WhatsThePorpoise wrote:
I agree, If you read my posts you would see I talk about going off feel is 2nd only to lactic testing. but the distance of that workout is important so I know what pace I did run so I have an idea of what shape I am in.
If you do a session like 10 x 400 in 65-66 seconds with a 200 jog for recovery you know absolutely that you're in shape to run 10 x 400 in 65-66 with a 200 jog. But most people want to know what sort of racing shape they're in. You'll probably figure that you're in shape to run a certain time over a particular distance based on that sort of session.
But that's frequently not the case. There are loads and loads of people who race either much better or much worse than their training times indicate they should. In 1980, when US runners still thought they could go to the Olympics, Frank Shorter announced that he was going to try to make the US team in the 10,000 and not in the marathon because injury troubles would not let him run the amount of mileage he needed to do to run a good marathon. He said he was confident he could make the team because he was confident he could run under 28 minutes which should be good enough to make the team. The reason he was confident he could run under 28 was because the track sessions he was doing were the same as he'd done in 1972 when he ran under 28 twice.
But he did not run under 28 that year. He didn't even run under 29. Racing and training are different things and you really only learn what kind of racing shape you're in is by racing.