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.