sabaray - this sounds as if it will be a really good training program for you! Do you feel OK/safe running by yourself in the early morning like that? The only real advantage I see to group runs in the early morning (I am so NOT a morning person!) is the safety in numbers. Your group runs of the same routes at the same intensity week after week probably weren’t doing a lot for you as a seasoned runner. It sounds as if your new program will be challenging but very rewarding!
I think H and I may be finding ourselves talked into doing a RAGNAR run with Back on My Feet. I’m not wild about the idea, maybe slowly warming up to it. The fundraising part doesn’t thrill me and it seems that this race has some trail running also. I guess we’re going to the team organization meeting on Sunday, although we are "maybe"s at this point.
Gertrude- that sounds really hard! Good job!
sabaray- Glad you are getting going on The Plan!
Eating has been bad for me. I had a houseguest since Thursday and we obviously wanted to go out and do things! My daughter/son in law came over with brats last night for Mother’s Day meal. Lots of wine, too. I’m ready to dial it back.
3.1 miles this morning on tired legs, but I beat the rain that might come later. There have been some snakes spotted on a couple of my running routes (one here near work and one on my path that I go to on weekends). They are poisonous, so I’m not excited about that.
Thanks, all. Checking in to report that I am hanging in there! I drank a lot of black tea, so maybe the antiseptic properties of tea are keeping whatever inflammation in check. I just need to last through today and tomorrow, and then I can get sick. But I rather not.
Thanks! I am monitoring this closely and will take no chances, but for now I just have to sit and wait because the pain is going down. Have some experience with Mr.'s surgery for the same thing, so I am well aware of what the consequences could be. I am not too far from a couple of major hospitals, so if stuff happens, I am in good hands.
@BunsenBurner — good luck with the tea cure. It often works for me.
I am contemplating where I want to go from here with my running. I enjoy shorter distance races (5K, mile) and the occasional longer trail race (10K). I’d like to get to where those are easy (and I’d like to get my 5K times further below my current 30 minutes)–but I also enjoy swimming (laps 2-3x/week) and cycling (usually one long ride of 25-30 miles a week) for muscle balance and for fun. I’m currently aiming for a long run of 6-8 miles once a week, and three more runs besides that of around 3-4 miles each. It just doesn’t seem like enough mileage–but I don’t know if that’s just a hangover from my training in the late 70s, when everyone ran 70 mile weeks (and I got injured pretty often). I’m not particularly interested in marathons or half-marathons. I run a lot of hills–we live next door to a very hilly park so I do hills every time I run–and occasionally do some intervals. So far I’ve managed to stay uninjured. I run with the dog, who’s always ready to go faster, so that’s not a problem.
I guess my questions for more experienced runners (@MomofWildChild, @GertrudeMcFuzz, @MichaelNKat and anyone else who wants to pitch in here) are: can I get faster with that low mileage? More intervals? Pushing the hills more? I consistently run races way faster than I do in training–is a 5K once/month good speed training? So far it seems to be–
Yes on everything you said, and Michael/Ohio can weigh in, too. Intervals, racing and hills will all help increase speed. Just be careful not to combine all of them too close together in order to avoid injury. That’s not that low of mileage at all with the other things you want to do. It is normal to race at least a minute a mile faster than you train.
I am finally going to get a new Garmin. I can already tell I’m going to need some type of prompt to tell me when to switch between different phases of each workout - I just don’t have that kind of memory. Any recommendations? Help me spend Mr. Sabaray’s money! I think he has another lab visit in his future!
I really like my 235 with the wrist HR sensor. I know Ohio didn’t have as much luck with it, but it has been almost flawless for me. I also like the profile of the watch- and it’s aqua!
Wasn’t there a book a few years (okay maybe ten )about doing quality low mileage running and getting faster? Seems like you ran three days a week and could cross train on the other days.
Dmd77 - the run less run faster is an excellent book. In fact, I attended their camp 4 years ago at Furman University. The whole concept is your 3 runs during the week can’t be junk miles. You have a distance day, a tempo day and an interval day. All at targeted paces based on your actual/projected 5k time. You can’t dog it on your running days. Even though the running is more intense, you are less prone to injury as you are running less. Plus since you are going faster, you are running more effectively/efficiently and aren’t pounding as much as you have a tendency to do at slower paces. Your other 2/3 days are cross training on a bike, swimming or a rowing machine. They really want you off your feet for your cross train days. You rest 1/2 days per week.
You really need all 3 variations of running to get faster. But tempo running is going to get you your fastest 5k times and fast interval times will be best to lower your mile time. Also-One to two days a week need to be spent on 100 meter strides. Initially starting at 70% the first week and by months end 90% full speed. The body/mind needs to adapt to a speed mentality. I know it sounds simplistic but unless you practice high end sprinting/strides you won’t go fast. I’ve had a lot of my distance boys/girls drop down to a 200/400 meter race a couple times early in the track season to experience sprinting/fast turnover. Makes a dramatic difference later in the season.
My old HS coach used to tell me you get just as tired going slow as going fast so you might as well go fast!
MOWC - I’m liking the HR monitor more on my 235. Seems like it is ok after 5 minutes. The strap is still more accurate. Of course, that $500-$600 Garmin that Michael was coveting sounds like it would do a much better job!
dmd77, ohiopublic’ post 51152 offers some great advice. The concept of avoiding junk miles is critical to accomplishing performance goals with a lower volume training program. Think of junk miles as miles run at an intensity level which is too intense to be recovery but not intense enough to push you anaerobic systems hard. If you’ve bought into using ventilary thresholds as markers for heart rate, then you would want to spend about 70% of your time below or at VT1, 10-20% of your time above VT2 with less than 10% of your time between VT1 - VT2.
