Plan or companionship
If you could only choose one, which would it be – following a training plan solo or running for fun with friends?
Okay, ideally, you find a friend following the exact same training plan as you! Ha! Double win!
That actually is possible and I don’t think following a plan and having running companionship are mutually exclusive. Just talking (writing) this out.
The more I’ve thought about my little anti social blip from the running club last year, I’ve realized I was doing mostly solo runs not to be anti-social, but because I was following at training plan from Coach Britt! I didn’t want to say to people, oh, well, we can run together, but I need to do strides, or run the last two miles at this pace, or da da da.
Maybe I should have, because perhaps people would have said “Okay, Kim! That sounds fun! I totes want to run some random interval workout with you at your pace- your company is sooooo worth it!”
Heh.
I am looking at incorporating intervals, goal pace miles and all that jazz in to my running again. Bleh. But so far, I see the tendency in myself to pick running with friends over doing interval/pace runs*. And I like running with friends to mean slow easy miles. Errrrr… which plan do you think will have me closer to a goal pace on race day? Yeah. That’s what I thought. Time to actually do those intervals. Maybe the key is in finding someone faster than me (and there are A LOT of those people out there) with whom to do those runs. Or to really strategically plan the “easy” runs.
And it’s not that I don’t mind running solo. I don’t. I actually quite enjoy it. I just like to use running as social time, too. You know, the whole two birds with one stone thing (eww).
It’s funny to me that I am writing this, because I have found that I am no good on a training plan, or having goal pace runs or any of that.** I am best when I wing it – maybe start with a long run mileage idea for the week, and plan around that. That is partially why my mileage is up and down so much. And I don’t mind that.***
Friends on this morning’s run! Funny thing – Emily and I planned to run and Adam happened to be running by our meeting spot and joined us! Love it when that happens!
*A long steady run usually works, if it’s one pace.
**Because I hate being told what to do, even if it’s me doing the telling.
***But again, that might not help if I have any pace goals for a race!
Themocracy
I mix training plan with social runs. Soon I’ll be doing more speed-work than I ever had as an adult and I plan on doing that alone (at least at first). I’ll try to run with folks from the running club on my “easy days”.
I agree with your idea that would be great if I could find someone faster to push me on those speed days, but then you’re kinda asking that person to “slow down” for you, especially if you’re having a bad day.
It would be awesome if I could find someone who would do that for me. I’m much more true to my training when other people are expecting me to show up. 😉
You never know! You might find someone in the club who wants to do those runs with you! I guess it doesn’t hurt to ask? I should say the same to myself. 😉
My best running friend and I used to follow the same training plans. Towards the end I was running a bit faster than her on speed days but otherwise we ran together. It was really convenient. Thats also why i ran the marathon when I did because she was training for it too so I knew i wouldn’t have to run alone for long runs. See I am always up for running fast a few times a week, so even if I wasn’t training and a friend wanted to do intervals, I would totally do them. i think they are fun, but I guess not everyone thinks like me!
I always like intervals when I am done 😉 There must be some people around here that like them! My club does them Wed nights but that is the same time I take a strength class so the schedule has never worked for me.
I wish, wish, wish I had friends to run with. I starting running longer distances in college just because I was running with friends and having so much time. But since college I have only run alone 🙁 It is just so much harder in the real world to meet people who run at the sameish pace at the same time of day near where you run.
Is there no running club/community near you? I think I have been spoiled to have a club in a city right next to mine where there are people willing to meet me at 5:00 am!
Finding people to train with can really help me stick to a plan. Now that I’ve done training both ways I discovered I train better and more consistently when I run with other people.
I do a mix of both. My long runs are typically done on my own on the weekend but I still run ‘easy’ (I don’t wear my watch so I don’t know what my paces are for these runs) with coworkers on my lunch breaks. I’ve also been incorporating random speed/interval/pace runs on the treadmill at the gym every now and again. I still haven’t joined the local running club but I suspect I will at some point!
Reading over your comments made me also realize that I’m more likely to want to run with friends who are slower than me if I am not training for something specific myself. I helped a friend train for a half over a year ago and wasn’t training for anything longer than a 10k myself so I didn’t mind running at her pace and helping to push her. We are both training for halves now but she was set back in her pace due to having a baby earlier this year so I have been running with her less often so that I have time to put in my own training miles.
Don’t even talk about running buddies right now. I’m still sad that mine is moving in a week. Sniffle, sniffle. 🙁
I like social runs, but I need to get back into some speedwork. That’s where my friend the treadmill comes into the picture. 😉
You didn’t send me the deets on her house so I could buy it!!!
I tend to run solo but it’s mainly because I like to wake up early and go. If I knew of other runners in my apartment building or nearby, I probably would enjoy throwing in a group run once a week or something for fun but not as a “training run”. I’m not very good at pushing myself when I’m with friends for whatever reason.
Your comment made me think how with certain friends, that I don’t run with that often, and want to impress (LOL) I run a LOT faster. And with my regular running buds, we take it easy. Hmm. Do you think you don’t push yourself around friends since it’s “for fun”?
How about finding a person that has the same time table for running as you? I enjoy the “running freedom” i.e. being able to run when and where I want to. It’s hard to coordinate a “spur of the moment” group run.
Time table… like pace? That shouldn’t be too hard. But! Do I want to run with that person or not? Buah ha ha.
Yeah. I like to have that freedom too. Or at least the freedom to plan to do what I want.
When I wrote “time table”, I was going for time of the day coordination. I guess the fun of running with someone else (or a group) requires a little flexibility/planning.
Okay, thanks for clarifying! It does seem like people in my club are running all sorts of times of day! And I even have company at 5:00 am! None at 3:00 am though. 🙁
Plan and solo. Sometimes a nice run with a friend helps take the boredom away, but I usually find I need to run by myself if I want to be able to fit all of my training in for the week. The best is having a friend who wants to meet you for the last 6 miles or so of a long training run. Those last 6 miles are usually the worst and having a friend there breaks it up and takes your mind off of the miles (and the pain).
I do my plan solo, but try to make the “easy” run days the ones I try to keep open for a partner, or even do extended warm up miles with a friend! that has worked for me!
Like others have said, both! At times, I’m pushed a bit more when I’m swimming, biking and running with others, and end up doing some workouts that I wouldn’t do on my own (like track workouts). However I need/like to have some flexibility, and I usually find that when I’m more on my own. I’m thinking about more group training in the fall, but we shall see!
When I have a focused workout that might not be on someone else’s plan, I’ll do it alone. That being said, I have a lot of friends with similar distance and race goals as me, so I have a lot of chances to meet up with them on other nights. That makes it so nice. I think I have the best of both worlds and I’m thankful.
I usually prefer to train alone because I enjoy the personal time to think/zone out, the solitude, and the flexibility to do what I want when I want… but I’ve definitely found that I push myself a lot more when I run with others. I’ve always wondered what it was like to participate in the CARA marathon training groups or similar. Most people absolutely love the cameraderie. But I would worry about getting left behind on those bad days!
I bet there is always someone in that group that makes sure no one gets left behind… at least, I hope!
I used to fear running with others until Kelly (the Culinarian 🙂 ) pulled me out and encouraged me to run with her. It was then that I realized how much I enjoyed running with others! However, in the end I always end up choosing the solo route – all my long runs are completed solo and sans music. Always. I think it comes down to one’s personality as well – I’m a natural solo-ist (is that a word?) and an introvert so I enjoy being by myself.
I think you need a balance of both. For me, I run my weekly runs alone sans music and I run my long runs with a training group on the weekends. I would enjoy having someone to run with during the week to hold me accountable though! Sometimes it’s hard to motivate yourself to get up and be out running before sunrise!
As for my training group, I haven’t really been social with anyone save for the people in my pace group. And even then, it’s just strictly running. I like it that way though.
But, you can’t get too dependent on a group or another person in order to get your runs done. And, you can’t always go at it alone doing the same thing – same pace, same routes, etc. So, a balance of both is best, I think.
Yeah, and that is exactly what I use my friends for on weekdays – helping me with those early wake up calls. Ha ha!
Good point on not being dependent, especially if you plan on racing by yourself!
running is much more fun with a group of people. I find it much easier.
I’m not sure, as you know, I don’t know many people that run around here!
I did help a friend train for the local 4 miler a few years back while I was training for a full marathon. It was hard to balance her running and mine, especially since she was a beginner and wanted to run all the time! But we found the balance, and sometimes she and I just had to do our own things, which she totally understood.
I’d love to run with people on a regular basis!
Back when Kelly was following a Britt plan, I would do her training runs with her, if she was doing one on Thurs night (our usual group run night). It was fun! Like a “free” fancy workout for me! Actually a lot of people in our group mostly do all their runs at the same pace, so I know some other people were interested in doing her specific runs too.