Hi, Willamona. I was looking at your log as you advised racingslug, and I've got a couple questions for you.

I noticed you started out running 9-11 minute miles, a few times a week, for some lower mileage weeks. Was that how you started running or had you already been running for a while at that point?

Then, over a period of a few weeks, you dropped your pace down to 14-16 minute miles and started drastically increasing your mileage. How did you pick that pace? Were you MAFFing?

It looks like you run (easy) almost every day and have been doing so consistantly for several years. Do you get overuse injuries? If not, what do you do to avoid that? From what I can see, you took some significant mileage jumps towards the beginning of your running career. Did that cause you any troubles?

Thanks for your time.

Janell

When I started up again back in '06, I started using the go hard or go home principle taught to me by my track/cross country coaches back in HS and college. It didn't work and I got PF.


I found the MAFfers at CR and bought a HRM to try MAF. It felt great. I had no idea what an easy pace really was so my HRM helped me learn. I have not had any type of problem with overuse injuries since I learned to slow down. My PF healed, even as I increased my mileage and only came back when I started working in steel toed boots last fall. It was short lived the second time around, but then again, I knew how to fix the PF.

I do run easy a ton of the time as most people should. My hard/easy days focus on distance as opposed to pace during base phase. I have been stuck in base phase for quite a while due to new stresses intorduced by a job I started last fall. Basically, I spend an additional 40 hours per week on my feet and I had to do some adjusting. I was getting tired from walking for 8 hours and then running after work. I ran my last marathon without going through a peak phase and still hit my goal, but the training seemed much harder than it was due to the new stress intorduced by my work.

As long as I keep most if my mileage easy, I have found that I can put in literally as many miles as I want without injury. If I start to feel too tired, I rest. If I feel great, I tend to add mileage to the week. I just do what the body can handle. I do usually go through a peak phase, but I am bad at marking what the workouts are by category, I am more likely to put a note saying 'intervals' and keeping the run log set at easy.

Other things to keep in mind, my running career goes back much farther than this log. This log only shows the last time I started training. This is the first time I have maintained fitness year round. Before this, I was a seasonal runner and a smoker. I have also pointed out that I am rather mediocre so take that for what it's worth.

I do not fall for the stories people tell saying they can't run slower than XX :00 mm or they hurt themselves.