Re: Just trying to get in the miles injury free
I will be racing Racine 70.3 on July 15th and I'm currently in week 15 of the HIM plan. With the increased mileage on the bike and run, plus some races here and there, my body feels beat up. In particular, the longer runs have become harder and slower on average. But my primary concern is that my body is threatening injury (in particular achilles and hamstrings) and because of this I have backed off the interval work for the running workouts. I am afraid without this work I won't be ready for the HIM. Any words of advice or thoughts for those of you who have had to resort to this in your own training plans? Thanks!
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I swear I have the thing memorized! Ultimately, I'm trying to figure out WHY I have the nagging injury issues that I have - ie, what's going on with my specific movement patterns that's causing me the issues that I have (weak, WEAK glutes and lats, for one). If there's someone local to you who does Functional Movement Screening, it might be worthwhile to get checked out (although... probably not the best idea to totally tweak your form this close to your HIM). Check out Beth's post on Fast vs. Hard in the General Training Forum for more on that and how beneficial it is...
AND - check out my post "IM With Limited Run Training?" in the General Forum, too. I got some really reassuring responses that you might find helpful!
Good luck - be smart and listen to your body, girl!
Jess
Plus, what are you doing to recover? Week 15 of any training plan is never going to feel great. Are you friends with your foam roller, Triggerpoint balls, baths, putting your legs up on the wall, getting enough sleep, and seeing your massage therapist frequently?
Specifically regarding the need for speed/interval work in the run in the last 1-2 months to have a good long-distance tri result ...
There are MANY examples of people who had nagging injuries which prevented some or all run training in the last 4-6 weeks before an IM and still had good if not great races. My own example from last fall: I developed plantar fasciitis with 6 weeks to go before IM AZ. I stopped running for about 10 days, then returned with only LRP based runs, buidling from 20 minutes up to 80 minutes over 2 weeks. I still had a successful race, and was able to run at my target pace/speed the whole way.
Remember the EN principle: fast before far. You've already done the fast, you can let it drop without fear at this point in order to save your race from a total breakdown injury.
Intensity must be the first thing to go, when you are battling injuries. Get the volume in if you can. If the injuries are still nagging then reduce volume.
Better to show to the race 5% under trained than 1% overtrained!