Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Run Less, Run Faster, and Maybe Injury Free?!

I am historically not a good running plan runner. It's hard for me to stick to a weekly plan of mileage and paces. Since I have started running more competitvely I have only loosely followed training plans.

When I had to take some time off due to injury earlier this year I really had to start to re-evaluate my
training. I am 99% sure my injury was due to over training and just running any distance I wanted whenever I wanted without a proper rest and recovery time.

I know I don't really have to train for a 10K, but when I signed up for a few upcoming half marathons I knew I needed to follow some kind of plan, and make a real effort to stick with it.

A fellow blogger (Trailmomma) recommended a training plan much like the less is more plan that is really popular right now. You do 3 quality running workouts a week and cross train the other days, along with one rest day.

The plan for a half marathon is 10 weeks long and I am on week 7 now.
Here is my version of the plan (I had to kind of tailor it to what days my running group does certain types of running.)

week# Monday Tuesday Wed Thurs (tempo) Fri  Sat Sun
1 Danes 4x400 Danes 3 Danes 6 rest
2 Danes 4x800 Danes 4 Danes 8 rest
3 Danes 3x1600 Danes 5 Danes 10 rest
4 Danes 6x400 Danes 6 Danes 6 rest
5 Danes 3x1600 Danes 4 Danes 10 rest
6 Danes 4x800 Danes 8 Danes 8 rest
7 Danes 6x400 Danes 6 Danes 10 rest
8 Danes 4x1600 Danes 8 Danes 12 rest
9 Danes 3x800 Danes 3 Danes 6 rest
10 Danes 4x400 Danes 2 Danes race day rest

So far this has really been working for me. I get enough time between runs to recover, and the cross training is more scheduled. I feel sore, but I never feel hurt or like I am over doing it. I also think rolling out every day has really helped me. Most days I even roll out twice. What helps even more is that my run group pretty much follows this schedule. Tuesday's we have our tempo runs and Thursdays we have our track workout. It's been great to be held accountable to the group as well as get in these higher weekday miles with other people, which is much easier than running alone.

Will my 1/2 marathon time improve? That I don't know. I feel faster, and stronger, but mostly I am just happy to be running un-injured. Sure I have my complaints...my back hurts at times, and I have been on the verge of plantar fascitis....but all in all I feel good and it's nothing rolling out hasn't helped with!

Stay tuned, let's see how my races go this fall.  As much as I would love to be running every day, I know my body just can't take it.  I have had to change up my plan, and I am really glad I did!

4 comments:

  1. That sounds like a great plan! Our half marathon plan was 4 days a week but I can see that 3 days plus some cross training could be ideal. My main problem is I never cross train; I sit on the couch on my days off!

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  2. What sort of cross-training are you doing? I am huge advocate of the less is better school of thought. Good luck with it all!

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  3. Nice plan! I think the increased cross-train will help keep your legs fresh and your runs even faster! Great job on Tuesday by the way!

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  4. For anyone interested, I created an online calculator to give you the recommended training paces from the book (5K, 10K, Half Marathon, Novice Marathon, Marathon)...as well as a race pace calculator for good measure:
    FIRST Running Calculator

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