bumP
bumP
This might sound counterproductive, but lift weights with your legs 2x a week (make sure there is at least 3 days in between leg days). Do squats, deadlifts, leg press, calf raises, donkey calf raises. Do 3 sets, 10-15 reps for each exercise. Just jog the other days. Do this for 3 weeks and thank me then.
While that's all well and good, I really need to focus on my race in a week..
Okay so I kind of took all of your advice about taking it really easy. Yesterday I decided to start out real slow (and can it if I felt bad) and then didn't even look at my watch the whole way deciding that I would just run until I felt like stopping. Ran around 60-70 min and felt okay, slow-ish pace but legs didn't feel obscenly bad.
Then today I started out slow again and decided to run by feel.. ran for about 45 min (felt marginally better in the last 10 min) then did 7x100 strides barefoot. I felt good on these strides when running them but didn't feel as good decelerating at the end. I then ran another 5 min back as cooldown and felt much more "bouncy" here. My runs are still really slow (slower than they used to be) and my easy pace has gotten easier.. annoying, I feel "out of shape" like when I used to run much slower. Going to see how I feel tomorrow, another super easy day maybe.. and then maybe following eurodonkeys schedule I could try a light interval workout Monday just to see if I have it in me to race well Saturday?
another easy run.. felt okay, not good or bad, a bit stiff. got frustrated at how slow i was going/how slow my pace is these days so sprinted up a hill in the middle of the run. ugh..
so i dont know if anyone is still following this but i just thought i'd update.. FINALLY a glimmer of hope. i decided to try out a light interval workout today: 1200, 1200 jog, 5x200 (200 jog) followed by 1200 jog + 1200. i got hopeful on my warm up when it was closer to what i usually run my warm ups in and not this slow pace ive been doing for a while... then i did the workout and actually felt good. ran the 1200s around goal 5k pace and the 200s around mile pace. not the fastest times (my 2nd 1200 was a few seconds slower but it was also dark so i didnt have as good of an idea of how fast i was going) but a lot better than whats been going on.
planning to do 30 min/45-60 min tomorrow (2 runs), 30 min/45 min + 6-8x100 wed, 45 min thurs, and 30 min friday and hope for the best when it comes to race time.