Hard Run vs. Easy Run

JBones said:

Some days I can go out and approach my personal best time with absolute ease. Other days, I have to
really grind and overcome both mental and physical obstacles to acheive the same time. My question
is, does one workout produce more benefit than the other? I would think the harder runs do more for
you because you have to surpass a psychological barrier. Any thoughts?

-JB

Ahh those wonderful mental toughness days. Hard days are sometimes hard because you should be
resting when you are running. Those runs are worse for you because your body is trying to repair
itself and you are out breaking it down.

But not every hard run is hard because you should be resting. On those days you should be taking it
easy and not pushing. Listen to your body don't fight against it (unless you are racing). And if you
feel like you are racing every day then you're doing more harm than good.

Better to have a mental toughness day when the temperature is 38 degrees F and it is raining.

my $0.02 Andy

In article said:

Some days I can go out and approach my personal best time with absolute ease. Other days, I have
to really grind and overcome both mental and physical obstacles to acheive the same time. My
question is, does one workout produce more benefit than the other? I would think the harder runs
do more for you because you have to surpass a psychological barrier. Any thoughts?

Avoid going all-out too frequently. Once a week is good enough. Most of your training should be at
an easy pace, though you should also have 1 training session each week that is moderately hard, and
one that is very hard.

See the webpage here

panix.comvdot.htmlOpen ↗

you can use this to estimate training paces. If you don't know how far your usual run is, just
guess it. The training pace based on the guess will work fine as long as you just use it on your
usual course.

The surest way to make sure that it's easy to run hard is to save your energy, and be ready for
those days when you want to run a PR.

On the other hand, there are some sources of discomfort that are unavoidable. Sometimes you will be
tired. Sometimes it's cold, wet, and miserable, or it's extremely hot. Yes, I think these runs do
have a certain character building value. I actually like running in cold weather and taking on the
elements, especially in a race. It's uncomfortable, but it's possible to run pretty well in
conditions that really aren't very comfortable.

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi pegasus.rutgers.edu~elflordOpen ↗

"JBones" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

My question is, does one workout produce more benefit than the other? I would think the harder

runs

Quoted message said:

do more for you because you have to surpass a psychological barrier. Any thoughts?

My answer, JB, is that you think too much about trivia.

Roger.