Difference between information and learning

Testosterscone

In this day and age when every bit of information is a few buttons away via good this article highlights a great point

https://www.peakperformancebook.net/single-post/2017/12/13/Mood-Follows-Action-The-Difference-Between-Information-and-Learning

With so many following generic plans and training methodology via books, articles etc I think it's worth reminding people to stop and think about the why around things at times to make sure you understand why you are doing things

RayCun

The other side, though, is that Magness is writing here as a coach talking to other coaches. For a coach, it is appropriate to spend some time thinking about a session and what it is designed to do, study it as it is in progress, and reflect afterwards on how it went, how it should be adjusted in future, etc, etc.

For the athlete though... Magness has written elsewhere about decision fatigue, and how physical and mental stress are basically the same thing. Making decisions is a source of stress, even small decisions. That's why some people adopt uniforms - Obama had twenty identical blue suits and twenty identical black suits, Jobs had loads of black jumpers, Zuckerberg has loads of hoodies. If you don't have to decide what to wear in the morning, that leaves more capacity for other decisions, and less stress.

And whatever the source of stress, whether it is mental stress from bad news, a hard day of work, emotional stress, or physical stress from hard workouts, it all has the same physical effects, the same hormones released, the same impact on/need for recovery.

So the ideal situation is for the coach to do all the thinking about training. The coach plans the season, draws up a schedule of workouts. The athlete just shows up. The coach watches their warm-up, asks how they are, tweaks the sessions or changes them completely based on their assessment of the athlete, thinks about whether the session was effective, goes back and adjusts the training plan, etc, etc. The athlete runs, and recovers.

At the end of the season the athlete takes a step back, discusses the season with their coach, maybe decides to change coach, or make some lifestyle changes. But in season, switch off the brain and do what the coach says.

I know, most of us are self-coached, and even the ones who aren't don't usually have coaches who can meet them before every session and watch them train and so on. So we have to make the calls ourselves on whether to do a session, or adjust it down, based on how we are feeling. But still, thinking too much about training during training will add to stress and should be avoided.

RayCun

actually, speaking of end of season/post-marathon reviews, pgarr posted a list of questions (from Hanson?) that would be useful -

• Was I able to hit all the prescribed workout paces? If not, were there specific workout types that gave me trouble?
• Did I run any of the workouts, easy days, or long runs faster than prescribed?
• Miles - Higher than I've ever done?
• Was goal pace faster than I've ever run? Too aggressive?
• Were my goals appropriate relative to recent performance and fitness?
• What was my pre - race routine like compared to previous cycles?
• How well did I execute my race plan. Did I start too fast / too slow?
• Did I have people to race? Was the crowd support good?
• What was going on in my life during this training cycle?
• Was my life more stressful or less stressful than previous training cycles?
• Did I get sick during this training cycle?
• Was I dealing with any injuries during this training cycle?
• What was my sleep like this training cycle?
• What was the weather like this training cycle? Did I adjust for this weather?
• Did I practise raceday nutrition in training? If so - did it work as planned on race day?
• Did I do specific workouts for the course profile? If so - did they work as planned on race day?