I can't really handle Canova. Mostly I can never see putting in the time to really comprehend his posts when I am so far from being at the level to benefit from it. There's no ROI there.

But I did like this part:

Top Champions : WHY ARE THEY TOP CHAMPIONS ? There are many reason, but one is that they HAVE SPECIFIC ATTITUDES VERY DIFFERENT FROM THE RANGE OF NORMAL PEOPLE. Not only, but having more attitude, they can look for more important results, so their training is more professional, there is more volume and more intensity, they can dedicate a period of their life full time to their training, and this means THE BASIC GAP BETWEEN THEM AND NORMAL PEOPLE BECOMES BIGGER EVERY DAY.

I take it as it consumes them - It is the most important thing in their lives.  They put family aside and anything that would get in the way of ideal training.  Not that they do not spend time with family - But it is when it fits into their training.  They eat what is ideal to eat.  They drink what is ideal to drink (Not alcohol).  They do all the core and drills necissary.  Things we maybe do for days or weeks or sometimes even months - But not years on end.

It's been a while since anyone posted here.  Anyway, I'm unhappy to say that I have learned first hand the lessons of "over training" (under recovery).  3 weeks after my goal marathon where I pulled off a ho hum time, even though I should have been in the best shape of my life, I am feeling better and enjoying running more than I have in months.  

I should have realized I wasn't recovering well due to the constant fatigue, poor workouts, and weak races. but I just kept chalking it up to a bad day, just wasn't working hard enough, or being a wimp.  Now I gotta take this and figure out how to train smarter and maybe a little harder 

This past season has been gratifying for me in that it confirms that a lot of what I thought I knew about running actually works. In the time between Baystate in 2010 and this past spring, I had gotten pretty out of shape. I was a couple pounds heavy, everything hurt and I was feeling my age. I decided if I didn't do something now, I would get so far gone I'd never be able to get all the way back.

I set my "pie in the sky" goals as sub 1:20 for the HM and sub 17 for 5k for this fall. I wasn't sure those were all that realistic just because in addition to my body really responding well to training, a lot would have to go right, but I figured if I tried and came in at under 1:21 and under 17:15 that I would consider myself "all the way back" since each would rank in my top 5 lifetime performances at those distances--and both are distances I've raced a lot so they are statistically valid. I ran a couple of 5k's in June just to get a sense of how big the task really was. I found out I was an 18-minute 5k-er. Yikes.

I had to take into account a lot of things outside of running--my job, my kid's schedules, family vacations--and be realistic about what I could commit to for training. I decided to keep it simple and break it down into manageable pieces. The basic elements were:

1. Become at least a 60 mile per week / 250 mile per month runner.  I took June and July to try an adjust to that without emphasizing workouts, but still doing "something" for a workout

2. Maintain the mileage above and begin to emphasize the hard/easy paradigm. Plan was, beginning in August, to do everything possible to maintain the weekly pattern of workouts on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and long runs or races on the weekends. For my easy days (Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat) just jog 7 miles. I was a little behind schedule on this because my family vacation kind of got in the way, but by September I was finally locked in. The goal was not to make any one workout too big, but to be relentless in never giving my legs more than a day or two of easy running before hitting them again with a workout--just piling on the recovery stimulus. I knew I would never feel great during this period, but I should never feel awful either.

3. Race as often as possible at 5k - 13.1mi over a 6-8 week period, beginning in September. This is really just an extension of #2 with races becoming harder, more specific workouts. The idea was to race weekly if possible and keep the Tuesday/Thursday workouts. Think of this as a mini peaking phase.

4. The last 2 weeks of October, drop or back way off on the Tues/Thurs workouts to actually allow my legs to fully recover between efforts for the first time in 6 weeks, drop the hammer at Baystate (goal race and peaking workout all rolled into one), then take a full easy week and go for it at the Great Bay 5k.

Jackpot.

Now that I'm back to where I wanted to be, I have options. I may try my luck at another 5k next weekend before the minor setback that will be Monkey. But then I'm trying to decide what to do after that. After the holidays I may do a very short winter session and try and run a decent indoor mile before recovering then doing something similar to the above for spring. We'll see. The bottom line though is I'm back and I feel like I have always known how to do this. This sport becomes a lot easier when you don't have to worry about marathons!

I'm thinking sub 1:20 1:19 at New Bedford and sub 17 at some 5k in April if my allergies don't blow up too bad.

I've been a huge fan of Canova ever since I first heard of him about a year and a half ago. I've read and c&ped and saved every post I can find of his. I think it's so interesting and insightful to see not just what he does with such elite athletes in regards to their training, but how he goes on and really explains every thing in a very in-depth manner. 

His focus on specificity and the continuity of progression early on and over large macro-cycles is very interesting, as well as the individual focus and how much he apparently changes his athletes' schedules (think he said he'll change like 50% of it by the time an athlete completes the schedule). His comments on coaches adapting methods to the athletes instead of exercise scientists trying to adapt the athletes to the methods and all sounded enlightening.

And just the sheer workload that his athletes can handle is mind-boggling.  And I love how Canova continually reiterates that amateur athletes should focus more on how they got to the level to handle those than the actual workouts themselves.

And I also first heard of the concept of circuit training and hill sprints from his posts, too. They sound awesome. Would love to try some circuit-type training some day.

I'm looking forward to contributing to this thread over the next 15 weeks or so, probably.

Deal, Willie, as long as I can come to you for advice also. You've trained and raced a level I can only dream.

So youre telling me that 65 miles per week just doesnt cut it?

.......

If Lagat does finish in under 61 minutes, he would join only three other American men who have done so: U.S record-holder Ryan Hall (59:43), Dathan Ritzenhein (1:00:00 and 1:00:57), and Mark Curp (1:00:55).

On Monday, less than 24 hours after breaking the U.S. indoor record for two miles as the Millrose Games, the 38-year-old Lagat went for a 14-mile run in Central Park.  His weekly mileage, which throughout his career has topped out at around 65 miles, will reach 80 as he prepares to tackle the half marathon.

The mileage is going up, he said, but not all of the intensity is going down.

“We always want to make sure we maintain the speed at the end [of a race],” said Lagat, long known for his closing kick. “I do the eight-mile tempo runs now at the same intensity as my five-mile tempo runs. The way I can handle the longer stuff now in training, it feels like I made the right decision” to step up to 13.1 miles.

“When you think about it, I’ve been holding back for a long time, so I am basically getting to where I should have been maybe in real life four years ago.”