Hills for breakfast, hold the gnats

Sno - Sean is in Utah with family...don't know when he will be back.

Would love to see you use him as a coach. **WARNING** He will force you to get out of any comfort zone you might be in though.

Hang in there!

Congrats on progressing not one but two VDOT values! Don't let your brain get in your way when it comes to those increased paces....they'll feel harder at first, but believe and they'll feel normal after a while.

Peaking is about the rest immediately before the race to give the muscles a temporary boost. Too long and detraining starts. Too short and you're muscles haven't completely healed from the wear/tear of normal training. Too much speedwork and you'll peak prematurely, essentially overstressing your system too much and moving into overtraining. Remember, it's partial neural, not just muscular. If you're garbage-person took a few days off, they'd come back "recharged" and ready to pitch the trash at an increased rate but not for long (before they'd get worn out from the day-to-day work again).

Or maybe I'm completely full of it....

Thanks Dale. If I understand you correctly, peaking --unlike other strenuous endeavors --would have to involve working past a point that one could sustain week after week indefinitely?

My understanding of peaking is based on Daniels approach to periodization of training. Base training (4-12 weeks) of relatively slow aerobic running (with some strides/fartleks thrown in). Then stamina (longer intervals with long recovery - about 1/2 of the interval length - mainly at 15K - 1/2 marathon pace). Then into speed/race specific training. For 1/2 marathon and below this would be intervals at mile - 10K pace and some fast finish runs @ 1/2 marathon pace or faster. The thought is that if you do this for a month you will be "race sharp". If you do this longer then you risk getting burnt out, stale, and possibly over-trained. This varies by individual and what they are used to doing - but it is generally the way that many track athletes in particular structure their training. Base = summer, cross-country = stamina, track (spring) = speed and repeat. If you are relying on marathons for your livelihood (Kenyans) then you do no more than 3 of them a year (most only do 2) and you will do a marathon version of this.

Terrance Mahon (coaches Deena Kastor and Ryan Hall) uses something similar to this system. Salazar (Kara Goucher's coach) and Hudson (I don't know what elite athletes he is coaching anymore) both approach it a little differently.

I think that's a fair statement. You try to walk the fine line between maximum training and over-training week after week. Eventually, you're going to get to the point where you're body needs a break. Just before that, you give it some pre-emptive rest to allow it to absorb your recent training without stressing it further, bringing you to a peak.

Guess you can probably tell I only kinda understand it myself.

I'm afraid I don't have any wisdom to add, but I'm glad to read the comments and learn from all of you.

Thanks for the lengthy replies! I really do appreciate the explanations very much, but the thing I didn't get, I still don't get... I get that athletes practice periodization, and what the phases are. And I guess I get the concept of peaking in so far as being in the highest possible level of fitness on race day. But I don't get why there would be such a thing as "peaking too soon" or "overtraining." Unless it's just the absurdly harsh non-sustainability of the fitness level, which might not apply to us recreational runners anyway, why is there a "peak" instead of just a new plateau of fitness? If someone trains "too hard," why wouldn't the usual cut back week or other brief recovery put her right back on track? Why should fitness suddenly be reversed (ie the downhill side of the peak that came "too soon")? It is not so in any other areas of physical endeavor, is it? Why should muscles cells in athletes need a routine so different from muscle cells in, say, trash collectors?

I think part of the problem is that its hard to tell when you've peaked too soon or when you dip into overtraining. Is the fatigue just normal heavy training fatigue or overtraining? What brings out your individual peak? If you could reliably tell when you overtrained and when you were at your peak, it probably wouldn't be such a big deal, but the signs are so subtle and easy to miss.

I've been thinking about this and I think the comparison between the garbage collector and the runner breaks down because the garbage collector is working to a plateau, while the runner is going for a peak. The garbage collector has to collect from a fixed number of stops and the average weight of the garbage is fairly constant. He builds up to where he can do that route and than stays there. This might be analagous to a runner who runs 8-10 miles a day, but never goes any longer or any faster. But that's not what we runners usually do. We try to go longer or faster or both.

Thanks, Carolyn. If I may continue to probe, why isn't the runner's progression also experienced in plateaus? If the garbage collectors route becomes longer, or the city gives everyone larger trash cans one year, he will have to go longer and be stronger. Why isn't running like that?

I think that the reason you can peak "too soon" is all relative to a particular event you are training for. For example, if you are training for a race in say, September, your training schedule will be tailored with base miles, strength building and speed work miles, PLUS TAPER TIME, all relative to that date. Peaking too soon just means that you've organized the training so that it doesn't all fall in place for that date, I think.

Obviously, we can't always be at our peak for performance, unless, like a 1-2 marathon per year runner, we limit our races to just a few.

My understanding, based primarily on Daniel's explanation of the physiology of running, is that the cycle of stress -> recovery -> stress/improvement can be used on a weekly/monthly/yearly basis. You make the most improvement when you stress the system allow it to recover and then stress it again. Many training plans use this for the basis of both weekly training (sometimes called microcycles) as well as training for specific races (sometimes called mesocycles - short term running goals). This is also used for macrocycles (long term running goals lasting years or more). The common belief is that if you simply stress without proper recovery at any of the cycles (including macrocycles) then you might just stress without improving. So, many believe that stressing without recovery in the 'best' case can lead to plateau's in fitness (simply not improving ... but still functioning). Worst case senarios are inability to recover (called over-training) and injury.

I like the way you think Auntie, despite the fact you don't like me anymore because I dread the sun. Actually, I don't dread it all the time, just right now it is wearing on me ;-).