running update
Aug. 16th, 2013 06:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ilanaramaIn all the excitement (well, I was excited, anyway) of posting about hiking across England, I entirely forgot to post about running. Which you all are dying to hear about, right?
[crickets]
Yeah, well. Before heading for England, I was running 30-35mpw. Then as you know, Bob, I sprained my ankle in England, and then I kept hiking on it, so I was cautious and did not just jump right back into running when I got home. When I did start running again, I...was not all that cautious. I ran 31 miles, then jumped up to about 47mpw for three weeks, and then to 53mpw. Though this looks like a rapid increase, I think it's safer to increase mileage quickly when it's to a level you've run before relatively recently, and I was running 50-55mpw in the run-up to my March half marathon. I am also, more or less, following Jack Daniels' recommendation to increase by one mile for every run per week - I run 6-7 days - and holding it for three weeks before the next increase. I'm on my third week of 53-ish miles; next week I will aim at ~60, and then there will be a cutback week because Britt and I are going backpacking over Labor Day weekend.
That's the plan, anyway. I've had a couple of really bad runs lately, I'm a little worried about my left foot (the one that had the stress fracture) and I'm thinking about cutting back early in a way that won't correspond exactly to week-intervals. But unless I'm really injured - which I think unlikely - I want to get up to the 60-65mpw range by early September.
I've also just started doing speedwork in the last few weeks. I started out with 6x400m on the high school track, which just about killed me. The next week I did 8x400m, which went much better, and this past Tuesday I did 5x half mile intervals on the rec path, which were not bad at all. The plan is to move into tempo runs, which are really the bread and butter of the longer distance races I focus on, but which I find hard to jump into without a little interval prep work like this.
Why am I doing this? Funny you should ask! I've just signed up for the California International Marathon (CIM) on December 8th, which will be my, hmm. Ninth marathon! Whee!
I'm also planning to run The Other Half (for the fourth time!) in October, as a tune-up to see where my fitness is, and incidentally to go after a PR - and a win in my new age group, as I'm turning 50 (yikes!) in September, and the woman who beat me last year (by sixteen freakin' seconds) will still be in 45-49.
Anyway, consider this fair warning that I'm going to post a lot (for values of 'a lot' meaning 'more than I have lately, which is basically nothing') about running. I hope.
[crickets]
Yeah, well. Before heading for England, I was running 30-35mpw. Then as you know, Bob, I sprained my ankle in England, and then I kept hiking on it, so I was cautious and did not just jump right back into running when I got home. When I did start running again, I...was not all that cautious. I ran 31 miles, then jumped up to about 47mpw for three weeks, and then to 53mpw. Though this looks like a rapid increase, I think it's safer to increase mileage quickly when it's to a level you've run before relatively recently, and I was running 50-55mpw in the run-up to my March half marathon. I am also, more or less, following Jack Daniels' recommendation to increase by one mile for every run per week - I run 6-7 days - and holding it for three weeks before the next increase. I'm on my third week of 53-ish miles; next week I will aim at ~60, and then there will be a cutback week because Britt and I are going backpacking over Labor Day weekend.
That's the plan, anyway. I've had a couple of really bad runs lately, I'm a little worried about my left foot (the one that had the stress fracture) and I'm thinking about cutting back early in a way that won't correspond exactly to week-intervals. But unless I'm really injured - which I think unlikely - I want to get up to the 60-65mpw range by early September.
I've also just started doing speedwork in the last few weeks. I started out with 6x400m on the high school track, which just about killed me. The next week I did 8x400m, which went much better, and this past Tuesday I did 5x half mile intervals on the rec path, which were not bad at all. The plan is to move into tempo runs, which are really the bread and butter of the longer distance races I focus on, but which I find hard to jump into without a little interval prep work like this.
Why am I doing this? Funny you should ask! I've just signed up for the California International Marathon (CIM) on December 8th, which will be my, hmm. Ninth marathon! Whee!
I'm also planning to run The Other Half (for the fourth time!) in October, as a tune-up to see where my fitness is, and incidentally to go after a PR - and a win in my new age group, as I'm turning 50 (yikes!) in September, and the woman who beat me last year (by sixteen freakin' seconds) will still be in 45-49.
Anyway, consider this fair warning that I'm going to post a lot (for values of 'a lot' meaning 'more than I have lately, which is basically nothing') about running. I hope.