Sucking the Fun Out Of Running

Anyone that has read William Mawbry’s Make your Destructive, Dynamic, and Attribute Measurement System work for you, understands that to have confidence in you process results, you must control your process parameters. If I am seeking a particular adaptation, e.g., glucose storage increase, how do I train to stimululate the pathway for adaptation and how do I know if I was sucessful?

How do I know that my training process is improving my performance in a controlled, methodical, and repeatable fashion? What is my measurement system? How do I control the input and measure the output? And, since the output would be considered deformative, how do I plan the input to support the ever changing output?

In reality, any change to training, e.g., intensity, duration, frequency, will probably result in some performance improvement. That is fine if random improvement based on random input is acceptable.

As a senior runner, what is result that I want to measure? I have no requirement to run a race at a certain pace. I am interested in creating running improvement, if possible, to stay competitive in my age group. This adds an element of fun to my training along with the health and social benefits. And running fast (whatever that means) is fun!

All are my training inputs are variable to some extent.

1. Target race distance.
2. Training plan.
3. Current level of fitness.
4. Level of desire to train.
5. Available time to train.
6. Environmental variables.

The training outputs:

1. Minutes per mile pace.
2. Fun.


Using science and technology is an aid to developing my training, not a replacement. As I learn more about developing a training plan, the more I need to understand what is occuring at the cellular level. In addition, I want to know what can I do post workout, that keeps the pathway for the target adaptation functional. The more you know....

And as I learn, I realize that a training plan is a document that must be tailored to an individual. The goal stimulus must be defined as well as the order, frequency, duration, and intensity of each workout. The plan needs to be created by someone with knowledge of how human physiology, as well as coaching experience. This is where you must have faith and trust in your coach, training plan, and training.