Cool discovery about your 2014 training and your current training plan. (#nerd FTW!) Your discussion recalled several influences:
- The importance of intentional, informed long-term planning by coaches and educators and its impact on athletes and students
- The "stress + rest = growth" paradigm emphasized by Steve Magness and Brad Stulberg in "Peak performance"
- The benefit of knowing the focus of each run (many times, it's recovery!) and each phase of a training cycle, as preached by some athletes (e.g., Deena Kastor), coaches, and training books (e.g., "Advanced marathoning")
- The encouragement to trust your plan---and, closer to race day, your prep---and not do too much on easy days and during taper. Deena Kastor says it well in her book "Let your mind run": "[F]or the first time in my life [I] felt the confidence born of preparation."
- A time to run hard, and a time to run easy, to paraphrase Ecclesiastes 3:1
Congrats on the 5k! In addition to an uptempo workout, it sounds like you also got a psychological workout in trusting your pace and your strategy. Great marathon training. Your story about the announcer and questioning life choices gave me flashbacks to a summer all-comers meet at Rice: I trailed the rest of the field in a 400 m heat by at least 50 m out of the final turn (yeah, I am so not a sprinter) and a similarly charitable announcer encouraged the spectators, "Let's give him a little clap-clap" /(>.<)\
To everything you said about the Diamond League mile: Yes.
Wow, I am so grateful that you took the time to write these reflections. I have so many thoughts (and appreciations) as a result. Top of mind are:
- I've been toying with flexibility and rigidity with planning, and the reminder that a long term plan allows you to anchor to a destination is so needed right now. I am also typing this next to a calendar that is marked up with every run I plan to do from now until November 5 (inclusive of breaks, vacations, etc) — planning is a strength.
- I have Peak Performance on my shelf, but I've been passing it up for fiction as of late. Perhaps it should be my next book.
- Deena is a queen.
- Races are such a mental boon. I definitely trust myself more to race within my limits — I know my body well.
Keep these thoughts coming. This engagement means everything to me!
Re: Flexibility and rigidity. At the risk of continuing to (mis)paraphrase the Bible, "The training plan was made for the athlete, and not the athlete for the training plan." Sounds like you have both plan and perspective!
Great start!
I enjoyed and learned from your post. Thank you!
Cool discovery about your 2014 training and your current training plan. (#nerd FTW!) Your discussion recalled several influences:
- The importance of intentional, informed long-term planning by coaches and educators and its impact on athletes and students
- The "stress + rest = growth" paradigm emphasized by Steve Magness and Brad Stulberg in "Peak performance"
- The benefit of knowing the focus of each run (many times, it's recovery!) and each phase of a training cycle, as preached by some athletes (e.g., Deena Kastor), coaches, and training books (e.g., "Advanced marathoning")
- The encouragement to trust your plan---and, closer to race day, your prep---and not do too much on easy days and during taper. Deena Kastor says it well in her book "Let your mind run": "[F]or the first time in my life [I] felt the confidence born of preparation."
- A time to run hard, and a time to run easy, to paraphrase Ecclesiastes 3:1
Congrats on the 5k! In addition to an uptempo workout, it sounds like you also got a psychological workout in trusting your pace and your strategy. Great marathon training. Your story about the announcer and questioning life choices gave me flashbacks to a summer all-comers meet at Rice: I trailed the rest of the field in a 400 m heat by at least 50 m out of the final turn (yeah, I am so not a sprinter) and a similarly charitable announcer encouraged the spectators, "Let's give him a little clap-clap" /(>.<)\
To everything you said about the Diamond League mile: Yes.
Keep at it!
Wow, I am so grateful that you took the time to write these reflections. I have so many thoughts (and appreciations) as a result. Top of mind are:
- I've been toying with flexibility and rigidity with planning, and the reminder that a long term plan allows you to anchor to a destination is so needed right now. I am also typing this next to a calendar that is marked up with every run I plan to do from now until November 5 (inclusive of breaks, vacations, etc) — planning is a strength.
- I have Peak Performance on my shelf, but I've been passing it up for fiction as of late. Perhaps it should be my next book.
- Deena is a queen.
- Races are such a mental boon. I definitely trust myself more to race within my limits — I know my body well.
Keep these thoughts coming. This engagement means everything to me!
Re: Flexibility and rigidity. At the risk of continuing to (mis)paraphrase the Bible, "The training plan was made for the athlete, and not the athlete for the training plan." Sounds like you have both plan and perspective!
💜
Impressive. Fun to learn about marathon training.