Complaint: I have to drive a good 15-20mins to get to any remotely hilly locations. Hell, I’d even settle for a single moderately inclined road around here. There’s literally nothing within a few miles.

Confession: When short on time or too lazy to drive further, I’ve used cloverleaf interchanges as a means of getting some needed elevation gain in.

Uncomplaint: I never knew those things were called cloverleaf interchanges. So that’s fun.

Always trust your body first and foremost. Even if it may go against conventional wisdom, experiment until you find what works for you. The big caveat is trying to control for other factors and not getting fooled by coincidental changes, which isn’t always easy given the number of factors which can impact performance.

Not arguing against conventional wisdom, btw. It’s the logical starting point. But when you can’t determine what the issue is, you have to put everything on the table.

Both can be true. We’re competitive creatures who want to beat the person in front of us but, ultimately, running is a solitary sport where you’re seeking to improve against yourself. Case in point, if I finish 1st in a local 5k but miss by PR by 30s I’m not going to be thrilled.

Running plans are overrated for a couple of reasons:

• Most of us are not good enough, and don’t intend to ever be good enough, to warrant such a rigid approach, particularly with the more advanced plans.
• Following the basic tenets of running is, in my opinion, more important than following any individual plan (stuff like: 80/20, slow runs slow hard runs hard, specificity for workouts (tempo, LT, intervals, etc), change things up every so often, always listen to your body, run enough miles).
• Personally, I find them boring. Hell, I find anything boring where I’m purely following what someone else dictates to me. I need to make it my own thing, even if only changing a few aspects. And if I want to change a run on-the-fly, I’m going to do that while adjusting the rest of my week as necessary. Ultimately, I run because I enjoy it, so if I’m feeling good on a particular day and want to go faster you’re not stopping me.
• I’m not arguing against the science behind them, but I think they tend to discredit the individual. Sort of like how a bad doctor might poo-poo someone complaining about an issue because “No, that can’t possibly be caused by this”. Sure, usually it might not be but there are exceptions to every rule. The more you run, the more you learn about yourself and your unique ticks. Training plans need to be able to incorporate that.
• The principles behind those plans are far more important than the plans themselves.

I’m not saying they aren’t useful to an extent. Certainly, I think they’re generally good as a starting point, particularly for newer runners who might otherwise be overwhelmed and have no idea where to start or those types of folks who require structure to stay on track. But following them to a tee and calling it a day ain’t for me. As with anything else, I’ll look at them, incorporate the relevant parts into my training, and go from there.

Re: running shoes longevity, I totally agree. And it’s not that hard to tell once you’re putting in a consistent amount of miles, assuming you can control for other factors.

I’ve had shoes conk out at less than 400 miles, as evidenced by soreness in my knees not present during similar runs with newer pairs. Others of the same brand and model I can continue to use well beyond 400 miles with no noticeable impact. It just depends on the individual pair.

Also, to mitigate against additional wear and tear on the body, I try to run exclusively on trails with the older pairs since, obviously, they are more forgiving than running on pavement or asphalt.

Running along the beach at Heckscher State Park the other day

https://imgur.com/a/kBcwspF