Saturday, March 22, 2008

I have a confession to make

I have friends who run with the Running Room. I have friends who work at the Running Room. I LOVE the Running Room. But I do not believe in the Running Room's training philosophy of 10&1's. I gave it a fair shot. I even talked myself into believing it works. But for me, it just doesn't.

I had a good talk with one of my PT's about this last week. He considers 10"1's to be nothing more than fartlek training, or speed play. Speed up, slow down, speed up, slow down. I tend to agree.

(I know there is some merit to the whole 10&1 concept. I know it works for some many people.)

When I have a truly good run, it's one where I find myself in a comfortable rhythm. I get into a groove, so to speak, and nothing distracts me. Keeping a constant eye on the time is distracting. It's like running on the treadmill, staring at those red numbers on the display, having no choice but to focus on the time. How long has it been? How much longer?

And how many of those one minute walks are really just one minute?

Plus, I have a secret desire to run a fast half marathon... maybe 1:50? And I just don't think it's attainable with 10&1's. I don't even want to calculate how fast I would have to be running during the 10's to meet that goal.

Just had to get that off my chest. I need to start running again... I'm thinking way too much! :)

1 comment:

Mel-2nd Chances said...

lol..i've had this same discussion over and over with myself, and have read a lot about it on running websites, magazines, etc. Ppl either seem to love it or hate it. i'll be honest, i wasn't much of a believer in it until the Chilly. Since this was my first HM, I had a goal of finishing in 2h30, and just wanted to finish. This was calculated using my steady run pace during training, maybe a bit faster but generally no walk breaks. I even printed off a pace band from the RR site with what i thought was an ambitious 2h15 finish. Adrenaline and endorphins obviously play a huge part on race day, so as I was running, and even with the walk breaks, we were well ahead of pace, and were just trailing the 2:05 pace bunny. I know that I would not have been able to maintain that pace for the whole run had i not done the walk breaks, and would likely have hit the wall at 7 or 8k rather than 18k. I'm not trying to convince you :) -- I really think it's a matter of opinion and what works for each individual, and there a lot of people that don't need them, and that's awesome. I use the walk breaks to down my gels/water/bloks, whatever, rather than try to fumble during my runs. I also have a Garmin 305, which i have programmed for 10/1 intervals, so it beeps when it's time to run or walk. I find that i check for time to go, etc a lot less when i'm using this, because i know i will have a 'rest' in no longer than 10 min. But i agree with you 150% when on the treadmill, since I don't use my Garmin there.

Just before the Chilly, the 10k clinic instructor was asking us if we were planning on using 10/1's during the race... some said no, most said yes. He told us that a friend of his recently qualified for Boston by using 10/1's. Not sure if it was just the RR mentality to promote it, but i've read about many doing this. anyway, like i said, not trying to change your mind or anything, just thought i'd throw my 2¢ in. Have a great weekend.