Signed up to a bit of an impromptu race because I thought it sounded cool (Relish Running Races)
The race went well, especially off of three weeks prep/notice and a very cycling focused summer. Second marathon (+) of the year for me after taking a break from triathlon, and can really see myself getting in to ultra endurance events with more trails / slightly slower stuff!
Recovered well i would say… I was away from home for the week so couldn’t have my usual indoor recovery rides, but I was in the gym the next day for some light weights and spin bike. Then, I was running and squatting three days after. Back to normal training five days after.
At first glance, I thought you ran one of those crazy races where you’re inside the tunnel the whole time Instead, I see you ran thru two short tunnels. Although, at 50km, I’d still call it crazy
I’m just getting back to running after an extended injury (stress fracture in metatarsal bones in foot). I’m back up to 5 easy/comfortable runs a week now with no adverse effects.
I’ve been doing strides and short hills, but I’m wondering how and when to reintroduce intensity. I’d like to target a flat 10 km race in a few months, so would be working between half-marathon and 10 km effort whenever I do get back to intervals. Does anyone have good advice or resources on reintroducing harder running after injury?
Just add it back slowly just like you did w/ frequency. Limit it to one intense run per a week. Start with a “slow” fast pace and only a few reps. Slowly step down the speed as well as the duration. Don’t just jump into 20x400 at 5k pace (a good college XC workout). Start with something like 4x400 at HM pace or maybe 10K pace then slowly speed up the pace while adding 1 or 2 reps a week.
Good upper limits are 5k total (i.e. 12x400, 6x800, 5x1000) of intervals at faster than 10k pace or 10k total at slower than 10k pace (i.e. 6x1.5km or 5x2k at HM/10k/threshold pace).
What kind of volume are you running now? For a 10k (or even a 5k), I personally believe that there’s more to be gained in added miles/kms per week than in speedwork. If you’re not doing something like 2x30’, 2x60’ and a 90’+ long run each week, I’d focus on building that first. 2x40’, 2x80’, 1x120’ would be even better. Once you in that 5-6 hrs our running a week, start adding the speed work into one of the medium distance runs and keep the other 4 a week so easy you’re ashamed to put them on Strava.
I’m training for a marathon in December. Still biking 3 days per week plus strength 2x per week. Things were going well, until they weren’t… I started to get some pain in my right tensor fasciae latae. Took a week off, pain went away. Did a 2 mile run Saturday and 3 miles yesterday. Stupid pain is back. I’ve been doing glute activation and hip work. Rolling and stretching seem to reduce or eliminate the pain when it hits. Anyone know if I can run through this or do I need complete time off? Trying to get into see a PT. I’m afraid that if I miss another week or two I may have to cancel the marathon.
I broke my 5th metatarsal clean through. I was in a space boot for a few months. By the time I was running as much as you are now, I was no longer thinking about my foot, experiencing any ghost pains/sensations, etc… I was full on again. If you’re still thinking about it, then stick w/strides and hills. Maybe try adding one day of tempo or intervals at half-marathon pace to see how things go.
Not a doctor. Not a PT. That said, I’m quite familiar with doing hip related rehab due to a breaking the top of my femur off.
Perhaps something else is weak or tight causing you to overuse/stress your TF. I’d be careful about rolling, stretching, massaging the affected area. If it’s already irritated, you might cause more irritation. Also, depending on the cause, you might/probably be better off strengthening the TF itself or the supporting areas ( glute bridges, crab walks with a band, step-ups, etc…)
Definitely go see a PT for an evaluation. Hopefully, the PT is good and can get you sorted. You still have plenty of time until December.
Those run times are net, right? Not counting warmup/cooldown?
What’s considered a reasonable warmup/cooldown regimen for slower runners who are trying to get into shape and gradually get faster? Any particular duration? Plyometrics or dynamic stretches?
When you say “adding the speed work into one of the medium distance runs”, do you mean replace a medium-distance run with a speed workout like 5x1000m @ 5K pace? Or work your 5x1000m intervals into the middle of that 80-minute slow run?
Would 2x40, 2x80, and 1x120 be enough volume to train for a half-marathon? Or is that pretty much for a 10K and you’d need (or at least recommend) X more volume for a half?
If you’re running, then I’d include the warmup and cooldown as part of the run. If you’re talking about dynamic stretches before or after running, then no.
Before all runs, I do about 5min of band work for hip and glute activation before I walk out the door. Then I do about 100m worth of drills and dynamic stretching before I start my run.
On workout days, the warmup is the first 3km followed by 3 strides, then start the workouts.
The medium run becomes the workout. Warmup, do the work out, then cool down. E.g., 3km warmup, 5x1km w/2min rest, 3km cool down. In my case, it’s not 80min, but the work is what’s important. If it’s a tempo workout, you might start w/5km but when that becomes 10km or longer the total time for the workout will also get longer.
Yes. This is basically Barry P (3-2-1). The long run being 1x120min. Even if it takes you longer than 120min to run 21km, it’s enough.
The key point here is that you need to build up to a sufficient amount of time and/or volume before doing workouts. When the workouts start, volume might go down a bit before going back up. Most plans will recommend you already have a base of X km or miles per week. The plans will then progress you to higher mileage by the end.
OK, thanks. Using the BarryP method, I’ve ever-so-gradually built up to five-ish hours of running a week. But I’m slow enough (Zone 2 is about 9:00/km, roughly 14:30/mile) that this only means ~20 miles a week.
I’m starting to get ever-so-slightly faster on this volume (yay), but it’s taking a long time so I keep asking questions both to validate what I’m doing and to look ahead to my next steps (no pun intended). I really can’t put more hours/week into running, so I’m hoping that I get faster and my weekly mileage grows organically that way.
I also worry a little whether I can run the distances I want. Longest “long run” so far is 12km, longest race is 10km, but I have a 10-mile race in two weeks and my first-ever half-marathon in five weeks. Will give those my best shot, but not sure what the results will be. Obviously my goal is only to finish, however long it takes.
Just be patient. The timelines for improvements are months and years, not days and weeks.
Again, It’s common for the races to be longer than your longest training run. Since this is your first 13.1, I’d treat the 10 miler as long run in your training progression. Do a 10 mile long run the following week (21 days out from your HM) and an 11 mile long run the week after that (14 days out from your HM).\
FYI, it sounds like you’re on track (if not slightly ahead) of the Hal Higdon novice HM plan.
Sure, except it’s taken me 10 months instead of 10 weeks to get here. For reasons I don’t understand, my body improves very slowly. Maybe age, weight, or the number of years I spent on the couch? Who knows. Still, I should be able to finish this HM. Thanks for the pointers.
Intellectually, I “knew” that most training runs should be easy runs, and that an “easy pace” is conversational. But since I run alone, that had never really been something I could evaluate, and I thought I was running slow/easy enough. Pace was 8:50-9:00/km, and HR was averaging 146-149, which is 78-80% of my max HR (186bpm).
This summer is the first time since 1990 I’ve run longer than 10K. And last week’s 12K felt HARD, much harder than it should have… so when prepping for today’s scheduled 15K run, I was concerned and a little nervous.
I decided to run much slower in the hope that it would help me manage the longer distance. Pace was almost a full minute slower (9:50/km), and average HR was 140 (75% of max). Generally lower than that, but uphills spiked it (and I walked if it went past 148). Darned if I didn’t quietly chug-chug-chug my way through the 15K run. Huh.
I was really tired, both doing it and after finishing, but RPE was substantially lower than last week… and last week I walked about 4km out of the 12km, while today I only walked to keep HR down going uphill. Amazing what a 5% difference in HR does to RPE and fatigue! It really felt different.
So today I learned what I already knew: one of the most common mistakes of rookie runners is running their (our) training runs too fast. And from now on, my easy run HR is going to be 70-75% of max, no higher.
The other characteristic of a “good” slow run for me is my ability to reduce HR quickly by slowing down just a little. I know by experience that if my HR keeps creeping up and can’t easily be reduced, I’m too fast and I was too fast so far in the run.
The other thing that helps is my watch being set to display HR, and nothing else than HR. Forget pace.
When I’m running juuuust barely this side of a sixteen-minute mile, and people around me are walking faster than I am running, you’d be surprised how hard it is to slow down further.
I also value seeing pace on the watch (HR and pace), because I’m trying to learn roughly how the two correlate, and because sometimes I look down and my pace is much higher or lower than it should be, so it helps me make corrections before my HR gets hit too badly.
I agree that for most people, taking pace off the screen is probably a good idea. For me, the additional data of current pace is really helpful.
Has anyone seen specific run training for high BMI, experienced runners?
I’ve been searching for years and found nothing. It’s almost all for first time runners, run/walk and getting off the couch and ‘the weight will come off’ nonsense. FWIW I’ve been training triathlon for ten years, and finished eight Ironman events, so I’m no newbie. Regular run training plans don’t work, and my speed won’t scale to distance like all known methods expect.
Instead, I see you ran thru two short tunnels. Although, at 50km, I’d still call it crazy 
For reasons I don’t understand, my body improves very slowly. Maybe age, weight, or the number of years I spent on the couch? Who knows. Still, I should be able to finish this HM. Thanks for the pointers.