Not training for a race

I continue to enjoy the training goodness ... But I have found something that I had previously lost. 

When I started running, I just wanted to improve.  Sure I raced, but no one race was  important to me.  Sometime between 2006-2008 I lost my way, I stopped training to become a better runner and started training to do the best I could in a particular race.

What's the difference?

If you only care about performance in a particular race you can make decisions that appear to help you achieve your goals for that race, but might be detrimental to you as a runner.  One example of this is Leadville - I would do 3 hill focused workouts per week - but no speed work.  24 hour racing - I still did speed, but too many times to count I would make decisions of distance or total mileage over speed and hills ... what are hills.

When you train for a race, race day come and goes.  There is always a mental let down and I will try and find another race to train for.  In the past few years this has led me to yo-yo into extremes of fitness levels.

So, once again I am not training for any particular races.  I am training to just improve as a runner.  This may lead me to be a jack of all trades, but a master of none, or may lead to new PRs ... We will see.  But I am looking forward to the variety.

Good running to all -