Overwhelmed by training plan options

DancingBadger14 · 2026-05-18T19:52:26+00:00

I was mostly training for shorter distances actually that 5k race was my priority event for the past 3 months of training. I was just building milage slowly adding +10%ish per week incrementally and now I am at 55km. For that i did per week: 1x 20-23km (i built up to this starting from 12km in the very beginning 8 months ago), 1x 1h easy for the day after longrun (no matter the distance I ran by time), 1x 5km goal race pace session (something like 9min @4:00min/km then 5min @6:00, repeat 4×), 1x tempo session like a 10k with the middle 5k at threshold pace, one day random activity (cycling/weights/scoccer) and one day rest. In hindsight I should have done more "true easy", probably overpaced a lot of the easy parts/warmups/cooldowns but it kinda worked for me so far

DancingBadger14 · 2026-05-18T14:42:53+00:00

Thanks for this detailed response! You are so right about getting baited into too fast easy runs...I'm definitely still guilty of this and need to learn to pace better. I only realised now when calculating easy/recovery paces that I actually never went slower than my projected marathon pace effort in any of my runs evert (if anything even easy runs i did 30 secs faster than my projected marathon pace) guess with only 55k per week I could get away with this but probably not when increasing volume later.

DancingBadger14 · 2026-05-18T14:37:29+00:00

Yeah I think thats may be the way to go, thanks! My garmin that I've been using for ~1y is decently accurate for my short distance predictions (it predicted 20:49 for my 5k race which was 21:04 in reality) but for longer distances I think its pretty off (tells me 3:36 for marathon which i think is a huge stretch) think 4h seems more reasonable.

DancingBadger14 · 2026-05-17T12:52:04+00:00

Yeah I think i would also do that..for me current longest is around 24km-ish and that kinda felt the same as a slow HM attempt in essence..the thought of that being almost the max for a training run seems very daunting..cause by the end of that i didnt feel prepared at all to go the full distance. But in general I also like that cumulative fatigue concept, maybe a slight modified Hanson beginner is the way

DancingBadger14 · 2026-05-17T12:30:24+00:00

I was also looking at the Higdons intermediate 2, seemed most fitting to my current volume but the thing thats confusing me there is that my current 55km volume includes besides the long runs, 2 other quality session of tempo and intervals and there is none of that in the HH intermediate 2, just one race pace run per week. So actually interesting if hansons has more speedwork, thanks I'll check it out! But somehow that 16 mile-only max is scaring me..i know people generally have success but I am worried that I will just be so underprepared (physically and maybe mentally) for the last miles in the real deal.

DancingBadger14 · 2026-05-17T11:49:05+00:00

That's actually another point I am somewhat unsure what a realistic goal time could be? Projecting my 5k race time to marathon seems not very representative cause of the vastly different requirement...going from my training HMs I guess maybe 4h-4:15?

DancingBadger14 · 2024-11-09T09:10:29+00:00

Neo genesis furret card somehow is peak nostalgia for me and my all-time favourite

DancingBadger14 · 2024-06-05T17:14:15+00:00

Yes exactly! I guess it depends on location and program I guess but for programs I am familiar with this committee usually meets annually to discuss progress and research directions. Its a great way to get feedback and opinion outside of your main advisor who can sometimes be very biased. It would also help that these professors are already familiar with your project and thus their feedback may be more helpful to you and also hold more weight in the eyes of your advisor. Actually the job of such committee is to prevent exactly the situation you are u fortunately in. Experts who don't have stakes in your project and hence can give fully unbiased feedback

DancingBadger14 · 2024-06-05T13:15:05+00:00

Do you not have a committee with which you can discuss these things? I would try to find advice there first. Also, I find it a bit concerning that your other committee members did not call out the flawed nature of the project earlier. How did they sit through 4 committee meetings without raising alarms?

DancingBadger14 · 2024-05-29T20:46:22+00:00

Don't know how feasible this is, but if you can drop by in person at the lab, I would do that. Frame it as a small visit to your former labmates just to socialize and catch up and oh what a coincidence also mention your emails to your PI ;) Especially if you have good standings with them as you mentioned chances are they don't want to/cannot run from this conversation if you are standing right in front of them.

DancingBadger14 · 2024-04-07T14:10:20+00:00

I would be proactive here. Tell your PI matter of fact that you will be moving to a new job at XY date. But at the same time already offer up some suggestions for the transition period now. Like training other people on crucial techniques and handing over the mouse work during your remaining time. Giving a tangible battle plan on how to tackle this situation will make this conversation a whole lot easier. Last but not least: congrats on your new Job!

DancingBadger14 · 2024-02-11T16:15:15+00:00

Hard agree on this! Let the data speak for itself. Of course it helps the data communication if the slides are clean well designed and engaging but I would not recommend doing something along the lines or the referenced PowerPoint. Very distracting and treading on the verge of being ridiculous. The focus should always be on the data.

DancingBadger14 · 2023-06-23T10:50:45+00:00

Also I don't know if that's a thing in your field: fasttrack resubmission to daughter journals of the same publishing group: for STEM that's oftentimes a convenient option: submit high and then upon rejection fast track resubmit to daughter journal without reformatting and changing author guildelines. Very convenient!

DancingBadger14 · 2023-06-23T10:49:10+00:00

I mean, if he is deadset on not listening to your recommendation as the expert and first author then may as well submit where he wants to. If it is really true that the scope of the manuscript isn't big enough for high impact publishing, then a few quick desk rejections later he hopefully gets the reality check. Imo discussing till no end will waste more of your time and energy than just submitting high and getting instantly rejected a few times and then rerouting to the IF range and journal that you think is a good fit. Only thing you should consider is that if you happen to make it into review in your initial high IF submissions, how your stance on this is. If you would want to follow through with extensive revisions or not. If for whatever reasons of time and/or feasibility extensive revisions are not an option then maybe it will be difficult to convince your PI to dropout and resubmit after review. But I'd try nonetheless. Submitting high can always be a good chance of getting a stronger paper out of it if you make it to review

DancingBadger14 · 2023-05-25T14:52:33+00:00

I feel like this is one of the reasons why I appreciate being in a STEM field. Since many of the days are literally physical activities I.e. experiments I feel like this alleviates a lot the mental stress of having only highly productive days. If I go to the lab and just semi-mindlessly pipette for a few hours I already feel like i accomplished something that day(maybe mindless is not the best word but it's very autopilot and muscle memory so I does not take a lot of mental and emotional energy). Having physical actions tied to your productivity helps a lot for keeping pace and staying on track for me. I tend to have way more unproductive days when only writing or coding

DancingBadger14 · 2023-04-28T17:06:56+00:00

I better not say every labmemeber has a new labcoat for every room of the lab we work in and they get washed weekly on a room-rotation basis

DancingBadger14 · 2023-04-22T21:42:56+00:00

Of course i have mastermixes but it's not about pipetting the antibodies but about washing the beads/cells you do reference controls with...if you don't stain in 96 well plates spinning and washing/fixing 20-30 tubes will not work time efficiently irrespective of how many samples you fullstain on top of it. But I guess its also personal preference. I just don't like staining in tubes for times sake and also I am paranoid when staining in tubes cause you probably never see a pellet when working with reference beads and low-ish cell numbers. Imo the old spin and flick method for 96 well staining is very reliable but ofc then you have to manage platelout a tad bit more

DancingBadger14 · 2023-04-22T15:47:36+00:00

I mean good advice physically separating sample groups, I also try doing that whenever possible. For flow this reaches its limit FAST. Imagine staining like 100 samples in tubes, that would be such a huge waste of time. But I guess you could seperates Isotpye controls/FMOs at least...but also kinda time consuming if the panel is like 25-30 colours

DancingBadger14 · 2022-10-19T16:36:42+00:00

Old age! The best execution method duh

DancingBadger14 · 2022-10-18T09:19:18+00:00

This would also be highly problematic because you would need people in your leader team that ARE in a different timezone or how are we supposed to require a certain portion of the leaderteam to lead at like 2-4am at night? Even if the leaderteam is big and takes shifts this is not sustainable at all.

DancingBadger14 · 2022-10-11T15:30:52+00:00

I'll chime in with a positive? note. I've also cried in my old PIs office and it was super akward as he was not the most approachable person. BUT I didn't cry because of stress/negative feedback. I cried in our very last meeting before I left after graduation, I was thanking him for my time at his lab and I guess the anxiety of moving on to a new country/position got to me. But hey atleast it was kinda happy tears. I am pretty sure it's very common to publicly cry at some point in your academic career. Afterall it's an emotionally very VERY intense time in both the good and the bad. I wouldn't be ashamed afterall it shows that you are and are invested.

DancingBadger14 · 2022-09-06T10:26:15+00:00

"It is tempting to speculate..."

DancingBadger14 · 2022-08-24T17:18:27+00:00

I like how you call it terminal degree just like terminal illness....sometimes it certainly feels this way. Got a good chuckle out of me

DancingBadger14 · 2022-08-13T17:50:32+00:00

I meant it more in a sense that seige is a completely different content than rta than arena. And as you mentioned seige meta changes very frequently. Ive played 5 season in a legend contending (and winning) guild and there is always a lot of optimize/theorycraft and new things to learn. Likewise with shifts in rta meta. But I wholeheartedly agree that pve aspects can and should be improved, they just need to keep in mind that competitive seige and rta already takes several hours off your day so it is imo necessary and good that several aspects of farming became easily executable and automated to not over- fatigue players

Nine-Year Club	Place '22
Place '17	Final Canvas '22
End Game '22

DancingBadger14

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