Is this a good 6 week progression?

This seems very cautious and probably nowhere near too much too soon.

Were you running 170 minutes per week before your break? If not, this seems like a bad idea. You've got an 82% jump from week 1 to week 2, followed by a 37% jump from week 2 to week 3.

How about this?

1. 15 min. off 16 min. off 17 min. off 18 min.

2. off 19 min. 20 min. off 21 min. 22 min. 23 min.

3. off 24 min. 25 min. 26 min. off 27 min. 25 min.

4. 28 min. 29 min. off 30 min. 31 min. 32 min. 25 min.

5. off 33 min. 25 min. 34 min. 35 min. 36 min. 25 min.

6. off 37 min. 25 min. 38 min. 39 min. 40 min. 25 min.

7. off 40 min. 25 min. 40 min. 40 min. 40 min. 25 min.

7th week with 1000m faster than usual jogging pace on Tuesday and 6 slow hills on Saturday.

How old are you?

What where you doing before the break?

Did you take 14 consecutive days off? Why?

What distances do you race?

When will your next race be?

Have a cut back every 3rd or 4th week, reducing anywhwere from 15-25%.

OK, we all have different bodies and I suppose it could work out differently for everybody. In any case, I started doing the above but the first jog was actually 3 times 5 minutes jogging. Then I moved up to 5 + 5 + 6 min., 6 + 6 + 5 min., 6 + 6 + 6 min., 6 + 7 + 6 min., 7 + 7 + 6 min., 8 + 8 + 5 min., 8 + 8 + 6 min., 8 + 8 + 7 min., 8 + 8 + 8 min., 8 + 9 + 8 min., 10 + 10 + 6 min. Everything was working OK up until that point until I decided to do 20 + 7 min. on the next jog. I know this plan seems excessively cautious but I was getting rid of the "residue fatigue" from the last season until that 20 + 7 min. jog then I felt a bit of fatigue for a few days. This was followed with 15 + 10 min., 18 + 10 min., 19 + 10 min. and 20 + 10 min. Now I feel more rested. And the next few days I'd like to go 22 + 10 min. etc. like jump up 2 minutes for the first part of my jog until I get to 40 consecutive minutes (with the exception of the 25 minute days where I'll do 20 + 5 min. for a while). The only thing I find a little peculiar is I had a tiny feeling in my left foot before I took a 2 week complete break. Today I bent down to look at something and still felt a tiny feeling again in my left foot. I'm jogging with Ascics GT-2000 shoes on grass and it's still like that. So, I wonder if I need a foot x-ray. I guess this means once I get to 210 minutes a week, I may never exceed that.

Oops, I meant to say I wanted to do 22 + 9 min. on the next jog. And when I did 20 + 7 min., I realized I would have been better to do 17 + 10 min. for a more gradual progression that would have kept my legs more rested (my assumption anyway).

Start running slower (think "jogging"), so you have no problem running a continuous run.

I'm tempted to think my pace is natural but there may be a possibility it's too fast. Or, perhaps I'm not getting enough protein. I may end up experimenting, unless my left foot gets worse and I don't have a choice but to take another break.

Cripes, the sensation in my left foot won't go away right now. All I can think of is to take a full week off again and start AGAIN with a new idea. This time, I could go at my regular pace for up to 10 minutes twice a week then do the rest of my jogging at a really slow pace. Maybe next time I can get back up to enough mileage to start doing hills and medium-paced jogging before starting intervals (if I ever get to that point).

I just spent time reading on stress fractures. I know I can't easily diagnose myself but if they say it takes 4 to 6 weeks rest to recover from a stress fracture, by the time I get an appointment to get a bone scan, more than 4 weeks may pass anyway. So I'm thinking of taking 4 weeks off with maybe a bit of biking after a couple of weeks. There was a warm, tingling sensation in the middle of my foot. That gave me the impression it may be a stress fracture. I guess my jogging in thick snow didn't help either. They say soft, uneven surfaces can make it worse.

My medium paced jogging had gone from 8:00/mile to 7:13 per mile after several months then 6:40/mile pace for 800m today. Yes, I did do an 800m at medium pace today in 3:20 but only because I wanted to see where I was at before taking a break. At least I made progress after all the work I did. Only thing is, I may not have managed my training correctly.

I guess I may end up looking for training programs to modify to make them even easier and see what happens in the future. What I find a little odd is I didn't get any specific training program from anyone here. And some sites want you to pay for a training program.

Haha, I just realized something. I know I suspected maybe I wasn't getting enough protein, but maybe not enough calcium as well. When I heard on the radio that you can add powered milk to a glass of milk, I realized this nutritionist sounds pretty smart. Powered milk has a lot of protein and calcium.

If I take a full month off, I guess I won't have a choice but to do a program that is way more gradual. So, here's my guess right now as how I might do it.

1. 15 off 16 off 17 off 18 (66 min.)

2. off 19 20 off 20 off 20 (79 min.) 20% more

3. off 21 22 off 23 24 off (90 min.) 14% more

4. 16 16 16 off 16 16 off (80 min.) 12% less

5. 18 18 18 off 18 18 off (90 min.) same as 3.

6. 19 20 21 off 22 23 off (105 min.) 17% more

7. 24 25 25 off 26 25 off (125 min.) 19% more

8. 22 22 22 off 22 22 off (110 min.) 12% less

9. 25 25 25 off 25 25 off (125 min.) same as 7.

10. 27 25 29 off 31 25 off (137 min.) 10% more

11. 33 25 34 off 35 25 off (152 min.) 11% more

12. 26 25 26 off 27 25 off (131 min.) 15% less

13. 33 25 34 off 35 25 off (152 min.) same as 11.

14. 28 25 29 30 31 25 off (168 min.) 10% more

15. 32 25 33 34 35 25 off (184 min.) 10% more

16. 26 25 27 27 27 25 off (157 min.) 15% less

17. 32 25 33 34 35 25 off (184 min.) same as 15.

18. 36 25 37 38 39 25 off (200 min.) 9% more

19. 40 25 40 40 40 25 off (210 min.)

I just bought some powdered milk, yogurt and some peanuts. I'm hoping this will speed the recovery. I know peanuts are not directly related to a stress fracture but I figured if I'm tired, I may recover faster if I get more protein. I want to start eating 4 tablespoons of milk powder in some yogurt twice a day for several weeks. And 1/3 cup of peanuts twice a day. I heard once amino acids can combine any time during the day to form complete proteins. And yogurt and peanuts both have amino acids. This along with Caltrate calcium pills with vitamin D hopefully will speed the process.