Should I still be working out?

helpabruthaout wrote:

Maryland hasn’t officially canceled the track season yet which gives me a slimmer of hope that maybe something’ll turn up or even then maybe a post-meet or two would pop up for me to run, which is evidence to me for why I should still be incorporating 1-2 workouts a week into my schedule.

I’ve increased my mileage and it’s significantly higher now similar to around where it was at the peak of summer XC season (48-55 miles I know it’s not a lot) and I intend to go into the 60s, but on Strava there was a debate over my workout today and just workouts in general.

I ran 16x200m today with a 200m jog @ around 32-34 just to build some speed in my legs and also have been hitting a hill workout on weekly since I figured hills would be applicable to both track and XC.

Should I keep doing a speed endurance workout a week like 16 x 200s or a workout in general or would I be better off just supplementing in another 8 mile run instead of an 8-mile workout (including WU + CD)

LateRunnerPhil wrote:

helpabruthaout wrote:

Maryland hasn’t officially canceled the track season yet which gives me a slimmer of hope that maybe something’ll turn up or even then maybe a post-meet or two would pop up for me to run, which is evidence to me for why I should still be incorporating 1-2 workouts a week into my schedule.

I’ve increased my mileage and it’s significantly higher now similar to around where it was at the peak of summer XC season (48-55 miles I know it’s not a lot) and I intend to go into the 60s, but on Strava there was a debate over my workout today and just workouts in general.

I ran 16x200m today with a 200m jog @ around 32-34 just to build some speed in my legs and also have been hitting a hill workout on weekly since I figured hills would be applicable to both track and XC.

Should I keep doing a speed endurance workout a week like 16 x 200s or a workout in general or would I be better off just supplementing in another 8 mile run instead of an 8-mile workout (including WU + CD)

Sorry but you might be on the edge of overtraining. The guys on Strava just want to help you stay safe and think about the long term.

Right now there is no point to do many fast 200s around mile pace trying to hit certain splits, especially since you already increased mileage by a lot. You don't want to be in a situation where you have to hang on to complete a workout right now, and depending on the goal pace this workout might be like it.

Doing two weekly workouts right now is recommended, but they should be more aerobic in nature. I think doing Fartlek workouts would be great at the moment, like 10x1min on, 1 off to keep some speed but also threshold monsters like 6x3 min, or 4x5 min. A substitute for the 16x200 on the track could be 16x200 on the hills, just putting in a nice, honest effort and not training or pressuring to hit 32s splits during the last reps. I think now more than ever we should take stress and splits out of running, and focus on effort and staying relaxed, especially since most of us are increasing mileage right now. GL, stay injury-free and keep running strongly!