196. Workouts vs Racing: What is the difference?

Run4PRs

We often see people do workouts on strava or social media and sometimes we think, if I could just hit those paces in a workout, I could be as fast as them? This might lead an athlete to run workouts faster than they should. The whole point of this podcast is that each workout has a purpose. Even a workout like 6 x 800 meters could be a threshold workout or a VO2MAX workout. The purpose of the workout will dictate the pace you run for the intervals. If you are doing a threshold workout, you would run this reps slower and have shorter recovery inbetween. If you are doing a VO2MAX workout, you would be running these much faster and have maximum rest inbetween. Racing DEFINED! What really is racing? Max effort 1 max rep at the gym Takes time to be able to push yourself: don’t know how to push it Beginner Intimate Advanced The purpose of each workout VO2MAX Threshold Upper end Aerobic/Marathon Pace Easy run Why faster/more isn’t always better 4x 1 mi @ threshold pace @ 6:30 Let’s say you go out and run 6:10 pace (5k If you do 4 miles of work at 5k pace, that is hella stress If you do 4 miles of work at threshold pace, it’s less than a race effort Overtraining Giving 100% effort is harder to recover from Saving racing for racing Is it better to do less? Not always→ sometimes you have to do more.. Law of diminishing returns You need to stress the body just enough to make a change→ progressive overload Signs you might be racing your workouts Unable to consistently hit workouts Feeling like you always need additional recovery between reps Feeling like you are not recovering inbetween workouts/overtraining Not wanting to do workouts Injury