Running Update

I haven’t written a post about running a long time—I apologize to the readers who mainly come here for the running posts. If you’re still with me, thanks for being patient through all the mental health posts. If you’re someone who reads more for mental health and life updates and aren’t interested in posts about training, go ahead and skip this one.

Running had finally been going well up until this past Wednesday when I had a sharp pain in my foot and ended up having to walk two-and-a-half miles to get back home. Unlike the injuries that had nagged me for months before I had them looked at, I had my foot looked at right away. The doctor took some x-rays and poked around on my foot. She said it could just be some joint pain and that it might go away if I took a couple days off. If it hurts again when I run, I’m supposed to go get an MRI.

Before the foot started hurting, I had got my weekly mileage up over fifty, and if this foot thing is just a little blip, I’m hoping to go back to that mileage in the next few weeks.

I have no scheduled races this year besides pacing a Halloween half marathon. I’m going to miss out on my goals of running a 50 mile race and setting a PR in the 50K. I was too injured to race the 50K I was planning on running in July and had to do the 25K instead.  The first 50 mile I was thinking of was also not feasible due to my injuries. The fall races where I could try and PR at the 50K or complete a 50 mile happen to fall over my cousin’s wedding weekend in Texas.

So, the 50 mile and the 50K goals aren’t happening. That leaves breaking 17 minutes in the 5K. I still have a shot at this one, but it’s going to be really tough. I’ve got to continue building my mileage if I want to have a shot, and that means being efficient with my time and continuing to do injury prevention exercises to stay healthy. Right now my long runs and tempo runs are going great, but my shorter intervals are not. I can tell I’m still a ways off from being able to hold a sub-5:30 pace for a 5K, so I’ve got some work to do before I break 17:00.

I’m using a plan based on a Matt Fitzgerald book, “Run - The Mind Body Method of Running by Feel,” and an article in the now-defunct magazine, “Running Times” called “Always Ready to Race.” Basically, I’ve created a no-plan-plan where I decide on an interval workout during the week and then a long run and a tempo run on the weekend. 

Here are some nuts and bolts as to how I’m structuring my training:

I’m taking off either Monday, Tuesday, or both, or going very easy one of those days. This is mainly because I’m home with Calvin those and there’s not always time to run before or after Laura’s at work, but it’s also to recover from the increased mileage I’ve been doing on the weekends.

Wednesday is an interval/fartlek workout. I’ve done by time, for example 1:00 hard, 1:00 easy, 2:00 hard/easy, 3:00 hard/easy and repeat one or two times. I’ve also done 0.5 miles hard, 0.75 miles hard, 1 mile hard with 2 - 3 minute recovery and repeat once. As I’ve said before, I’m not hitting very many of these intervals at my goal 5K pace, but I’m starting to feel like with increased mileage I’m going to get there.

Thursday and Friday I’ve been doing easier runs of 5 - 9 miles before doing my weekend’s workouts. 

The back-to-back tempo and long run is something new I’ve decided to try, and over the past few weeks it’s been going well. I listened to an interview with famed coach Jack Daniels a few years back where he talked about bunching your training when you have more time over the weekend. So, I’m been doing a long run followed by a longish tempo run, or vice versa, on the weekends.

At first I wondered how I would hold up, and for now my legs have felt good. A couple weekends ago I put in 14 miles on Saturday and then did an 11 mile progression/tempo run on Sunday. I actually meant to do 10 miles on Sunday, but the water fountain I was running to was half-a-mile farther than I thought.

All-in-all, I’m feeling a little better about my training than I was a few weeks ago. I ran a 17:46 at a 5K about a month back—well short of 17 minutes and the first time I broke 18 minutes all season. Since then, however, my mileage has increased, and with the increase of mileage my old injuries haven’t flared up. I’ll be racing a 5K in the next few weeks, so we’ll see how much time I can shave off that 17:46.

Run well.