How am I doing guys

[James Leblow]

Just wondering what you guys thought of my training tips and sugestions accepted

[adam]

James, you've been running a tough schedule and racing frequently (and in the last few weeks you've hit a few PR's). Make sure that you are taking your easy days easy during the week- give your mind and body a break, otherwise they may break you. Don't be too hard on yourself after your races. try to see what good you can get out of them after, even if the time is too slow according to your standards.

You are a very good runner- very tough. Let that be a tool to help you win, not bring you down.

[James Leblow]

Thanks adam I will be sure to try to be a little easier with myself

[Sasha Pachev]

James:

Something is not quite right. I cannot quite figure out what it is right now. One day you race very well, and then a short while later you are way slower than the other race would predict. Some possibilities:

a) Overtraining
b) Nutritional errors
c) Lack of sleep

Whether it is a problem or not, addressing all of the above is a good idea. You will not make things worse by improving in each of the areas above.

To address a) - ease off on your runs to no faster than 8:00 pace. If you do speed at all, keep the interval to no longer than 200 meters, and do no more than 5 of those. Occasional 5 K races could serve as tempo runs.

To address b) - do not eat junk. Eat foods, not brand names. Oatmeal, apples, bananas, cherries, strawberries, nuts, etc. Not Brand Name 1, Brand Name 2, Brand Name 3. Make sure to eat a healthy breakfast. Get some food in you as soon as you finish a workout. Drink water or juices, not soda pop. Less processed, more natural. It may be a good idea logging everything you eat and when. Then you might be able to detect patterns of correlation between nutrition and performance. Discipline and consistency are the key.

For c) , go to bed early and be consistent about it. Take naps in the afternoon as well. Make it a practice to lay down for 15-20 minutes every day to see if your body needs a nap.

I would also make sure that you get to run at your top end speed for a little bit once or twice a week. This could be a formal workout where you run 100 all out a couple of times on the track, or you can just play an active game that involves occasional running at top speed.

My philosophy on running performance - you run 90% off your health and 10% off your training. By building your health at young age you will have more Quality X as an adult, and your training will take you a lot further. Therefore, at this point you should not care very much about how well you run in the upcoming race X or race Y, but everything should be focused on helping your body properly go through maturity so that both speed and endurance age-progress appropriately. A natural consequence of that is that you will eventually find yourself doing better in every race without trying too hard.

[James Leblow]

Thanks sasha I do think I need to eat healthier and get a little more sleep, but I do not think I am over training, last week was my peak week and I am slowly withdrawing my mileage. My races I did not expect to do great I am simple using them as tempo runs.

[Sasha Pachev]

James - you can overtrain on low mileage, and you can overtrain when you think you are not training that hard. One definition of overtraining - if the same or better result can be achieved with less volume or intensity. Also, the exact same volume and intensity for the same individual starting at the same level of fitness in some cases result in overtraining and in other cases do not. The difference is in the recovery routine. At one point in my life I overtrained running 100 miles a week for a couple of months. Recently I've done fine doing 120 over nearly a year. The difference was in the sleep and diet, and generally paying more attention to the body signals.

[James Leblow]

Thanks Sasha I sorta got it now