just having fun vs achieving your full race potential (Page 2)

Donskiman - 2010-06-25 4:40 PM

I would argue that outside of the pros, Olympic athletes, and a very few AGers - almost nobody comes anywhere close to reaching their full race potential. To do so would require far more training than most people have time for.

So while you may train hard and push yourself to the max you have trained for - very likely you aren't even close to your full potential.

Experior - 2010-06-25 3:03 PM

I guess I read "achieving your full race potential" more along the lines of "in the context of other constraints, your focus is on racing the best you can". 

In other words, I thought the spirit of OP's question was more like:  Given the choice between a training session that will be more beneficial to your race, and one that will be more fun, which do you pick?

I agree with cusetri and others, though.  I rarely find that, for me, there is a distinction between those things.

Donskiman - 2010-06-25 5:14 PM

A person can always race the best they have trained for regardless of what they do in training. I still argue that is not the best they can, and few people ever train enough to race the best they can. I would further contend that some people are able to race above the level they've trained for, but still fall far short of racing the best they can - or to their full potential.