Completed 6 weeks of training

I finished 6 weeks of base training today. I ran 18 10-20-30 intervals, 2 mi tempo, 4 mi long run and 3 days of 2 mi recovery every week. I ran the last 4 mi 2 minutes faster than the previous 5. My next race is the Thanksgiving Day 5K at Pott's Field in Boulder, CO. I will continue with the same training schedule and not increase the number of intervals or the mileage of the tempo. I plan on increasing the long run to 5 mi and the easy recovery runs to 2.5 mi.

October Running Plan

I finished three straight weeks of training for the Turkey Trot 5K at Potts Field. I know I said I would add distance to the Long and Tempo runs now but I am going to lower their paces instead. I cannot continue running my Long run at 10:40 min/mi. I cannot run that slowly, it is just not natural. For October I will run Long at 10:00 min/mi and Tempo at my anaerobic threshold of 9:00 min/mi. I am going to run 18 10-20-30 intervals on Tuesday. This is down from the 20 per day I ran in September because I am changing from resting after 5 min into jogging at the 55th St underpass and Wellman Ditch bridge. That knocks out one interval for the outbound one mile but I will take a good rest when I turn around. Taking the Easy runs as a recovery run after each of the hard days (Intervals, Tempo and Long) has worked very well. I'll do three more weeks of this and then find a Halloween 5K to see where I am at. Then I will have three more weeks of training for the Thanksgiving 5K. I hope not increasing my mileage keeps me injury free until then.

I Need More Recovery Time

The old adage of taking one day off from running for every mile you raced does not apply to me anymore. I raced 5K eight days ago and I am still hurting. It was my first race in 2 1/2 years and I lost the ability to land on my forefoot at about 1 mile. My knees took a pounding for the last 2 miles and I felt twinges in my damaged left knee on this morning's run. I did run 4x5 10-20-30 intervals four days after the race and that was a mistake. Since then I have stopped intervals and have just been running easy 2 miles. I may continue that into next week if the knee pain persists. I also have reassessed my September training plan to address my lack of endurance in last weeks 5K. I will go back to Tempo runs in place of one of the 10-20-30 interval days. My week will be: Mon-Off, Tue-2mi Easy, Wed-2mi Tempo, Thu-2mi Easy, Fri-4x5 10-20-30 Intervals, Sat-2mi Easy, Sun-4mi Easy.

September Running Plan

I looked up my VDOT in Daniels' Running Formula Chapter 3 Measuring Your Starting Point. For my 26:24 time, 8:30 min/mi pace, in yesterday's 5K race it is VDOT = 36. Then I went to another table in the book and found my Easy and Long run pace should be 10:40 min/mi. I have been doing Easy runs of 2 mi three times a week at around 9:40 min/mi and Long runs of 4 mi once a week at around 10:20. The Easy runs have been way too fast to allow for adequate recovery from the 10-20-30 intervals and Long runs. I did not know that until yesterday. My Easy runs in September will still be 2 miles but at a 10:40 pace. The actual Long run pace is only 20 seconds per mile too fast and I plan on increasing the Long run from 4 mi to 6 mi by the end of September. This should slow my pace down to 10:40 and increase my endurance because of the increased distance. I do not plan on changing my paces in my 10-20-30 intervals because running the 90%-70%-30% of maximum speed in each phase is overkill. I will continue to sprint for 10 seconds, concentrate on my form for 20 seconds and jog for the 30 second recovery. I do plan on increasing my number of 10-20-30 intervals from 3x5 twice a week to 4x5 twice a week by the end of September. The total distance, warm-up + intervals + cool-down, for Intervals will stay at 3 mi because I will add the fourth set to the cool-down. The subjects in the Danish 10-20-30 training study ran between 3x5 and 5x5 sets so I will be right in the middle. There is no local 5K race in September and I will have to wait until October to see if I can improve my 5K time.

Coal Creek Crossing 5K

I had a time of 26:24 in the Coal Creek Crossing 5K this morning. I am very happy with this time as I last raced in April 2010. The uncertainty of knowing if 10-20-30 training was working is over, it works. I intend to run several more 5K's in the next few months trying to improve my time.

Finished 12 10-20-30 interval sessions

It took me all of July and August to do this because of illness, a bad back and cold, and backpacking trips. This was my base training and Saturday Sept 1 I will race in the Coal Creek Crossing 5K in Louisville to establish my fitness level. My weekly schedule for July and August has been Tue-2 mi easy, Wed-3x5 10-20-30 intervals, Thur-2 mi easy, Fri-3x5 intervals, Sat-2 mi easy, Sun-4 mi easy. I found this schedule was comfortable after a couple of weeks. I have not raced any distance for 2 1/2 years so I am really excited about this coming 5K.

Five weeks of 10-20-30 training

I finished my 10th 10-20-30 interval session today. I ran every step of this week's training on my toes. That includes warm-up, cool-down and easy running. I am very surprised I could do that and realize 10-20-30 training was the reason. I have soreness in my Achilles that only appeared this week. That is to be expected due to the new running technique. I am looking forward to running my last two interval sessions next week.

10-20-30 training abstract

The university, journal and duration of the 10-20-30 training concept I previously posted were all wrong. The university is Copenhagen, published in the J Applied Physiology and the study lasted seven weeks. The abstract is here and I identified the most important feature of 10-20-30 training is short bursts of high intensity running. I am starting to realize the benefits of this training after four weeks of it.

Four Weeks of 10-20-30 Training

I finished four weeks of 10-20-30 training today. I have completed eight sessions of three 5 interval sets or 120 10-20-30 intervals. I am not exactly sure why I decided to try running the 120th interval without letting my heels touch the ground because previous attempts to do this only resulted in failure. Previous attempts were uncomfortable and I could only take 2-3 steps before my heels hit. Interval number 120 was totally different as I cruised effortlessly through the 10 second sprint and then continued on my toes through the 20 second moderate run. Afterwards I was very impressed at how easy and smooth interval 120 had been but regretted I was done for the day. I have to wait until next week to see if I can do it again. Four weeks of 10-20-30 training has allowed me to go from running 5 seconds on my toes to 30 seconds. My goal for next week is to run all 30 10-20-30 intervals on my toes.

Three Weeks of 10-20-30 Training

I have completed three weeks of 10-20-30 training with six days of three sets of five intervals. I am halfway to my goal of 12 days of 10-20-30 training when I will run some sort of predictor of my 5K race time. My body has adapted to 10-20-30 after 6 days of it and I no longer have aches and pains in my damaged knee and I can run my 5 mile long run completely on my forefeet. I am finding out 10-20-30 training is excellent for rehabilitation of my damaged knee. I attribute this to only running fast for 10 seconds during each interval. I am very pleased with 10-20-30 training so far and it has exceeded my expectations.

Proper Running Form and 10-20-30 Training

A short video on proper running form was recently posted on the web. I recommend this video to other runners and especially to heel-strikers that are converting to forefoot striking like me. I watched the video and wished it had come out 6 months ago because I had to learn to run on my forefeet by trial and error. One of the main themes of the video is becoming a forefoot striker is difficult and you have to approach it with caution. In my case, I had to start over from the beginning. I had originally injured the meniscus in my left knee because I was a heel-striker. I began a rehab running program beginning with short runs and added 10% mileage per week. But every time I approached 4 mile runs I would re-injure my knee. I decided I needed to become a forefoot striker to lower the shock to my knee. But I could only run on my forefeet for 10 meters initially. I began adding 25 meters per day until I reached 1 Km, then I added 50 meters a day until 3Km then 100 meters until 5 Km. This took a long time. At that point I began 10-20-30 training specifically to enhance my running form. 10-20-30 intervals really help improve my running form and now I can do my long run of 5 miles totally on my forefeet.

I go to the Chiropractor

I felt sharp pain in my lower back when I stood up straight after changing a burned out headlight bulb on my car. After that I continually felt the pain when I stood up after sitting down in a chair. After a few days the pain became constant and I could not run or sleep. After a week of not being able to sleep I took an afternoon nap and slept on my right side because it was most comfortable. When I woke up from the nap and got out of bed I immediately noticed the sharp pain of standing up was gone. My back had somehow righted itself during my nap. The next morning I had soreness in my lower back and down both sciatic nerves for a short time. But I resumed running with no pain. I was totally blown away that a nap could cure the most intense pain I have ever felt and decided to go to a Chiropractor to see if I could get rid of the morning pain. I had never been to a Chiropractor before and no idea of what they did. But if a nap made this huge difference, what could someone who knew what they were doing do? I found the Boulder Back Pain Clinic on Google with a 4 1/2 star rating and made an appointment. I have Kaiser health insurance so it cost a $20 co-pay. My Chiropractor was Marc Cahn at Boulder Back Pain and he immediately noted the motion in my left pelvic joint was more restricted than in my right pelvic joint. He first attached a muscle stimulator to my back and ran that for a couple of minutes to loosen the very sore muscle over the joint. Then he had me lie on my right side, raise my left knee, draw back my left elbow and he "adjusted" the joint by pressing somewhere on my back. I felt a click in the joint but absolutely no pain. Immediately afterwords I felt no different but the next morning the bi-lateral sciatic nerve pain was gone and I only had the sore muscle for a few minutes until it loosened up. The tight muscle went away completely four mornings later. My first experience with a Chiropractor was positive because I experienced rapid pain reduction as a direct result of the spinal adjustment and recommend Dr. Cahn to others experiencing the kind of lower back pain I had.

Report on First Week of 10-20-30 Training

I have a 5K race training plan that incorporates 10-20-30 interval training. It is a six week plan and I just finished week 1. The first week wore me out. I found myself plodding through Intervals, Long run and even Easy recovery runs. I was very tired after I finished the Long run and went to bed before it got dark that day. The main reason I was so worn out was I ran two Interval sessions for the first time. I ran them on Wednesday and Friday with Easy runs Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. I run 5 mi Long on Sunday. My initial reaction when I realized I had become fatigued was dismay. Now I think I have a very good 5K race training plan and the first week of training should shock a newbie like me. I now do 15 Intervals rather than 16 and take 2 breaks rather than 1 during an Interval day. I also strictly limit fast running to 10 seconds, something I was not doing in week one. I hope these two adjustments minimize the wear and tear on my body.

10-20-30 Training Counts Intervals

10-20-30 Training involves running fast for 10 seconds, then moderate for 20 seconds and finishes with very slowly for 30 seconds. It is in reality a 30 second, two stage interval followed by a 30 second recovery. This pair takes exactly one minute and I use this to count intervals. If my stopwatch reads 5 minutes I know I have run 5 intervals. I previously ran 400 meter intervals and then ran very slowly until my heart rate dropped below 130 bpm. My old method had no convenient method of counting intervals like 10-20-30. So far I have only discovered good things about 10-20-30 training.

July Running Plan

I managed to work my way up to 20 miles per week in June despite a heavy traveling schedule. I wish to increase my speed in July while keeping my weekly mileage at 20 because of the heat and smoke here in Colorado. Monday - no running Tuesday - 2 x 1 Km at 10 min/mi pace, total of 3 mi Wednesday - 16 x 10-20-30 intervals, total of 3 mi Thursday - 2 x 1 Km Friday - 16 x 10-20-30 intervals Saturday - 2 x 1 Km Sunday - 5 mi I call this plan my "Minimum Plan" because it has three minimums. Running 30 minutes is the minimum run to not lose fitness. Nor does it increase fitness so it is a good recovery or Easy run. I do this on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Sixteen 10-20-30 intervals are the minimum number the Dutch researchers used in their study. They had subjects running 3-5 sets of 5 10-20-30 intervals with a 2 minute break in between. I run 8 intervals out, break for 2 minutes and then run 8 intervals back because I take my break at turnaround. Jack Daniels says the Long run should be 25-33% of weekly mileage, and 5 mi is 25% of 20. This is my plan to get faster despite the hottest summer in Colorado history. I will let you know how it went in early August.

Trying 10-20-30 Training

I felt really good today while warming up for my 2 mile short run so I decided to try 10-20-30 training. The interval of this training is 10 seconds of fast running followed by 20 seconds of moderate pace followed by 30 seconds of very slow pace. A sequence is 5 intervals in a row followed by a 2 minute rest. The originators of this training, a university in the Netherlands, used 3-5 sequences per workout. You can read a summary of The Journal of Physiology article here. Today I just wanted to see what the intervals were like and to my surprise, I really liked them. They were a breeze compared to 400m intervals. I only ran one sequence of 3 followed by a sequence of 5 today and 15-25 intervals may feel a lot different. I will find out how 3 sequences feel next week when I replace my 3 mile Medium runs on Wed and Fri with 10-20-30.

June Running Plan

One week of running with plantar fasciitis and I continue to improve. I felt so good I added half a mile to my long Sunday run to give 3.5 mi. I am discovering I cannot run slowly with a forefoot strike. In order to stop my heels from crashing into the ground I need to lean forward and that causes me to go faster. My running plan for June is complicated by a six day trip to Boston, a three day trip to Eugene, OR and a four day fishing trip. I will stay at 2 mi easy days and 3 mi hard days. There are no more Sunday runs in June for me and I will not be increasing my long run distance beyond 3.5 mi. I will continue to run through plantar fasciitis and increase my pace if possible.

I Have Mild Plantar Faciitis

At least I hope it is mild. I noticed my heels were hitting the pavement while running downhill on Old Tale Rd. I had the classic plantar faciitus symptom of pain in my right heel when I got up after sitting for a while. I did not run the next day hoping that would ease the pain. I had almost no pain when I woke up two days later so I went for a short run with major changes. I wore my Nike Triax rather than my Lunar Elites, avoided Old Tale, stretched my Achilles, ran on dirt where possible and concentrated on landing on my forefoot rather than my heel. My calves now burn like they have absorbed the majority of the shock, unlike before I got the sore heel. No run tomorrow so hopefully I will heal some more.

Run Mileage Adjustment

I have stopped adding the half mile warmup and cool down to my daily runs. This is the distance between my house and the intersection of 55th St and the Centennial Trail. I felt the warm up and cool down mileage should not be used to calculate the percent increase in my running. I feel so much better now that I have confessed to padding my running mileage. You should do the same.

Alternating Hard/Easy Weeks

The Hard/Easy definition of weekly running is different from Hard/Easy daily runs. My Easy daily run is currently 2.0 mi. This distance neither causes an increase or decrease in my fitness. My Easy week is three Hard and three Easy runs of the same distance. My Hard daily run is currently 2.5 mi. My Hard week involves incrementally increasing my weekly mileage by increasing my daily Hard run by 200 meters. A Hard week has increasing mileage and an Easy week has no mileage increase. My weekly increases are 5%, well below the 10% increase injury threshold.

No 2012 Bolder Boulder for me

I will not be able to run the 2012 Bolder Boulder. Although the running program to rehabilitate my knee is going well, my maximum distance so far is 3.5 mi. I am afraid trying to run 10K in the next few weeks is a huge jump in mileage and very likely to injure my knee. I am targeting the Avery Four on the Fourth (2.5 mi) for my return to road racing. Six more weeks of small increases in mileage and pace should strengthen my leg enough to take the stress of a short race.

Do I Have a Mileage Obsession?

I will reach my goal of three easy 3 mile runs and three hard 3.5 mile runs later this week. But now I am wondering why I picked that mileage? Before I tore my left knee menicus in 2010, I considered a run of 3 mi as too short to give me any pleasure or benefit. Then I was training for marathons, now I just want to be able to run for my daily exercise. Biking, swimming, walking and working out on my Bowflex do not give me the same enjoyment as running. Mike Sandrock, the Boulder Camera running columnist, says "Every day is Earth Day to a runner." He is right and I want to be a runner. I read that 3 mi runs are only good for maintaining the runner's fitness level. I have found it is the maximum distance I can run and not aggravate my knee. The hard run of 3.5 mi does aggravate my knee but it does increase my fitness by a modest amount as I have seen while slowly adding distance beyond 3 mi. Running 3.5/3 mi or 19.5 mi/week appears to be the furthest I can run without getting injured at this point. This is assuming I can actually reach 3.5/3 mi without mishap. Below is my next week's schedule.
Mon-Off, Tue-3 mi, Wed-3.5 mi, Thu-3 mi, Fri-3.5 mi, Sat-3 mi, Sun-3.5mi.

Daily Mileage Increase

Adding a 1-2% mileage increase to my daily run has made increasing my weekly mileage more enjoyable. This is because I now have a dynamic turn-around point in my out-and-back runs. I try to find a unique landmark at the turn around so I know where to start adding distance the next time I run the same route. I originally aimed at adding 1% per run to a 5K run. This works out to plus 50 meters every run. For some reason adding 50 meters is not comfortable and I have actually been adding about 75 meters per run. I guess 75 m gives me a greater sense of progress than 50 m. I am currently at 2.5 mi for my easy run and 3 mi for my hard run. I'll stop increasing the easy run when I reach 4 mi around the second week in June. My damaged meniscus does not seem to mind the slight increases and in almost two weeks of doing this my knee has not been sore. Knock on wood.

Summer 2012 Running Plan

My sprained ankle finally quit hurting at Easter, just like the Physical Therapist said it would. My torn meniscus continues to bother me after Long runs on Sunday. So I have stopped the Sunday Long runs and now run Hard/Easy six times a week. Actually, the difference between Hard and Easy is only .5 mi and I currently am at 3 and 2.5 mi for a weekly total of 16.5 mi. I want to increase my weekly mileage but adding a half mile to the hard run seems to aggravate my knee with the torn meniscus. My plan is to increase my daily run by 1% or 50 meters. My hope is this will allow me to increase my mileage without big increases in my longest run.