I’ve spent the past two months rehabbing a torn hamstring, and I think it’s finally healed. I managed to complete a 3mi/20mi/2mi duathlon this weekend, but the second run was miserably slow for me (about a minute slower than last year), felt terrible, and I’ve had serious DOMS for two days. I’ve only done about 30-40 miles total on the run in these two months. I’m a pretty low mileage runner when I’m healthy, usually doing about 15-20 miles/week (with a rare 25-30 mile week). I managed to bike pain-free during this time, so my fitness is pretty good.
My schedule shows sprint triathlons on 9/11, 9/18, and 9/25. What kind of plan should I employ to regain as much speed as possible for these races? The runs are 4mi, 5K, and 4mi. Do I do as many miles as I can, or speed workouts, or long runs, or doubles, or bricks, or what?
i’d be very careful reintroducing speed workouts after a torn hamstring. i’d say go for more tempo runs at your goal race pace or slightly faster after a thorough warmup. imho, that’s alot of racing in a short amount of time after an injury but more power to you
i’d be very careful reintroducing speed workouts after a torn hamstring. i’d say go for more tempo runs at your goal race pace or slightly faster after a thorough warmup. imho, that’s alot of racing in a short amount of time after an injury but more power to you
Did I mention that I did three triathlons in July with this? That was about half my running that month…
Do I try to do as many miles as I can at race pace? As often as possible, or what?
speed doesn’t necessarily come from “track work”. When people think speed, they usally think 400 speed, etc. Yet, when I speak of speed, I use it in terms of being able to kick it up that notch in a race. Like if I said I had no speed right now, it may mean I can run 5:30’s all day long for 10k’s, but can’t get it to the 5:15’s I should be at. That’s where the strength base comes in. People tend to forget that it isn’t just “base work equals lots of miles and tempo runs” and “build and peak equals less mileage and track work”. You need to remember that your body can work different systems each week. Multiple systems (ie: power, strength, endurance, speed) can be worked each week. Doing a hill workout, tempo run, economy runs, lactate threshold runs, etc… can be worked into a week, but here we run into two problems. 1. Time 2. Running the risk of making two workouts too similar. Each workout has to have a purpose, and if it doesn’t , you might as well be baking cookies. I look at your situation as trying to sharpen an already short pencil. You can lengthen that pencil by getting your runs in and building your aerobic base and throw in some threshold intervals to help you push up your tolerance during the run. It’s tough to try and help sometimes when you are not aware of peoples’ long term/short term goals. Also, it helps for people to have longer terms goals. Give us some more information. Are you only caring about this season? Are you racing next season? But you need to get to it and get on the roads and track. You can’t run fast until you start running…Period. Feed us some more info.
speed doesn’t necessarily come from “track work”. When people think speed, they usally think 400 speed, etc. Yet, when I speak of speed, I use it in terms of being able to kick it up that notch in a race. Like if I said I had no speed right now, it may mean I can run 5:30’s all day long for 10k’s, but can’t get it to the 5:15’s I should be at. That’s where the strength base comes in. People tend to forget that it isn’t just “base work equals lots of miles and tempo runs” and “build and peak equals less mileage and track work”. You need to remember that your body can work different systems each week. Multiple systems (ie: power, strength, endurance, speed) can be worked each week. Doing a hill workout, tempo run, economy runs, lactate threshold runs, etc… can be worked into a week, but here we run into two problems. 1. Time 2. Running the risk of making two workouts too similar. Each workout has to have a purpose, and if it doesn’t , you might as well be baking cookies. I look at your situation as trying to sharpen an already short pencil. You can lengthen that pencil by getting your runs in and building your aerobic base and throw in some threshold intervals to help you push up your tolerance during the run. It’s tough to try and help sometimes when you are not aware of peoples’ long term/short term goals. Also, it helps for people to have longer terms goals. Give us some more information. Are you only caring about this season? Are you racing next season? But you need to get to it and get on the roads and track. You can’t run fast until you start running…Period. Feed us some more info.
Eric
Not sure I like that “short pencil” bit…
As I said, I want to race well at these three races. I’m 47; I don’t have time for long term goals.
In Reply To As I said, I want to race well at these three races. I’m 47; I don’t have time for long term goals.
3 x mile or 5 x 1k or 4 x 1200m mid-week at goal pace (about 5:55-6:05? based on your recent Du time and your time at Sunset) with generous recovery such as 3min. Not enough time to make real ‘fitness’ gains in less than a month (hence the longer recovery interval), and weekly racing means that scheduling only one moderately difficult workout per week is sensible. Priority should be on regaining comfort at race pace. Sure, the tempos/long/speed are all important but in your limited time context I would just practice running moderately fast repeats to regain economy at your expected race pace. Nothing too stressful, as the races are stressful enough. If you want to do anything shorter and faster throw some strides in before and after the main set. Rest of the week just short and comfortable runs at your normal mileage. If you really want to work harder during the week I would make the main workout harder (maybe an additional rep or run 3-5 sec/mile faster than what I suggested above), but I would not add another day of harder stuff. Best to have a good two-three days between your harder workouts and your races.
Going through something similar myself. For the past month, I’ve been doing slightly downhill strides of 100-300 meters. Just a slight downhill, just enough so that it provides the momentum that I would normally have to generate with the hammies. My goal is to quicken and lengthen my stride right now, and in the past week I’ve noticed a huge jump in performance (I’m not doing any tempo training yet).
I only do the strides as my body allows. In other words, I simply go about my daily runs (I’m running about 45-55 miles a week right now), and on days when my legs feel loose and springy, I head over to a place that has a nice gradual downhill, and do about 10 increasingly longer strides. I’m 42, and the first 4 or 5 of these workouts felt like shit - slow, not smooth at all. The last few have felt pretty decent, although I sure wish I could glide along like I did when I was 18.
At any rate, if your goal is to start building some turnover and longer strides, try downhill striders, but only if you’re feeling really loose. I aim for 2 of these per week.
I’ve spent the past two months rehabbing a torn hamstring, and I think it’s finally healed. I managed to complete a 3mi/20mi/2mi duathlon this weekend, but the second run was miserably slow for me (about a minute slower than last year), felt terrible, and I’ve had serious DOMS for two days. I’ve only done about 30-40 miles total on the run in these two months. I’m a pretty low mileage runner when I’m healthy, usually doing about 15-20 miles/week (with a rare 25-30 mile week). I managed to bike pain-free during this time, so my fitness is pretty good.
My schedule shows sprint triathlons on 9/11, 9/18, and 9/25. What kind of plan should I employ to regain as much speed as possible for these races? The runs are 4mi, 5K, and 4mi. Do I do as many miles as I can, or speed workouts, or long runs, or doubles, or bricks, or what?
Dare I say, PowerCranks. That seems to do it for most who try them with your problem(s).
I’ll second what VM said; do some downhill strides. I used to run a running race series that had a Downtown mile every July. I wanted to do well, but it was in the middle of tri season/training. For about two weeks I ran repeats downhill. At the end of it I ran 4:28 and was pretty pleased with the effect.
Three weeks is not enough time to create any kind of aerobically physiological improvement with increased miles, nor is it really long enough to make effective use of any type of interval training. Either would just tire you out for the weekend races, so your best bet is to run some strides to work on your turnover throughout the week. I would warm up for 20-30 minutes, do some strides and then call it a day. If you have time to walk for 15-20 minutes that will help your legs from becoming too stiff.
Whatever you have already is what you have.
I thought the pencil analogy was funny. I used to run 20 miles a week with two or three speed sessions. Talk about a really short pencil with a sharp point.