the past two weeks have been a mileageroller coaster. The soreness got pretty badjust before my secondweek so my running was limited. During my third week I moved from South Carolina to Seattle Washington for the summer and my "friends" just wouldn't let me pass ona mountain run, so my mileage sky rocketed. Luckily nothing's torn or broken.Here's how it went:
The pain at the second week wasn't debilitating,it just seemed like I couldn't be getting much stronger if my legs were feeling sooo tender. I had intended to increase by 1/8 mile every other day or so, but I rested on the day of my scheduled 3/4 mile run.By the way, I was really proud of myself, it took more self control than I had practiced lately to keep myself from running.Thismade fortwo straight days of rest. I took the distance down to 1/2 mile to get a run in without causing too much stress on my already overloaded muscles. Then due to continued soreness I rested for two straight days.
May 14th: Rest
May 15th: Rest instead of doing my planned3/4 run.
May 16th: 1/2 mile
May 17th: Rest
May 18th: Rest - these two days of rest really helped. The soreness was completely gone by the 19th!
I think I managed to get away with so much rest because the 18th and 19th were travel days. I arrived to Seattle and moved in with a friend (my former high school cross country coach who had already transitioned to forestrike running), which, as you will see, had a significant effect on my running.
So the first day he wanted to go for a run. I told him tried to convince him that I had to take it easy. He convinced me that I could go for a 2 mile run and start running heel strike if I felt uncomfortable. He believes that I'm too conservative in my transition plan. And after that first day I was starting to agree with him. The day after I ran 1 mile forestrike I didn't feel very sore. So I did it again the next day. I still felt good so I ran 1/2 mile the next day. My legs felt fine. I was still feeling cautious, but I felt that I could increase my mileage more than I had originally planned. It was as if I had broken through some kind of threshold; a week ago I couldn't run 1/2 mile without getting sore and now I was doing a whole mile without a problem.
But then, we went to the mountain trails and I ran 3 miles two days in a row! I don't know what I was thinking. I was running much faster than I had been before and I was running on hills. Needless to say, my legs were sore. Not worse than the first time, but I was really freaking out, I thought I had caused serious damage. After all, I had dramatically increased my mileage and pace in a matter of 1 week. Here's the schedule:
May 19th: 1 mile
May 20th: 1 mile
May 21st: 0.5 miles
May 22nd: 3 miles
May 23rd: 3 miles
May 24th: Rest
May 25th: Rest
May 26th: 1.5 miles forestrike and 1.5 miles Heel strike
May 27th: 1 mile forestrike
So, May 26th was the last time I ran with my friend. I tried to be more cautious and limited my forestrike running to only half of the run. It was still probably too much. Today (27th) I decided to run alone so as to not be tempted to run too far or too fast. I'll try to run alone for the next two weeks for the same reason. After the past week of crazy running I have learned a few things.
1) Don't run with your friends if you're on a strict training plan.
2) Don't be afraid to test your training plan to a reasonable degree. (while I do feel like I have run too much this past week, I think my original plan was too conservative and I'm glad I realized it.)
Let's hope I get a hold of myself before I get an injury.
The pain at the second week wasn't debilitating,it just seemed like I couldn't be getting much stronger if my legs were feeling sooo tender. I had intended to increase by 1/8 mile every other day or so, but I rested on the day of my scheduled 3/4 mile run.By the way, I was really proud of myself, it took more self control than I had practiced lately to keep myself from running.Thismade fortwo straight days of rest. I took the distance down to 1/2 mile to get a run in without causing too much stress on my already overloaded muscles. Then due to continued soreness I rested for two straight days.
May 14th: Rest
May 15th: Rest instead of doing my planned3/4 run.
May 16th: 1/2 mile
May 17th: Rest
May 18th: Rest - these two days of rest really helped. The soreness was completely gone by the 19th!
I think I managed to get away with so much rest because the 18th and 19th were travel days. I arrived to Seattle and moved in with a friend (my former high school cross country coach who had already transitioned to forestrike running), which, as you will see, had a significant effect on my running.
So the first day he wanted to go for a run. I told him tried to convince him that I had to take it easy. He convinced me that I could go for a 2 mile run and start running heel strike if I felt uncomfortable. He believes that I'm too conservative in my transition plan. And after that first day I was starting to agree with him. The day after I ran 1 mile forestrike I didn't feel very sore. So I did it again the next day. I still felt good so I ran 1/2 mile the next day. My legs felt fine. I was still feeling cautious, but I felt that I could increase my mileage more than I had originally planned. It was as if I had broken through some kind of threshold; a week ago I couldn't run 1/2 mile without getting sore and now I was doing a whole mile without a problem.
But then, we went to the mountain trails and I ran 3 miles two days in a row! I don't know what I was thinking. I was running much faster than I had been before and I was running on hills. Needless to say, my legs were sore. Not worse than the first time, but I was really freaking out, I thought I had caused serious damage. After all, I had dramatically increased my mileage and pace in a matter of 1 week. Here's the schedule:
May 19th: 1 mile
May 20th: 1 mile
May 21st: 0.5 miles
May 22nd: 3 miles
May 23rd: 3 miles
May 24th: Rest
May 25th: Rest
May 26th: 1.5 miles forestrike and 1.5 miles Heel strike
May 27th: 1 mile forestrike
So, May 26th was the last time I ran with my friend. I tried to be more cautious and limited my forestrike running to only half of the run. It was still probably too much. Today (27th) I decided to run alone so as to not be tempted to run too far or too fast. I'll try to run alone for the next two weeks for the same reason. After the past week of crazy running I have learned a few things.
1) Don't run with your friends if you're on a strict training plan.
2) Don't be afraid to test your training plan to a reasonable degree. (while I do feel like I have run too much this past week, I think my original plan was too conservative and I'm glad I realized it.)
Let's hope I get a hold of myself before I get an injury.
