speedorracing wrote:
Which works best? In honesty, I prefer just doing races to doing intervals, hill repeats etc. etc. This week I have the opportunity to race a local 5K. I've been racing quite a lot lately, though, and maybe I should do this hill session I have planned instead. The 5K sounds more fun, though. What do you think? (For various reasons I can't fit both the hill session and the 5K into the remainder of this week).
I think one of the things that does not get discussed enough in training results is personal enjoyment with the training and believing in ones training. If you like racing yourself into shape, and you believe this is the best way to go, then I honestly think there is a better chance of this working out for you than an amazing 5k (or whatever distance) plan with all the different paces and energy systems mixed in.
But you also might find a personal sweet spot. Maybe it's racing 3 times a month. Maybe it's racing once every 3 weeks and then you can do other workouts on the non-race weeks. Have fun. Experiment.