This past season has been gratifying for me in that it confirms that a lot of what I thought I knew about running actually works. In the time between Baystate in 2010 and this past spring, I had gotten pretty out of shape. I was a couple pounds heavy, everything hurt and I was feeling my age. I decided if I didn't do something now, I would get so far gone I'd never be able to get all the way back.

 

I set my "pie in the sky" goals as sub 1:20 for the HM and sub 17 for 5k for this fall. I wasn't sure those were all that realistic just because in addition to my body really responding well to training, a lot would have to go right, but I figured if I tried and came in at under 1:21 and under 17:15 that I would consider myself "all the way back" since each would rank in my top 5 lifetime performances at those distances--and both are distances I've raced a lot so they are statistically valid. I ran a couple of 5k's in June just to get a sense of how big the task really was. I found out I was an 18-minute 5k-er. Yikes.

 

I had to take into account a lot of things outside of running--my job, my kid's schedules, family vacations--and be realistic about what I could commit to for training. I decided to keep it simple and break it down into manageable pieces. The basic elements were:

 

1. Become at least a 60 mile per week / 250 mile per month runner.  I took June and July to try an adjust to that without emphasizing workouts, but still doing "something" for a workout

2. Maintain the mileage above and begin to emphasize the hard/easy paradigm. Plan was, beginning in August, to do everything possible to maintain the weekly pattern of workouts on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and long runs or races on the weekends. For my easy days (Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat) just jog 7 miles. I was a little behind schedule on this because my family vacation kind of got in the way, but by September I was finally locked in. The goal was not to make any one workout too big, but to be relentless in never giving my legs more than a day or two of easy running before hitting them again with a workout--just piling on the recovery stimulus. I knew I would never feel great during this period, but I should never feel awful either.

3. Race as often as possible at 5k - 13.1mi over a 6-8 week period, beginning in September. This is really just an extension of #2 with races becoming harder, more specific workouts. The idea was to race weekly if possible and keep the Tuesday/Thursday workouts. Think of this as a mini peaking phase.

4. The last 2 weeks of October, drop or back way off on the Tues/Thurs workouts to actually allow my legs to fully recover between efforts for the first time in 6 weeks, drop the hammer at Baystate (goal race and peaking workout all rolled into one), then take a full easy week and go for it at the Great Bay 5k.

 

Jackpot.

 

Now that I'm back to where I wanted to be, I have options. I may try my luck at another 5k next weekend before the minor setback that will be Monkey. But then I'm trying to decide what to do after that. After the holidays I may do a very short winter session and try and run a decent indoor mile before recovering then doing something similar to the above for spring. We'll see. The bottom line though is I'm back and I feel like I have always known how to do this. This sport becomes a lot easier when you don't have to worry about marathons!

 

I'm thinking sub 1:20 1:19 at New Bedford and sub 17 at some 5k in April if my allergies don't blow up too bad.

Love this post. Mikey, you continue to be an inspiration!

I'm at a bit of a loss here.

I've put in some pretty significant volume over the winter.  I've run some good/hard long runs, a few acceptable races on tired legs, and a few decent mid-week MP and hill workouts... all in the past couple months.  I really thought that I would have obtained some better race results in recent weeks though.

My plan going forward is to cut volume another 20% for the next few weeks and run a few moderate, mid-week interval workouts.  I  want to race a hilly 15k on 3/23.  I want to PR in a flat 1/2 on 3/30.  I plan one more 20 miler (after tomorrow) the weekend of 4/8.  Goal marathon is 4/21.

Am I off here?  Anyone care to offer any advice.  I'm really beginning to doubt my plan at this point. 

Two races is a pretty small data set in the grand scheme of things. I wouldn't read too much into it. Easier typed than done, though, I know.

Your training is not 5k oriented at all -- lots of easy miles and long runs, so 5k is not a good test for your fitness. It's good that you are doing them; they are great workouts, but I imagine you will run much better in your 15k and 1/2.

In general this makes sense, but it's also sort of at odds with the whole "95% of the stuff is the same for 5k as marathon training".   I guess the difference falls in the 5%.

I guess the difference falls in the 5%.

Keep the faith.

Hey, thanks everyone.  Sometimes we just need to hear it from others.  And in hindsite, I could tell during warm ups the past couple races that my legs were fatigued.  Hopefully that will change soon.

Okay I could use a little pep talk and/or some injury advice.

My training was going great up until about the last 2.5 miles of New Bedford. My left hamstring has been getting really tight/sore in the last few miles of the last 3 long races I've run: Jones, Stu's and now New Bedford. But at New Bedford it went beyond normal tightness/soreness into full on pain--probably because I was fighting so hard to make sure I got under 1:20. The ride home in Bucci's swagger waggon was agony. I tried to sit on my right leg as much as I could.

The day after Stu's when I went for a little shakeout jog, the first few steps were total agony but the hamstring loosened up after a few miles, and I was able to resume normal training load right after that. I still noticed the hamstring for a few days, but it was not a major problem.

On Monday of this week, the first few steps were again agony, but it didn't really loosen up much after that. I then took Tuesday off mostly due to the snowstorm and not wanting to deal since its' somewhat a recovery week anyway. When I went out yesterday I planned to do 10-12. After a half mile I had changed that plan to "maybe 8" and then as I got into the run I decided to cut it to 6.5 and give my hamstring more time. It was really painful for most of the first 4 miles. At about 5 miles I saw a friend of mine out shoveling the end of his driveway so I stopped and talked to him. I was stopped for maybe 5 minutes standing still getting cold. Once I started up again, a weird thing happened: my hamstring felt a lot better. Not great, but better than it had before. I ran the last mile and a half or so at about 7:30 pace where before I had been grinding just to run 8's.

When I got home, I did a bunch of lunges and stretches and worked both hamstrings with the foam roller. It felt a lot better after that, but it's still there. The pain is up high, near my ass, and sitting seems to aggravate it most of all--I keep trying to get up from my desk every 15-20 minutes which is not always practical.

I am tentatively planning to do a very easy 8 at lunchtime today, but I will cut that short if I feel like I need to--I've written off this whole week as a recovery week with the hopes of resuming normal training next week.

I'm open to any and all suggestions on how to magically heal a hamstring so that I can start doing big gnarly workouts aimed at the 5k. God that sounds dumb when I write it. Running is stoopid.