing before based on what Tinman had you do? Or is it just go back to what was already working? Thanks.
Interesting you should bring this up as I've been thinking about re-running the 6 month plan again only this time, run it properly. See, the problem was, me. (we did a 9 month plan: 3 months buildup, 6 months specific training) Tom sent me daily workouts and the prescribed paces. The paces were to be based on your current 5k time. Me being who I am, based the workouts on what I thought I could run rather than what I times I really ran. This just messed everything up and I ran everything from very easy runs to Tempos to Thresholds to CV to Vo2 runs, too hard. This left me tired all the time, and demoralized when I didn't end up running what I thought I should be running. In spite of me....I ended up running a 16:46 5k and a 35:03 10k under Toms guidance, my two best races of the year. Wonder what could have been had I run did things the right way?
So, to answer your questions:
* I really don't know about the 90%. Of what? I used my goal time which was unrealistic so it really wasn't 90%
* Yes to the previous training. Just constructive criticism.
* Yes I went back to my old ways. I was thinking the plan wasn't for me and it just didn't work. But now looking back, it worked very well.
* No. Going back to re-run the plan but do it right this time.
This is what I wrote my training partner last week. Sums it all up...
"After Diemer I kept thinking his plan wasn’t for me, it didn’t work, I was tired all the time, I didn’t race well….blah, blah, blah…. But after some ‘outside of the box thinking’, the plan really did work. The problem was me! Thinking I was better than I really was, running the workouts too hard for my real 5k race times (Hero workouts) setting the bar way too high and when I didn’t get close to those times, I thought I was a failure. But in hindsight, running those 17 oh something 5ks early in the year were very good races, but not being accustomed to running 17:00+ 5ks, I thought I just sucked! Truth is, I ran my seasons best times with Tinman’s program. Even though I probably ran everything too hard, contributing to the constant fatigue which contributed to the heel issues which contributed to the poor state of mind and wanting to quit after Diemer! I think things could have gone a lot better, had I run the workouts properly.
So I have decided to run the plan again after the half marathon. This time, I will hit my workout splits based on a 17:00, or 17:30 5k or whatever shape I’m in (and not 16:15 just because I thought I was!!!), I’ll run my easy days easy, very easy days easier and long runs at the proper pace. Whatever the calculator says. There is no reason to be running 7:00 on an easy long run, or closing with a 5:30 mile on a tempo run just because it looks good in the log book.…."
Dave