54321 wrote:
If the opportunity presents itself to do the same workouts with guys who are enemies on race-day, is it better to take a pass? I know that running with fast people will make you fast and will even make the workouts more doable. but something tells me that you can lose that "edge" when showing all your cards in training. Thoughts?
Sebastian Coe once said: "The great thing about athletics is that it’s like poker, sometimes you know what’s in your hand and it may be a load of rubbish, but you’ve got to keep up the front."
What Coe says, I believe, is spurred by the times in a workout when we may feel like we have crap to play with, nothing to give. That is inevitable. It is not possible to feel "on top" every time. But we still have to get the job done, don't we?
So because of this, what is also inevitable is that in spite of our limits being tested (with or without the push that "fast people" offer in workouts), one has to learn how to keep a poker-face, how to take the beating and yet tell nothing incriminating about one's suffering at the point of time. If training is about replicating the process of winning, how better than to do it with the same guys you will be facing on race day and learning how to play poker with them just like in a race?
Those familiar with Lance Armstrong will know that he, at his peak, speaks of putting up a straight face in spite of the pain he feels when he overtakes his rivals. This, again, is reflective of the inevitable pain an athletes goes through in the process of pushing the limits and the necessity to learn to cope with that inevitability.
What I have talked about so far, to paraphrase, is that the concern with "showing [one's] cards" is actually the concern with showing weakness(es) to one's rivals. And my challenge to that thought is to be focused instead on honing one's ability to mask the weakness(es), because who amongst us doesn't has any? Moreover, you have recognised that training with "fast people will make [one] fast and [...] the workouts more doable," so it is really about your aim as well. If an athletes simply aims to go faster and have someone to pull him/her along during a workout, this decision may seem easier. But of course, I believe you have voiced a concern with a lesser chance of winning because of training with a rival. To that, well, you may want to ask: "Does training with a rival indeed lessen my chance of winning and why?" But that is question for another thread. Haha.
Hope this contributes to the conversation. Cheers! ; )