I haven't found any thread that addresses this topic. This thread is about all those general training plans out there that you can buy for a specific distance/race.
I apologize in advance for grammatical mistakes since English is not my native language.
Problem nr 1:
These plans lack individuality. Usually, you can choose between three levels, beginner, intermediate or advanced. In best case they tell you something like ...in order to select/follow this plan you should be able to run a 5k in xx:xx minutes. Also they tend to be completely based on the goal such as run a marathon sub 3,5 h. These plans don't take the current fitness level into account. Two people can follow the same plan but still achieve different results.
This means that these plans will be difficult to follow, both for beginners who might not handle the pace or mpw but still want to pursue for the time goal of the plan (sub 3,5 h) and for the more experienced runners who already run a faster pace, and/or more mpw in their training but still regard the "goal pace" as reasonable goal.
Problem nr 2:
It will also be difficult for those who don't want (or lack leisure) to put all effort into the plan regarding the mpw and/or number of workouts but still have the potential to achieve the goal time.
Problem nr 3:
The plans have no follow-up regarding a person's development or adaptation to external or unpredicted events (diseases, family, etc.) that affect the person's training.
There are no instructions what to do when you miss parts of the plan due to the above mentioned because the training approach is not based on the current situation.
What do you guys think?
1. Do you agree or disagree on the problems mentioned here?
2. Have you ever completed an entire "general" training plan?
If yes, which one how did you experience it?
If no, why not?
3. Do you believe that it's possible to create individually tailored plans according to individual variables/parameters such as age, weight, current PBs etc, desired mpw, how much a person has trained earlier, etc.?
I saw a similar prototype on the German Runner's World site
http://www.runnersworld.de/laeufercoach
but I'm sure that intelligent programmers would be able to create algorhythms to creat even more customizable plans.
After maybe four weeks of the plan you do a test race and depending on time, you enter the new values and adjust the upcoming training based on the current level.
Feel free to discuss.