Forums >General Running>Doing It All "Wrong"?
I have a friend who breaks all the "rules" while training for a race, yet manages to PR every time. She runs everything the same pace (fast), doesn't follow the hard/easy guidelines, and either goes for weeks without a rest day, or takes weeks off at a time. I can't think of a race in the past 2 years, at any distance,in which she hasn't set a PR. I, and most of the other runners I know, diligently follow our training plans and try to run smart, yet our PRs certainly don't fall in line as regularly.
What's the deal? Are some people just gifted runners who can get away with breaking all the rules, or are there really no rules at all?
PR's: 5k - 23:33/ 10k - 48:30/ 5 mi. - 39:21/ 13.1 - 1:53/ 26.2 recent - 4:34
Upcoming races: Resolution Run HM 1/1/13
Phoenix R&R HM 1/20/13
Was she brand new to running 2 years ago? Many people who are brand new to the sport will show improvement off of basically any kind of running. Plus there is the whole process of learning how to race--it's rare that someone without a running background is even capable of pushing themselves to a 100% max effort at first, so for a while people can string together a series of PR's just by getting closer and closer to the edge each time.
And...some people are just gifted runners.
Runners run
A Saucy Wench
Or, quite possibly, she is fairly talented and if she followed some sort of training plan she could blow her current PR's out of the water.
I have become Death, the destroyer of electronic gadgets
"When I got too tired to run anymore I just pretended I wasnt tired and kept running anyway" - dd, age 7
if she followed some sort of training plan she could blow her current PR's out of the water.
Have seen this often.
Great points everyone. She's been running for 10+ years, and usually starts to follow a plan but ends up doing her own thing. The thing that blows me away is that she does absolutely no speed work - just runs at the same pace for every run of every distance. For long and recovery runs, her pace is way too fast. For race pace, tempo, and intervals, it's way too slow.