plant wrote:
Looking to start a comeback as well after a layoff. Can you give some input on how you built back up. Treadmill times now very slow. I. am trying to ignore pace and memories of the glory days.
Thanks
I had basically quit running and given up all hope of running at exactly this time in 2018. I had a phone call with slowman about 100/100 and he asked me if I wanted to run it and I said, the entire running this is demoralizing because every time I try, after 5-10 steps my left leg curls up in an uncontrollable cramp (like a calf cramp when yuo are paying soccer). This was from a disc injury in 2015. I had pretty well become a full time swimmer because that is all I could do. In 2018 I did my first swim races and then things were improving and I just got back into biking and got run over by a bus literally 3 weeks after getting on the bike.....
....so I spent the summer of 2018 just recovering from that, but after that call with slowman he said, "I bet your running days are not over", so I said, "OK, let me use 100/100 as 100 days of rehab" Maybe I can try to shuffle at 4 mph on the treadmill without a leg spasm every 15 seconds and I can go from there and maybe if I can get this stupid body under control, I can build up to a 2 min run, then 2x2min, then 3x2min....and so on with walking breaks holding the rails on the treadmill.
So I started with 10x15 seconds on, 15 seconds walking holding the rails, then 10x30 on 30 off. This got me up to 10 minutes total motion with 5 min jogging at 4 mph (which is a fast walk)....then 10 min session 2x per day. then 1 min on, 1 min off for 10 min 2x per day....then I increased it to 4.5mph, then the 10 min session became 15 min twice a day. Then some of the 1 min stretches I "surged" to 5 mph.....then I extended some to 2 min and went 2 min on, 30 seconds off....then eventually I did some 20 min sessions. By the last 4 weeks of 100/100, I was doing 30 min sessions still 2 min on/30 min off, then I went for 5 min on 30 seconds off, then added surges to 6 mph....eventually I got to 3x10 min on, 1 min off and then I brought speed up from 4.5 mph gradually to 6mph (when it felt like I was jogging).
In the last week of 100/100 2019 I ran 30 minutes outdoors without stopping.
1 month later I was on business in Berlin wiht no pool access and ran every day 45-60 min (keep in mind, I was fit from swimming 1200km per year). By July I did my first Olympic tri and did 5 more during the summer splitting between 51 and 48 minutes for 10km for all of them (at age of 54) and I won our local tri series in my age group (thanks to the swim and a bike of a 25 year old). By last fall I had not broken 24 minutes in the 5km yet (even though I did 48.xx 10km split in tris....issue was not cardio, just applying force with my bad body parts). By the end of summer of 2019, I was running 40-55km per week and off that I did a half IM (finished second in 50-54 age group as a 54 year old) again thanks to swim and bike....my run was 1:53)
Anyway, that's the story. Herbert has been encouraging me on the sidelines with my run progressing. Now I am down to 22.29 and next week I will have crossed he 3000km running point for the year, my most running ever in 15 years.
I believe I can get my 5km below 22 and my Olympic tri split to 45 min and half IM split down to 1:45 on the trajectory I am on. I am also 8 lbs over my race weight with all the swim and weights I am doing. Just shaving down 5 lbs will help me a lot on run speed.
Really I am itching to do our local Olympic tris next year (swim heavy vs half IM) because my swim is very strong now as is my bike and my run will be solid for 55-59