What would you say is the least amount of running necessary for shorter races?
Quick background:
I’ve only run about 20 miles in the last 3 months due to foot injury from a 5K race (22 min) in March.
However, no foot problem with swimming and biking so I’ve been working on those sports 3-4 a week each.
So I’ve been swimming about 10,000 yards/week (former fish) and biking about 150 miles/week.
So now my foot in healed up and I have my first race of the season this weekend, sprint distance. Should I be concerned because of the lack of running the last 3 months? I’m planning on going all-out on the swim (hopefully around 12-min for ½ mile) and hammering on the bike (hopefully around 21mph avg.) and then just see what goes on the run. Or should I be more conservative?
Sounds like a plan - after all, the run is where the injury will show itself if it hasn’t healed, so why not go for it early and hoper for the best. Worse that can happen is that the injury returns and you hobble home. Best case, you are healed, your run is a little slower than if you had been training regularly, and you do a great job…
you should be fine in a sprint but just be sensible and don’t re-injure your foot. I did a sprint after taking a year off of running due to injury and my swim and bike times made up for my 22 min 5k. I did test run on it the week before just to make sure I could actually run.
this weekened past i did a race 1k swim 32k bike 8k run
after the second k of the run i got the worst shin splints in the world. It ruined my whole race.
I managed to tear a calf muscle in my second race of the season back around 1996. I spent the rest of the summer riding and swimming a lot and only ran during races (I didn’t do anything longer than a sprint that year so 8k tops). It was a little discouraging since the run is my best event but I was able to hobble through and not have to give up a whole season. You should be fine to finish but be careful you don’t mess up your foot again.