Train Me

So, I'm always super sore for a couple of days after lifting and I'm wondering if I should lift tomorrow or not. We have that race Saturday morning and I always want to do better than previously. I know I wondered last time if soreness had something to do with how hard it was. What do ya think? To lift or not to lift...

SlowAFRunnrMom wrote:

So, I'm always super sore for a couple of days after lifting and I'm wondering if I should lift tomorrow or not. We have that race Saturday morning and I always want to do better than previously. I know I wondered last time if soreness had something to do with how hard it was. What do ya think? To lift or not to lift...

You shouldn't be sore every day post-lifting. This likely is due to excessive workload and/or poor recovery (lack of adequate protein intake or sleep).

Weekly Report

Sunday: 8.2 miles @ 5 mph w/ a .1 increase every .8 miles until 5.7mph then I stepped it back down

Monday: 3.8 miles - .5 miles warmup, 10x400 @ 8.1 mph, .8 cooldown

Tuesday: lifted in the morning then

4 miles @ 5 mph, got bored and started increasing it .5 incline @ 2.5 m, then 1% @3.2m, 1.5% @ 3.8m

Wednesday: 4 miles- .5 warmup, 5x800 @ 8.1 mph, then 1m cooldown

Thursday: 4.1 miles @ 5.5 mph

Friday: 5 miles @ 5 mph

Saturday: .5 warmup then 2 m race

Race Report: 30 degrees w/ very little winds

Me: 15:40 !!! (Previous 20:31)

17 yo: 12:47 (none)

15 yo: 14:23 (none)

13 yo: 14:38 (15:39)

9 yo: 15:21 (17:05)

9 yo was super excited to set the new course record for females her age group! This was her last chance to get her name on a course record since she'll turn 10 before the next race.

A local 15 yo girl set the new overall female course record at 12:43. She's an amazing comeback story as she broke her neck in a car accident a yr and a half ago and came back from many many surgeries to run again. My 17 yo said she could have won but didn't want to pass this particular girl because of how hard she's working. She quietly took 2nd female and does now hold the record for females in her age group.

I also got an age group record (I guess my age group is slow af) and I got accused of cheating by Other Mom! lol. Apparently my time was such an improvement that she told her 12 yo I was a cheater. I didn't confront her because it's ridiculous. Besides, it's not really winning if you cheated and she doesn't know enough about me to know that I actually want to WIN not just come in before her. lol Anyway, beating Other Mom has been a long term goal of mine so thanks to everyone here who has helped me finally catch her! My previous 2 mile PR was 17:53 which I barely achieved in November.

Other Mom: 16:09 (none)

12 yo: 13:27 (13:42)

9 yo: 16:08 (16:44)

40 days w/o a day off from running so far this year. Missed a few days of core workouts though.

I was really surprised that I had improved so much in a month. I mean, I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't have both Strava and Garmin to prove the time was correct. I'm really starting to think that I could run a faster mile rn if I put my mind to it. I doubt it would be 6:30 yet but looking at my sub 8 pace for 2 miles I feel like it's definitely faster.

Strava says new mile PR from race was 7:57

Do I stick with all the same pacing I've been doing on the treadmill?

Loving this thread. F that Other Mom.

You are doing extremely well, carry on building that base!!

I wouldn't really change anything right now. What you're doing is working, as Other Mom noticed. So keep doing it.

You could try doing some of the treadmill stuff faster. Just increase by 0.1 mph or so one day, then see how you're feeling the next day.

"Besides, it's not really winning if you cheated and she doesn't know enough about me to know that I actually want to WIN not just come in before her."

Absolutely classic.

Thanks everybody!

Maybe try a 5k training plan. The mix of endurance and high tempo practice should have reducing your times fairly quickly?

I've started to use this plan below, but maybe for your purposes, you could take it more slowly at first and build up. This should also help to prevent injury!

https://www.letsdothis.com/blog/running-injury-free-is-possible/

https://d178fu9mi2dmkb.cloudfront.net/resources/LDT_5k_TrainingPlan.pdf

I honesty think that you will probably need to build some speed and do some sprinting an anaerobic work to get faster than sub 7. Your body will have to handle sprint paces quite a bit faster than 6:30 pace in order for you to run a full mile at 6:30. I definitely think you can do it but you might want to see how fast you can run 200/400/800m once you have got used to your base. Just doing a load of miles at 9-12 minute pace is only going to improve your aerobic fitness, a 6:30 mile for a lady requires pretty decent anaerobic fitness too. However, you are improving steadily and getting a fair bit faster and I do not think you are entirely aerobically comfortable yet so build that base and carry on building and building upon that base for a couple more months (until summer-June ish) first and get comfortable doing what you can do now! A sub 8 mile is better than most girls in their athletic prime can do, you are doing well.

This is a great thread - you must feel great about your improvement and the chance to have such a great experience with your kids (and neighbors)

you obviously have some natural talent to make a quick improvement - so keep having fun

I think you will keep improving on this plan for at least a couple of months - your body will simply keep adapting to the fact that you are training it daily

you dont want to make too much change or increase now as the biggest thing you want to avoid is injury - that would undo all the fun and motivation

the 2 things you can change slowly are to incrementally increase the length of your easy runs - only like 1-5minutes now

and you can add some variety to your intervals - you can do repeats of everything from 200m up to 800m - obviously adjusting the pace for the distance. at this point you would be doing this mostly to keep from being bored

as some other posters suggested - on a May/June timing once you have more base - you could look to make some bigger changes - either a more challenging plan toward the mile goal, or moving to a 5k plan. The 5k idea is of merit as your 2mile run shows that you already can handle 5k distance. The 5k distance will keep building your base and will give you acess to the fun runs/races etc. in the running community that would keep giving you motivation. This base plus some faster mile work would then get you to your ultimate goal.

Keep at it - and keep posting your results!

SlowAFRunnrMom wrote:

If I lose I have to pay her car payments her first year.

Neither you nor your kid should be making "car payments," EVER. That's horrible money management.

That's actually funny because its 0% interest, although I'll admit it would have been cheaper overall to pay cash for a older model car with a few miles. I'm just not that handy of a mechanic and I don't want to have to deal with her having breakdowns.

I was running 25mpw at 14, and built up to 55 mpw at 17. To be honest, my regret running-wise over that period is not running more mileage. Your children's current mileage is perfectly adequate, and to be frank, the mileage being prescribed by the school is too low, unless the student is 11 years old and has been running for less than 6 months, or something unusual like that.

It's up to you, but I recommend you keep running with your kids. I ran with my Dad age 11 - 13 or so before he got injured/I got faster, and loved it. It was massively positive.

Good luck with all your running goals!

You're getting some good advice. I'd agree with all the above. I'd add this...

Once the weather warms up a bit, you should do your faster, shorter interval workouts on a track. Right now, the treadmill is setting the pace. You need to learn how to set the pace and "feel" the pace yourself.

You will need to do short intervals faster than mile race pace to run the mile at your goal pace. This is a level of discomfort that very few adult runners have experienced and train specifically to endure. You build that ability by doing short intervals of 200, 300, and 400. Running faster will also teach your body how to move more economically at fast paces.

You also need to learn how to "run relaxed" at a fast pace. You can practice this on a treadmill by running a few 400m at your current pace and then running 0.1mph slower on the next rep while concentrating on relaxing your shoulders, arms, hands, and face.

Once you can move outdoors, let us know and we can suggest some good mile-specific workouts for a runner with your goals.

I took the other 2 teenagers in to have their iron levels checked because now I'm worried about everyone in my house. LOL. I went to a different place because it was much cheaper but the results are listed differently and I'm not sure how to interpret them...

15 yo: This one stated she craves dirt all the time as well but hasn't reported weakness/tiredness.

Ferritin 16 ng/ml (range 7-140)

Iron, Serum 65 ug/dl (range 37-145)

unsaturated IBC 317 ug/dl (range 112-347)

Calc Total IBC 382 ug/dl (range 250-450)

Calc % Iron Sat 17 % (range 20-50)

So my unprofessional opinion is ferritin is low but TIBC is within range. It says that % saturation is low but I don't know what that means....? I'm totally not understanding because I thought range was 12-15 and so at first glance I thought that meant it was too high. They report it as low. Is there some math I need to do here? Which one of these numbers corresponds with the 11.6 and 12.0 that my dr gave me and the 17 yo for iron...?

13 yo: Reports tired/weakness especially during cycle but no weird cravings.

Ferritin: 13

Iron, Serum 55

Unsatured IBC 376

Calc Total IBC 431

Calc % Iron Sat 13 %

The report says her Unsatured IBC and % are low but everything else in range.

Ooops Unsaturated IBC is high on the 13 yo.

Craving dirt or chewing ice is called pica and indicates iron-deficiency anemia, which is suppoeteed by the ferritin counts (athletes need much higher ferritin scores than sedentaries). What is your diet like?

This is the best running related thread on here. Thanks for inspiring others along your journey!