I have seen where some pro's don't race with a power meter or HR and go by feel. With all the data and structure coaching out there I thought that was odd until, as my coach told me, "your head is getting in the way".
I'm 52 and my coach has given me what I thought are some god-awful run workouts from time to time. Stuff like .5 mile at a 8:30 pace decreasing pace every .5 miles to a 5:23 pace at the end of a two mile interval. I have not hit the 5:25 pace at last .5 mile interval usually topping out at a 6:15ish pace at the end and wanting to throw up.
I whined to him saying that my 52 year old legs will not move that fast and I can't hit that number. He told me to turn off pace and gave me a set HR to run at for an hour. We did this for 3 workouts and my avg. pace for 1 hour was 6:53.
His conclusion was my head was focusing on the pace numbers and not what my legs could actually do.
Do other people have this problem and train from time to time without "numbers"?
I'm 52 and my coach has given me what I thought are some god-awful run workouts from time to time. Stuff like .5 mile at a 8:30 pace decreasing pace every .5 miles to a 5:23 pace at the end of a two mile interval. I have not hit the 5:25 pace at last .5 mile interval usually topping out at a 6:15ish pace at the end and wanting to throw up.
I whined to him saying that my 52 year old legs will not move that fast and I can't hit that number. He told me to turn off pace and gave me a set HR to run at for an hour. We did this for 3 workouts and my avg. pace for 1 hour was 6:53.
His conclusion was my head was focusing on the pace numbers and not what my legs could actually do.
Do other people have this problem and train from time to time without "numbers"?