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.