Great Days..
..I have kept a training diary for 20 years on & off. More on than off.
Other than to tell me when events have taken place (e.g. the Anywhere 5km fun run) and what my time was, at first glance it seems like it has served little purpose. I mean, who wants to re-read 17 entries of “4.5 miles steady” for the month of May 2007?
There have been times when I have stopped altogether for a month or so, when mr mojo has truly deserted me. There were also those times when I tried to record my efforts in some other way (step forward, Excel spreadsheet). These didn’t last too long though, although I have recently gone back to using the excellent Fetcheveryone website training log, more out of convenience and a desire to join the unofficial training league than owt else.
The real value to me though is two-fold; firstly, stepping back from the day-to-day stuff and look at weeks/months, you get a picture of a particular ‘block’ of training; what sessions were involved, how many speed/ hill sessions, how many long runs, how many off-road etc and, with any information gathering exercise, patterns start to emerge. Not accounting for decline over the years due to age, given no injury or illness issues and if I am the same running weight, over a similar time period, the same training *should * produce the same results.
The best example of this is that I have, over a 7-year period, after 3 month’s training (Jan – Mar) of on average 45 miles per week, much of which was 5 – 7 miles run at tempo pace (in a group) with few if any specific speedwork sessions, with one long, slow run at the weekend ranging from 12 – 20 miles, peaking with 3 consecutive 20 mile runs (one or more of which was a race) I could near as guarantee a 3.20 – 3.30 marathon run anytime after that during April or May. Put your money on me, folks.
Of course, looking at the cold stats now, it’s easy to say that with a few more longer, quicker runs to replace some of the tempo sessions and also more longer runs at the weekend I would have turned the 3.20 into more like a 3.00 but given the time constraints I had I was very much on the limit, and it was a remarkably consistent set of performances.
But it’s also easy to pick out smaller blocks of useful training; from 2010/11 I know that two months’ worth of steady run + speedwork or hills + 8ish midweek + longer at weekend (av 35-40 mpw) (most of it done alone) is going to get me low-40 min 10k and a place in the Cross Country team. Whoopee! I have a recipe for (relative) success !
So am I going to carry on with it forever? Will it be like the classic outbursts of angst you see in Ron Hill’s famous diaries? Probably not..
“1st September 1973. Got up early. Seem to have a broken leg. Ran 20 miles steady in plaster. Doesn’t hurt as much as I thought it might”. (..I may be slightly misrepresenting the great man here :0) ).
No comments:
Post a Comment