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.