Spontaneity (Read 808 times)

I am in the middle of training for a marathon as well, just starting to feel the same way. So, I've decided to start concentrating on it day by day and not look at the big picture. Just wanted you to know you are not alone!

No I agree, I need a plan to follow (mostly for the easy days) or I tend to go out and run too hard or too far every day (for my body). BUT there is something lost when you feel you can't just go out and do what you feel like for the day because you are following something. Guess I have to keep reminding myself of long term goal. Enter marathon, run marathon, and finish without dying or hitting the wall!

After the first one, I think that is the approach I'll take. The first time, one has to be guided...

I think the approaches we take are similar. I don't run on a schedule, I don't wear a watch while I run (and I often don't take note of when I leave), I don't decide how far or fast I'm going to run until I'm a ways into the run. I have (somewhat nebulous) goals that seem to pan out.

To some extent, yes. I've never trained by a strict schedule since the first 6 months I ran. My first few years were largely just building time on legs, trying to avoid injury, learning how my body reacts to various stresses (like various sizes and steepnesses of hills), etc. Exploration runs are sometimes an important part of my running. And most long runs usually have some foto fartleks in them. Since I run trails 99% of the time and have been building toward "running / hiking for many hours through the woods and above treeline" (some call this "ultra" for short) and run year round in Alaska, no standard running schedule could even approach providing adequate training. I'll generally have races I want to do and count back from there as to loose goals (total volume, long run length, long run up/down) that I need to achieve by then. This general outline provides some guidelines to keep me on track. If I'm 6 months out from a race, I allow a lot of slack in goal achieving - I've learned not to fight Ma Nature in Alaska winter. But as I get within a few months then a few weeks, I stick closer to what I think I need, being careful not to overdo something. If doing 38 mi by trail with no road intersections, that's a great motivator to get one's butt in gear and build adequate base to support that. As I've gotten more base this year, this is probably the first year that some of what I do seems more like "training" than just "running". (Looking forward to my race in August so I can do more "just running" for a bit.) For my goals, I've found certain trails work better than others. That combined with cost of gas and some other stuff has had me mostly rotating among 3 trails I drive to plus a couple out-my-door trails this year. In past years, but after I retired, I might use 10 trails. When I want to do any easy run without being tempted to go faster, I'll explore new trails - maybe fartleking as the trail varies from easy to follow to "where did the trail go". Enjoy running from the heart!