I apologize in advance for this wall of text. I got a two hour window of time by myself in the office today and thought I would finally respond to Panoma, as he has been asking to talk about my background and training theory for a few weeks.
I won't lie..I don't really have the time to check in the thread regularly right now to have a prolonged back-and-forth discussion, but I would be happy to respond to any questions or thoughts as I am able to check-in and respond.
Looking quickly through this week's thread, I've seen lots of great weeks posted so far, which I am always happy to see...as always, Happy Running everyone.
The Evolution of My Training Principles
I ran in high school over 20 years ago. Relatively lower mileage 35-45 miles/week, mostly faster running on easy days 6:45-7:00/mi, hard intervals or races once to twice weekly, occasional tempo runs (6:00/mi pace). Was a 2:0x, 4:3x, 9:5x guy. In cross country, I typically ran 16:20s-50s depending on the course.
I stopped running completely around age 20. Ended up getting married, buying a house, having kids, etc. Didn’t run at all in my 20s. Went from 160lbs to 200lbs. Just after my 30th birthday, my younger brother had the crazy idea of running a marathon in 4 month’s time. Asked me to run it with him. I laughed at the thought as I couldn’t run a mile at that point without stopping. Told him I would try to join him for a few short training runs.
As you can guess, I ended up running the marathon on 16 weeks of very piecemeal training. 3:43:xx. Splits of 1:42/2:01. Told myself there had to be a better way. Found my local running group and started reading up on Jack Daniels. This was in 2008.
For the next 3-4 years, dabbled in a lot of different types of training. Focused a lot on trying to keep my easy day pace faster (for me, that meant 7:00-7:30 most days). I would hear about a particular workout that sounded challenging (usually completely out of the context of how it was written) and just try it. If I liked it, I would repeat it every so often.
One spring (2011?) I focused on breaking 5:00 in the mile so I did a lot of Daniels R-pace training, neglecting tempos and long runs, etc. Other years I would focus on HM training and did a lot of tempos and long runs but neglected intervals and daily mileage.
I felt like I always had decent talent (sub 3 hours) but things just never came together...honestly, because looking back, I had no idea what I was doing. I would always blow up at the end of a marathon while all the other runners in the group I trained with habitually would run 2:50-2:58 for all their marathons.
So the summer of 2011, I threw all my eggs in the basket and said I was going to break 3 hours. Following a mostly Daniels schedule, I wrote a plan based on peaking at 60 miles (which at the time for me was mega mileage) and trained like a man possessed. I always thought faster was better, just like in high school. I would run my easy days around 7:00-7:15. If a workout was written as 14 miles with 10 miles at 6:45/mi, I thought 16 miles with 12 miles at 6:35/mi was better. I could feel myself getting fitter and stronger and faster.
And then, when goal race day rolled around (Baltimore 2011), I glided through the HM around 1:27 way ahead of 3 hour pace (just like I had run in all my workouts), only to crater the second half and drag myself in to 3:07. Humble pie. Even my training partners knew I wasn’t running to my ability. So they talked me into running Philly six weeks after that. I gave it another whirl, ran more conservatively, and by the skin of my teeth finally cracked 3 hours (2:59:50).
But that only made me hungrier. I knew if I trained even harder, I could run even faster. So the winter of 2012 I couldn’t be stopped. I started running 60-70 miles every week. I was killing workouts. I was outrunning all of my training group on interval day, tempo run day, even long run day. Early in March, my rust buster 10k was 35:57. I jumped in a hilly HM two weeks later just for fun to pace a female teammate to 1:21:xx. It felt like I had been jogging. I was really gonna hammer for a few more weeks training so that I could be ready to run 58:xx at Broad Street.
And then my body said no. Multiple pelvic stress fractures from overdoing it. I was completely MIA from early April to late August that year. I was devasted. I watched one of my female training partners crack 17:00 on the track at the Penn Relays. A few other buddies all run 58:xx-59:xx at Broad Street. Another guy competed in a 24 hour race that summer comprised of as many loops of Kelly Drive that you can complete in the 24 hour period. I couldn’t even jog a loop with him.
Watching all my friends get better and set PRs as I packed on the pounds from my injury (I gained 17lbs that summer)...I promised myself I would never let that happen again.
So when I was finally cleared to run, I built it back very slowly. I ran my easy days much easier. The Hansons Marathon Method was published that fall (2012) and I immediately thought this was the plan for me. A schedule that topped out at a 16 mile long run. A progression of an interval phase, and then a tempo phase. Mileage that was modest enough not to risk re-injury, but sufficient enough that I could be ready by the Spring 2013.
My entire build and training plan is in the old RRTT training threads. Back then, I posted under the name Numbersguy.
A few “accidents” I discovered while following the Hansons Plan. Too much interval running for me leads to injury. I had to sacrifice some of the interval workouts due to the harsh winter weather or aggravated calf/soleus muscles. Slowing down daily paces helped a ton. There was actually a few different groups from our running club using the Hansons Plan that year, and I ended up pacing some of the 3:30 marathoners on their workout day which was my recovery day. I discovered that the more slowly and often I ran with them, the stronger and fresher I felt on my own workout days. Suddenly 8:00-8:30/mi became the norm. For the tempo and long run workouts, I actually stuck to the schedule and didn’t try to run them way faster than the recommended paces.
And sure enough, when race day rolled around, everything fell into place...I negative split a big PR on a slower, hillier course (Gettysburg). 2:55:57. Almost a four minute improvement on my previous PR, this after coming off a serious injury and really starting from scratch.
I used the Hansons again my fall HM that year and finally cracked 1:20. Coming off the HM PR, I focused on increasing mileage that winter, and off mostly base training and only one or two specific workouts, I surprised myself by cracking 17:00 in early February (16:53).
It was at this time that I discovered Renato Canova. There was a really in-depth article in Running Times about his principles, his philosophy, his percentage-based training and highly flexible schedules that revolved around targeting very specific workouts. So I started blending the things I really liked about Hansons with the things that intrigued me about Canova. I started routinely running more miles on my easy days, but very very easy (8:00-9:00/mi). I incorporated a lot more doubles, gave myself ample time between harder sessions, and spent a good year and half training for the fall of 2015 as my target race. I jumped in some races to practice a variety of strategies (go hard from the gun and try to hold on; sit and be patient, then blast the last ⅓ of the race; try to hold a set pace as consistently as possible; practice surging; etc.).
The summer of 2015, I was full-on Canova. By then I was posting as the Stone Cutter, and it was that philosophy that I now fully embraced (the fastest way is the deliberate way, the quiet way, the consistent way - not the kill every run kill every workout way). And in Philly that year, despite an awful weather day, I set another big PR and finally cracked 2:50 (2:49:05).
Shortly after that I lost my father unexpectedly. My marriage ended. I still ran somewhat sporadically but with no real purpose and instead I started mentoring some local runners from the group. Taking everything I learned over the years, I guided 6 different runners to a variety of PRs from the 5K-Marathon, including first-time BQs for 3 of my runners. While each runner had different strengths and weaknesses to work on, I would say one very common theme emerged...every runner dramatically slowed down the pace of his/her easy days, which allowed them to run more miles, better workouts, and safely increase their fitness. The woman who would eventually become my fiance dropped 18 minutes off her PR in one cycle - I was especially proud of that one. :)
I have tried about everything on myself over the years. I love talking training, and I love seeing how different methods of training produce certain results. Life has gotten especially busy as of late, but as I said in the beginning, I will be happy to respond to any back-and-forth dialogue as I am able...