Trying to come back and see if I can compete again

Peter Wick

Well, it is scaring me to death but I suppose that's why I signed up for the 2015 Philly Marathon. Sure I suppose I could go 26.2 miles tomorrow if I had to. Notice I wrote 'go', not run. I've actually put in 2 and a half months of running 40 miles a week on average. All but one of those weeks had a run of more than 13 miles on the Saturday. I am painfully slow and I just haven't gotten my head around that yet. The workouts have been a mix of intensities like in the marathon plans but my speed has just not returned. 

I'm actually tolerating a lot more weekly mileage than I ever have but then I'd always been balancing it out with swimming and cycling. (No more of that stuff though. ) I live in an area that has almost no stretches of road that are flat for more than a half mile and some very nasty hills. And I visit them every damn week. I just don't see the strength and speed returning so I figure I'm going to have to change my outlook. I just want to go fast, Mama.

Paul Hough

Give it more time. Consistency is your friend and if you keep logging those miles you should be able to notch up the race pace. The longer you were away the more time it takes to reestablish that base.

Keith Wick

Given that you've been putting up 40 miles per week for over 2 months, is it possible that your weekly volume is interrupting your ability to gain speed? I'd be curious to what a week or 2 of lower volume, speed work would do for you----short IP stuff, lots of strides, and some TP. It maybe that you need to wake up that part of your system. I think back to my previous athletic sports and compare the speed I had then to what I have now since doing long distance tri and it's not close--I can maybe get to 4th gear in a full sprint, but 6th is out of the question now, but I can definitely run a lot longer in 4th than I could previously. It may also be hard to tell with all the hills you have to climb--running hills is like driving a hybrid car- you cruise on the flats, but when you hit a hill there is just no power to get you up it at speed. There is lots of time until November--play with it and enjoy the experience until September, then think about race mode.

Mary Russo

Peter,
It was great to meet you up in Syracuse.
You sure have been through a lot.
If it's flats you want, why not hop in the car and head south? We have Boardwalk from the south end of Spring Lake up to Asbury.
It's beautiful. There are bathrooms. And, it is pancake flat.
There is no cover so if you come mid-day, you could bake in the sun,
If you plan for a 6 am or pm run though, you would find it the ideal place to test your fitness.

Keep the good stuff happening. Also, I have a study that describes the benefits of cycling (even if it's on a trainer ) and recovery for stroke patients. It may be similar for traumatic brain injury. It was found that people who did it recovered balance and other function better than those who did not.

I can send to you if you are interested.

Peter Wick

Sure, send that study on. I will say though that over the winter I was spending a lot of time on my bike trainer. The weather was crappy and I couldn't get myself out there. Probably wasn't safe for me anyway. I was using Power Cranks on my old commuter bike. BTW, I gave my road and tri bikes to someone for the season because it bugged me to look at them and he needed bikes. So those cranks, they were helpful in forcing my left leg to work since the crank arms move independently of one another. Pedaling that thing is like a constant one-legged drill and the set I have has really heavy crank arms. There are still some quirks in my stride for sure but it's a lot better than it used to be.

I don't want any flat stuff except the occasional track workout. I was just saying that I'm hitting the hills regularly, mainly because there's little choice, and had expected a better return to some strength which I figured I'd see in my speed. I know I'm going to have to reset my expectations. No more 20-something 5K's but more long distance events.

So, if anyone needs a runner in a relay...  Just don't expect a sub-4 marathon. Not yet anyway.

 

Anu Rao

give it time. Also it might help to focus on just ramping miles for a month and then adding in the intensity.