Training Fails #1

I once again find myself in the “worst shape” of my life.  That is kind of a telling statement…”worst shape”.  Since I say it all the time I must be in a constant state of deterioration.  Every time I make a little improvement and then get derailed I end up farther back than where I initially started.  Maybe if I stop starting over, I can at least stay in a reasonable state of fitness.  Over the next few days, I am going to analyze why my training gets derailed so often and what I can do about it for the future.

1.  Starting a plan with an unrealistic view of current fitness.  This usually means that after being very inconsistent with my training over the course of a few months I decide to start training for an upcoming race.  I will, of course, pick XYZ Marathon over the Let’s Have Fun 5k So 16 weeks to XYZ Marathon and I think I can just jump right into “Week 1” of Run your Fastest Marathon Ever (hereafter called the RYFME) training plan.  So the RYFME plan has you base your training paces on a recent race performance.  “Recent” is a relative term.  I will usually fall back on that Thanksgiving Day 10-mile race where I averaged 8:30 miles and finished one place away from winning a free pie.  The one problem was that race was in 2013 and was at the end of the most consistent 6 months of training in my entire life.  The first day of RYFME will, of course, be some absurd interval workout (10 X 800’s in 2:30 with a 10 sec rest in between).  One of three things will happen.  The first option is that after the second interval I collapse on the track stagger home to look for a better training plan on the internet.  Option 2 is I actually finish the workout but blow out my knee and spend the next 2 months looking  for a better training plan on the internet (A variation on this option is the I am too sore to run the rest of the week and spend the time looking on the internet for a better training plan).  Option 3 is I struggle through the first week and over the next month complete about a quarter of the workouts get frustrated and you guessed it….search the internet for a new training plan.

New alternative approach:  Don’t plan the first month or two, just run easy at least four times a week.  Don’t use any training plan that is based on a “recent race” unless you have raced recently.