But, what about parkrun?
'But, what about parkrun?!' - additional sessions and social runs within your coaching programme.
A question which Tom and I have received a lot over the past few weeks is "but what about parkrun?!" from our athletes - so I thought I would answer here so it's useful info for all!
Running a parkrun every week is a staple of many runner's joy, so I'm not going to take that away from you. Likewise, if you're doing the odd social run here and there or extra last minute race, I don't want you to be so training-focussed you think you're "not allowed" to do these.
But sometimes we can't have it all, especially if we do want to put our goals first.
So a few questions to ask yourself regarding extra runs, races and parkruns:
Can this extra run fit into one of my training sessions?
This is obviously the neatest solution. If you have an easy 45 minutes as one of your runs, and parkrun can form a bit of that, perfect! If you find that you are able to do a structured tempo run within parkrun, amazing! If it can become a part of your long run, this is GOLD STAR material as it's a great way of finishing a long run strong.
This requires discipline. A best effort parkrun is NOT a substitute for a structured speed session. A tempo 25 min parkrun is NOT the same as 2 x 15 min at tempo pace with 10 min jogging in the middle (for instance). A 5km parkrun which was disciplined for 1km but then got carried away is NOT a 7km easy recovery run. But guess what? developing that discipline is ONLY going to be a great thing for you as an athlete!
I do parkrun most weeks and always fit it into my wider training goals in this way. And if it won't fit into my goals, then I volunteer instead!
SO best solution: make the parkrun (or social run, race etc) fit your sessions.
However, if it can't neatly fit, ask yourself...
What is my genuine top priority at the moment?
If it is your goal, i.e. 4 hour marathon, to do your absolute best at a certain race, to taper and perform this weekend, then yes, sticking to your plan is gonna give you the best shot!
But if you CAN'T make the extra run fit your goals, it's best to sacrifice the extra run for the sake of a bigger picture.
If, however, you're ok with admitting that your training goal is not your top priority within your running journey, and social running/getting carried away with being competitive, is more important to you than training intelligently, as long as you take ownership of what you're sacrificing and you're ok with it, then have at it!
There is no right or wrong - it's personal! - but don't bury your head in the sand and say you can have it ALL, basically! ☺️
"But it's only a little 5km - surely it won't change things THAT much?!"
If you're looking for a measure of how much an extra run/parkrun affects your overall progress so you can make an intelligent decision, here's what to consider:
How does doing this run affect my other training sessions this week? i.e. will I be able to hit them all still, or will the paces be more tired? Will I sacrifice a session elsewhere, and need to ask for session to be rolled over? Does this delay by progress? If I can only run 3 times a week and one run has to be social and one run has to be parkrun, am I actually going to see improvement from 1 structured run per week? Do I really need to increase my mileage to fit this side quest?
How will this run mentally effect me? If I DON'T PB at parkrun each week (which you won't! Best efforts in a 5km block should really be max every 5-6 weeks) will I use this as an excuse that my training is not working? Will I be down on myself, throw in the towel, have a tantrum? Will I start being undisciplined elsewhere? OR the opposite - am I going to use parkrun as an off-plan 'reward' but ONLY when I have got 2 S&C sessions done that week (to motivate myself)?
Am I high mileage enough for this extra run to genuinely be an extra run? a 60km+ per week runner (high mileage in our books!) will be able to absorb, say, an easy 5km social run, so much more than someone running low mileage (under 30km per week), because proportionally it's so much less. Do I need to really work up to being higher milage so I can do more? Is this something which I can logistically work towards?
As an off plan run, do I have safe enough habits to do this? Am I warming up and cooling down?
I hope this gives you some food for thought!
Cat
