Alright, I'm back. For those of you who've never seen me post before, you're probably lucky. I'm a rising junior in high school, and all I did for the past two years was make excuses. I would post on here asking for help and never use the advice given to me because I was so freakin' lazy. I run cross country in the fall (but I don't run indoor/outdoor track) and have a PR of 21:46 from my freshman year. Sophomore year, I just screwed around and didn't train properly, so I only ran a 21:56. During the rest of my sophomore year, I ran on and off but was still at least running a little bit. Once summer hit, I got really serious and thought long and hard about if I wanted to just continuing to be mediocre and below average. Long story short, I decided I wanted to give training harder a try, and I've been running more than I ever have in my life. So far, I have started out with 32 miles (week 1) and have progressed to 42 miles (last week). Basically, I've been running 35 miles per week consistently for roughly a month. I've seen some pretty nice improvements already (easy pace used to be 9:30-10:00/mile and is currently 8:15-8:45), but I know that I have to keep putting in the work if I want to improve. Somehow, on my small and not so great cross country team, I may have a shot at lettering this year after being maybe the 30th man on my team last year (though that's mostly because my team only runs about 25 mpw and is a lazier than most). I'm doubling 3 times per week right now for 2 miles per double. My team is more high intensity, lower mileage focused, so I'm also doing 2 harder efforts per week but nothing too taxing. I'm not doing the track workouts from Summer of Malmo, but I'm getting some speed in from time to time. Here are some example "workouts" I have done so far, mostly with my team: 4mi tempo in 32:00 (on treadmill about a month ago), 5km tempo in 23:40 (two weeks ago) and 25 min out and back w/ last mile close to race pace effort (twice: last week and yesterday). I think I'm also doing another tempo tomorrow with the team, so I can probably update on that as well. Clearly, I'm lacking speed, but I feel more aerobically fit than almost everyone on the team (except about 5 guys).
Sorry, that was really long, and if you made it this far, thanks for reading. That's just the backstory, and it probably was unnecessary, but I just wanted to give an update in case anyone was curious.
Now on to the real question... I've recently become intrigued by calisthenics, specifically some of the more advanced moves like planche, front lever, muscle up, handstand, and different variations of these and other exercises (pull-ups, push-ups, etc.). Now, I realize that this will take a really long time to master, but I have a lot of time to dedicate to it this summer, so I might as well start now. From what I've read, I need to master the fundamentals: push-ups, pull-ups, dips, squats, and leg raises. Does anyone here have experience with adding calisthenics into distance running? How much more stress has it added to your body? Did it prevent or increase injury risk? How did you go about starting calisthenics for beginners? How many days per week should I train, considering I am doubling three days per week?
Some very rough estimates of my current fitness:
Max push-ups: about 35-40 (pretty decent form)
Max pull-ups: about 3 (not the best form)
These are really the only two I've ever tested, so that's all I have to work with. I don't have a pull-up bar right now, but I'm looking into buying one of the ones that fits in a doorway pretty soon.
Sorry this post was super, super long, but here's a quick tl;dr:
1. I've been getting pretty consistent with running and will most likely make a huge jump in XC this season.
2. I'm doubling 3x per week along with 1-2 relaxed "workouts" per week to total 35-40 mpw.
3. I want to start calisthenics, but I am a total beginner.
4. Help please, thanks!
