15 mph lateral wind is 5 seconds per mile versus 30 for headwind or 25 for cross wind. Comparatively negligible.
15 mph lateral wind is 5 seconds per mile versus 30 for headwind or 25 for cross wind. Comparatively negligible.
colder and wiser wrote:
The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. In my mid-50s, fatigue and recovery are a lot less predictable than they were 5 years ago. Every so often, I'll have a nasty fatigue day when I feel like I did trying to run after Covid. Taking one day off gives me some additional margin for error.
And here's a shameful secret: I get injured on NSA fairly often. Several times now, actually. It's hard to tell which calf niggles I can push through and which I can't ahead of time. Other times there's no niggle at all and my calf tweaks in the middle of a workout when I'm feeling great, even with careful warmup.
The problem is that NSA is just very, very effective at building endurance. If I get injured and have to take some days off, my mid-50s body detrains at an abhorrent rate. So when I come back, like a new runner, I can soon go faster for longer than my musculoskeletal system is ready for. I'm still trying to work out the right schedule for increasing easy mileage, introducing workouts, and building workout volume.
This isn't a knock on NSA. It's super effective! But I have to account for what my body will put up with, and there's a lot it's not telling me in advance. In my case, one day off provides a useful buffer.
Very interesting post. I am very much in the same boat (aged early 50s) and am
struggling with recurrent calf injuries when trying the NSA. The last 2 ½ years
I have had 3 small tears (confirmed on MRI) in the soleus muscle (always the
right leg and lateral part of the soleus) and each time has meant 2 months off or
more from any running. The calf issues have been very difficult to diagnose (all
the sports doctors and physios I saw missed them and they were only confirmed
on MRI imaging); each time the injuries arose they initially felt like nothing
more than a stiff calf during the Sub T workout and I would even be able to jog
home after the workout without any issue. And the comeback to regular running
has had to be very gradual after that taking at least a month each time. Similar
to you I think that the NSA approach is one of the best in terms of the physiology
gains you can make but the injuries that have kept coming up are leaving me thinking
as to what I can change to make this a viable training approach for me. I am
just not able to get in any sort of competitive running shape like this.
I have thought about footwear being an important issue as the first time I had this
happen I was using the old types of racing flats (the Takumi Sen edition before
they had any carbon rods or boost foam) which may have been too aggressive for
1 ½ hours of threshold running each week. But the third time I had a calf tear,
I was using the Adidas Boston boost V12 which are a “super trainer” as I understand.
So I am not sure what footwear could be the best in terms of injury prevention
although I still think it is important (if that makes sense).
Among the other factors which might be causing injury, I was wondering if I was doing the
easy runs too fast and maybe I should be thinking about aiming for 65% of MHR
to be more safe than 70% MHR and maybe reducing my long run from 1h 30 mins to
1h 15 mins.
Finally, I am wondering about reducing the volume of the Sub T workouts in that maybe 3
workouts of 30 mins total is too much biomechanical load and to reduce the
workouts to 20 or 25 mins of total work.
Of course there might be other details and nuances of the NSA approach that I have missed and these might be important regarding injury avoidance.
The other training approaches for injury prone older runners that I am thinking
about are those proposed by Luis del Aguila who seems to be advocating just one
threshold workout at the weekend of 30 to 50 mins of total work (or 60 mins as
a maximum) followed by an easy paced long run the next day and just easy
running during the week. Also when I was in my mid 40s I went through 2 years
of very few injuries doing just 1 short reps threshold type of workout of 20 x 1
min or 16 x 400m (10k pace/effort or a bit slower) with 30 to 40 sec jog recoveries
which was done mid week and another sort of alternating type of threshold
workout at the weekend such as 5X5 mins at something like ½ marathon pace effort with a 5 mins fast easy run between the reps as the recovery. The rest of the training was a
Sunday longer run and easy running on the other days of the week.
But I would still love to able to try the NSA approach for a year or so if I could manage
this without getting repeatedly injured. Thanks to all for the interesting posts on this now legendary thread.
Sounds frustrating, sorry to hear it. I have a few thoughts, but also feel like talking to a solid physiotherapist is probably a better bet to get things back on track than listening to random loudmouths on the internet. Your issue seem primarily physiological and a physio is probably the best qualified person to help you bridge the gap between what your body is currently able to sustain and the training you want to do, given your injury history.
That aside, what percentage of your weekly training *time* is spent at ST paces? The general goal is around 25%, but you may want to consider dialing this backgiven your propensity to exceed your body's limits. How are you determining your workout paces? You may want to consider slowing down from the recommended paces, assuming you are basing your paces on recent race or time trial results. There's still lots to be gained, even if you're not pushing the limits of ST paces.
Good luck on your training journey.