How hard do you push yourself?

[Gimpy]

The other week I found out something interesting about how I train- usually I'd go for a run and give pretty much 100% effort so that by the last 100 metres I'd be almost throwing up, but a few weeks ago I unexpectedly had to cut one of my runs short part-way through, meaning I never got to that "about to puke" stage.

The next day I did my usual run and found that it felt easier than usual, and I did it quicker but felt less knackered at the end. The next day I tried running a bit further without thrashing myself as I used to, and once again the following day felt better and managed a quicker time. Since then I've continued training at this sort of 80% effort mark, and sure enough I've been improving far quicker than I used to when I thrashed it. Has anybody else experienced this?

It doesn't make sense to me as I always thought that the harder you pushed yourself, the quicker you'd improve, so by training at pretty much maximum effort every time I'd make the fastest gains. I'm also not keen to get into the habit of not giving 100% (for obvious reasons) but at the same time I want to improve as fast as I can.

[Dempsey]

Not always the case with running, I mean it's the same idea with weights - if you do less weights than your actual limit, but do more reps you see far greater improvements. So with running don't punish yourself just do longer runs and it'll make the "thrashing" yourself a little easier. I'm sure the CPL's at lympstone will give you a fair few of those anyway

[marinewannabe]

It's called overtraining mate . You push your body too hard- too quick then it isn't going to want to adapt, in fact in some cases you'll actually end up slower/weaker then before.

[lewis]

In general you should train in the manner for what you want to improve. So if you want to improve endurance you go long and slow, and if you want to improve speed you go short and fast.

A sensible fitness plan has a bit of everything.

Going totally balls out has its place but if you are doing it all the time isn't the optimum way to get fitter.

[Artist]

In general you should train in the manner for what you want to improve. So if you want to improve endurance you go long and slow, and if you want to improve speed you go short and fast.

A sensible fitness plan has a bit of everything.

Going totally balls out has its place but if you are doing it all the time isn't the optimum way to get fitter.

Spot on!

Give your body a break sometimes. It's only as good as it can be if your fitness levels are below the standard your trying to achieve. Try to hard and your going to end up on the sick.

Give it time is the answer. Follow the advice given in the green book in order to hack the PRMC. Once in training your training team will get you up to the level you will require to hack it and earn your green lid.

Learn to walk before you try to run in other words.

Artist

[Gimpy]

That makes sense. Cheers chaps, sound advice once again.

[Taxman]

Hi, I thought I would take my training a bit easy to start with, saw a great improvement, but then I began feeling less results, so I pushed alot harder.

Im just about the right side of the big 30, but I want to be as fit and ready as possible for my PRMC and more.

Well, there was only so much my body could take, now ive been off training for two weeks! Clearly id have been better by taking it steady, which is the plan now.