Asics woes

[Decker]

Ok I love Asics, but I think its trying to destroy me. I made the mistake of taking its advice and switching to a faster plan and now I’m having trouble keeping up with it. It wants me to do 18k on Saturday at 5:41 pace. For me that is waay too fast for that distance. 6:20 is more like it. Too late to switch it back now too as the last phase has started. Ran only 10 yesterday in a hard headwind and only managed 6:30. Was supposed to be 12 but I had to stop. Frustrating. Everything was sore yesterday. Today is feeling better. Also not sure what tapering is supposed to look like when I get there. My plan is showing a slow 5k plus fast race pace (5:41) 8ks. I probably should just put all these numbers in a box and just run. 🙂

[roseabi Ultramarathon]

Anniemurph calls it 'Nagging Nancy' Don't let her bully you!!

(Nancy that is, not Anniemurph!)

[Decker Ultramarathon in reply to roseabi]

Yes, I shut Nancy off awhile ago and started plugging in the times manually. Now its just the program expectations that I am stressing over. Your brain knows its just software programming but you still feel like you are letting someone down - clearly, I spend way too much time alone with my apps.

[AnnieW55 in reply to Decker]

I know what you mean about feeling you're letting 'someone' down. Through no fault of my own 😚 I got four runs behind on a plan. When I went out to do the next 12k I realised that if I did 13 that would be a 5 and an 8 thus knocking my "owing runs" down by 1 - sad or what! I plug in manually too.

You're much faster than me but I'd just do the planned runs at a pace you think you should/could be going rather than kamikaze Asics pace and take the hit on the graph for time.

As for tapering, not got that sussed yet as the only one I've done Asics actually increased my runs by 1 for the last couple of weeks! Don't know what that was about.

[Decker Ultramarathon in reply to AnnieW55]

Haha that must be running Math! I need to brush up, as I think I need to employ it here 😁.

Thanks Annie, glad I am not the only one. Going to slow a bit and I am also not doing the back to back runs any more. My last two bad runs were the second of b2bs. The b2bs only showed up when I approved the asics speed increase. Really should know when to leave well enough alone.

[Anniemurph Half Marathon in reply to Decker]

This is why it works so well Your brain tells you it's just a collection of ones and noughts or electronic dust motes or whatever but your heart, ah, that's different I knew Nancy wasn't real, but I could see her!

Okay, come on, you can do this. Going too fast is not going to help you at this point. Get a grip and do what you need to do to be ready for that race. Forget the numbers, your training has been going brilliantly and you are really well prepared. You are in spot on the right place in your training plan and no programme is going to mess this up for you. Clear? Good! xx

[Decker Ultramarathon in reply to Anniemurph]

Haha, you make a great cheerleader/drill sergeant Annie!😁. Yes I am decided on just doing my original plan goals and ignoring these new ones. Tomorrow is the long run with the Ninjas group and then I might run home from there to make my 18. If I can run at the same pace we’ve been doing then I should be in decent shape.

[Anniemurph Half Marathon in reply to Decker]

Excellent! You've got this!

[misswobble Marathon]

Do what you can and myasics will suggest pegging it back if needs be. they soon spot you’re going slower. The “average” plan is crippling! The “hard” plan. Well just don’t go there 😁.

When you have a race pace or fast paced run scheduled do your best to hit the time given. That’s all you can do I keep a paper copy so I can see what the pace was before any pace tweaks by myasics. A fall-back position 😃👍

You don’t want to get injured before race day and that’s always the worry if you’re overdoing it

[roseabi Ultramarathon in reply to misswobble]

I did the "hard" plan

[roseabi Ultramarathon in reply to roseabi]

Last year, I hasten to add!

[AnnieW55 in reply to roseabi]

There's always one 😄

[misswobble Marathon in reply to roseabi]

Could you keep up? 😃

I tried the average, or “intermediate” plan as they used to be called Soon shot my bolt with that and had to get real and go back to the “easy” plan, which actually is anything but! It’s ruddy kick ass 🙂💪

[roseabi Ultramarathon in reply to misswobble]

Yes I could!

[misswobble Marathon in reply to roseabi]

✊ kick ass lady! 😎

[roseabi Ultramarathon in reply to misswobble]

KICK ASS!!!

[Decker Ultramarathon in reply to roseabi]

Respect!

[roseabi Ultramarathon in reply to Decker]

I didn't fancy it this year

[Decker Ultramarathon in reply to roseabi]

I don’t know that I would ever fancy that!

[Decker Ultramarathon in reply to misswobble]

I think I chose the mid plan and then it moved me to a faster pace. That is good advice, just going to do my best with it.

[Lordi Marathon]

I take no notice if I "fail" to hit the minimum pace suggestion. I'm still waiting for my plan to adjust to my slower times bu I have not noticed it changing/slowing the pace. I'm using my plan as a rough guide and bit of a nag ( to beat me up when I think I've run a decent one

[Decker Ultramarathon in reply to Lordi]

I think I am too late to have the plan adjust now so I’m just doing the best I can with it.

[Hidden]

I would do the distance but at the pace you feel you can sustain. That way you are still following the plan but not the speed. It will readjust if necessary. I always try to follow my run plan but if life gets in the way then I accept that I have done my best. Asics is not going to tell you off or sulk!!

[Decker Ultramarathon in reply to Hidden]

Yes maybe the virtual nagging will be in their next release I think everyone is right, I’m just going to push to my own pace ( which sits somewhere between the Asics slow and fast pace suggestions) and try not to look at the pace discrepancies on the Asics chart. 😁

[ju-ju- Marathon]

Did you tell the program you wanted a super fast time when you set up the plan? This is why I never follow plans or rules, they are so frustrating!!

[Decker Ultramarathon in reply to ju-ju-]

No, my original plan was for a 2:25 HM, which was a do-able plan, then when I started running faster, the plan advised to move to a harder version. Thats when I should have just left it alone and continued 😊 After that it was bananas, asking for a 2:00 HM. It was a massive jump. So now, mentally I am still working to the 2:25 which still feels quite ambitious, but possible. My earlier slower HM training time was 2:37, so if I get in at a faster time than that, I will be happy. It seems like anyone that has followed these plans, usually winds up shaping them differently in the end.

[ju-ju- Marathon in reply to Decker]

You know what they say..... rules are there to be broken. That time sounds doable given all the training etc...

[Decker Ultramarathon in reply to ju-ju-]

Thanks ju-ju, I hope so

[misswobble Marathon in reply to Decker]

You sometimes get too tired from the fast running and worry you’ll be too tired or injured before the big day, so you stick to the plan times as best you can. That’s all we can do isn’t it 😃

Myasics gave me a marathon time of four hours based on my my sub one hour half marathon time. That seems logical. However, in reality it took me nearly six hours. Nothing went wrong. I was fine but it took as long as it took. I was quite happy though as I’d nailed it, finished strongly and was fine afterwards.

[misswobble Marathon in reply to ju-ju-]

No! It’s based on your actual race times, age, man, woman, the lead-in time before the race. You get the plan according to your accurate answers to the questions asked. You get specific run times and average pace time per run. It’s comprehensive. If you run slower or faster they will suggest tweaks

Even if you can’t hit all the times specified, the proper structure of the plan is still excellent. No over-running necessary. 😃👍

[mrrun Ultramarathon]

Once the machines take over and start calling the shots, fair enough, but for now it's you who run the show. Your woes are the exact reason why l go alone and never let anyone (anything) tell me how fast or slow l should go.

The other day l ran 8K at 7min per km, only to repeat the same distance run a day later at average 5.25min per km. Why? I don't care why, each time l felt alright.

When l do my 21K plus l will run alone, my tempo, my show. Ultimately, we are doing it for ourselves!

All the best, bud!

[Decker Ultramarathon in reply to mrrun]

Seems like a wise approach you have there. I guess I’m still a sucker for the data.

[Langley-Loper Half Marathon]

Excuse my ignorance as I have only just started an Asics plan, but when does it recalculate and can you refuse its generous offer and stick with the original plan? I think I am going to print mine out quick in case it changes.

[Decker Ultramarathon in reply to Langley-Loper]

It seems to let you know at the end of a phase. It sends you an email saying something like “hey, it looks like you’re running faster, so why not try this shiny new faster plan?” ... Don’t believe its hype unless you are Speedy Gonzalez!

[Ajs07]

I personally feel that you should stick to the ASIC distances but at your pace, the last thing you need is to pick up an injury by trying to up the pace this late in the plan. I’m a total novice at this but am also following an asic plan for a half marathon. Currently the paces it’s asking for are way too slow for me so I’m running the distance it asks for and input the info manually afterwards, whether it will tweak later remains to be seen. I’ve noticed people are talking about the average and hard ASIC plans , I’ve told it that I want to run twice a week as I can realistically keep to that (if I’m able to get extra run in , I plan to do interval training ) and that I just want to finish the race, it has predicted a finish time, which is ok for my first and will give me something to improve on next year. The plan itself looks manageable although it’s paces are too slow at the moment , is this a false sense of security? will it all change later in the plan??

[Decker Ultramarathon in reply to Ajs07]

It sounds like you’ve chosen an easy plan, and yes, especially in the early stages the pace can be very, very slow, but it does pick up later on. The switch to a faster overall plan only happens if it sees you are consistently running much faster for quite some time, and then the suggestion comes via an email that you have to interact with, so don’t worry, it wont auto switch you without your consent :). If you get the ‘go faster’ email you can choose to ignore it and stick with your original plan. I’m not knocking the Asics program either. Its a brilliant package for a free service. This is just something to keep in mind. I think they could fine tune this feature in a future release. Maybe allow you to choose on a scale on how much you want to increase by or something like that.

[Langley-Loper Half Marathon in reply to Ajs07]

My plan has me running at about 13 minute miles for the first week. I have struggled to slow down to about 11 minute miles. I know there is faster to come, but this slow preconditioning phase is really slow.