He went on to say that running against time, rather than running the race will confuse the mind. Is this right?
He went on to say that running against time, rather than running the race will confuse the mind. Is this right?
You should probably listen to your coach. Focusing too much on running a particular time holds back lots of runners. You need to relax and just run the race.
Listen to your coach ... if you do well then you have your answer.
Best of luck
Well, in general you should listen to your coach, but I'm not sure I personally agree with him. In my opinion, there is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to go after a particular time, as long as you're not making unreasonable time goals. I am sure you probably know that many runners respond differently to different types of training and racing, and many runners (myself included) are perfectly fine going for a particular time. I do not get confused at all by "running against time". Sure, one can argue that you're not truly racing if you're not paying any attention to your competition - but I think you can just use your common sense. You should certainly try to compete against other runners, but you can do that in the context of chasing a certain time. You can gauge how you are doing timewise, see how you feel, and determine whether or not to go after someone or not.
In any case, if you think your coach is leading you well in your training, you'll probably be fine with however he tells you to race, but I just want to throw it out there that there's nothing wrong with shooting for a reasonable but challenging time. You just have to be flexible for what actually happens in a race.
That's like the old saying "slow and steady wins the race". I have never seen a race where slow wins yet I have heard that saying a thousand times in my life.
Watches run times, athletes run races.--Nietzsche
A quick anecdote to illustrate your coach's point:
A couple years ago we had on our team a top-notch miler. She won our (very competitive) county meet her freshman, sophomore, and junior years. Nobody had ever won all four years in the history of the county. Her senior year, she decided she wanted to go set the county record in the final. She set a strong early pace, but lurking not far behind her was another very good miler (who had not been a threat the previous year). Long story short, she faded slightly at the end, and the other girl passed her with a big kick, setting the county record instead en route to the win.
Focus on competing and the times will come naturally.
Another example: a steeplechaser on our team told coaches and teammates, "I don't wanna hear any times, I just want to race."
Result: 14sec PR and a totally unlooked-for third place that helped spark the squad to a team win, after some disastrous earlier events.
Kid on my team couldn't find his watch so he ran without it, 6 second PR and qualified for states in the mile. Personally I like to focus on the race and then the time comes with the race I hate racing with a watch and normally bomb if I do.
I know from experience that what your coach is saying is 100% true
All of my PRs are from races where I raced to win. Your coach is wise
But if you don't know your time how will you calculate your VO2 max, lactate threshold, and running economy? What's he going to say next, don't race with a heart rate monitor either?
"If there is no such thing as time, you're already there, and you're controlling this cycle … so the Sumerian tablets, they say the same thing like Genesis said, that there was chariots of fire that came into the sky … They walked like a man but had reptilian features."
Is your coach into Bright Eyes and/or Refried Ice Cream?