Coach wants me to intentionally go out too fast and blow up...good idea?

sometimes courses narrow and you get stuck behind a lot of guys for a long way, so in a xc race you have to understand the course before you try even splits. if it's an open course, then run the even splits in the first mile and try to hang on. many people have had dramatic breakthroughs with this strategy and even if it doesn't work and you jog it in, you will be practicing for future races and it will help. it doesn't cost you anything. but do not dnf because you are tired.

7/10.

Any true poster knows this is a sit and kick only site.

citius5000 wrote:

Even the splits your giving to run a time you think yyour capable of are bad. If your going out in 5:40 and then slowing to 6:00 then to 6:20 your going out to hard as it is. Slow down! When i speak with my athlete who had an avg pace of 5:40/mi if their hitting the first mile in 5:30 i don't see this as a problem depending on the course. But if your going out 15 to 20 to 30 sec faster the first mile then your avg pace should be for the race this is a problem. You should get the the mile mark as comfortably as possible and feel like you can take off if needed. The race shouldnt be a death march 400m into the race.

I'll admit that the splits requested don't seem to fit his capabilities.

But this particular exercise is to not feel comfortable at the mile mark.

And it is specifically about pushing through to the two mile mark.

Sometimes people have a slow second mile because they are thinking about that third mile.

Put the last mile out of your mind and hit the target for the second mile.

Doesn't matter if you jog it in the last mile if it's just a training exercise.

I did something like this when training for the 1500.

My third lap was always slow. So I ran a race where I focused on the third lap and made the 1200 mark my goal. The last 300 was crap but it was a nice breakthrough for me.

After that I handled the third lap and the finish well in most races.

Ok, 98.44% replaced.

In case anyone cares to come back and read this thread again, I ended up running 18:57 splitting 5:55/12:05. I felt tired before the start (had been awake 12 hours and standing in the heat for like 4), and as soon as the gun went off I was feeling weak. I pretty much threw the whole suicide pace thing out the window and realized that I was going to have to split it more evenly.

I'm coming off about a month and a half of 10-20 mile weeks due to a knee injury, and I'm a bit out of shape to say the least. The heat, humidity, and fatigue also didn't help. That being said, it was one of those "mehhhhh" races (kinda like watching Centro run, lol), and this kind of performance won't get me far in the postseason. Next week is my league championships, and the week after that is regionals, so I'll have to try my best to get my sh1t together by then.

I can't stand when novice athletes come on here and question their much more experienced coaches.

Please show a little humility and respect someone with much more life experience than you.

He is giving you the same advice I have given to multiple footlocker finalists. I have given this same advice to classic underachievers who I want to challenge. In doing so, they usually have a light bulb go off.

Go get after it!

I do this it works great!

Next time drop the negative energy thing and just do what the coach requests. Learning what you limits are and how much further you can push yourself tha you think would have been a great lesson for you.

Your comment about fearing DNF explains why the coach wanted you to confront your fears of crashing that are preventing you from reaching your potential.

Let go of them and run fearlessly and surprise yourself.

So, you didn't listen to your coach, had a less than mediocre (read crappy) result and now you are making excuses? I predict you are a complete non-factor at your league championships and regionals and will be at least 50 before you "get your sh1t together", as you put it.

you're really a whiner aren't you?

Another good post.

OP seems to have difficulty taking something in with which they don't agree.

OP needs to go hard as described very well upthread and forget all his usual nonsense. That is probably very hard to do for OP, but what needs doing.

On a related note, I am running my fall goal HM this weekend. I had a great summer base (90mpw), but got injured after a tuneup race three weeks ago. I've had to take time off and nurse myself back to some modicum of health. Mentally, I am down in the ditch after a previous post-injury tune-up, where I was 2min slower than pre-injury. I felt I could have done better and it was a miserable feeling.

My plan this weekend, is to go out HARD and try to hold it together. If I die, so be it.

That might be a little bit different situation...

tracknoob wrote:

I ended up running 18:57 splitting 5:55/12:05.

Did you walk the last 0.1?

There was a study done (admittedly a small sample size of maybe one team) recently where they showed that going out fast in XC for the first mile typically leads to better times. If you can maintain a 6:00 pace, then you can certainly start at 5:50 without much detriment to your performance. I agree that 5:40 is a little more extreme, but go for it. I'd much rather have the coach that is willing to try new things and listen to my feedback than one that doesn't seem interested in my personal progress. Right now you clearly think that he doesn't understand your fitness and racing ability. That might be true. This is a good way for you two to find out.

YouGotWhatYouDeserved wrote:

So, you didn't listen to your coach, had a less than mediocre (read crappy) result and now you are making excuses? I predict you are a complete non-factor at your league championships and regionals and will be at least 50 before you "get your sh1t together", as you put it.

Thank you for that extremely helpful post, that was a really great addition to this thread.

I let my fatigue and lack of experience bring my time up, and I realize that I could have done better if I hadn't done that. Posting some callous rant isn't going to do anything beyond making you feel better about yourself for attacking some HS kid.

OK HS kid. What's your plan now? What did you learn from your run to make you better?

tracknoob wrote:

YouGotWhatYouDeserved wrote:

So, you didn't listen to your coach, had a less than mediocre (read crappy) result and now you are making excuses? I predict you are a complete non-factor at your league championships and regionals and will be at least 50 before you "get your sh1t together", as you put it.

Thank you for that extremely helpful post, that was a really great addition to this thread.

I let my fatigue and lack of experience bring my time up, and I realize that I could have done better if I hadn't done that. Posting some callous rant isn't going to do anything beyond making you feel better about yourself for attacking some HS kid.

ApplesAndOranges wrote:

That might be a little bit different situation...

How so?

you're coach is a stupid twit

you need to go out in such a way that you make other kids blow up

good luck, dimwit!