I’m having a hard time doing the quality I need to get better at running. I have been bike racing for a long time and perhaps that has led to quite a few strength imbalances and i’m not real flexable to boot. So not at age 45, I’m finding that running even a smidgen, say 30-40 mpw w/ a weekly track workout and some running in the hills has led to injury with this common “tight calves” syndrome.
So, I bagged the track work and eliminated the bricks and am working on rhabbing the calves and all. Once I get back able to run again, I don’t want to make the same mistake.
What sort of runs will have the highest return in terms of improvment with the lowest injury risk? Right now I’m doing about half my running on ski trails in the woods, which seems to help. I’m training for duathlons, I run about 6 mins mile pace in these 5 or so km races that most duathlons have, I’d like to get a little quicker–is tempo running and long intervals a better approach as compared to banging out quarters? How much running does a typical decent ametuer olympic or sprint distance triathlete tend to do?
I’m having a hard time doing the quality I need to get better at running.
It’s not about quality for most people. It’s about running enough volume and with enough frequency.
i’m not real flexable to boot.
Running is a limited ROM activity.
is tempo running and long intervals a better approach as compared to banging out quarters
Yes. Most people misuse the track by banging out quarters all the time. Let me rephrase that. Running on the track is fine. Running the wrong type of track workouts, as most do, is wrong.
How much running does a typical decent ametuer olympic or sprint distance triathlete tend to do?
Focus on frequency first - for me this meant building from 3x a week to 5x a week
Focus on volume next - for me this meant building from 20-25 mpw to 30-35 mpw (and hopefully 40-45 next yr)
Run trails as often as you can - uneven terrain + hiis make you strong + soft ground is nice on joints - I really try to do my long runs at least partially on trails
Very little speedwork - I think that is the injury zone for most of us - I run hard in races and try to race fairly often and that is my speed work. Works particularly well, I think, if you do increasingly longer races as the season wears on (runs I did in early season sprints/duathlons were speedwork for HIMs, 3 HIMs this year were speedwork for IM next wk, etc)
Took a pose running class about 2.5 years ago and it was very helpful to me as previous I had absolutely no clue at all about any of the rudiments of good running form(correct forward lean, don’t heel strike, shorten stride so feet land under you instead of in front of you, 90 cadence, etc). If you already know that stuff you probably don’t need it, but if you aren’t a natural, I think pose or chi running, which are basically the same thing with different terminology, are at least somewhat helpful to most
Obviously, everyone has different issues, physical limitations, time/training constraints and I am certainly not blazing fast by any stretch but this pretty simple philosophy has allowed me to improve pretty significantly over the last two years and given me hope that if I keep at this plan there is still substantial room for improvment to come as I continue to increase the frequency and volume I can handle, all without significant injury. There may be faster ways to get fast, but being injured SUCKS.
Thanks, I read anothr post that was adjacent to mine that asked the same question and the responses were similar. I was hoping to avoid doing more than one workou a day due to time constriants, but maybe I can see if I can fit some more running time in the morning