I've been periodically following this thread for a while. Thought I might join now that I'm starting to build back to normal training again.
Female, young, 5'7" 118 lbs
PRs: 5:41 1600m (spring 2018)
12:20 3200m (spring 2018)
18:59 3 mile (fall 2018)
20:11 5k (summer 2018)
None recent.
A little bit of background, my fall/spring seasons this past year have been pretty disappointing. I only really started running seriously winter/spring of 2018 and dropped 1+ minute off my mile time on fairly low mileage (~25). Unfortunately had some eating issues as well that didn't really resolve until early this year and still experiencing some of the negative effects from that. I've learned my lesson though.
My fall 2018 season was looking good with an early 3 mile PR, but then i got some sort of strange Achilles/peroneal tendonitis issue in my right foot which basically ended it (I still raced for my team's sake but did horribly compared to normal and trained almost entirely on the bike).
Gave it 3 weeks completely off of running in December, got in a good two winter months of base around 45-50 mpw, but then dropped down to 30 with speed related workouts almost everyday (not my decision). I definitely respond better to higher mileage, less intensity, so this hit my system pretty hard, coupled with slightly lower than normal bone density, ended with a stress fracture in my upper left tibia within three weeks plus signs of stress in the lower part and in the same locations on my right.
So I hopped back on the bike through the rest of February and March. Pain when walking went away within 2 weeks, but I knew it was there and it still hurt to press on it. Started adding back the elliptical around 6 weeks in and attempted to run at 8. Attempt felt great in the moment, but woke up in pain the next day and decided to give it another week. Finally felt confident enough to give it another go at 10 weeks and there was no worsening pain. Started back every other day, progressed pretty quickly and now almost 5 weeks back, progressing with 5, 7, 13, 20, 27 mpw. It still occasionally hurts but it doesn't feel like the same pain I used to get, so I think it may be a bit or scar tissue/calcium deposit.
Planning on working back up to 50 mpw this summer and finally getting a good consistent block of base (4 months) before hopefully having a successful fall season. I know I haven't come close to my potential yet, I've always ruined it with poor training decisions. But the sfx really helped me see that and I plan on being a lot smarter with it now.
That was longer than I was planning, apologies about that :) here's what I did this week:
S: 6 miles medium (8:28, first time back on roads, forgot how hard hills are!)
M: 4 miles easy (8:21, grass)
T: 4 miles easy (8:35, worked on form)
W: 5 miles very easy (9:26, ran with a friend and had some fun exploring the trails)
T: 4 miles natural progression + 6 100m strides (7:38, ~15 sec/stride surprisingly)
F: 60 minutes elliptical
S: 4 miles easy (7:31, good portion downhill)
Starting to get my legs back again I think. Something really clicked on Tuesday working on form with my coach and my arm swing feels more natural and efficient than it ever has before.
Got a comparatively big week coming up though. 40 miles of trail running over the next 5 days made even more concerning by the issue that we had to push back our trip start to tomorrow due to rain (originally going to start today) and now one of the days is 15 miles. I have never had reason to run 15 miles before. I've raced 10, ran 11 straight as my longest long run, and did a half without training two years ago for the heck of it but walked a bit. I will probably walk a mile in the middle for the sake of not wanting to get injured again. I plan on taking the mileage as slow as possible without having terrible form unless I feel confident one or two days.
On a totally different note, anyone have good compression sock recommendations? I can't run without them at the moment but the ones I have right now gave me a massive blister and aren't great quality.
If you read all of this, good on you :) If I do more posts in the future, they will definitely not be this long