I am in the process of re-establishing my base after about 6 weeks off of running due to sesamoiditis caused by ill-fitting shoes(did about 4 weeks of xtraining, 2 weeks totally off -it was terrible). Prior to taking time off, my schedule looked like this:
Monday: 3.5 miles elliptical or run- hard pace
Tuesday: Off
Wednesday: 4.5 miles, tempo or interval
Thursday: 6 miles, faster than easy, slower than tempo
Friday: 4 miles slow (and painful)
Saturday: 6-8 miles easy
Sunday: 5 miles elliptical
This schedule is what I sort of fell into after being pregnant and using the elliptical for the entire pregnancy plus a year after due to pelvic pain. I will note that I am a 36 year old female - I never ran in high school / college, I played basketball.
I used that schedule for about a year - lowering my 5K time from 23:30 to 22:30 - but that's still a far cry from my PR time of 21 minutes. I actually set that doing 5 days of elliptical at a hard pace for 60 min a day and one long run of 15 miles.
I don't have as much time to train due to child, husband, work, etc. But, the old schedule I don't think was doing it for me - also, by Friday, my legs were so sore, the run was miserable.
I'm thinking of this schedule:
M: Off
T: 6 miles, tempo
W: 5 miles elliptical, hard
Th: Off
Fr: 6 miles, intervals
Sa: 9 miles, easy
Su: 5 miles elliptical
But, I'm struggling with just working out 5 days a week rather than 6. And, I'd like to do more actual running miles. But, I've been using this general schedule (not the mileage - I'm up to 27 miles this week) to get back into running. And, my legs like the two days off as I am feeling better rested when I run and I like being able to go hard more days since I am terrible at doing an easy run (it's just not fun unless I am going with a friend). I'd also like to get my weekly miles up to the 35-40 range, which I could do if I ran Thursday - I am just worried my legs will be so sore than Friday's workout will not be very good.
I know I'm a lot slower than folks on this board but I was hoping to get some advice, beyond just run more miles. I have been racing this past year and enjoying it since my age group is very slow in my area and I tend to get 1st or 2nd in my age group...and my toddler thinks the medals are super cool.
Thanks!