..and it's not what you'd hoped.
I ran Detroit yesterday and I beat my HM PR by 31 seconds. That's one years worth of improvement. 31 seconds. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to have PR'd. My goal was sub 1:50 though.. and truthfully, I was hoping even sub 1:50 wasn't near my potential. So to move the needle so slightly is a bit of a letdown.
For those of you that have been in this situation already, how did you move forward in your running?
delicate flower
c0de, I don't think you have been running long enough to be anywhere near your potential. It sounds like you might need to tweak your training. Have you been doing speedwork or focusing on any particular distance?
FWIW, I've only improved my HM time by 22 seconds in the last year, and I ran five of them during the year. I've been hell bent on getting my endurance up though, and my LR and marathon performance reflect that.
<3
If all the races disappeared tomorrow I would still run because I started this for my health and fitness. That will always be there and I enjoy running. A couple things...you are basing this improvement based on one race. Maybe you had a bad day. Not every race is going to be a PR. Also, are you positive that you are optimizing your training for your goals? Something to look at and think about.
If you feel you are truly reaching your potential however, the competitive side of me knows what you are saying. I'm not sure how old you are but as I recently passed into my 50's the reality that my PR days are going to end is staring me in the fact. There are ways one can use for motivation in that case:
1. Age-graded results. I want to continue to strive for 80% plus times
2. Break down your PR's by age group as you get older.
3. Focus on being competitive in races in your age group no matter what the clock says.
4. Focus on other distances for a while - 5K, 10K, ultra?, and work hard at bettering yourself in those races.
I'll add one more thing to the mix. A friend of mine tired of beating his head against the wall trying to lower PR's and picked up swimming and biking and is now a triathlete. Just another challenge and a blank page of PR's.
c0de, I don't think you have been running long enough to be anywhere near your potential.
This is a good point. I don't know your running history but there is a line of thinking out there that you don't start to reach your potential until you have been running for 5-7 years. I've read this and based on my experience it seems to make sense.
If you haven't been running that long, keep it up and keep working at it. You will get faster.
Are we there, yet?
I doubt you are near your potential. I'm not familiar with your background, but unless you've been running for many years and logging lots of 70+ mile weeks, I don't think you've come close. You may be near your maximum performance for the training you are doing, but that's a different matter.
2024 Races:
03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles
05/11 - D3 50K 05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour
06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.
"The body is a complex system, and while the training-breakdown-supercompensation model is somewhat instructive, I think we all know and feel in training that the body tends to "snap" into shape and kinda leap from plateau to plateau instead of taking a linear progressive line. We want training to be a ladder, but it's a crazy spiral. Or, like Nobby said, a finger pointing away to the moon.
That's why, to me, the most important thing in base building is not the type of runs that you do, but the attitude that you take toward them. The very best goal you can set for yourself in base training is run with a little bit more focus. Don't just run, BUILD. What that means for each runner will be different. For some it will be about getting more focused about your schedule so you can do more running. For others it will be snapping out of the slog they've been practicing for years. For others it will be about consciously building in new types of workouts. Pick one thing you want to accomplish and build it.
The crazy thing about your body is that it really wants to be fit. Just feed it, move it, believe in it, and it will do good things for you." - Jeff
The link (and Jeff's blog in general) is a good read.
Come all you no-hopers, you jokers and roguesWe're on the road to nowhere, let's find out where it goes
Ding, ding, ding.
Short term goal: 17:59 5K
Mid term goal: 2:54:59 marathon
Long term goal: To say I've been a runner half my life. (I started running at age 45).
race obsessed
I echo the others:
Unless you have completely exhausted your training: logged elite style mile/ workouts (or what is acceptable for your body) you are no where near your potential.
Now, many of us will Never! reach it, due to life constraints, willpower and basic drive.
Unless there is a medical condition that is limiting you, you can go and be faster... how much time and effort are you willing to put forth.
Thanks all. I do already realize what you are saying. Perhaps I should have phrased my OP a little better. I had hoped I wasn't near my potential for the 40-50 mpw I am putting in. I have use Hanson's and modified Hudson's for the last 2.5 years including all the speed and other quality workouts they recommend. Running since 2010.
Fuzzy, thanks for that. I may focus on some other distances. I still believe I have a leap forward in the marathon in me. And I've been completely ignoring 5K's, which I actually enjoy quite a bit.
The answers thus far have merit and stand on their own, I just want to say that course is in no way shape or form a PR course, period. The fact that you set a course PR proves you are still ascending the fitness ladder.
Mile 3 was mostly up, the end of mile 8 was definitely up, add to that the ridiculous climb out of the Lodge and up to street level between miles 9 & 10 which was not even there last year and who knows how much time you really lost with that temporary change.
Pick a better course (read flatter) and with ideal conditions and training you will blow that thing out of the water. Rock CF and the Midland half come to mind, even R2R would be a better choice with all its vastness and nothingness for long stretches. But Detroit? NFW.
Labrat
First HM 2:23 in 2010 (fall)
A few weeks later that was dropped to 2:06.
Fall 2011 drops it to 1:56
Fall 2012 1:48
Fall 2013 1:46
Lets see what this weekend brings, after a much tougher training cycle I dropped my best ever race a few weeks ago and its predicting a 1:43. Improvements keep coming but only after putting more and more work in.
I try to focus more on speed in Spring races(Atlanta Track Club events) and build for a HM/Marathon target in the Fall (usually October/November)
Keep pushing adjusting and altering things. Doing the exact same sort of qulaity workouts leads to burnout, and more going through the motions. Mix it uo, Push your body in different ways. The results will keep coming.
5K 20:23 (Vdot 48.7) 9/9/17
10K 44:06 (Vdot 46.3) 3/11/17
HM 1:33:48 (Vdot 48.6) 11/11/17
FM 4:13:43 (Vdot 35.4) 3/4/18
Martian is plenty flat as well. And it seems like HM's are popping up in SE MI like weeds these days.
Dave
I hope that training is a spiral, because otherwise I've gotten slower this year even though I've run more miles. Sometimes shit just happens, and racing is only one small snapshot on how you were feeling on one particular day, which may or may not be indicative of your overall fitness. It's one data point in a sea of information that can be difficult to interpret.
Didn't you take some extended time off this past spring? That might affect your year-over-year improvement in that you had to spend some of your training time building back your base instead of improving on what you already have.
I ran my fastest marathon last year, when I was able to string many 80+ mile weeks together and add lots of hill work in my training. I got me good PRs in the marathon and also the HM distances. It also gave me an injury which kept me from running for two months and still is an occasional problem for me more than a year later. This year, I trained on about 65 mile weeks and did zero hill work. My best marathon in 2014 is about 2 or 3 minutes slower than my PR, due to lighter training. It's a very fine line. Train harder, run faster, risk injury. Train a bit lighter, run a few minutes slower, stay safe. For Boston 2015, I will take a chance once more and flirt with higher mileage and hill work again, because Boston is worth the risk to me. I have a pretty clear idea of what my potential is, based on what I know I can physically handle in training, at my age, with my schedule and with my physiology.
PRs: Boston Marathon, 3:27, April 15th 2013
Cornwall Half-Marathon, 1:35, April 27th 2013
18 marathons, 18 BQs since 2010
Here is the consolidated equivalence plots of my (non-Ultra) races.
2014 is going to be the first year that the average for the year is going to be lower than the previous year. This due to the very slow start due to tendonitis in my shoulder.
(Heavy bar is annual average, lighter bar is the regression line for that year)
But the high point this year is my best ever.
I hand drew in the black line just to show the progression. Its lowed after ~18 months, but has always been on the upward trend. The extra work put in this summer has boosted it further,