On Monday morning my training plan dictated that I was to run 3 miles at a 10:50. I ran nearly 3.5 miles at a 9:34.
I started my run about an hour and a half after I would usually begin running on a weekday morning, simply because it was a holiday and I didn’t have to worry about being in my desk chair by 7:00 AM. The world was so peaceful as I started out, so much quieter than when I usually run at 5:20 AM. The quiet, solitude combined with the pleasant temps and the sun up high enough to be light but not oppressively beating down made for a very zen-like start to my run.
But then I turned a corner and ran past a man walking his dog. The dog was short, fat, golden-colored and probably just a good ole’ mutt. The dog was also on one of those retractable leashes, and as I approached the dog flew toward me. In a matter of seconds the dog had reached the end of the leash, was about a foot away from me and had turned into this giant poofball of fur, exposed teeth and snarling nastiness. Since the dog was attached to a leash I wasn’t that concerned, but it sure was funny how fast the dog seemed to triple in size.
Fortunately the owner was nice and very apologetic about letting his dog get that close to me. Some pet owners don’t seem to think anything of letting their pet go wild. (See my poodle run day) I heard the guy fighting with his dog, trying to calm it down, for the rest of my trip down that street. I must have some kind of animal magnetism that makes dogs think I look good to eat.
Last night I ran at my local Fleet Feet store. Technically the training plan said my next run was a 5 mile tempo run on Wednesday. But I’m switching things up a little so I can continue to do my runs with friends. So the easy run that was on the schedule for Thursday, became last night’s run. Again, the run was just under 3.5 miles at a 9:24 pace (instead of the prescribed 2 miles at a 10:50).
All this talk about my plan has me wondering… what am I training for? I mean, I know what race I’m doing, I know what distance I’m doing… but when I build a program using SmartCoach, it didn’t give me an indication of what kind of time I’m shooting for in the half marathon and I certainly didn’t provide one. I just plugged in my most recent race time (which happens to have been the Race for the Cure 5K) and it generated the schedule from that. If I plug in my half marathon PR, then the training paces are even slower. I just think it’s kind of silly to be running at all these prescribed paces (or ignoring them and acknowledging them later) when I’m not quite sure what they are supposed to be building to.
I’ll probably keep following a loose interpretation of the schedule, it’s nice to have some guidelines at least.
Jill Will Run 
This post came at the perfect time for me. I was just lamenting on my blog about my own training plan. I think you nailed it though; I think it is because I don’t quite understand the purpose of my “schedule”. I have, like you, decided to use it as a guideline…or a loose interpretation. I cannot tell you how much of a relief it is to know other people are having the same problems.
🙂 Happy Training!
This is one of the things about blogging that I love, the possibility to connect with others and realize that they may be experiencing the same frustrations/troubles as I am. Or perhaps they’ve already dealt with that and have solutions to share. It’s just such an incredible medium! Good luck on your training… or guidelines!
When used SmartCoach recently, it told me what the final race pace should be, which tells you what you are shooting for. That might be a new feature, because I don’t think it said it for my marathon program. If you didn’t get a final pace, try punching in the numbers again and see what it says. I am helping a friend develop a half marathon plan based on her last half. SmartCoach only took 4 minutes off her time and she wants to take off at least 10, so I tweaked it a bit by entering other results.
I agree that you need to get a feeling of what you are trying to do in order to really buy into it. More and more, I need to know what I am trying to accomplish with a run. If it is recovery, for example, I have stopped looking at the suggested pace and just gone out comfortably.
Good luck finding the right balance between the training program and what works for you!
Yeah, the final pace is definitely new from the schedule I had previously made. My old schedule just said, “Good luck” on race day. But what’s even stranger is when I plug in the EXACT SAME information as what I had done to generate my current plan, the schedule it creates now has every run even SLOWER. The end result is two minutes faster than my PR. Huh?
i’m with lisa. i recently recommended the smartcoach to a co-worker and it gave him a projected race time at the end of his plan. i am pretty sure i never saw that before so i also assume it is a new feature. maybe you could re-run the report?
i know the feeling of not really knowing what you can expect from all the hard work. i’ve never really known what kind of shape i’ll be in at the end of a plan, but as long as it’s a pr i can live with it 🙂
good luck figuring out your plan and getting it to work for you – though a little day-to-day tweaking is always necessary.
Yep, the day-to-day tweaking is definitely what I’m feeling right now. There are too many unexpected things that can pop up at times. The final pace estimate is definitely new, because I printed the previous schedule it created straight to PDF, so I have an exact replica of what it gave me before. No final pace! That’s cool though, good feature to add, especially since I was just complaining about it.
I am all for the “loose interpretations.” I generally start out with a plan and then modify it as I need to. I kind of work out my own “plan” as for times, etc., in my head. I know, not very scientific, is it?
The science of your mind… it works for me! 🙂
Thanks for stopping by my blog! I think runners of all levels are inspiring. If you’re putting the miles in and are striving to get faster, you are doing something great!