2015 Jan OS Week 6 Run Thread
The coach's thoughts in the Training Plan side bar refer to Body Composition Notes.... by far, this cause & effect player in the run game can be your best friend or your worst enemy. We all know where we come up short with this. Making changes takes proper situation awareness and mindful action. Blow this off and, well, ......It's like our workout & recovery lives, you are either getting closer to your goal or you are pushing yourself farther away. Take control of what you can.
(as a sidenote, and speaking from experience, if you need to overhaul your pantry, don't assume that everyone else wants to go that route with you. If I want to eat Body Comp Mode and the rest of the family does not, we work together, not against each other. But, this would be for another thread.)
Also, and this is an important one to put in the Run Thread, looks like the bike portion gets even more aggressive this week. Longest Tuesday FTP intervals, yet. More VO2 than ever before. The run picks up a little bit on the short run days but I believe the bike might start taking its toll on our runs, if it hasn't already! ---> Play it smart. RECOVER properly. Try to get as much sleep as you can Family, jobs, life gonna do everything possible to stop you. Try to stay one step ahead. But, always remember that this is game and keep your priorities straight. The other side of that coin is this.....your races in spring, summer, and fall will be greatly impacted by your resiliency during Jan, Feb, Mar!
Find your balance, keep your balance, but don't be an 'easy out'!
Go get 'em!
Comments
Anyway - thanks for perspective...cheers to a good week.
As far as, Jan OS, I think I need to pay attention to body composition podcast advice. My weight feels a little off. And the running form podcast should be helpful too. I have been thinking about cadence an awful lot. I may be running like a sprinter unknowingly.
Keith
I have a calf & AT history, too. Won't get into the details here but maybe in another thread that you may post over in the Med Forums. But, the TOP priority of each and every run is to get back to the house safe and sound. Cadence, cadence, cadence. I focus on quick & light steps. As I fatigue, if I start to feel like I'm pounding, I'll sacrifice pace to get back to quick & light. After a tough run, I ice. I'm lucky to have 110%PlayHarder Double Sleeves that serve as an ice sleeve after. Very nice. Foam roll the crud out of 'em. I don't do much heat other a sauna after my tough long runs on the treadmill at the gym. I'll spend about 15' laying down with my feet up in the hot sauna. Then, if time allows, I might get in the really cold pool a few minutes. But, mostly, I concentrate on rolling and ice. More foam rolling and more ice. And, it seems to be helping.
But, I think the MOST important thing I'm doing to stay healthy is by respecting my off days and sticking to the prescribed workouts as they come. Controlling my wants to overachieve on intervals or adding tons of time to a day. THIS, I believe, is why my legs still feel pretty good at this point.
[Edit: You may want to check in with Betsy. She has made some form changes that have def helped her durability/run health/speed/progress.}
Having said that, I did swap Mon Off with the Tues work, due to a big day at work tomorrow.
35' ez zn 1, low on RPE, focus on light and quick steps. Finished with 3x strides. In safe & sound.
legs off tomorrow.
Good Luck, all!
Keep it up everyone. This middle stretch is where we make our money.
.
It pains me (pun intended) to read about all this ankle/calf tightness. It really is symptomatic of poor form and, not practicing a regular stretching program. Then, this becomes a vicious cycle preventing good form, and leads to injury. Call it chi running, pose method, 'proper' form' taught by a trainer such as Matt sought out, or the way kids naturally run. Running with midfoot strike, with you feet 'under' your center of gravity, powering yourself with your major core muscles, is the uniting theme in all the above methods. Then you are using your core (very large muscles) rather than all your smaller muscles to power you. The problem is, tight ankles, and most likely tight hip flexors, prevent you from using your glutes properly and then you are not using one of your major core muscles and overcompensate with smaller muscles, and leads to improper form, soreness and injury.
I've said it before, but I am such a believer in taking the time out to correct form, whether you find a chi running instructor or someone who has learned pose method. The byline to the chi running book, is run injury free for life. So true. Danny Dreyer in the intro to chi running talks about how Tiger Woods took 19 months out to retool his stroke then came back the magnificent champ he was (well, until he let life get in the way). Retooling will take the misery out and keep you running injury free.
Food for thought. I was meaning to post the info on stretching anyway, just hadn't gotten around to it.
Oh, and didn't have time for the Brick this am, planning to do it after work!
I
the 'stretchy' guy Kevin at our local crossfit (my family is crossfit, not me) just posted about this hip/ankle flexor problem and how it inhibits the glute from firing-important in running, as well as crossfit, as using your core to power you is central to both (and glutes are one of your major core muscles.) I just visited my local ART expert (I met him at IMAZ where he ran the massage tent) and, despite me stretching daily, he STILL found right hip flexor tightness (but mostly shoulder tightness, my biggest problem as I dont do that stretching program as religiously). I will post this info tonite when I get home
@Chris-I had to get step by step instructions from the zen desk on how to post pics. Its not intuitive but it can be done
37' Brick done tonite after work-felt surprisingly good. z1.5 pace the whole time. 5x 20" strides done.
Stretching info I promised: Even though it refers to cross fit moves, perfectly applies to running too.
Lots of ways to stretch ankles, i don't use bands as pictured, i do all the other stretches pictured. I hope this is of some help!
Tonight my run was AWESOME! I did work on my form the entire time...and focused. I also had a plan to NOT over do.
My plan for the TM, which I stuck to even when I felt good, was Run my EP for 2 minutes, during that two minutes work on lean and head UP. Then walk for 1 min to let legs take a break. Repeat. I had NO issues tonight. 30 minute pain free run/walk - which I'll take with a smile!
Afterwards I did roll and stretch. I also had a massage gal work on my TIGHT calves earlier today.
EZ brick run in the books, with 5x20" strides.....I'm beginning to like these.
http://home.trainingpeaks.com/athlete/workout/OTZO53BMA6KOA7FOM3AX6KKAWA
Keep on it everyone! And keep those posts coming. We're all going to need the mojo from here forward.
Treadmill, 1.5%
1mi LRP->zn3
3x 1mi @7:24 TP
20' @ 8:00 zn2
@Betsy- Thx for those stretches.
@Roy- payoff for overshooting is usually instant gratification, isn't it? But, staying disciplined to the plan tends to be safer and a bigger payoff on race day! Nice self check!
Yall have a great day!
Good run today...75min and 7 miles.
not much more to report
WU 2 miles @ 8:10
Z4 1 mile @ 7:09
Z4 1 mile @ 6:58
Z4 1 mile @7:05
Target @ Z4 is 7:17
Z3 1 mile @ 7:28
During the run today I had one of those thoughts "why am I doing this". This is what I came up with. It seemed to give me a boost!
* This is what you love to do
* This is what you spend your $ on
* This is what you think about
* You sacrifice a lot to do this
* when your not training your not yourself
* This is how you get better/faster
75' - Nature calling robbed me of 5 min here.
2 mi warm up
3x1'(4')@Z4 - 7:33, 7:34 & 7:33 (target 7:42)
21'@Z3 - averaging 8:00 (right on target)
I am gaining a lot of confidence in my running ability the OS, compared to last year. For example, the psychological fear of increasing from 1/2 mi to full mi intervals or running faster than a 7:00 min/mi pace. On this run today, I could have easily ran the Z3 work at a Z4 pace. Some of it I did. But, I knew that tomorrow I have a VO2 bike session that would be impacted by this choice.
While I am still a bit off from running below a 7:00 pace, last Sept. I was right at it. It just didn't seem a sustainable pace for me. My thoughts this morning were that I can take on faith that I can do this work. I've demonstrated it before and can do so again. I get caught in over thinking the slightly sore knee that I woke up with this morning. Should I rest it, or would a longer warm up take care of it. Then there's the side cramp that I had on yesterday's Z1 run and after the second lap of today's warm up. Action going forward is to start my warm up, if it gets immediately worse, stop and re-evaluate today's wko. If it's just annoying or I am feeling crappy, then wait for mile 2 to make a go/no go decision. So far, I have yet to bag a wko after reaching mile 2.
I'm definitely in this subset of folks.....I have major problems getting out of bed early and can't ride the trainer early since it's in our bedroom! I often run/ride on trainer late at night....especially in the summer when my work schedule gets worse and the daytime hour temps are too much for running.
Got the TP run done. Felt great today. Ran both 1.5mi TP intervals at "mod-hard" RPE and they both ended up just above and below Z5. This has been happening a lot, and I think it's a reflection of the poor 5k TT I did. I don't think I'm "over-running" proper training zones. I'm not having any trouble with the bike workouts or the long sunday run. Hoping this will translate to a much better 5K TT in a few weeks. I'm going to do a much longer warmup for the next test.
http://home.trainingpeaks.com/athlete/workout/OH54JRW2BK3FE7J4EFY5J4RDZU
2mi WU z1-z1.5,slow to get the legs moving
2 x 1.5 mi: 8:52, 8:41 (target z4: 8:55)
1 mi @z3 9:09 (target 9:15)
By the end felt great!
Keep at it everyone!
Very slow 2 miles this morning. First activity since the accident on Saturday. Still a few sore spots but things are healing.
But I'm compulsive so now I am stressing about it. So everyone please remind me that missing this run especially if I am tired is a good idea.
Ok: go.
Edit- perked up later in the day and got the session in just fine.