Lessons Learned

Wednesday, September 09, 2015 · Mike Davis

Good morning! No Finish Line Running uses a formula that somewhat dictates pace for most training runs for our clients. The system we use takes into account recent performances and gives our runners a specific pace for which to follow for easy running (conversational pace), intervals, tempo and other more types of training runs. Specific pacing is a critical component of our “Intelligent Training” approach to working with our runners and may be one of the most challenging. For example; an individual recently finishes a 10K race in a time of 47 minutes and we would now use that time to assign a value which will correspond to training paces. In this case the easy long run pace based on the 10K finish would be a pace of 9:37. Right off I will tell you that runners that are capable of running 7:30 something pace do not like running at 9:37 pace! Case in point; recently I allowed for one of our runners to actually run their long slow run at an 8:40 pace, which is actually their assigned marathon pace and the runner choose to go with “feeling strong” and ran closer to 8 minute miles for 10 miles. This runner was pretty pleased with themselves as they had never run this far and felt so “good!” My reaction was not was not overly condemning as I was pretty sure there would be an opportunity to use this lack of discipline as a training lesson. Sure enough 2 days later the runner ran a 5K race and ran a personal record (PR). Where was the lesson learned? While our runner is becoming a very good runner and hitting PR’s nearly every time out, he commented in the recent 5K that while he was happy with the time, he didn’t feel as strong as he would have liked. I reminded him that not 2 days earlier he choose to run based on “feeling awesome” and most likely used his best for the week on a training run. Had he run his 5K on Saturday I have no doubt that our runner would have felt stronger and most likely would have run even faster. Hopefully a lesson learned for our runner and moving forward the lesson may help him to be a better runner. Running is meant to be fun and not something that we want to put a lot of thought into. Whether trying to improve running pace or stay healthy, we approach it from our “Intelligent Training” methodology. Helping our runners to know when to run easy or even what easy means is critical for not only improvement but, also healthy running. With running nothing is every 100 percent guaranteed but, we work to insure the best possible results and keep it fun! Enjoy the rest of your week! God Bless! Mike Group run opportunities the remainder of the week: Wednesday night: 6pm from the “7th Settlement Brewery” for a 45 minute run Thursday night: 6pm from the Center we will run hill repeats Saturday morning: 8:30 from the Center we will run 45 to 80 minutes Drop in fee for Thursday and Saturday only ($5.00)