Could use some help getting off the treadmill..... (Read 658 times)

Welcome, Chenille. Where are you in Alaska? (Duh. I just looked at your profile. Looks like you're near Anchorage.) Our lower elevations are mostly thawed, but muddy, in the lower Mat Valley area, so it's pick and choose some areas. The recent wet snow / rain softened some things up (like the soccer field complex and trails), so I went to some gravel roads in a closed campground. Avoid trails during beakup since it damages the trails. It looks like you might have gotten more snow than we did. We just got enough to be annoying and slow breakup down. I do run outside year round, using running snowshoes when snow is right. When you mentioned "real" indoor track, are you near the new 400-m indoor track in Anchorage? (Yes, folks, that's not a typo. It's the only one in North America, from what they've told us. I still don't use tracks though.) But I suspect in interior, things may still be rather frozen. I'd probably leave the walk breaks in as you extend your time. As you go longer, the walk breaks will naturally fall out when they're ready. That's how I rehabbed after AT/PF. I'm not sure I'd worry too much about monitoring speed, etc. on tm. When you're outside, just run at an easy conversational effort - be able to talk in complete sentences. If you need to, you could set your watch for however long to run then walk or use landmarks like power poles or trail intersections or whatever.. Depending upon how much you run on trails or uneven surfaces, you might consider running around an athetic field complex. That should be soft right now (although maybe not in Anchorage), although perhaps soggy after snow / rain. But if you got a lot of snow, you might want to postpone that idea for a bit. I've only done a couple laps on a track (red rubberized), but my vague recollection is that it might be similar to tm. (my body doesn't like straight / flat so I avoid them) You might try the track though just since it'll give you some landmarks for run/walking and you won't have to worry about ice, slush, traffic, whatever. You might check for hardened (gravel) trails / roads in Anchorage to run on, but I'm spacing any out right now at lower elevations. ERNC is still reporting ice and dirt and suggesting ice cleats, but I think their trails closest to the nature center are gravel. I just don't remember for how long. (I'm in Palmer, and do some trail races in Anchorage, but haven't been on that many trails there.) Have you had any analysis done of your form or gait or diet (need more calcium) as to why you're getting stress fractures? Or is it just too much too soon? PS: you might want to keep an eye out here for trail conditions in Anchorage, although it's seen through the eyes of bikers. http://akspokes.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?s=493a2aa45d6383caf3f61a15a5a23877&f=28

Guess I'll just keep the walk breaks, and just try to take it one run at a time - going to head out to the dome this afternoon - I can get a punchcard for 10 visits, and that should see me through break up - hopefully - we got 10" of snow on Saturday, and our lows for the week are going to be around 25. Thanks for the advice