I've been wondering whether there is something you can read that would generally work best to train by, or whether multiple different popularly released methods (Jack Daniels, Lydiard, etc) work well for different people.
Is it just that you have to try all different kinds of plans, or is there a general recommendation, like speedier people do XXX or more aerobic people do YYY?
Or is it really just to figure it out on your own, get experience the hard way and experiment on your own to find out what works for you.
Things I've read and considered and trained by:
5-pace training by Mark Tosques (worked reasonably well in high school to pick workouts and then insert random easy days and races in the middle when our coach was poor, but trying to get better now - I got obsessed with running 6x800m at goal 3200m pace in my senior year though and it burnt me out too just like Self Coached Runner - was able to average 2:24s but PR was only 9:50 in the final race again lol)
The Self Coached Runner (Al Lawrence, following the training in this plan to the letter burnt me out with the crazy back to back workouts but I was doing stuff I didn't think was possible in training, averaging 5x800 in 2:20 day after 10 miles @ 6:00 and a few days after 3x1600 in sub 5:00 - but I hit the wall following the plan before getting to race and never performed - did a sucky 9:50 3200m time trial with huge positive split - so not for me).
I've recently read Jack Daniels' Running Formula, Mark Coogan - similar methodologies, and plan on starting them (mostly Daniels with some Coogan hill workouts) next season. Sounds like it would fit me better than gutting myself in workouts and working on volume and quality at length rather than flooding myself with lactic reps.
But I've noticed Daniels seems to lack sprint training like hills and speed stuff, although maybe running a lot at Rep pace is enough. And also lacks pace specific training (though his ideology is that it's not necessary and more efficient to do other paces) and I sometimes feel like it lacks volume at I or T pace? Dunno, need to go through it first to feel it out.
So anyway, any other plans or training methodologies I should look into? I'm interested in learning to create flexible plans to improve and not just gut myself and overtrain for no results, which I do a lil too often. (I like to think I'm very mentally strong and it shows in the work ethic and loving to study the methodology and overperforming in workouts but it leads to overthinking/doing the wrong thing if I studied wrong and then having a gassed tank often come race days).