What was the most important thing you did in training before a big breakthrough?

Patches wrote:

Hmmm 10x800 in 2:03-2:06 shadowing a 4:10 miler... I might have to call bullshit on the guy being a 4:10 miler ... I'm was a 4:10 +/- kinda guy last spring and there is no way in hell I could do that workout...

5 miles at faster than mile pace with 2-3 minutes (400jog?)

If this was true however there's not reason why you two should not have been in sub 4 shape...

+1 I've gone sub 4 a couple times (barely!) and even I would struggle and possibly not be able to do this workout....

After college I had a big breakthrough when I started running shorter but much higher intensity VO2 max workouts - based on some of the old Oregon system. This was after years of mileage. I surmize that Ritz had the same experience when he ran some big PRs after joining Salazar.

Several years later I had several poor marathon attempts. I finally had a big breakthrough when I added a weekly long run of 20+ that progressed to near marathon pace. Took 8min off my previous marathon best.

Run consistently higher mileage in the "off season". Like June/July/August and December/January/February.

Went from a 5:00 miler as a freshmen to a 4:36 miler as a sophmore in high school when I trained 30-40 mpw one winter instead of playing basketball.

runfastpleasenowsir wrote:

Went from a 5:00 miler as a freshmen to a 4:36 miler as a sophmore in high school when I trained 30-40 mpw one winter instead of playing basketball.

That probably had more to do with physically maturing than the 30-40 mpw, though the running certainly helped.

I see these are all over the board showing that there are many ways to skin a cat.

For me, I trained over my head. First a HS teammate who was far better than me, then college teammates who were as well. I had some near PR's in practices, and run-after-run of tough threshold runs almost daily. By my sophomore year I advanced to pretty good times. I may have hit it sooner with earlier rest, but I think the callousing had an effect.

pablo wrote:

I'm noticing a trend here...

The most important thing for me was to SLOW DOWN my easy runs. I went from always running 6:40 pace for my easy runs to now running anywhere from 7:10-7:40 pace for easy runs.

Everything else is a direct result from that: injury-free, consisentcy, faster workouts/long runs, etc. I also paid more attention to sleep, but the most important thing was slowing down my regular runs.

I went from a 1:13:55 half marathon in 2009 to a 1:09:28 this year....and a 2:34:51 to a 2:31:05 marathon. I've got another marathon in 10 days and hoping for somewhere around 2:28.

I agree with this. I ran sub 7 in college because it's what everyone on my team did. I got a lot better as a post-grad doing a ton more mileage but with some of it anywhere from 7:15-8:30pace now along with long 4-5mile tempos. It's tough though because there are a lot of competitive coaches who believe anything slower than 7flat shouldn't be counted/allowed. there are d1 programs out there where coaches insist on 6:10-6:25/mi. now dont get me wrong maybe at these programs the kids are in good enough shape to run that all the time but often i see at these programs injured kids trying to get back into shape and they attempt these rather fast easy paces right away so they cant be consistent with training

P90X

id have to say i was more consistent. i made sure no matter what i got my run in even if it was late at night, even if i only went for a 3 mile shake down with strides. being more consistent obviously led to higher mileage, loss of weight etc but basically consistency.

cxcr wrote:

that exact thing is happening to me right now. I missed a month of training all together, now after 4 weeks, all my runs back home from college has been 10-20 seconds faster per mile on average

I suspect this sort of thing is pure mental - we get so angry and anxious when injured that when we come back we are more aggressive and try harder.

An enforced 1 or 2 week training ban every year probably gets some of the same affect.

I am in the middle of a voluntary 10 day running ban - can't wait to get started up again.

Tied my shoes.

Increased Volume over a long period of time, lost weight, better eating habits. More miles takes care of 90% of any problem most American runners are having.

Did you change anything else to drop the 4 mins in the 1/2?

I did a lot better the couple of years after college because I could move workouts around in the week based on my recovery, and ran all intervals (mile repeats etc.) all by myself.

Good art wrote:

What was the most important thing you did in training before a big breakthrough?

Simply relaxed, listened to my body, did my work and let things come to me and believed in myself.

Simply relaxed, listened to my body, did my work and let things come to me and believed in myself./Quote

Very similar to my approach, but I think that I´m putting myself more under pressure in order to achieve (faster) results

Sometimes I think I´m not running for pure fun anymore, but rather to prove myself who I am...that´s the philosophy

Left my high school coach.

Got advice on Letsrun from resident experts

Did 10 weeks of 100 miles in singles, then sucked in cross. Right after cross I backed down to 70-80's in doubles and hit the weightroom pretty hard on upper body for 8 weeks before indoor. Dropped my 3k from 8:56 to 8:26 and my 5k from 15:31 to 14:45.

Key factors for me:

1)Listening to my body, which resulted in adjusting the speed of my runs to an effective / appropriate level;

2)Avoiding illness - I had a history of getting in good shape / condition and then getting sick and losing all the momentum I had gained;

3) Consistency - Missing only one day of running in a year;

4) Avoiding superhero workouts;

5) Running on hills every third day.

Good luck with your own running!

Tinman