Train Me

RSD#179 (1 mile minimum)

33 miles this week

Sunday-6.53 miles @ 10:43

I had planned 8 miles but my watch went dead and I lost all motivation to continue.

Monday-4.56 @ 11:03 dead

Tuesday-4.63 @ 10:21 feeling better

Wednesday-4.58 @ 9:55 felt really easy

Thursday-4.5 @ 9:56

Friday-4.55 @ 10:22 - hard again

Saturday- 3.65 @ 12:00 treadmill

Got in 2 solid weeks of miles.

413.85 miles this year

You're doing great!

Are you following a prescribed plan that organizes your weeks such that you have a faster workout run one or two days of the week? I would recommend finding some plan that schedules your running in an organized manner like that. You can find 8-12 week plans. Following one will keep you honest about doing the quality workout days and also keep you honest about recovering enough on the easy days in between. (If the plan calls for a rest day, do your obligatory one mile and stop there.)

It still seems like you are forcing yourself to run too many miles and/or too many consecutive days, so you are almost always fatigued and you are never recovered and ready to run faster. You are disciplined about the streak though. You just need to run smarter, not harder/more. Following an established plan that keeps you disciplined about the recovery part too should help a lot.

https://www.podiumrunner.com/training/blueprint-master-the-mile/

There's an option that you can follow if you like the look of it. Notice that there is a lot more shorter race pace intervals than what you've been doing so far, but the days in between are also shorter and less intense than what you've been doing. Run the intervals as fast as you're supposed to and walk the recovery time (Don't kid yourself and think that running the recovery time will make you stronger. It will just make it so that you can't run the intervals as fast).

Here is a good calculator that you can plug in your current fitness and your goal:

https://www.mcmillanrunning.com/

Take a look at the equivalent race length predictions. Also take a look at the "training paces" tab to help you choose what paces to run everything from easy runs to tempos to intervals.

You can keep "just running" and being your own coach as long as you want, but if you don't know what you're doing then you aren't going to progress very well. That's what I did for a few years until I did more "homework" about running and actually started following real training philosophies. After I did that, the improvement was so fast it seemed like magic after years of not getting faster.

Week of 6/28-7/04

Sunday-5.8 miles @ 11:03 pace (this was the most awful run in my memory) I think a bunch of personal stuff caused me to be totally unprepared to run this day.

Monday-4.1 miles @ 10:15 pace (much easier)

Tuesday-4.5 miles @ 10:28 pace

Wednesday- AM 4.5 miles @ 10:04 pace

PM 1/2 mile warmup, 4x400m (96,97,97,97), 400m cooldown

Thursday-6.5 miles @ 10:23 (I felt really good this day and just ran out of time)

Friday-6.2 miles @ 10:24

Saturday- .75 warmup, 1 mile time trial alone (7:45), 1 mile cooldown

36 miles. I wonder if this is my highest week ever? I might go back and see.

449.9 miles for the year so far

I had planned to take a down week because I always see recommendations to step it back every 4th week but I'm torn. I feel really good right now and I have a lot of free time...

For reference last 2 months:

15.4

20.2

19

8.1--1 mile minimum every day after the fall

7.3--

29.2

33

36

So, I ran 8 this morning. Really not sure still if I'm doing an up or down week, was kinda waiting for input.

Nice work on the time trial. Now you know what your current fitness is, and it looks like your easy pace is about correct (10:00-11:00).

I don’t see any reason for you to increase your weekly mileage any further for now. If you can maintain 25-30 mpw consistently and avoid injury, then you should be able to improve a lot. If you get injured and end up with some 7-15 mile weeks, then you won’t progress much.

Also, that 4x400 tune-up looks blazing fast. I would suggest that you try a tempo run one day a week. Warm up with an easy mile, then run 2 or 3 miles around 9:00 min./mile. It should feel tough, but not too tough once you get going. The day before this, take the day off so that your legs are fresh (or if you’re stubborn and absolutely must keep a 1 mile streak going, just do the 1 mile easy). So my vote for you is a slightly down week and then try to maintain about the same weekly mileage going forward.

Week of 7/5-7/11

Sunday-8 miles @10:04 pace (this was really easy and I struggled not to run it too fast)

Monday- .5 warmup/5k @ 8:55 pace--tempo? (Tried to run what I felt like Nutsack recommended) it felt pretty hard but I could have kept going if I HAD to.

Tuesday-10k @ 10:13 pace

Wednesday-AM 2 miles @ 9:58 pace

PM 1 miles warmup, 2x800 (3:29,3:31) .5 cooldown

Thursday-4.6 miles @ 9:54 pace ( I had to rush because I was running late so sorry I brought the pace down)

Friday- 1 mile warmup, 1 mile threshold (7:40.3), .5 cooldown

(I ran with a group and they said they were doing a 2 mile threshold. I actually could have probably gotten another 5-10 seconds off this mile but I didn't decide until AFTER 1 mile that I wanted to stop there. Lol)

Saturday- 2.7 miles @ 10:11 pace

32.1 miles for the week

481.95 for the year

Don't think I'll run hard on Monday this coming week. I hadn't intended to do 3 hard days.

For reference, my highest week was 39 miles last spring.

Awesome! If you can keep up something lime this consistently you will see a lot of improvement.

That being said, I’ll nitpick about some things about your schedule that will help you:

Sunday - Your long run looks fine.

Monday - Tempo looks good, but if you could switch Monday and Tuesday, then your legs will be fresher going into the tempo.

Tuesday - 10k easy could be reduced, but could be okay.

Wednesday - This is good to take it easy since you plan to do a workout the next day.

Thursday - Looks good since it’s the beginning of your training plan. You should try to increase the total distance of the intervals as you progress. Maybe try 5x400 or 10x200 with one minute rest next week. How long is the rest or recovery between reps?

Thursday - Nice: Easy and not too long.

Friday - This seems like too much, but you seem to know that already. Also, a 7:40 mile seems like a time trial/race effort. Threshold has different definitions, but it would be a pace that you could maintain for at least 30 minutes.

Saturday - Good.

How do you feel after that week? Listen to your body and cut back if you feel like you need to. Eliminate the third hard day, and as you go forward aim to focus on the two hard days. Increase the distance of the tempo as you go forward. You have room to cut back (reduce the long run to one hour, reduce the Tuesday/Monday 10k) that would help you recover better between the hard days. If you keep up a schedule like this and try another mile TT in a month or so, you should see a nice improvement.

Week of 7/12-7/18

Sunday-10 miles @ 10:10 pace. The last couple of miles were pretty hard. My hamstrings started to feel tight and mentally I was struggling. Went home and rolled my hamstrings.

Monday-6 miles @ 10:10 pace. Both hamstrings bothering me a little. Left much worse than right. Lots of stretching and more rolling.

Tuesday-6 miles @ 10:15. Right hamstring better. Left hamstring slight pain but much improved. Still stretching a lot..

Wednesday- AM 5k at 10:00 pace felt good.

PM 1 mile warmup, rolling 100s with 30p recovery (2 miles). I was right about 10:30 pace during the recovery and my 100s were 21, 22, 20, 19, 19, 19, 19, 18.

Thursday- 5k @ 10:10 pace

Friday- 30 min run, then 4xhill sprints, 10 min run (legs felt very heavy at beginning)

Saturday-2.9 miles @ 9:50. Left heel was really hurting the first 1/4 or so but I started running up on the ball of my left foot and it went away. Not hurting now.

39 miles total

93 for the month

521 for the year

Today was run streak day 200!

Neat streak. Good work with consistency recently.

I have two questions:

1. Is your goal to get faster (for example: 1 mile time) or just to be healthy in general?

2. Are you following any organized training plan or philosophy?

Other comment: Your 10 mile long run seems to have harmed you more than it helped you.

Nutsack McGee wrote:

Neat streak. Good work with consistency recently.

I have two questions:

1. Is your goal to get faster (for example: 1 mile time) or just to be healthy in general?

2. Are you following any organized training plan or philosophy?

Other comment: Your 10 mile long run seems to have harmed you more than it helped you.

I was supposed to run my first marathon ever in January but didn't register because I fear it will be canceled. I'm sort of trying to work hard towards this bet while still hoping for a marathon early next year. I'm going to keep slowly increasing mileage while hoping I also get faster on the short end.

I've been running with a group on Wednesday/Friday these last few weeks and I'm just doing what the coach has planned. This week its 800s on Wednesday (the other week when I did 800s they actually ran 1200s). And then a 3 mile threshold on Friday. I feel like Friday will be my last opportunity to get in a fast mile with a group. I might come out and time trial that first mile then just survive the other 2. Idk.

We're going home on August 1st and I'll be completely solo again. August 8th I have our club race. It's 2 miles.

I'm still hoping maybe Houston Chevron marathon, Austin or Cowtown will happen. They're still registering people but...

BTW I did 12 this Sunday and it went much better than last week.

Week of 7/19-7/25

Sunday-12 miles @ 10:20 pace - felt pretty good. Hamstring started to feel a little tender at mile 9 but never as bad as last week.

Monday-AM-4.5 miles @ 9:44 (I thought I was in a hurry)-1 mile @ 10:42

PM-2.5 miles @ 9:37 (I think this is incorrect as it felt much slower)

Tuesday-6 miles @ 10:12 pace

Wednesday-AM-3 miles @ 9:41 pace

PM-1 mile warmup, 2x800 (3:27, 3:29)

Thursday-4.5 miles @ 9:37 pace

Friday-1 mile warmup, 1 mile @ 7:30.74, 2 miles slow- total 4 miles

Saturday-3.6 miles @ 9:18 pace (I also think this pace is incorrect)

The 2 runs where I feel like the GPS got the pace off are the same location. My GPS may be struggling there.... or maybe it's struggling in my regular place. Who knows.

I'm at Run Streak Day 207.

43 miles this week

135 for July

564 for 2020

Just replying to myself so I can see my post because the board won't let me get to the last page.

Any updates on how things are going? Hope all is well with you!

SlowAFRunnrMom wrote:

I jog a lot but my kid and I made a bet so I need help winning. She bet me I couldn't run a sub 6:30 mile before she graduated HS. If I do then she's going to run her 1st year of college for me. If I lose I have to pay her car payments her first year. Fair warning, I'm old, overweight, and slow. I have 1 year 9 months to win.

I started a new diet 2 weeks ago and have lost 12 lbs. Current weight is 159.

I do about 20 miles a week at 9:30 to 10 min/mile pace. Is this doable? I don't mind paying her car payments but I don't really want to lose anyway.

Fastest mile this year was 8:25.

Need any other info?

What kind of car is she driving?

What is your mile PB?

I have come here a bunch of times to update this thread. I'm still here. My run streak is alive. (Barely) But I just can't find anything positive to say about where I am right now and so I leave without replying.

You're keeping at it, and that's a big positive.

It's been a while since I've updated everyone here. I had to stop running almost completely because I was having some health problems. I'm finally able to run but it's so hard after such a long break!

Anyway, my youngest started cross this year. She was running in the high 13's for 2 miles at the beginning of the season but by the end of the season she barely broke 16 mins in her district race. She has been complaining nonstop about knee, calf, ankle, heel, and foot pain. Our old cross coach retired and we got a new guy and he's doing things quite a bit differently and I'm wondering if all the street/speed work could be causing it?

Mondays-3 miles around the town for time.

Tuesdays-5x800 meters around the school.

Wednesdays-3x mile on the street.

Thursdays -They run up and down the home team bleachers (at the bottom doing lunges or squats, situps, etc..) for each of the 4 sets of stairs then halfway around the track and repeat on the visiting bleachers. They'd do this whole loop 4 times.

Saturday-race

She hasn't run at all since October 11th but is still complaining so I don't know what to do. I took her to the trainer but they've just told her to ice and stretch. We've also tried compressions, new shoes, cold baths, massages. I'm almost to the point of pulling her from basketball so her legs will get a complete rest but I also think maybe she could just take the holidays as a break.

Good lord that is the most stupidly brutal training I have seen on here for a young kid. Get her out of there ASAP before he crushes her body and spirit. I know that sounds dramatic, but that is absolute poison in terms of coaching. Let her take a break and then do some easy jogging, rolling, stretching and strides until her body recovers. Lots of sleep, and protein.