I'm a loser. (Read 1253 times)

Wow, spaniel, you are on such a different plane of reality from me! Good luck getting back up to speed, and I'll keep aiming for a 30-minute 5k! Teresa

It took me 15 years of running to get there, I was a 28min 2-miler my first season. It's really cruel how long it takes to build it up and how quickly it can erode....

Spaniel- You speak of being a 28 min 2-miler in your first season 15 years ago, were you on a track team or something? Did you get to be a 30+ min 10k'er with professional coaching? I'd love to one day be a 45 min 10k'er but if I ever get there it'll be because of my own training. As a mid-30 year old and living where I do, there aren't a lot of opportunities to be coached by someone.

The 28-min 2-miler was flat cross-country as a 7th-grader. But even after 4 years as a sophomore I was only doing high-19 5Ks, which at that age and after 4 years isn't impressive at all and wasn't even varsity on an average team. I increased my off-season volume dramatically, biked a ton, and went 17-low junior and senior years. I then walked onto a D-II collegiate team, where I didn't do anything for 2.5 years before finally progressing (due to a high volume of nordic skiing in the off season and dropping 7 lbs). I finished college as a 34:18/16:13 10K/5k guy, having never scored a point for the team. I went straight to the marathon (I wanted to do ironman triathlons, but nearly drowned in my first triathlon and didn't have money for lessons so I figured I'd perfect the marathon first). This led to a steady and dramatic increase in weekly mileage from the 30-40 mpw I did in college to peak at 50 for my first marathon (2:52), 70 for my second (2:37), 90 for my third (2:36), and 80-ish for my fourth with more intensity (2:29). At that point an Olympic Trials qualifier planted the idea in my head that I should try for the Trials. This was 2002. I contracted a former Olympian as a coach, and trained aggressively with sub-2:22 in mind. He got me on a good schedule, but the timeline was too aggressive and I blew up 2 months before my goal race. I was likely capable of 2:24-2:25 that day but went through 10 miles on pace before burning up and dropping out at 17 miles. I trained by myself for 2003 and 2004, without a lot of success. In 2005 I again obtained a coach with a national reputation with the goal of qualifying for the trials in 2006. This coaching relationship stunk, and when my body did not respond to training he made no adjustments and soon my training schedule paces were just absurd and I cut off the coaching relationship. I soon learned I was anemic, probably a lingering relic of over-training in 2002. I took a few months off and doped up on iron, and resumed training late in 2005. This time I gave up on coaches but took the good things I'd learned and trained myself. Finally over the anemia, I responded to training well and kept an aggressive schedule. While I could not run a sub-16 5k in January 2006, by March I had run a sub-1:10 HM and in April I ran the 30:57 10K with a 15:18 second half. Six straight weeks of 100+ mpw and 8 of 9 weeks 100+ led into that 10k. Unfortunately I injured my hamstring during this 10K, and could not train well for my goal marathon a month later. I felt bad from the beginning and "jogged" a 2:28, very irritating as I had a legit shot at the qualifier if I had not been injured. Self-coaching can be done as long as you understand training principles and, most importantly, can objectively analyze yourself and be honest about it. If you require external motivation, self-coaching is not for you. If you cannot analyze the results of your workouts and adjust your future plan accordingly, self-coaching is not for you. However, if you do not have a local coach I do not like internet or phone coaching. In my experience, there is a LOT that is missed when the coach isn't seeing your workouts. My experience with the Olympian was not a result of him being a bad coach, but of him not being able to see how my workouts went and recognize the signs of over-training.

This was me today...doing everything except getting out to run. Until a good friend told me to get dressed, and head out to run just ONE mile. If after one mile I was still not into it, i could quit. So, I did as instructed, and ended up running six. I find that lying to myself is immensely helpful.