30 runs in 30 days - who's with us? (Page 13)

Day 23 - slow & easy on the treadmill. Race yesterday, recovery run today.

Doesn't it?! I LOVE cooler weather!

Did 4.6 miles tonight while pushing my 2 year in the stroller... which I think makes it a strength workout too

annnddd 23 and going strong!

10 yesterday morning, with a 20 min tempo. 1 sec/mile off Friday's 5k effort. ~5 1/2 easy in the afternoon.

Today, another easy ~5 1/2 with a couple strides as a check. Run was easy and reaching 5:30 for the strides was easy. Last week was actually about the biggest total I've ever done, so great to see I didn't overdo it.

Woo Hoo.... welcome aboard. 

Stay with it, you'll get there!

You are probably NOT misunderstanding - I am probably using the term "proper" incorrectly.  

I always judge if I went out a little to hard by how I feel the next day at work.  (I am on my feet all day at work)  I have been a "little" sore on every run of this streak, but nothing that is out of the norm.  Sore Quads - tight calves.  Ankles, Achilles and foot have all been ok.  

I just started running a little over a year ago, and am definitely still learning.  When I started running last August, I could not run a mile on a treadmill. I still remember the days when my goal was to crack 9:00 min miles.    I love where I am at now.  Now my "easy" recovery runs are in the low to mid 8:00's.  The really cool part is that those 8 miles were not @ 100%.  

What I have been doing for this streak is long run day (race pace) on Sunday,

Monday - Easy Recovery run

Tuesday - "normal" run

Wed - normal distance but a bit faster than Tuesday

Thursday - Same distance as Wed but faster (but not faster than race pace)

Friday - Short "Easy" run in the evening (not recovery pace, but an easy conversational pace run)

Saturday - Run early in the morning - Normal distance and Easy run. This gives me 36 hours rest before my next long run Sunday where I bump the mileage up a bit and pick up the pace to my "race" pace. 

What do you think about that schedule?  I am open to all advice from those more experienced than me.  Have I been doing it right?  Currently I don't do strides, sprints or focus on hills - but my route is rolling hills.  I usually pick up my pace down the hill and try to keep my heart rate the same going up the next hill.  

Muskrat37 - 2012-10-08 10:16 PM Day 25...can't believe I will am so close to my 30/30 goal.  Looking forward to resting a few days at the end of this streak....I am loving it, but I have no aspirations to keep it going.    I will start a Marathon training program when this streak is over.   

Nicely done, Muskrat !! I'm 7 days away

my running buddy (and I!) love the cooler temps

It's good to see you have easier days surrounding your long run. A couple other things come to mind. One is with pacing in general. This may have come up before, but I can't remember how you came up with pacing. I use threshold and base things off of that, and it could be by HR or pacing. This is usually near or a little slower than your 10k, depending on how fast you are. Easy pacing is quite noticeably behind this. For me, it's ~2 min/mile slower. I could close it up a little bit, but I'm working up the volume right now.

Also look at the spacing of anything above your easy pacing. The mid-week caught my attention. There is "normal", "faster", and "faster still" on 3 consecutive days. That type of spacing has brought some results, until it got me hurt.

I'm working on 10-11 runs a week right now. Only 3 of them have sustained running above "easy". The rest have varying amounts of strides at most. The 3 with efforts are never consecutive days. They'll have a warm-up, a cool-down, and a distinct section of effort in there. BarryP put up a great thread at ST (I need to bookmark these things) on what to do with the efforts (in addition to running in general). I've generally been getting in 20-25 min at effort of tempos or hill intervals. So far this has been working for me in trying to get in several decent sized efforts a week while also building bike & swim back in again. Took a little bit off after my main race of the season. More than that is do-able, but it also affects the other disciplines, so it depends on one's focus.

Great pic - looks like the perfect running buddy to me.  

I came up with my pacing based on how my body feels.  I have never had a running coach.  I have learned by reading about running. My motto when running is "I'll take what my body can give me today".  I have modified that a bit as I learn more about run training (mostly to force myself to slow down on "easy" days). 

Not sure if this helps but here are my definitions:  

Monday - Easy Recovery run = 8:45 - 9:15 per mile

Tuesday "Normal" run = 8:30 'ish per mile (this is actually pretty easy for me now)

Wed - A "bit " faster run = 8:15 per mile (still not working that hard and happy with this pace)

Thursday - 8:00 - 8:15

Friday - Back to 8:30 'ish

Saturday - Same as Friday

Sunday - Long / Hard day - 7:35 average pace...last week ran all 8 miles under 8:00 mins for the 1st time (see previous post for my splits and note that the 7:59 mile includes rolling hills on my route).  

As a footnote - I never (not even when running in the 7:30's) feel like I'm working that hard on cardio.  I do feel the difference in my quads and calves (from pushing more).  

Also - I just got a heart rate monitor.  Ran yesterday at an "easy" pace (8:45 average) and was consistently in the 130 - 140 bpm range with the 140's on the hills.  

Thanks in advance for analyzing / helping me better understand if I am doing it "right".  So far - no injuries, just always "tight" and a "little" sore.  Nothing that keeps me from pushing it.  That's why I said I can't wait until I take a couple rest days to see how I run after resting the legs and running when they are fresh.  

Day 22

Haven't run since yesterday morning.... was actually anxious to run last night and this morning (at 5am, I was awakened wanting to run).  Didn't run either time so as to not get caught up in doing too much too soon, and am sitting here at the office itching to get out of here so I can FINALLY go run.

Need a warning label for my shoes - Caution: May be Habit Forming.

Number 30 today.....a 5 miler, 10% further than my "long" run last week, and the longest I've ran in nearly 4 months, since the PF flared up.  I ran 78 miles in the 30 days....the idea was to get back to running regularly after the PF injury.  So far so good.  I think I'll head for 50 days using the same slow approach, working for consistency more than anything else right now, moving the mileage up 10% every 14 days.

For PF sufferers, this is what finally got me over.....I bought some cheap insoles at Walgreen's Drug Store that were labeled to help with PF.  I had done the boot at night along with the strasburg sock with very limited results.  I bought the insoles and within 2 weeks my foot started to feel better.  After 3 weeks I started running every other day a few miles at a time.  After about 6 weeks I had no pain so I started the 30/30 deal.  In the 30 days, I NEVER (except once, read on) was barefoot if I was awake....and every pair of shoes I wore had the insoles.  I got caught at an all day swim meet after a run with nothing but my running shoes....by the end of the day I could feel the PF getting worked up.  When I got home I put the insoles in and went for a walk....pain gone.  The insoles, from Profoot, seems to do a good job of keeping the PF loose and stretched. YMMV, but it has worked for me.

I don't know if anyone wants to continue on....but I'm going to keep going. It feels great to be running again!

Nice job! Especially with coming off an injury. Keeping it down enough is tough.

I'll be continuing on, but won't be a perfection streak. I plan on running every day for a long time, but what I really want to do is make sure to hit at least 90-95% of the time out of a month. With that mindset, I'll be more likely to take a day off if I need it. Then I won't feel like I'm throwing out a lot of hard work by breaking an on-going streak.

Congrats on accomplishing your goal  I am only 4 days behind you.  My victory lap will be on Saturday.  Tomorrow's run might be a bit tough though.  

Day 26 - Ran my 3 miles - 8:35 avg pace.... then went and played racquetball for 1 hour.  1st time in almost 2 years that I have played racquetball...holy crap what a workout.  My legs are sore.  

Actually, it's much harder than I thought it would be.  My brain wants to run faster and further......making myself stop after 2 miles, and then 2.3, on most days, was very hard as the 30 days wore on....I just really started to feel good again, and wanted to run more and faster.  I think I ran one mile in 8:17, and the rest I ran between 9:00 and 10:00 save for a 3 mile run right at the end where I ran sub 9:00 for all three.  For the time being, I'll up the distance by the 10% every two weeks, but I'm not going to mess with the pace much too much...even though at times it seems pretty tedious.