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How long does the newbie acceleration curve last? (Read 339 times)


Mmmmm...beer

    For sure there is a huge jump withing the first 4 to 6 months.  Even Dtothe2nd had one of those.  On 6/9/12 he logged a 25:45 5K for a very mortal 8:18 avg pace before he made the dramatic huge leap to a 20:23 5K (avg pace 6:34) on 12/1/12 6 months later.  Of course now just 4 months after that he ran a half marathon at pretty close to the same pace as he ran is 5K at on 12/1 so I'm guessing his 5K PR is soft and could be easily broken.

     

    We'll find out this Saturday, if all goes well. Smile

     

    Still being new to running, I always hesitate to give advice, but I have noticed something that I'll comment on.  I see a lot of people talk about not progressing, or not being happy with their results, and almost always, they've been running very low mileage, sometimes for years.  I know that everyone is different and not everyone can ramp up quickly, or has the time to put in higher mileage.  But I think that increasing frequency and overall mileage, and just having a strong base in general, would help a lot of people get faster.  I read somewhere that if you want to be able to run farther and faster, you need to run farther and faster.  Very simplistic of course, but seems to ring true.

    -Dave

    My running blog

    Goals | sub-18 5k | sub-3 marathon 2:56:46!!

      Very simplistic of course, but seems to ring true.

       

       

      <colgroup> <col width="176" /> <col width="100" /> <col width="87" /></colgroup>
      Date 5K Time Avg. Miles -18wks
      6/6/2010 19:19.0 12.4
      9/17/2010 18:59.0 13.7
      10/31/2010 18:34.0 14.5
      4/3/2011 18:49.0 26.8
      4/21/2011 18:42.0 28.0
      6/5/2011 17:51.0 32.0
      5/17/2012 17:46.0 48.5
      6/3/2012 17:42.0 48.3
      9/13/2012 17:42.0 55.6
      11/24/2012 17:35.0 54.5
      2/10/2013 17:04.0 45.5
      4/7/2013 16:53.0 55.5

       

      Hope that table posts okay. It's my 5k progression, with the avg weekly mileage of the 18 weeks leading to each race. But, yeah, that's about as simple as it gets. There's other stuff in there - learning how to race, more speedwork, smarter speedwork, and the cumulative training effects of all the miles building on each other.

      Come all you no-hopers, you jokers and rogues
      We're on the road to nowhere, let's find out where it goes


      delicate flower

         

        If you want to know how I went about this, you can have a look at my training log for 2009 and 2010.  ACL surgery for me was February 2009.  The absolute most important thing is to be very patient and come back slowly.  If you look at my log you will notice a couple of false starts where my miles ramp up and then go back to ZEROS.  These happened when I ramped up too fast and had to shut it down.  Slow and steady wins the comeback race.  Good luck, man.  PM me any time if there is anything I can do to help.

         

        Joe, thanks for pointing me to your log.  Wow, you really got right back into it.  I see you started very short runs just two months after surgery and ramped up pretty quickly after that.  I'm just under three months and haven't run a step (surgery was Feb 5).  Two more weeks until I start up again, and I'll definitely take it slow.  You've got some impressive stats now though...it gives me hope that I'll get back to my pre-surgery running shape.  (BQ perhaps??)

        <3

        joescott


          Joe, thanks for pointing me to your log.  Wow, you really got right back into it.  I see you started very short runs just two months after surgery and ramped up pretty quickly after that.  I'm just under three months and haven't run a step (surgery was Feb 5).  Two more weeks until I start up again, and I'll definitely take it slow.  You've got some impressive stats now though...it gives me hope that I'll get back to my pre-surgery running shape.  (BQ perhaps??)

           

          BQ?  Sure!!  No reason why not!

           

          Word of caution as you look at my log.  You noted that I ramped up pretty quickly starting just a couple months after surgery.  Look farther down the log.... I don't think this turned out to be a good thing.  By July I had to take a good 2+ weeks off completely because my knee hurt.  By September I had to take off even more than that, I think.  Finally, after September, I finally got the message [I am not very smart] and from that point forward my ramp was VERY gradual.  So, pay no attention to those early months, except as a cautionary tale!  That May-June stuff was too much, too soon.  BUT, take a long-term view and be hopeful, because you can definitely come out whole on the other side of this thing and even potentially run better than ever.

          - Joe

          We are fragile creatures on collision with our judgment day.


          delicate flower

             

            BQ?  Sure!!  No reason why not!

             

            Word of caution as you look at my log.  You noted that I ramped up pretty quickly starting just a couple months after surgery.  Look farther down the log.... I don't think this turned out to be a good thing.  By July I had to take a good 2+ weeks off completely because my knee hurt.  By September I had to take off even more than that, I think.  Finally, after September, I finally got the message [I am not very smart] and from that point forward my ramp was VERY gradual.  So, pay no attention to those early months, except as a cautionary tale!  That May-June stuff was too much, too soon.  BUT, take a long-term view and be hopeful, because you can definitely come out whole on the other side of this thing and even potentially run better than ever.

             

            I definitely noticed the down time and thought to myself "yowsers" when I saw all your miles.  I'm starting with 3 miles/30 minutes at a time and not on back to back days.  I'll slowly go from there.  I'm hoping to be ready for a couple of half marathons this fall, and I certainly won't be "racing" them.  Maybe a spring marathon if all goes well.  My ACL is coming along well but it's the meniscus that's the trick (medial and lateral tears, but I still have 70% left after two surgeries so I am happy about that).

             

            Sorry to derail your thread, folks!  Cool

            <3

            cmb4314


               

              I'll be happy if that is the case.  That's sort of what I've been thinking.  I'm hoping I can start building miles again come fall.  May-Aug will be just trying to get my knee used to running again.  LOST YEAR. 

               

              Me too.  I haven't run since February 9th when I broke my ankle.  I have only been putting 100% of my weight on it for a week now, and I *think* I finally get out of my walking boot tomorrow, but I haven't done a lick of cardio in about 11 weeks now, and the foot is clearly not flexible enough to run any time in the near future.

               

              It's going to be a long road back, methinks.

              My wildly inconsistent PRs:

              5k: 24:36 (10/20/12)  

              10k: 52:01 (4/28/12)  

              HM: 1:50:09 (10/27/12)

              Marathon: 4:19:11 (10/2/2011) 

              ilanarama


              Pace Prophet

                I'm another person who has continued to improve over time (and adding mileage).  I'm also an older runner (will turn 50 this year) and it's gratifying to see that I can still post PRs.

                 

                I didn't have a huge jump early; my huge jump came when I started adding miles.  I went from a 2:03 half (June 2008) to a 1:44 half (June 2009) to a 1:37 half (March 2010), and from a 4:33 marathon to a 3:29 marathon (over more years than that) by going from ~15mpw to ~60mpw.

                 

                (Also, npaden, my shorter distance times improved as well even while marathon training, so don't worry unduly about that 10K goal!)


                delicate flower

                   

                  Me too.  I haven't run since February 9th when I broke my ankle.  I have only been putting 100% of my weight on it for a week now, and I *think* I finally get out of my walking boot tomorrow, but I haven't done a lick of cardio in about 11 weeks now, and the foot is clearly not flexible enough to run any time in the near future.

                   

                  It's going to be a long road back, methinks.

                   

                  Damn...good luck, man.  Sounds like you've got a lot longer road than I.  At least I was able to start light cardio after four weeks, so I am thankful about that.  Broken ankle does not sound like fun.

                  <3

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