Train Me

So the college girl didn't show up. Only Honey and the 16 yo ran. The rest of us opted to volunteer instead of running this course. 4 miles (GPS showed 4.12 and 4.11) Pretty perfect weather, slight wind and 45 degrees at the start.

Honey 29:47

16 yo-31:10

They got 1st and 2nd females and there were maybe a total of 60 runners at this race. I guess other people dislike this course like we do. lol

So, I've been struggling with what I thought was a nonstop cold. I've been taking Dayquil and Nyquil almost daily and generally could not breathe. I ran out of Dayquil and out of pure laziness took a Benadryl Allergy. It didn't last very long but I could suddenly breathe again. So, I don't know when I got allergies but I guess I have them now.

First run in forever: Monday-30 minutes/2.5 miles

Hanging out in Colorado for Christmas break. I think we've done every activity we can think of in the snow. Zyrtec has calmed my allergies, my achilles is feeling a lot better, and so I'm finally getting some runs in!

12/17- 30 mins/2.5 miles

12/18-30 mins/2.5 miles

12/20- 2 miles@ 9:57 pace

12/21-50 mins (4.6 miles @ 10:40 pace)

12/22-3 hours of ice skating

12/24-3 miles @ 10:00 pace then 7x 200 @ 46-48s (those were stupid hard. My goal was 15 and I gave up but the little one did 16 just to show me up)

12/25- no running but 90 minutes of snow tubing

12/26-50 mins (4.86 miles @ 10:18 pace)

I'm trying to remember to stretch my achilles before and after each run. Don't want to be hurt again. Running is more like surviving right now but I'm hoping it comes back faster than before. I have right at 5 months until this bet is over.

For me... kids workout

600 @ 5:08 pace/200 @ 2:16 pace

500/200

400/200

400

I just wanted to hop back into these last few days of updates by saying what a thrill it's been to follow along on this journey and I'm really looking forward to seeing the rest of it unfold into 2020. Any new goals / ideas to kick off the new years or any resolutions you have in mind to challenge yourself?

by the way, I'd look into Reflexive Performance Reset, Active Isolated Stretching, and potentially even sensory deprivation tanks (or float tanks) as a method to help your body kinda reset over the last few months. the first two are very easy and you can do them yourself almost daily, I'm sure you'll feel the difference

So, we've discussed a lot of meets and what is possible versus what is BEST. I'm really struggling to balance what the kids want (race all the time) with my budget and what is the best choice to get faster/better.

January schedule:

I'll be running but no racing for me OR the little.

January 10/11-indoor meet 800/mile for high schoolers

January 25- indoor 800/mile for high schoolers

Is it too early to be racing? Is it better to just build up foundation? OR is it better to get these chances to see faster competition before the slow school meets start?

The 18 yo graduates June 2nd so I have to win my bet before then. She has agreed that it can be 1600 and that it can be either a stand alone race or a mile in the middle of a race if my watch verifies it.

I'm going to try and do what I failed to do last year. Run at least 1 mile a day, every day. I missed my first day on May 25th and then I completely gave up on June 1st.

I'm going to do some 1600 all comers races this year. I found one February 22nd, March 12th, May 1st, and May 8th. Those are probably going to be my best chances to win this bet.

In the VERY long term I am doing my first marathon at Disney in January of next year. So as soon as this bet is over I'm going to start training for tha

Did you actually ever run four laps of the track to see how close you were?

You don't need a meet to break 7:00, just a track and a pacer (and maybe record it on video). I paced my girlfriend to her first sub 5:00 during a team workout, with the rest of the team cheering her on. It was pretty cool.

I got 7:00 on the track this summer. I probably could have taken another 10s off if I had known how close I was going to be but no way would I have gotten 6:30. I really feel like I can get it if I just stay healthy.

SlowAFRunnrMom wrote:

I got 7:00 on the track this summer. I probably could have taken another 10s off if I had known how close I was going to be but no way would I have gotten 6:30. I really feel like I can get it if I just stay healthy.

You're making really nice progress. What were your lap times? Keep up the good work.

dunes runner wrote:

SlowAFRunnrMom wrote:

I got 7:00 on the track this summer. I probably could have taken another 10s off if I had known how close I was going to be but no way would I have gotten 6:30. I really feel like I can get it if I just stay healthy.

You're making really nice progress. What were your lap times? Keep up the good work.

I didn't have my watch to record quarters so I don't know unless someone knows another way.

Wrong date! Graduation is May 29th. Not sure how I got that wrong.

12/27-1/7

12/27-5.5 miles @ 10:00 ish pace

12/28-4 miles @ 11:10 pace

1/1-5.6 miles @ 10:41 pace (day 1 no carbs, not too bad)

1/2-5.6 miles @ 10:49 pace (day 2 no carbs, walked for 5 mins in the middle)

1/3-5.6 miles @ 10:36 pace (day 3 no carbs, made it but took some convincing)

1/4-5.88 miles @ 11:40 pace (this day kicked my butt)

1/5-5.6 miles treadmill-hard but not as bad as the day before

1/6-5.6 miles treadmill- slightly better but could not breathe the last mile

I'm hoping I get back into a rhythm without carbs. I know I can do it as I did it all last year.

I think part of my loss of motivation has a lot to do with my weight. Over the summer I gained 10 lbs and then another 6 lbs since the achilles. 16 lbs! Anyway, I was 153 at the beginning of the year and I'm 148.6 today. I'm almost certain I can win this bet as long as I hold the course.

1. You know that virtually all training plans alternate hard running days and easy running days, right? Why are you running roughly the same distance and pace every day? Proper recovery is every bit as important as doing the right hard workout.

1. Getting mileage back to where it was.

2. 2020 for the year, don't want to get behind.

3. I have a trip/kid's meet this weekend and getting in mileage will be difficult.

4. Judging by your reaction it might not have been the best idea.

The fact that you're not injured yet in 2020 is fantastic. Going from near zero to 5.5 mi. per day would typically be a recipe for disaster.

That said, you can't run a mile in less than 6:30 time if you never run at a pace faster than 6:30 min./mi. Do you do any work outs where you run 400, 800, or 1000 m at faster paces?

You should find some 1 mile training plan and follow what it says. Run hard workouts when it says, and rest when it says. You can find an 8 week plan. You only have enough time to do an 8 week plan and fail, succeed, or get injured twice before the end of the bet.

I tried to find a good article explaining the hard day/easy day rationale and surprisingly, I couldn't find one. If anyone can provide a link with a great explanation, please post it. Meanwhile, I'll explain it the best I can from memory.

When you run hard, the stress of running creates microfractures in muscle tissue, destroys some red blood cells, and leaves waste products created by energy production in the cells. For lack of a better all-encompassing word, this creates tiredness.

As a result of these limiting factors, you cannot train at your best the next day. You need an easy or an off day to recover.

On these easy days, the easy movement pumps the waste material out of the legs and pushes more healing blood flow to those microtears so they can heal faster. The easy pace allows the body to continue to replace those lost red blood cells. Even though you're moving, the easy day is a day of healing, recovery, and new muscle growth.

Put another way, the easy day lets you train HARDER on your next hard day. Training harder elicits a higher fitness response, but it also creates a need for another REST/EASY day the day after the hard workout.

On a scale of 1 (very easy) to 10 (race level very hard effort), your daily workouts are all in the 5-6 range.

A better hard/easy approach would be an effort of 8-9 on hard days and an effort of 3-4 on easy days.

For you, a typical 7-day cycle would look something like this with an easy day before and after every hard day.

Day 1: Easy. 3 miles easy and slow

Day 2: Hard. A warmup run of 1.5-2 miles followed by an interval workout with 2400-4000m of intervals. Following by a one mile slow cool down run.

Day 3: Easy 3 miles easy and slow

Day 4: Hard. Tempo. Warm up easy 1 mile. Then, 2x15minutes at tempo pace (Lactate Threshold Heart Rate) (Obviously, there are lots of other tempo variations.

Day 5: Easy. 3 miles easy and slow

Day 6: Hard. Long run of 60-90 minutes.

Day 7: Off/Easy

Mounty Pylon wrote:

That said, you can't run a mile in less than 6:30 time if you never run at a pace faster than 6:30 min./mi. Do you do any work outs where you run 400, 800, or 1000 m at faster paces?

You should find some 1 mile training plan and follow what it says. Run hard workouts when it says, and rest when it says. You can find an 8 week plan. You only have enough time to do an 8 week plan and fail, succeed, or get injured twice before the end of the bet.

I fully agree with this. You described a recent 7 x 200m (after 3 miles, but still) in 46-48s as 'stupid hard'. But 8 x 48 = 384s = 6 min 24s. Your goal is 6:30. There is unfortunately no way that it is possible to run a 6:30 mile if 200m repeats at the same pace are 'stupid hard'.

The good news is that it may just be that you lack practise at running fast. I would forget about the easy running most days, you have done a fair bit and probably have enough aerobic fitness to get by; and if not, you're not going to improve all that much by May anyway doing very slow paces. Do intervals regularly, at least 2 of the following every week, all 3 if you can without getting injured.

1) Some faster (200 - 400m at 42-44s say, as fast as possible, really go for it all out; you'll feel very fried, but you need to learn to tolerate it; take long walking/standing rests between reps. Try to do at least 1600m of reps)

2) Some as near to 6:30 pace as you can get (maybe 52s per 200m or something for now) and do 600-800m reps with slow jog rest (as much as you need, even 3 or 4 minutes or longer to begin with).

3) Some longer intervals, say 1000m or 1200m a bit slower, say 58s per 200m or something.

Use the treadmill for 2) or 3) or both, it will help force your legs to get used to the speed. Try to progress the speed slightly from week to week.

Try to do short (6-10s) sprints as well regularly. Say 4-10 reps, build up to it, at least 3 min standing/walking rest. On a hill or on the flat. These should be all out as well. To begin with, your 'all out' for these will probably be faster than the 'all out' for 200 - 400m, because your body probably does not know how to do the latter, but it probably remembers what 'sprint' means!

Google Scott Christensen's middle distance training. You'll see little easy running there, take some ideas from there.

Week of 1/7-1/13

1/7- 1 mile @ 8:47 pace

1/8-30 mins @ 12:00 pace (2.5 miles)

1/9- 30 mins @ 12:00 pace then 10x100 @ 6:00 pace, .5 mile cooldown

1/10-1 mile @ 8:07 pace

1/11-1 mile @ 9:00 pace

1/12- 1 mile @ 12:00 pace

1/13- 10 miles @ 12:00 pace

Total: 20.62 miles

We went to a track meet (8 hours away) on Thursday so I was just trying to get in my 1 mile a day minimum.

18 yo ran:

1 mile-5:29 (previous 5:54)

800-2:30 (2:32)

16 yo-

1 mile-5:55 (6:20)

800-2:39 (2:48)

14 yo-

1 mile-6:30 (none)

800-2:52 (none)

The 14 year old wasn't feeling very good at all but wanted to run anyway. She probably should have skipped it because she felt worse afterward.

I guess they are all technically PRs if you're comparing to indoor.....

Next race for me is February 8th... I set the course record for my age group last year but they refused to count out because the course wasn't exact apparently. I'm not sure if I'll get back to that shape in time but I'm going to try.

Weight: 148.2

Week 1/14-1/20

1/14-1 hour crossfit- .25 mile warmup AM

2.06 miles 1 mile warmup then 3x3 mins @ 8 mph (planned to do 6 of them haha)

1/15-5.64 miles @ 10:39 pace

1/16-15 min warmup (5 mph) 25 mins @ 6.5 mph, 10 min cooldown

1/17-1 mile @ 10:30 pace

1/18-1 mile @ 9:54 pace

1/19- 1 mile @ 12:00 pace

1/20-3 miles @ 12:00 pace

Weight 147.2

Week of 1/21-1/27

1/21-3 miles @ 12:00 pace then 1 hour crossfit

1/22-4 miles @ 12:00 pace AM then another 4 miles @ 12:00 pace in the PM

1/23-15 min warmup (1.25 miles @ 12:00 pace) I was supposed to do another 30 mins at 6.7 mph but failed so I decided to do mile repeats outside. (only did .55 of a mile before quitting the treadmill). Legs VERY sore from xfit.

repeats-9:11/8:54/8:57

total for the day 5 miles

1/24-3.35 @ 12:00 pace

1/25-20 min warmup @ 12:00 pace then 4x400 (2:08, 2:00, 2:00, 1:52) I should have kept going because I felt fine except I was very tired and just wanted to go to bed.

1/26-3.53 @ 12:00 pace

The prior week I got 26.1 miles in from Sunday to Saturday. Going to try and at least increase by 10% per week.

My weight stayed the same even though I did all the same things. Guess it was a stall week.

UPDATED PRs:

18 yo:

10k-46:47

5k-19:49

3200XC-11:58

3200-11:55

3000-11:23

2400 XC-8:40

Indoor 3k-11:36

Indoor Mile-5:29

1600-5:26.00 (77/81/85/83)

800-2:30.46 (73/77)

400-66?

16 yo:

2k steeple-9:27

10k-51:12

5k-20:48

3200XC-12:32

3200:13:14 (93/96/95/99/101/108/106/97)

3000:12:52

Indoor 3k-12:09

2400 XC-9:08

Indoor mile-5:55

1600-6:04

800-2:43

400-69/70?

14 yo:

10k-58:??

5k-22:21

3200XC-13:18

3200-13:45

3000-12:53

2400 XC-9:28

1600-6:03

1500-6:01

800-2:43

400-69/70?

10 yo:

10k-1:01:51

5k-24:54

2 mile-15:12?

2400- (time trial) 11:16

2400 XC-10:40

1600-6:34.32 (92/102/102/98)

1500-6:44

1500RW: 10:33

800-3:02

400-86

Me

10k-53:45

5k-25:16

2 mile-15:24?

1 mile-7:00

400-87