Hi, guys.  6 miles tonight.

I forgot my asthma medication this morning.  Hope I don't screw up my run tonight due to that.  I need to use it as soon as I get home if I want to run with any meds.  Grrrrr.

Glad to see everybody's training is going well.

indy - I think I was responding to the wrong post because I was on my iPad.

Paula - getting the 20 done must feel good!

Rollcast- I hear ya on the whining when not running.  I've been so grouchy about missing just one run, part of me is tempted to go out and do it even though  Iknow I shouldn't "make up miles." Being injured is like that MAGNIFIED.

Docket- Asthma bad in FL these days? We got ragweed here now - blech.

Me - Feeling super guilty about missing my long run yesterday because of travel and sleep.  I'm still tired.  I don't think I should make up the miles though, especially not with me staring down this week of highest-mileage ever.   I have to make sure I'm eating right too - I recently found out I can't eat breads and wheat products because of my stomachaches. Blah.  So that definitely changed my way of race fueling.  That said, I'm not bloated anymore and I can finally see my abs/zip my pants despite not losing any weight.

hey all,

So a discussion question. Let's talk plans. Most of us are following plans pretty strictly. But we all know plans are canned, and not specifically designed for the individual. What are you guys' opinions about modifying the plans you are on. Not just to fit races in, but to get more of something or a little less of something, cutting mileage back, adding mileage on, etc.

In getting to know yourself as a runner, you are going to eventually start coaching yourself.  Canned plans cannot possibly fit every individual. Cbus, I would recommend that you read Hudson's "Run Faster".  He is more about you tailoring a program to your needs.

hey all,

So a discussion question. Let's talk plans. Most of us are following plans pretty strictly. But we all know plans are canned, and not specifically designed for the individual. What are you guys' opinions about modifying the plans you are on. Not just to fit races in, but to get more of something or a little less of something, cutting mileage back, adding mileage on, etc.

I tend to look at the plans as somewhere around a helpful suggestion.   I think adding or subtracting mileage  can work, so long as you do it intelligently and don't take away from the intention of the plan.  For example, if in the Hansons' Advanced plan, the point  is to develop cumulative fatigue, so if you wanted to take an extra rest day or to cut back some mileage, the Friday or Saturday before the LR is probably not the day to skip or cut back, but skipping one of the three easy days on the easy weekend is probably fine.  For Higdon, his plans are a variation of cumulative fatigue, but he gets there through weekend  loading (rather than faster paces like the Hansons), so with those, you wouldn't want to cut the weekend stuff back. I haven't pondered the other guys enough to know what their main emphasis is.

I add runs when I can get them in.  I like the short runs as a mental break, and they act as something of an insurance policy so that I can keep up the overall weekly mileage if something comes up later in the week that impacts my ability to run.

In general, I think that before you mess with the workouts, you need to know the specific purpose of the workout, and what your change to the workout will do.  As part of this consideration, know how you individually respond to workouts.  For example, if have 400 repeats at mile pace, but know you run the risk of breaking down with intense speedwork, then a modification is to drop the pace to 5K or 10K pace so that you can complete the workout with less injury risk.  The main purpose of the workout would be VO2 max improvement; the modification would still get you some improvement, but not as much as the original workout.

But that being said, I also tend to think that you can replace certain types of workouts with others given what you respond better to  (replacing shorter intervals with longer intervals; adding goal pace segments to longer runs, etc.).  But the caveat to this is that you do need to spend some time working on weaknesses to improve overall, so don't ditch a certain type of workout entirely. The flip side of this is not to neglect your strengths if you are adding more of a certain type of workout to address a weakness.  But keep in mind a general guideline of no two hard days in a row, and max three quality days per week.

This is great stuff, Flinders--thanks!

 

I tend to look at the plans as somewhere around a helpful suggestion.   I think adding or subtracting mileage  can work, so long as you do it intelligently and don't take away from the intention of the plan.  For example, if in the Hansons' Advanced plan, the point  is to develop cumulative fatigue, so if you wanted to take an extra rest day or to cut back some mileage, the Friday or Saturday before the LR is probably not the day to skip or cut back, but skipping one of the three easy days on the easy weekend is probably fine.  For Higdon, his plans are a variation of cumulative fatigue, but he gets there through weekend  loading (rather than faster paces like the Hansons), so with those, you wouldn't want to cut the weekend stuff back. I haven't pondered the other guys enough to know what their main emphasis is.

 

I add runs when I can get them in.  I like the short runs as a mental break, and they act as something of an insurance policy so that I can keep up the overall weekly mileage if something comes up later in the week that impacts my ability to run.

 

In general, I think that before you mess with the workouts, you need to know the specific purpose of the workout, and what your change to the workout will do.  As part of this consideration, know how you individually respond to workouts.  For example, if have 400 repeats at mile pace, but know you run the risk of breaking down with intense speedwork, then a modification is to drop the pace to 5K or 10K pace so that you can complete the workout with less injury risk.  The main purpose of the workout would be VO2 max improvement; the modification would still get you some improvement, but not as much as the original workout.

 

But that being said, I also tend to think that you can replace certain types of workouts with others given what you respond better to  (replacing shorter intervals with longer intervals; adding goal pace segments to longer runs, etc.).  But the caveat to this is that you do need to spend some time working on weaknesses to improve overall, so don't ditch a certain type of workout entirely. The flip side of this is not to neglect your strengths if you are adding more of a certain type of workout to address a weakness.  But keep in mind a general guideline of no two hard days in a row, and max three quality days per week.

DTF - that's my game plan as well. Weird dream, I used to dream that I couldn't use my armI. In any situation, running, boxing, eating etc.

This is great stuff, Flinders--thanks!

 

That's what I said but longer. Soooo, I agree.