I was in the same place - in the 1980's. I had a useful abbreviation: "otf" = off too fast" that appeared frequently in my training diary. Still, that wild and aimless training got me a few 1:18 half marathons, and endless injuries.
I like OFT. I did that so often. All of my training would indicate a 37 or 38min 10km, but I'd head off at 35 pace because, you know, maybe I could push through. 🤦♂️
Great video, do have to say there is one thing that always throws my consistency off. Winter... Only goal for now is to continue training through winter.
Depends where you live 😂 I slow down over winter as well or switch to indoor sport activities until the first snow allows for skiing and cross-country skiing! 😀 Personally, I think winter is a good time to look at these weights that noone once to lift or the core/back exercises that should have a routine anyway...
@Kelly_Ben I'm in the same boat. Too many energy thieves in winter, and I usually get sick. Feel sorry for myself when things go to shits and end up gaining a lot of weight as well. Just signed up for a Backyard ultra i early May. I have never been in decent shape that time of the year. I got sick the day after signing up. 🙈
#3 is a huge problem for me. I'm sitting at home sick with the flu for the second time in a month because I pushed the body too hard trying to hit base mileage building goals without getting enough sleep and recovery in life. Frustrating lesson to learn.
I had a setback from a cold or flu that I got on Halloween and I'm still sometimes coughing up crud from it though I feel fine but I know I dont have the energy I had before I got this virus. I only took 6 days off . . . I cant just sit around and weight for me to feel perfect. When I get my HR up to my estimated max I kinda start wheezing (or I did last week) like you do when you have pneumonia. Now I need it to stop raining so I can get out there and test it again.
I love your skeleton outline of the schedule. I'm type A, i love planning, but i always just fill my schedule with long run targets that i miss. I have a lot of cross outs/ corrections on my calendar! It's fun to plan the ideal schedule, but disheartening to watch it fall apart. This should help with my plan for my little winter 4 miler in 6 weeks, and my first 50 miler in May. Thanks!
You convinced me to buy a Stryd and you were right... there's a huge difference from the figures measured by Garmin HRM in terms of range of values and spurious spikes. This helped me also keep a constant effort during my runs
The Stryd trustpilot reviews I just looked at didn't share the same opinion. "10k races would routinely come up as 8.7km", "As a runner, avoid this product - it’s about as useful as strapping a potato to your shoe." Et cetera.
Nice! You'll be glad you made the switch. Also, I think the reviews @newbarker523 refers to are for the older model, which definitely needed calibrating on a track for accurate distance.
@@drwilloconnor One of the reviews is from just two days ago: "Stryd is very inaccurate when it comes to measuring of the distance. So in that regard it is total useless. When contacting their customer support there’s no help or understanding at all. I have measured the distance on track, at races and in training. The accuracy is just very bad compared to Garmin and COROS." Another from less than two weeks ago: "My Stryd pod never seemed quite right to me. Distance always seemed to be a little off. Then when racing it is way off when using adios pro 3s. 10k races would routinely come up as 8.7km or similar and experienced the same over other distances. Contacted customer support who were initially very interested in trying to troubleshoot with multiple software updates that made it infinitely worse. Initially Stryd promised me a replacement pod and since told me that a replacement pod won't fix the issue. Well if a replacement won't fix it then the product and software is deeply flawed. They won't tell me what the issue is and now they just ignore my request for help to resolve. Do yourself a favour and keep your money. Bitterly disappointed with my experience using stryd but more so with the way in which the customer service operates. Complete lack of respect for the customer" Someone else in my running club has a foot pod, though I can't recall if it was a Stryd, and he said it's inaccurate. I think foot pods are one of those pieces of overpriced sports tech which will never properly work, regardless of manufacturer or fiddling with calibration. IMHO, of course.
Uhh, you say not to chase fixed weekly mileage in the video, but the thumbnail suggests fixed weekly mileage is good (no hint of recovery weeks in that Strava graph), soooo, I got clickbaited right? Wondering how you were going to explain those graphs got me to click!
I did think about that. I figured if I show people what they perceive to be good (constant Strava graph), I can explain why it's not the case. Maybe I could have gone for the same graph with something like, “This isn't the goal”. I dunno. TH-cam is a hard game to crack. I appreciate the feedback, though.
Hello Will, just discovered your channel. I’m a runner and cyclist myself, did my Uni in Auckland. Cool to know you are from NZ. Looking forward to delve into your content
In very simple terms, im a 39 year old male with a 19M 5k pb, 39:31 10K pb. I run about 60-80k a week, depending on family and work commitments. I long run sunday, track session for speed once a week. Easy run a couple times a week and a parkrun for fun on a saturday. What can i do, in simple terms, to get down to 18 minutes and 38 minutes respectively.
You've got all the goods to make the time. It'll just be a matter of specificity in your training. Each week, try 10x 400m slightly faster than race pace (60sec rest), and 5-6x 1km marginally slower than race pace (60sec) rest. Do that for three weeks and then do a 5km on the fourth AND fifth week. This is pretty generic advice, but I’m guessing you've probably never done a block of 5km specific speed, so just doing that should drop you from 19:00 - 18:30.
very interesting but 18' 27 " for 5 k is not bad at all.. so you were already pretty fast. in 2009.. but that means you have been running for at least 14 years!That gives me hope, i started running 3 years ago, and i have to break the 20 minutes barrier yet for 5 k.. but i'm pretty close, my average weekly mileage has increased from 30 to 50 kms following a structured training plan based on threshold zones as you suggested...
Do you know what's funny about that 18:27. I remembered on my run the other day that I ran that 5km on the University track, which had an inner training lane, so it was shorter than 5km. I trained there for two years before someone said, “You that’s a training lane?” 😳 You'll get that sub-20. Just keep going.
Your 2009 doesn't look too bad. The only thing to criticize is probably that you did not take sufficient recovery time. Feeling sore and tired can lead into overtraining and eventually health issues. But random (and different) training sessions incl. running, cycling, swimming, strength training, a racket sport, football,... It's a pretty healthy lifestyle; probably much more healthy than running a sub35 10k! But of course, training is a different story if you want to compete! But competing for what? I am convinced that fun and health should be the center and not the next race. Competing&racing is not gonna be a healthy motivator in the long run!
It wasn't long after that I dug myself into a very deep overtraining hole. You're definitely right about fun and health, but the lure of running faster is sometimes too strong!
I train for the next race, but my main focus is on fun, not time. Yes, I want to improve my health and performance, but not at the expense of the enjoyment of the journey.
I know I'm being held back. I'm too afraid of injury because it feels like my bones hurt when I get too serious. (it's tough getting old). I would need a coach to reach my potential but I'm not sure I need to get to an absolute highest performance possible at my age though it would be cool if I could but it would be time consuming. I sometimes wonder if I'm taking it too easy. But what you said at 3:44 is what I'm doing trail running and hiking. I just need someone to analyze my HR, GPS and elevation data. I'm getting fitter but I think it's going too slow. Lucky for me I dont race anyone but my own performance. I want strength and insurance more than speed (for ultra long distance backpacking) but I know that if I keep pushing my speed it will make me stronger but I need long hard hills as well. Also, when I do "tempo" training I think I'm doing it for two long (1 hr) and I'm pretty beat up at the end of it but that's because it's a 3 mile hilly trail back to the car. *Writing as I'm listening*: My BIG event is a 950 mile backpack hike of the PCT from California to Canada that I want to do in 40 days. I have the ability now to hike 12 hrs a day but I need to up my daily miles and there are some really LONG hard hills. I need to push my lactate threshold up as far as I can get it so I can take those hills a bit faster. I thing a trail run 10K would be a goal as well and maybe place near the top for my age of 69 I can commit 6 days a week MOST weeks. My event specific workout is a 30 mile hike.
Hey Dr Will, love your channel mate! What are your thoughts on the coros watch training zones i.e. Aerobic Endurance (Z1), Aerobic Power (Z2), Threshold (Z3), Anaerobic Endurance (Z4) & Anaerobic Power (Z5) for use with your advice?
I replied to this in your other comment, but I'll post it here, too, for others. Coros' zones are a bit high. Their Zone 2 is 90 - 95% LTH, which is my Zone 3. I struggle to find reasoning for 90%+ to be "aerobic". When I had their default zones, I ran in no zone because I often run @ 75 - 80% LTH, which is the bottom of Zone 2 in my system but doesn't even show up in Coros because the bottom of Zone 1 is 80%!
Do you have a PAID Strava account and does it help you analyze your training? I have not pulled the trigger on a paid account yet. I figured I would pile up some data first.
So many! The biggest ones were; Eating better quality food Eating enough calories Eating more fat & protein via a low-carb diet I'm low(ish) carb now, but experimenting with low carb, keto, and fasting during my PhD was the most eye-opening.
I definitely have recovery weeks. But depending on your phase of training, you might run the same volume (distance or duration), but the training load can be much lower by removing the intensity.
Funny I'm the exact opposite. I have been riding 8000km/year the last 2 years with 250km every week of the year (2weeks off during Christmas) and I went from 260 to 280 FTP. I was doing the 80/20 mainstream polarized training. I asked for advice on discord, forums and I never got any serious answer, only : "train harder" which was physically impossible honestly. Then since august I started to ride completely random, but insanely short and hard (30min climbs) and I went from 12h every week to 5-6h on one week then 2h then 7h then 4h again completely random. But every time I trained I made Z1 and Z4-5 (zwift zones equivalent) rides. My ftp went from 270 to 310 in 3 months. Same for running I was running 40km/week every week for 2 years (cross training with the bike) and since august I started to ride 10km/week sometimes 20 sometimes 0 (I basically didn't run for 3 weeks straight) and I broke my record on the half marathon:1h29 against 1:38 last year. All these youtube videos are entertainment, I lost too much time on false and incorrect thinking processes. Don't waste your time on polluting false knowledge : train as often as you can/want and as hard as you can, eat clean and you will get the most out of yourself. The only people not concerned about this are the pros, but they're not watching some fake gurus on the internet, they have coaches, programs, tracking records etc... it's their job.
Hey, I think we're saying the same thing. It sounds like you tried to run or ride X/week, and it didn't work, so you swapped to a more sustainable approach that gave you better results. You used a regular feedback loop to judge how you felt and got better.
I was in the same place - in the 1980's. I had a useful abbreviation: "otf" = off too fast" that appeared frequently in my training diary. Still, that wild and aimless training got me a few 1:18 half marathons, and endless injuries.
I like OFT. I did that so often. All of my training would indicate a 37 or 38min 10km, but I'd head off at 35 pace because, you know, maybe I could push through. 🤦♂️
Great video, do have to say there is one thing that always throws my consistency off. Winter... Only goal for now is to continue training through winter.
Depends where you live 😂 I slow down over winter as well or switch to indoor sport activities until the first snow allows for skiing and cross-country skiing! 😀
Personally, I think winter is a good time to look at these weights that noone once to lift or the core/back exercises that should have a routine anyway...
Same! I haven't run through winter in decades, and have to start over every spring. I'm determined this is the year! Good luck to you!
I didn't see snow until I was 13! Hard to relate coming from New Zealand.
@Kelly_Ben I'm in the same boat. Too many energy thieves in winter, and I usually get sick. Feel sorry for myself when things go to shits and end up gaining a lot of weight as well.
Just signed up for a Backyard ultra i early May. I have never been in decent shape that time of the year. I got sick the day after signing up. 🙈
#3 is a huge problem for me. I'm sitting at home sick with the flu for the second time in a month because I pushed the body too hard trying to hit base mileage building goals without getting enough sleep and recovery in life. Frustrating lesson to learn.
I have to learn that lesson at least once a year 🤦♂️. After a few months of great training, you get a bit cocky, and then 🛌 😭.
I had a setback from a cold or flu that I got on Halloween and I'm still sometimes coughing up crud from it though I feel fine but I know I dont have the energy I had before I got this virus. I only took 6 days off . . . I cant just sit around and weight for me to feel perfect. When I get my HR up to my estimated max I kinda start wheezing (or I did last week) like you do when you have pneumonia. Now I need it to stop raining so I can get out there and test it again.
I love your skeleton outline of the schedule. I'm type A, i love planning, but i always just fill my schedule with long run targets that i miss. I have a lot of cross outs/ corrections on my calendar! It's fun to plan the ideal schedule, but disheartening to watch it fall apart. This should help with my plan for my little winter 4 miler in 6 weeks, and my first 50 miler in May. Thanks!
I've got a video coming out tomorrow that addresses your problem. Keep an eye out, and thanks for watching!
You convinced me to buy a Stryd and you were right... there's a huge difference from the figures measured by Garmin HRM in terms of range of values and spurious spikes. This helped me also keep a constant effort during my runs
The Stryd trustpilot reviews I just looked at didn't share the same opinion. "10k races would routinely come up as 8.7km", "As a runner, avoid this product - it’s about as useful as strapping a potato to your shoe." Et cetera.
@@newbarker523 i am using it strictly for power. Pace and distance is shit indeed.
Nice! You'll be glad you made the switch.
Also, I think the reviews @newbarker523 refers to are for the older model, which definitely needed calibrating on a track for accurate distance.
@@drwilloconnor One of the reviews is from just two days ago: "Stryd is very inaccurate when it comes to measuring of the distance. So in that regard it is total useless. When contacting their customer support there’s no help or understanding at all. I have measured the distance on track, at races and in training. The accuracy is just very bad compared to Garmin and COROS."
Another from less than two weeks ago: "My Stryd pod never seemed quite right to me. Distance always seemed to be a little off. Then when racing it is way off when using adios pro 3s. 10k races would routinely come up as 8.7km or similar and experienced the same over other distances. Contacted customer support who were initially very interested in trying to troubleshoot with multiple software updates that made it infinitely worse. Initially Stryd promised me a replacement pod and since told me that a replacement pod won't fix the issue. Well if a replacement won't fix it then the product and software is deeply flawed. They won't tell me what the issue is and now they just ignore my request for help to resolve. Do yourself a favour and keep your money. Bitterly disappointed with my experience using stryd but more so with the way in which the customer service operates. Complete lack of respect for the customer"
Someone else in my running club has a foot pod, though I can't recall if it was a Stryd, and he said it's inaccurate. I think foot pods are one of those pieces of overpriced sports tech which will never properly work, regardless of manufacturer or fiddling with calibration. IMHO, of course.
Uhh, you say not to chase fixed weekly mileage in the video, but the thumbnail suggests fixed weekly mileage is good (no hint of recovery weeks in that Strava graph), soooo, I got clickbaited right? Wondering how you were going to explain those graphs got me to click!
I did think about that. I figured if I show people what they perceive to be good (constant Strava graph), I can explain why it's not the case. Maybe I could have gone for the same graph with something like, “This isn't the goal”. I dunno. TH-cam is a hard game to crack.
I appreciate the feedback, though.
@@drwilloconnor yeah, no big deal, a little bit of thumbnail clickbait is not the end of the world as long the video content is solid.
Thank you for saving me 10 minutes
Hello Will, just discovered your channel. I’m a runner and cyclist myself, did my Uni in Auckland. Cool to know you are from NZ. Looking forward to delve into your content
🇳🇿 Thanks mate. Stoked to have you here!
In very simple terms, im a 39 year old male with a 19M 5k pb, 39:31 10K pb. I run about 60-80k a week, depending on family and work commitments. I long run sunday, track session for speed once a week. Easy run a couple times a week and a parkrun for fun on a saturday. What can i do, in simple terms, to get down to 18 minutes and 38 minutes respectively.
You've got all the goods to make the time. It'll just be a matter of specificity in your training. Each week, try 10x 400m slightly faster than race pace (60sec rest), and 5-6x 1km marginally slower than race pace (60sec) rest. Do that for three weeks and then do a 5km on the fourth AND fifth week. This is pretty generic advice, but I’m guessing you've probably never done a block of 5km specific speed, so just doing that should drop you from 19:00 - 18:30.
Really, great advice. Thanks from a new subscriber!
Awesome, thank you!
very interesting but 18' 27 " for 5 k is not bad at all.. so you were already pretty fast. in 2009.. but that means you have been running for at least 14 years!That gives me hope, i started running 3 years ago, and i have to break the 20 minutes barrier yet for 5 k.. but i'm pretty close, my average weekly mileage has increased from 30 to 50 kms following a structured training plan based on threshold zones as you suggested...
Do you know what's funny about that 18:27. I remembered on my run the other day that I ran that 5km on the University track, which had an inner training lane, so it was shorter than 5km. I trained there for two years before someone said, “You that’s a training lane?” 😳
You'll get that sub-20. Just keep going.
@@drwilloconnor 😄...thanks man💪
Hey Will! Where do you get your b-roll clips from, the stock footage? It looks great and would love to sign up to that website 👍🏽
I have a guy edit the videos for me. Someone told me it looks like Stroyblocks 🤷♂️
Fantastic, thanks for the reply will!@@drwilloconnor
Your 2009 doesn't look too bad. The only thing to criticize is probably that you did not take sufficient recovery time. Feeling sore and tired can lead into overtraining and eventually health issues.
But random (and different) training sessions incl. running, cycling, swimming, strength training, a racket sport, football,... It's a pretty healthy lifestyle; probably much more healthy than running a sub35 10k!
But of course, training is a different story if you want to compete! But competing for what?
I am convinced that fun and health should be the center and not the next race.
Competing&racing is not gonna be a healthy motivator in the long run!
It wasn't long after that I dug myself into a very deep overtraining hole.
You're definitely right about fun and health, but the lure of running faster is sometimes too strong!
I train for the next race, but my main focus is on fun, not time. Yes, I want to improve my health and performance, but not at the expense of the enjoyment of the journey.
I know I'm being held back. I'm too afraid of injury because it feels like my bones hurt when I get too serious. (it's tough getting old). I would need a coach to reach my potential but I'm not sure I need to get to an absolute highest performance possible at my age though it would be cool if I could but it would be time consuming. I sometimes wonder if I'm taking it too easy. But what you said at 3:44 is what I'm doing trail running and hiking. I just need someone to analyze my HR, GPS and elevation data. I'm getting fitter but I think it's going too slow. Lucky for me I dont race anyone but my own performance. I want strength and insurance more than speed (for ultra long distance backpacking) but I know that if I keep pushing my speed it will make me stronger but I need long hard hills as well.
Also, when I do "tempo" training I think I'm doing it for two long (1 hr) and I'm pretty beat up at the end of it but that's because it's a 3 mile hilly trail back to the car.
*Writing as I'm listening*: My BIG event is a 950 mile backpack hike of the PCT from California to Canada that I want to do in 40 days. I have the ability now to hike 12 hrs a day but I need to up my daily miles and there are some really LONG hard hills. I need to push my lactate threshold up as far as I can get it so I can take those hills a bit faster.
I thing a trail run 10K would be a goal as well and maybe place near the top for my age of 69
I can commit 6 days a week MOST weeks. My event specific workout is a 30 mile hike.
Hey Dr Will, love your channel mate! What are your thoughts on the coros watch training zones i.e. Aerobic Endurance (Z1), Aerobic Power (Z2), Threshold (Z3), Anaerobic Endurance (Z4) & Anaerobic Power (Z5) for use with your advice?
I replied to this in your other comment, but I'll post it here, too, for others. Coros' zones are a bit high. Their Zone 2 is 90 - 95% LTH, which is my Zone 3. I struggle to find reasoning for 90%+ to be "aerobic". When I had their default zones, I ran in no zone because I often run @ 75 - 80% LTH, which is the bottom of Zone 2 in my system but doesn't even show up in Coros because the bottom of Zone 1 is 80%!
Do you have a PAID Strava account and does it help you analyze your training? I have not pulled the trigger on a paid account yet. I figured I would pile up some data first.
that bad heel striker put my off all the advise at 2:03
That's fair. I did more QC on my recent video.
Hey Will, What about everyday food consumption over time? Were there any dietary modifications that helped you obtain better results?
So many! The biggest ones were;
Eating better quality food
Eating enough calories
Eating more fat & protein via a low-carb diet
I'm low(ish) carb now, but experimenting with low carb, keto, and fasting during my PhD was the most eye-opening.
So you don’t have recovery weeks? Or what is to take on recovery week
I definitely have recovery weeks. But depending on your phase of training, you might run the same volume (distance or duration), but the training load can be much lower by removing the intensity.
There are over 5000 views but only currently 11 comments. Feels like comments are heavily censored.
That's pretty standard for my videos. I never get a crazy amount of comments.
Ellen Degeneres??
🤣 I wish
Why are your eyes shifty and trying to avoid eye contact?
Still getting used to being on camera I guess.
Funny I'm the exact opposite.
I have been riding 8000km/year the last 2 years with 250km every week of the year (2weeks off during Christmas) and I went from 260 to 280 FTP. I was doing the 80/20 mainstream polarized training. I asked for advice on discord, forums and I never got any serious answer, only : "train harder" which was physically impossible honestly.
Then since august I started to ride completely random, but insanely short and hard (30min climbs) and I went from 12h every week to 5-6h on one week then 2h then 7h then 4h again completely random. But every time I trained I made Z1 and Z4-5 (zwift zones equivalent) rides.
My ftp went from 270 to 310 in 3 months.
Same for running I was running 40km/week every week for 2 years (cross training with the bike) and since august I started to ride 10km/week sometimes 20 sometimes 0 (I basically didn't run for 3 weeks straight) and I broke my record on the half marathon:1h29 against 1:38 last year.
All these youtube videos are entertainment, I lost too much time on false and incorrect thinking processes. Don't waste your time on polluting false knowledge : train as often as you can/want and as hard as you can, eat clean and you will get the most out of yourself. The only people not concerned about this are the pros, but they're not watching some fake gurus on the internet, they have coaches, programs, tracking records etc... it's their job.
Hey, I think we're saying the same thing. It sounds like you tried to run or ride X/week, and it didn't work, so you swapped to a more sustainable approach that gave you better results. You used a regular feedback loop to judge how you felt and got better.
Does look like overtraining you had been doing. That puts a though break on performance.
@@drwilloconnor No we're no saying the same thing. Your title, picture, says otherwise.