Running Frustrations

I will pass along what some very experienced marathoners told me.

Consistency is gonna be key to working up a good base. Running more days is preferrable to fewer days with higher mileage. In the end, the biggest benefit of your run training now is going to be an increase in running economy through improvements in your form.

A few folks pointed me to this bit from Lydiard for Base Building:

Just be sure to schedule regular cutback weeks as you build up your volume using the 10% Rule and watch yourself. If you go into a run really tired, bag it. This is mostly unstructured training and skipping a day is fine.

ETA: It also makes sense to alternate hard and easy days. Don't do back to back hard workouts. (Long or Intense) You should be approaching every run somewhat fresh during this phase.

Just listen to what your body is telling you and good luck

Separately, I would also recommend that you find places that you like to run and use them on days when your mojo is lacking. (Or not)

Find a trail, park or towpath with pleasant surroundings and no traffic or crowds to stress you out. Run Naked (No Electronics) and just enjoy your surroundings and run by feel.

It's OK to run on the Treadie if you are so inclined, but that can become pretty boring in a real hurry. (Unless it is at home and you can watch TV and/or otherwise provide outside entertainment)

A friend of mine plays video games on his Treadie and has been known to do long runs on it. (22 - 24 miles) It snows a lot where he lives and this is how he  trains in the winter time for marathons.

Dog is a good resorce, he runs A LOT!!!!

I really don't like hard run days anymore (intensity wise).  In fact, I can't recall the last one I did.  I stick to moderate tempo (zone 2) for just about everything.  Maybe a little higher intensity on some hills (zone 3), but nothing more than that.

I always felt pushed to my limit when I was doing Z4 or Z5 intervals or other really hard tempo days and feared injury...  I for sure knew I couldn't do too many of those in a week, or do any back to back.

It's a long(ish) process, just enjoy getting out there, listen to your body, easier is better than harder in most cases (at least for me)...

Good luck!

WaterDog66 pretty much covered it.  The concept of adding frequency of running then adding distance to your runs is definitely the way to go.  You have to be persistent as you move through the injuries.  Also, not every pain is an injury.  It is when the pain begins to compromise your form (your running "gate", aka your stride) that you need to be careful.  When you are building up it will hurt some as your connective tissues strengthen, and your bones increase in density due to the impact (running does actually help reduce osteoporosis).  I'm telling you I could not run at all when I started out about 9 years ago.  The first half of a year to year I had to take ibuprofen about 30mins before each run.  I weighed 70lbs more back then.  I had to do elliptical for a month or two (I hit it hard though), then moved to the treadmill, then out on the roads over the first 4 months.  You can do it, just be persistent.  It is hard to know when to push through aches and pains versus when to back off.

You can do it and it is worth it!

Water...has great points...listen to him...

If you haven't been running, take it easy starting back..run 10' seriously just 10. I keep reading folks going back to running go out and run 3-5 miles..I'm like why? Gradually build back up. I had to do that a few times after surgery, run injury.

I'm now working towards running 4x a week and 1 run is 10' long. I just need to watch the increases to be wise and not bump up distance/time to much to quickly. I hope running more often will help improve my run resilancy.

I am the resident queen of running injuries....I suck at at it, I've had a ton of injuries BUT alas there is hope as finally I am improving.

The run advice is great but the first thing is WHY are you getting injured?  Before you start working on the training lets get back to basics.  Go some place you can have your gait analyzed to be sure you are in the right shoes.  Lots of running stores will do this for you.  You might pay a little more for the shoes  but its well worth it if you don't have to stop training and can train more effeciently.  Some PT places will do a gait analysis as well.  

Get your injuries under control and healed, get the right shoes, ge a training plan.  If I can improve anyone can    Good luck

WaterDogg-

In your Phase 1 plan you quoted, it mentions 3 long runs per week.  I have a question about that:  Does that mean to only do 3 longer runs a week, or to make sure 3 of your runs per week are longer?  If it is the later, then how many runs per week is recommended?

If you only mean 3 runs per week, all of them long, should they all be relatively the same distance?  10% rule means to only increase 10% from week to week, correct?

Your log indicates you've run just over 72 miles for the year. You've been injured so that could explain the low mileage. Since you have virtually no base, you should work on getting in some miles in the following manner. As Waterdog alluded to, frequency and consistency are key. Start out by running just one mile per day - every day. That's running outside or on a treadmill, not an elliptical. Just go at an easy conversational pace - if you can't carry on a conversation you're running to hard. Do the daily 1 mile for a month. At that point start adding some distance to every other run, perhaps a half mile. Keep that up for a few weeks and then add some more. At the end of the first month you'll have run about 30 miles, the second month you will be up to about 40. Then add some distance to the every other day 1 mile runs while keeping the longer every other day runs the same. By the end of the third month you may be up to around 60 miles. At this point you'll be running about 25-30 minutes per day. That's not so much that you shouldn't be able to maintain it. When you get to being able to run 2 every other day and 3 every other day for several weeks, start adding one longer run per week on one of the weekend days, increase those every other week, 3.5, 4, 4.5, etc. By then you may be up to about 80 miles per month. Your body will hopefully make some adaptations to allow for the light stress of daily running. Then you should choose a regular running program that allows for days off and faster paced running.

This may seem like a lot of bother, but you have to think in terms of baby steps. It takes time and effort to overcome limitations. Doing too much and at the wrong intensity can be a recipe for frequent injury. Keep it slow, be consistent, and run frequently.

Long in this case refers to the upper end of your endurance (By Distance) rather than the Pfitz Definition of any run 17 miles or longer.  An of course, just like every other phase, during unstructured base training, the 10% rule definitely applies.

3 longer workouts per week is a good number because you can run 6 or even 7 days per week and weave easy days in between. (IE. Follow the Hard/Easy Principle)

If you are interested, Lydiard training is pretty well documented around the net.

Others have done a good job covering the ramp up questions, so I will pose a different one.  Have you ever had a gait analysis done by a professional? either at a running clinic or PT's office?  Your mileage would not suggest you are overdoing it, so I am wondering if some serious form flaws are causing your injuries.  It is really hard to follow any plan successsully if you have structural issues.

As an early runner, I was injured frequently.  I went to a Sports Med doc and PT and found the muscles in my right glute/hamstring were far weaker than the right which caused me issues.  Once I worked on getting a balance, things improved. I am injured now after getting hit by a biker in August so back to the PT I went for more assistance.  Just a thought.

Good luck.  PM me if you want someone to commiserate with

Donskiman - I didn't join BT until June and that is when my logs begin; buried in the OP you will see that I have been running for a few years, just not a lot.

SSMin - I've recently been fitted both for new walking shoes and new running shoes, but I'm waiting to really give the run shoes a go until I figure out the leg thing.  

Socks - After receiving a really awesome PM in response to this post and doing some research on a few things, I think that biomechanical issues are likely to blame for a good part of the problem.  I'm not sure if there's anywhere around here to get an analysis that tells you if you've got muscle imbalances somewhere, but I think that would be helpful.

KathyG - Thanks, I didn't realize that people scheduled in runs that short.  I find it really helps when people give me real numbers that they use (sometimes I have some engineering tendencies).

Thanks for all the responses; I think it's just going to be a while until I can get everything dialed and I've just got to try and not get too frustrated in the mean time.

Just an observation, not meant to be overly critical - if you just joined BT in June and already have more than 2500 posts, perhaps you are spending too much time here that you could be using to run. Really all you need to do is 10-15 minutes a day consistently for several months.

Are there any other factors that may play a role in your running you have not mentioned? Age. weight, medical conditions, etc.?