My main goal right now is chipping away at that "elite fitness". I haven't been doing any sharpening, specializing, etc. Just keep chipping away at the mileage/frequency + racing alot. I feel like that's the best approach right now. Need to be in "better shape" than any1 I compete against, even if they are faster over X distance.
out.
work.
everyone.

This is basically the approach of my very fast friend I've spoken to you about. He runs basically every day, at least ~7 miles, and does a park run most weeks. Do that for long enough with enough miles and then hit some sessions when you're prepping for a particular race and you'll be hard to beat, I reckon.
ya i think it's a great strategy. all this sharpening/peaking stuff, it's hit or miss. keeping your fitness as high as possible & racing often, is much easier. It's what I eventually did with dunking: keeping your fitness as high as possible & dunking/squatting often. Then you just let the peaks/valleys happen naturally. Some races might be weaker than expected, some might be incredible performances, but both are a result of trying to maintain/build high fitness. And as far as racing often goes, the more you race, the better you get at racing, which is very much a skill in itself.
Racing alot is just throwback badassery. The more I learn about these oldschool dudes, the more it makes me just want to execute oldschool training ideology: less science/precision+more brute force (i seem to end up always favoring this, soo..), more running, more racing.
I definitely love what i'm doing now. I love running really slow. I love racing. I love running alot. So, if I just do all of those things often, i'll improve alot because I really do enjoy it. I don't love speed training as much as all of the other stuff - solo speed sessions are brutal. I do it, but it feels different. So that's why I want to keep putting more emphasis on the other stuff. Just trying to "listen to my body", feel like it's steering me in the right direction.
your friend drop any new crazy PB's lately?
pc!!