Discussion: That's pretty cool. Of cour...

That's pretty cool. Of course the question is, does it translate to progress when it counts?

One side note -- it seems to me that in your writing about your O' races you often mention being very aware of your running speed, and in particular of trying to push the pace at various times. I'd suggest that that may often be counter-productive. Concentrating on your pace or your physical effort in general usually means not concentrating on where you are or where you are going. And we know what that leads to.

This may not be true for you. But it may be. And it seems to me that you run better than your results would indicate. So maybe the last thing you need to focus on is your running.

Just speculating.... :-)

Yes, translating training to results is the big question. I was (probably still will) going to make that the subject of today's blog entry.

As for the running speed, yes, I'm very aware of it. I don't know that I'm dedicating too many CPU cycles to it; I just tend to be pretty tuned into level of effort. Certainly it doesn't get nearly the focus it would in, say, a 10K road run. Still, your point about pushing the pace being counter-productive is well taken. I try to do that only when it really is a running leg (trail or obvious handrail), but I have got into trouble pushing too hard going over a ridge and then zoning out on the other side.