Yes, overall soreness Not Achilles specific.
Yes, overall soreness Not Achilles specific.
Euro,
Sorry for that brief reply, I was posting with my iphone.
Yes, no further complications with the achilles from the circuit training.
My treadmill actually gets up to speed fairly quickly. I would guess 8 to 10 seconds.
Thanks!
Impossible Dream wrote:
Yes, no further complications with the achilles from the circuit training.
Great news.
My treadmill actually gets up to speed fairly quickly. I would guess 8 to 10 seconds.
I envy you with the treadmill - tried to use the fancy ones at my gym for hill reps today (it was hailing badly outside), but it seemed to take 30-40sec just to get to speed in interval mode. Hopefully better weather will remove the need soon...
Agreed on the better weather. The ID household is officially fed up with winter!
BTW - The hill repeats felt hard. I guess my pacing still needs some tweaking.
A little February accounting:
27 days running
15 double days
42 total running sessions
292 miles, just shy of 11 miles per day average
I'm sawing wood :)
Impossible Dream wrote:
BTW - The hill repeats felt hard. I guess my pacing still needs some tweaking.
I have no idea at all what "7% grade at 5:35 pace" feels like, having always run short hill reps outdoors (apart from a couple of fairly random attempts during downpours or ice).
We're not trying to run flat out this month; we're trying to gradually get you used to a bit more speed and range of motion each week. If possible (and if the Achilles is better) I'd be adding drills and reps, not increasing speed.
The hill reps in my best training group when I was younger were as Arthur Lydiard described, drills aimed at form. I did my first few of these last night and can report this morning that my legs really did some work, despite not attempting to run fast at any point (I'll give it a week before I try to run fast due to my recent injury).
On the treadmill at 7%, I'd suggest this:
- do two reps much slower, maybe 7:00 pace, focusing on a springy action and knee lift like this guy - only tell yourself you're thinner and better looking ;-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6eD0hvTYZ4- then do six closer to normal running action, maybe starting at 6:15 and speeding up a little until it feels good. (I guess you might need to reprogram it for each rep which at least enforces a couple of minutes rest!)
When you can finally get outside, it's really good to play around with many running styles on a hill - a couple of reps springing, a couple bounding, a couple fast.
My February accounting:
25 days running (3 days off)
5 doubles, 4 triples, 1 quadruple
41 total running sessions
292 miles, not making that up, either - straight from my log!
I like that inclined interval stuff you are trying on the treadmill. The incline doesn't seem too steep, so probably less strain on the achilles. Those are really hard at that pace without much pounding.
Be careful with getting too fast too quickly though. That kind of work will get you faster in a hurry, so make sure you give your body time to adjust before pushing the envelope!
Just did a couple of snapshots of the month and noticed a 6-day stretch of 102 miles, and a 6-day stretch of 33 miles. It's like P90Xr (P90X for running), keeping the body confused. I really feel good about the combination of pushing my training limits and getting some decent rest this month.
Euro,
Likely due to my own old internal biases, I have obviously been using the wrong approach towards these hill repeats.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the main intention/focus is muscular development and along the way I might get some other training benefits as well?
With that in mind, I'll tone down the pace as you prescribe and focus more on form. Hopefully the roads are clear on Saturday and I can at least do these outside. There may be an outside chance that the ground will be free of snow and I can get on an actual grassy hill. Stay tuned.
PM,
That is weird that we ended up with the same mileage for the month.
OK, I'll play too.
28 days running.
4 Doubles
32 Total runs
300.8 Miles
0 Core/circuit sessions (unless you count scraping and painting a bathroom and snow shoveling)
Got a good laugh out of the P90Xr comment by the way. I'm going to remember it for any future "down" weeks. "I'm not being lazy, it's muscle confusion!"
First track session coming up tonight. It's actually scheduled for tomorrow, but I'm rearranging to run with some training partners. 5x1200 at 5k pace - wish me luck!
That's fantastic work PM and VF. You all are going to keep me on my toes.
Good luck with the track session VF. Let us know how it goes.
A question about the concept of time trials. Are they a useful tool? I'm considering a 3200 m time trial on March 12, corresponding to the completion of this 4 week cycle of training. A race would be more ideal to gauge fitness at this point, but I can't find one in my local area that I want to run on that date.
So, my thought is I want to see where my fitness is and a time trial seems like a decent way of determining fitness. Thoughts?
I'll do my February stats later after supervising kids' homework, but the numbers are dismal!
I picked mid-length hills because you needed some speedwork and one session has a whole bunch of useful, different effects.
I'm not sure if 'muscular development' is exactly the right term - maybe 'neuromuscular' or 'local muscular endurance?' - but my main hope is that you develop more range of motion in the legs (e.g. pick knees higher, more ankle flexibility, rear leg extension, closer to a sprinting action without the need to sprint), which will make 5k pace seem a lot easier, and will make it safer for you to attempt some faster running in the next 4 week block.
At this stage you should NOT be trying to go as fast as possible for X reps, nor be doubled over gasping for air for 30sec after the finish. But there will be some aerobic and anaerobic benefit in those departments.
Yes, the time trial sounds like a decent idea. If it were me, I would start at around 5k pace and bring the pace down constantly, noting how it felt along the way. And be constantly ready to stop if anything bad happens along the way - I've had a couple minor injuries happen during time trials early in the comebacks that probably could have been avoided if I hadn't kept pushing when I knew something bad was happening.
PM,
I'm thinking 3200 m for a couple of different reasons. First, its short enough that I think I can push myself hard enough on my own to get a close to accurate accounting of my fitness for the distance.
Second, I think its long enough to accurately reflect my training and the results can be used to adjust training paces as well.
Thoughts?
In the absence of a 5k race, 3200 is just as good. It's 90% or more aerobic.
Would this be a solo effort on a track or the road (is it still really 0-fahrenheit outside???), or on the treadmill?
I'm not personally sure I'm tough enough to run time trials solo which compare to race times; I'm willing to bet I'd be 20 seconds per mile slower. If you're like me, then you could possibly do one of a few well-known interval sessions and extrapolate from that instead e.g.
5k pace: 6x1000 with 90sec rest, or 5x1200
3k pace: 8x600 with 60sec, or 6x800 with 90sec, or 4x1000 with 2min.
The benefit of this on your own is that it's mentally a bit easier, and you can adjust pace from rep to rep on a treadmill, but will still give a good readout of current fitness. Thus, if you can do 6x1000 at 3:30 pace, that's a good indication you can do a 17:30 5k in a race; which in turn can guide training paces for the next 4 weeks.
eurodonkey wrote:
Would this be a solo effort on a track or the road (is it still really 0-fahrenheit outside???), or on the treadmill?
The idea would be to go to the local track a few blocks from my house and run solo.
Things are warming up around here. :) We may be looking at temps in the mid 40's today (Fahrenheit). Last night, I ran at the park with the paved hilly loop and it was 34 when I left the house.
BTW - I should have posted this earlier. My intention is to go for 5 miles on my TM tempo tonight at the same pace as last week, as long as I'm feeling fine through 4 miles.
Impossible Dream wrote:
The idea would be to go to the local track a few blocks from my house and run solo.
Great - glad to hear it will be warmer.
BTW - I should have posted this earlier. My intention is to go for 5 miles on my TM tempo tonight at the same pace as last week, as long as I'm feeling fine through 4 miles.
That will be a great workout, good luck.
OK, I added up my month. 147 miles; 12 days off (injury); 12 doubles; 2 good races. January was 300 miles which is what I hope to do in March.
So, we had nice weather today and the ground is clear. The temp was mid 30's and no real wind to speak of, so I decided to run over to the local track and complete my tempo run there instead of on the TM. And, probably due to shoebacca (unknowlingly) egging me on, I decided to go "old school" and go with just my watch... no gadgets... no music.
Anyway, it was all a littly humbling when I really think about it. I've come a long way, but a work out like this just demonstrates how far I've got to go. It also is demonstrating to my physically the logic of Euro's approach. In the old days, I just had a lot of natural strength that carried me along at a faster pace than I can currently manage. Plus, ultimately I think I'm going to have to lose another 10 + lbs, but I'm not going to worry about the weight loss for now.
So, details of the work out. I ended up completing an 8000 m tempo run on the track. Overall time was 31:22.
My 1600 m splits were:
6:21
6:19
6:14
6:16
6:11
I was searching the whole time for a "comfortably hard" rhythm and when I found it, it was slightly faster than ideal pace for the work out. Consequently, I finished the work out realizing that I probably couldn't have kept going too much farther. I think the original idea of doing these on the treadmill for pace control was a superior one. Next week, back on the treadmill.
Have a good night all.
That's a fantastic workout to have in the bank. And while it may be warm by your standards, don't forget it's still around freezing outside which isn't ideal for your muscles. It will only get easier from now on.
Respect the recovery - that's your biggest workout in 15 years so go easy the next 2 days!
I must admit that I have been totally converted to tempos on treadmills. Same work for less mental effort.
Euro,
Thanks for the encouragement.
I must also ask your forgiveness at my selfishness. I don't think I've asked about your recovery yet and how things are going?
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