How much does Athletica actually use the race target time?

General
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I’m training for Berlin and I’m curious about how Athletica uses the target time entered for a race.

My target is quite ambitious, but during the build I’ve often felt that the prescribed paces and overall intensity were fairly conservative compared with the pace needed for that goal.

So I’m wondering: does Athletica really use the race target to shape the plan, or are sessions mainly driven by current threshold, fitness/fatigue, recent performance, HR, pace profile, etc.?

And if the system thinks the target is too aggressive, does it effectively ignore it and train you toward what it believes is a more realistic outcome?

In my case I feel Athletica has managed fatigue very well, but sometimes maybe at the cost of not giving enough exposure to the intensity needed for the target marathon pace.

Would be interested to hear how this is supposed to work.

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As far as I know, Athletica will use your ‘test’ week to come up with the initial targeted paces/hr and will adjust as you train. I don’t believe it takes into consideration your ‘target time’…

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Dear @qfcoach

Target time is for your own purposes only. Let me explain:
I can very well aim at a time, any time. Let’s say I want to run a 3:30 marathon. I’m currently no where near that shape (but let’s pretend I don’t know that). I really really want to run that time and set out to train at paces that is required to make that happen.

A week goes fine. My aerobic developement runs go fine. It’s early enough in the block that I can ignore slightly too fast and hard demand. I still believe.

Few more weeks go by and I’m still determined that my body will adapt to demands I am placing my physiology under, running my training runs at goal pace. Until I get sick/that niggle I’ve had in my hamstring for a week now….
Oops, I guess I will have to take a week off.

Nevertheless, in my head, I’m locked in on my goal pace. It’s 3:30 or die.

So I keep running at a pace my physiology is not ready for. I keep repeating that cycle of exhaustion, illness, niggles and inevitable breaks in training. I’ve missed my long runs or not been able to hold my goal pace for more than 15-20km before blowing up.

Race day:
I run the first 15, maybe 20km at race pace, I think: “it’s hard but I’m stubborn; I can make this work.”
Nope :head_shaking_horizontally: marathon will take my soul by 28km and my goal is blown. Not today.

I’ve seen this so many times with athletes.. Done it myself too. We think we can out-will our physiology and are disappointed when we blow up despite our Iron Wills. You can’t out will poor training.

To base an entire training plan on a goal pace is not a smart approach. The work is laid on your daily sessions, you can’t out-will a certain pace. Pace will come.

You can have a certain time goal in mind, and work towards it but you need to always stay focused on the present - pace will improve over time, sometimes in very unexpected ways, and not always how you want it to.

You can use the running pace profile to see how your long runs improve over time and form your pacing strategy based on that as it shows what you have done in training. On race day, don’t expect you can do what your haven’t done in training. :flexed_biceps:t2:

MJ

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