I go with quantity.
"David Harris" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:After a two year break, in which I improved my golf game, trained for a
tri, but raced a duathlon, I want to get back into running.I really can't swim, despite some good training, so that killed the tri a
bit. I loved the biking, and will continue with some of that, and maybe
try another du this summer. But after fooling around with all that, I
realize that I prefer the running, and so want to get back into it. I
ran 10 marathons between May 98 and Oct 2002, with most of them coming in
between 3:15 and 3:20.My goal is to run a marathon in May as a BQ for 2006. I'll be 50 then,
which buys me an extra 5 minutes (oh, joy). I've been running about 30
mpw for the past 3 months, so have an okay base.My knees have been acting up for the past 3 years, making odd squishing
noises, and my family doc's advice was to stop running. I had them x-
rayed, and the results were positive, no damage. Both big toe joints
seem to have fused - they no longer bend up at toe-off, and there is some
swelling of the joint. I'm guessing arthritis. My lower and upper back
ache most of the time, possibly aggravated by 65 rounds of golf and a lot
of practice last summer.So my question to the other "experienced" runners here is "How to train
most effectively, while avoiding injury".My guess is that I'm going to have to increase quality - leave out some
of the junk runs that up the weekly mileage, and focus on quality runs.
Currently I'm incorporating some nice smooth hills at constant effort,
not hard, plus a weekly 1km timed loop in the middle of an easy run.
These are designed to add a little strengthening and speed while still in
an endurance-building phase. I think I should be going into a
strengthening phase soon. And I think LSD runs are essential to success
at distance, as well as helping shed some pounds between now and May.So I'm thinking of the following general principles
1) Increase weekly mileage up to 50 mpw over the next 6 weeks.
2) Have an increasing long LSD each week (alternating with
shorter ones once they get to be ~ 3 hrs.)3) Add one tempo run per week (QED with running club on Wed.
nights - choice of 6mi or 9mi routes).4) Add one Quality run per week - hill reps for about 4-5 weeks,
then intervals for the following 4-5 weeks.5) Two or three weeks of tapering, with focus on speed sharpening
and declining mileage (I consider myself an expert taperer, it's the only
part of the program I'm always able to stick to).6) One bike ride per week as cross training - probably 60 - 90 km
-not too fast.Any thoughts, feedback, suggestions?
TIA,
dh