I have seen this with myself and other runners. It started back in high school when we did the 2 mile. I ran a crummy time one week, then just 2 weeks later i dropped 40 seconds. I've seen it with others too, and in college over 5ks, 10ks, the time dropping was even higher. Why is this? Over 1-3 weeks you can't have gained THAT much fitness could you?
bump
It may have something to do with the first race so close to when you first started doing hard workouts. Takes a few weeks for these to make impact on fitness.
This has happened to me on numerous occasions, and I have seen it happen to others. At least for me (I can't really speak for why it happens to other people) I think the reason is mainly mental. It's like I have to learn how to run a race, or even if I haven't run a distance in a while I'll have to relearn. I go out to run the distance for the first time ever, or even just the first time that season, and in the middle of the race I'll be hurting really bad and I'll think that if I go any faster I'll certainly blow up and run a crap race. Then, at the end of the race I'll have a suspiciously large amount of energy left and know that I didn't give it everything that I had. This typically happens for one or two races, maybe more. Then, I go a little bit harder, until finally I get to the point where I have the knowledge/experience and confidence that I can go totally balls out and I run a big PR!
I definitely need to run several races at a given distance before I can go anything even close to my actual physical potential. To give an example, in my freshman year of high school, I ran like two two-mile races indoors. I ran like 10:4x and I think that I didn't even duck under eleven in the others. Then in outdoor I ran a couple of 10:2x. In my state you had to run under 10:20 to qualify for the regional championships. I honestly thought that I would never qualify. Then I had a good race at a dual meet and ran 10:08, and a week later I ran 9:58.
That > > > >quote]Pedro from NC wrote:
This has happened to me on numerous occasions, and I have seen it happen to others. At least for me (I can't really speak for why it happens to other people) I think the reason is mainly mental. It's like I have to learn how to run a race, or even if I haven't run a distance in a while I'll have to relearn. I go out to run the distance for the first time ever, or even just the first time that season, and in the middle of the race I'll be hurting really bad and I'll think that if I go any faster I'll certainly blow up and run a crap race. Then, at the end of the race I'll have a suspiciously large amount of energy left and know that I didn't give it everything that I had. This typically happens for one or two races, maybe more. Then, I go a little bit harder, until finally I get to the point where I have the knowledge/experience and confidence that I can go totally balls out and I run a big PR!
I definitely need to run several races at a given distance before I can go anything even close to my actual physical potential. To give an example, in my freshman year of high school, I ran like two two-mile races indoors. I ran like 10:4x and I think that I didn't even duck under eleven in the others. Then in outdoor I ran a couple of 10:2x. In my state you had to run under 10:20 to qualify for the regional championships. I honestly thought that I would never qualify. Then I had a good race at a dual meet and ran 10:08, and a week later I ran 9:58.[/quote]
Well stated Pedro. I would add that the first time is a baseline goal that you are determined to beat.
So if you want to race fast within 3 weeks, you have to race about once a week?
why is this? wrote:
So if you want to race fast within 3 weeks, you have to race about once a week?
I don't know; everyone is different. Chris Solinsky ran pretty fabulous his first time out in the 10k; on the other hand both Geb and Tergat took a long while to achieve their full potential in the marathon. You, or anyone else, may do extremely well in their first race ever/of the season at a distance, but some won't. Just don't get down if you don't run what you want to your first time out - they call them "rust busters" for a reason.
Don't forget that each race also has some training effect that you may not get doing a workout on your own. You can also better judge the effort you need to put in to run your best time and pace yourself properly.
There can also be CNS adaptations from doing an all-out effort, much the same way you can rapidly increase your bench press just by lifting a few times.
To stir the pot a little, I've experienced a lot of runners having difficulty matching their first 800 time for a few outings. It's almost as if they run that first 800 on adrenaline and then have to learn how to run the 800 effectively without that same load of adrenaline. I would agree, though, that in longer races you often do see a big drop from first to second race.
It's called a rust buster. Do a couple of those and the rust falls off and you come out a shiny new machine. To me it feels like a muscular thing. You may have the aerobic fitness in that first race but the rest of your body isn't used to that all out effort yet.
I've seen this before. My PR from a previous season was 16:20 in the 5k. 4 weeks before my peak race I ran an 17:30 5k (after a big base) and was completely dejected. I could not believe it after all the work I put in. But, 4 weeks later I ran a 15:30! And that 17:30 felt like it was a race effort and pretty hard.
How does that happen?!