I did 1 CT session 30min yesterday, 28 Jan 2012. I did two separate 30 min sessions on CT today 29 Jan, 2012.

Heels are slightly better, it has been 6 days since my last run. Frustration is huge and I am being hassled by my partner about it - because I want to limit ANY activity that aggravates the problem, including walking.

I personally think I now know what is required:

- Limit activities that aggravate the problem

- No running for 2-3 months

- Strap heel/ankle as I have noticed that right heel hurts when underpronating

Heels problem setback

I have suffered a setback wih regard to my heels. The RIGHT heel has flared up and I have stopped running as a result. I took a few days off to cope with the misery of yet again being stopped in my tracks, but did a CT session of 30 minutes plus a fast 4-6 km bikeride yesterday afternoon.

I am in two mind whether getting to th doctor about this will make mich difference. I am personally convinced that TIME and eccentric heel drops are the answer. Meanwhile, I will investigate getting into some bike, and swimming, maybe with deep water running for the next 3 months.

Bad run Tuesday

30 minutes CT hard:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/142662734

CT 5 minutes warmup or run:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/142662737

25 minutes easy:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/142662744

Bad run Sunday morning, then 65 minutes CT Monday, 30 minutes HARD, no runs Monday or Tuesday, and did a un today.

Seems that fatigue has accumulated and today was reasonably tough. I sort of know when I need to back off a bit these days I think. Will do another 65 minutes on CT again tomorrow night.

CT 65 minutes

65 minutes on CT:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/142175329

Had a tough run yesterday, felt really uncomfortable and fatigued. After, I had sore heels especially right one. Felt quite dejected, anticipating another 2-3 months no running to recover. Shall see how it goes this week.

Hit the CT harder today than ever before, and did 5 minutes longer than ever before. Ended up doing 27.1km according to the odometer. For the first time, my right heel was hurting during the session, so something is up I think.

Sunday tough run

CT 5 minutes warmup:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/141688415

25 minutes running - Strangely felt very tough:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/141688422

35 minutes on CT:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/141688425


This was a tough run for some reason. I felt very out of breath and _tired_ for the first 2km's. I slowed a little for the rest of the run, and met Christine at Manly Markets. Had a coffee, and walked all the way home about 4km's. Then I did 35 minutes on CT. Total runn ing + CT is 65 minutes.

I guess that the fast Friday run and the extra run home after has accumulated and thus tired today. I am pleased to have been able to get 65 minutes total done however. And heart rate / pace overall was not too bad either.

Last run for the week ending Friday 13 Jan 2012

CT warmup:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/141236322

Fastish 4km:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/141236326

Slow run home with MAX:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/141236331

Was planning to do an easy run tonight, but I felt pretty good and went fast for the first 1km. The rest of the run I faded a bit but I managed an average pace of 4min33/km, which is quite pleasing.

I commence my last week of the 6 week recover as prescribed by physio. I have not followed it precisely but I have been reasonably conservative. Next week I will aim to to 25,20,25,20 minutes.

I was 3 seconds off my _second_ milestone of 4min30 for 4km. But I did not hold that pace consistently enough. I will make a genuine attempt to do 30 seconds for 200metres, and a consistent 4min30 for 3km In a weeks time.

Milestones

This is a post where I record my milestones and if/when I achieve them. Will revisit and edit this when I have achieved a milestone.


200 meters in 30 seconds - AND able to run 3km at 4min30 pace I graduate to next milestone and increase long run to 4km's STATUS not achieved

400 meters in 65 seconds AND able to run 4km at 4min 30 pace I graduate again, increase long run to 5km's STATUS not achieved

1 km in 180 seconds ( 3 minutes )  AND able to run 5km's at 4min30 pace, I graduate again and increase long run to 6km's STATUS not achieved

2 km in 400 seconds ( 6 minutes 40 )  AND able to run 6km's at 4min30 pace, graduate and increase long run to 7km's STATUS not achieved

3 km in 10 minutes 30 seconds  AND able to run 7km's at 4min30 pace, and graduate to 8km's long run STATUS not achieved

4km in 14 minutes 20 seconds, AND able to run 8kms at 4min30 pace, graduate, increasing to 9km long run. STATUS not achieved

5 km in 18 minutes ( Huge )  AND able to run 8km's at 4min30 pace graduate again and increase long run to 9km's STATUS not achieved

6km in 21 minutes 50  AND able to run 9kms  at 4min30 pace, graduate , increase long run to 10kms's STATUS not achieved

7km's 25 40 AND able to run 10kms at 4min30 pace, graduate to next milestone, and increase long run to 11km's STATUS not achieved

10 km in 38 minutes ( Huge ) STATUS not achieved

9th,10th,11th and 12th Jan running and CT

45min on CT on 9th Jan:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/140510521

60 minutes on CT 10th Jan:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/140510525

CT 5min warmup 11 Jan:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/141005804
http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6838497372913841417#editor/target=post;postID=3774138955873669939
Faster 2km 11 Jan:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/141005812

Jog fell over jogging home after the 2km:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/141005818

Half arsed sprint on way home:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/141005823

Total of about 30minutes on CT 12 Jan:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/141005826

Have done _something_ every day for the whole week, since SUnday, and not too tired. Definately feeling the work but using the CT seems a bit easier on my body. Heels the last few days have been really good, not sure why. Maybe they are just getting better.

Big news is I did 2km at average 4min20/km, quite pleased with that. On the easy jog back my path was blocked by a couple of fellows outside a local pub. I ran around them and around a street light pole. In the shadow I cast, in my path there was a big dip in the path from where work men had dug a hole and filled it. It had subsided 3 inches. My right foot went into that, then as I brought left foot forward I tripped on a rise that a tree root had caused in the bitumen. Over I went, caught my fall heavily in left palm on my hand. Bruised and sore there, as well as hip, shoulder and right big toe. ANyway I live for another day and a run, hand is much better now, no lasting harm done at all.

20 minutes 'easyish'

Began with 5 minutes on the CT:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/139840191
Then an aborted start ( Forgot to enable the GPS in my watch ):
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/139840226
Then the real 20 minute run:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/139840247
My usual 200 metre speed burst:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/139840262
And finally 20 minutes on CT:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/139840270

I was not that comfortable in the run today. I attempted to keep cadence up around 90 BPM, which is terribly difficult to do and stay SLOW for me. I over cooked early an struggled for the last 1km. Still, compared to my latest efforts this run was OK. I was a little bit ill over night and I suspect that has have an effect.

Will do a 45min CT session tomorrow, and a run on Tuesday.

Yet another recovery run - 20 minutes

5 minutes on CT for warm up:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/139491140

The 20 minute run:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/139491157

And the customary quick 200 burst home that I have been doing lately:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/139491161


On December 17 2011, I did my firt recovery run, 15 minutes at 4min50/km pace. Heart rate was 162 average and reached a maximum of  173 bpm. I have only done 7 runs in total before this one, over a period of 19 days, and my heart rate for this run was average 144, with a maximum of 159bpm. Based on these numbers I seem to have gained a fair bit of fitness.

The CT workouts have certainly helped. Quite pleased. I have a 20 minute run tomorrow, and I plan to do a big CT session after as well.

New training plan for 2012, incorporating a huge amount of Elliptical Cross TRainer

I have put some of my thoughts down in a post in my blog here:
Where I am now and why - And what I am going to do in the future in running


Based on these thoughts and what I have read the FIRST training system, I will form a training plan. I attempted to apply FIRST in my training from about July 2011 through to around October. Obviously I did not see the fruits of such a training scheme, although I did manage to do a  personal best 3km of 11 minutes flat, so it did improve my speed. At the moment I do not want to risk doing excessive kilometers running for fear of flaring up my heels problem, so I am quite restricted and cannot do the full FIRST training plans yet. Even though they do less running mileage, its still too much for me right now.  I am forming a plan that will hopefully get me going fast and improving my fitness overall using the CT machine, using a few clues from the FIRST idea, but with a twist of my own. I am going to do it by milestones, where when I reach a milestone I qualify to increase my long run component.

First of all  I want try and get to a point where I can do 45 minutes on the CT on non-running days, and try to do a combination of  running and CT on the running days totaling 45 minutes. I will be training 6 days a week, and will do that with no speed work until I finish the 6 week recovery running plan my physio recommended. This will be a base fitness period too, where I lay the ground work for a more intense training plan.

Once the 6 week recovery is over, my weekly schedule will include Saturday a full rest day, and Sunday reserved as a club race day or a speed/tempo run day. A 'long' running+CT day will be Friday. So the weekly plan will look like this:

Sunday - Club race or tempo/speed and CT totalling 45 minutes
Monday - CT 45 minutes
Tuesday - Run speed session and CT totaling 45 minutes
Wednesday - CT 45 minutes
Thursday - CT 45 minutes
Friday - Easy run plus CT totaling 45 minutes - As season gets on this will get longer in both runand CT component
Saturday REST

This is the initial weekly schedule, with the possibility of increasing the Wednesday CT session increasing to be a mid week long session.

As far as milestones, every week or so I back off slightly on CT only sessions, and try and hit the milestones on the running days - When I reach each milestone I will revise the next milestones, maybe increase my long run component by one kilometer, and begin another  period where I try to build fitness to meet the next milestone. The milestones:

200 meters in 30 seconds - AND able to run 3km at 4min30 pace I graduate to next milestone and increase long run to 4km's

400 meters in 65 seconds AND able to run 4km at 4min 30 pace I graduate again, increase long run to 5km's

1 km in 180 seconds ( 3 minutes )  AND able to run 5km's at 4min30 pace, I graduate again and increase long run to 6km's

2 km in 400 seconds ( 6 minutes 40 )  AND able to run 6km's at 4min30 pace, graduate and increase long run to 7km's

3 km in 10 minutes 30 seconds  AND able to run 7km's at 4min30 pace, and graduate to 8km's long run

4km in 14 minutes 20 seconds, AND able to run 8kms at 4min30 pace, graduate, increasing to 9km long run.

5 km in 18 minutes ( Huge )  AND able to run 8km's at 4min30 pace graduate again and increase long run to 9km's

6km in 21 minutes 50  AND able to run 9kms  at 4min30 pace, graduate , increase long run to 10kms's

7km's 25 40 AND able to run 10kms at 4min30 pace, graduate to next milestone, and increase long run to 11km's

10 km in 38 minutes ( Huge ) 


I feel that the 3km milestones and the long runs at 4min30 pace are within my grasp, but the 5 to 10 distances are huge challenges. Given I am doing minimal running distances, BUT huge amounts of CT workouts, I hope my fitness improves enough to reach these goals..

The long run plus CT day Friday I will rapidly reach the stage where I am able to reach the levels I am aiming for. The speed sessions and a tempo session will be what will get me the speed milestones. To gain the 200 meter one I think if I don't hit it first up, I will do intervals of 2x 100 metres, and 5x50.

To gain the 400, I will do intervals of 2x200, 5x100.. To gain the 1km I will do 2x400, 4x200, 5x100 etc.

Latest runs for the week - Continuing recovery runs

15 minutes run after  minutes warm up on CT
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/138819534

Fast run home, about 200 metres
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/138819538

I did 25 minutes on CT after the run
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/138819541

Finally I did a CT only session today
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/139046824


I have been doing these shorter recovery runs for about 3 weeks now, fairly casually, and not religiously foing a run every 2 days. Sometimes I would go two days without a run. Compared to my first few runs I appear to have gained a bit of fitness already I am quite pleased. I have finished the silly season, Christmas,  and now am completely off the booze again until about April.  friend is getting married ;)

The Cross Trainer (CT) is reasonably tough, it works upper body, biceps, triceps and chest and shoulder/back. It also works on core strength quite well. I recall the muscles that really hurt during and after LONG runs are being worked so that may be a good thing. 

Heels today are pretty good, and during the running quite ok, just twinges at the beginning.

Where I am now and why - And what I am going to do in the future in running

I think I have arrived at a few conclusions about running, training as a beginner, and how and why I am where I am right now. I am currently getting over a long term injury. Here goes:

It is often said that good running form leads to less injury, and greater efficiency. The cadence for the best performing and most efficient runners is about 90-92 steps per minute. In general even in training the best runners approach this cadence. I think this is absolutely true, there is no doubt in my mind about these simple facts: The best runners tend to be both fast, have great form and have a relatively high cadence. Cadence is closely related to running efficiency.

Its often also said that all runners training for distance events should incorporate long 'slow' runs at a comfortable effort level to help avoid injuries, and work hard enough that adaptation and fitness gained is efficient. It is absolutely true that training at the right effort levels leads to great improvements in fitness level, while also helping to avoid common injuries and avoiding over training and excessive tiredness. That is you work hard enough to cause adaptation while also allowing room for efficient recovery.

Note that 'good running form'  from what I understand is one where the body is slightly leaning forward from the hips, head held with a slight tilt allowing eyes to see a point about 10 metres ahead, and most importantly little to no heel strike. The foot should strike the ground under or slightly forward of the hips. Its suggested that a mid foot to front foot strike is best. 

I personally have found that when I run 'slow' at about 5min-6min/km pace, I heel strike. I find it difficult and awkward to avoid heel striking when I am running 'slow'. When I speed up a little, around 5min-4:45min/km I tend to begin mid foot strike. And when I run at around 4:30min/km or faster I tend to get more onto my forefoot.

Better running form and mid to forefoot strike also tends to be related to cadence - the faster the cadence, the more likely you will be mid to forefoot striking. I did a bit of experimentation on cadence a while ago. I found it was difficult to avoid going faster when I increased cadence. I have read a bit about how one can improve their running form by shortening the stride length, which naturally leads to more mid-forefoot striking and a higher cadence. I found I could increase cadence and maintain a 'slow' pace BUT only up to a point. It would get uncomfortable when I tried to maintain a high cadence and short enough stride to reach what all the training pace calculators said would be my 'long comfortable' run pace for training ( AT the time around 5min10/km). I always naturally reach a pace of about 4min30 whenever I attempted a cadence approaching  90.

I have been told by my physio that the type of problem I have experienced tends to happen to people that have poor running form, where they heel strike. The action places greater flexing and strain on the Achilles insertion which leads to over use injuries in  that area. I have read that other injuries frequently experienced by 'heel strikers'  are shin splints, knee problems and apparently a higher chance of stress fractures.

What I have found with myself over the last few years of training for marathons and half marathon events, where I did a lot of fairly long distance runs, is that I felt much more sore and stiff after running when I have made a concious decision to slow down right from the beginning. Whenever I just let myself run to what was a natural pace (For me this is about 4min30/km regardless of how fit I am) I would be less sore after. I know this may be deceptive, ie I possibly just run faster when I feel good and thus feel better after the run because I was in good nick before hand. But I feel overall it is true - Whenever I decided to _slow down_ I ended up sore after the run, and when I run to how I feel I tend to finish up less sore.




My natural pace where my form  is 'OK' is about 4min30/km. At various stages of my training I may not be able to run very far at that pace, but its what feels natural to me. I found when I was at my best level of fitness I could run 4min30/km pace in training for at least 10-16km, cadence was near enough to spot on 90.

Now here is the problem - As a _slow_ running beginner, I think poor form is very common. I think heel striking is an almost natural thing to do when running slowly for some people. Slow running is almost a 'fast walk' for some people. Like me!!

I think when I run slow I heel strike. I did a lot of slow running at 5 to 6min/km pace and thus was exposed to a lot of distance where my form was poor and my Achilles area was over worked. I inevitably a problem with both heels.

From now on I will not run LONG and comfortable until my 'comfortable' pace  run is fast enough that my form is good. ie faster than 5min/km pace. In fact I am going to assume that 4min30/km pace is my comfortable, and until I can run 10-20km at that pace _comfortably_  I won't go the distance. This is a little arse about of course :)

I recal discussing training for beginners with an experienced coach. He told me he does not suggest anyone that is 'serious'  about marathons (wanting to run for pace and not just 'the journey' in a once off event) attempt training for a half or full marathon event until they are capable of running a 10km race 'flat out'. He clarified what he means by flat out and he explained that it was 'at or beyond 90% of their theoretical HR maximum the whole way'. He said that if anyone can do that they have their fitness and running adaptation at a sufficient level to take on HM and full marathon training, and likely achieve good pace.

I have it in mind to run marathons and HM's at a 'good pace'. Therefore I aim to get to the point where I can run 5 and 10km races 'flat out', before I swing back to HM's and marathons again.

I will break the task down to several milestones:

- 200 metres in 30 seconds - I used to do easily sub 25's in high school. With no specific training!! 

- 400 metres 65 seconds. In highschool I used to do easily sub 60's !!

- 1km - I feel a realistic pace is around 3min/km.

- The next goal is 2km's. Flat out. Goal about  6 minutes 40 seconds or so, 3min20/km pace.

- Then 3kms. Flat out. I did a good one last year 2011, and managed 11min flat, my best ever. I should beat that this time around because I will be working on speed more than ever before. My aim is for about 10minutes 30

- 4km flat out. This one I  aim for a time of maybe 14minutes 30

- 5km race - break 20 minutes is the first goal. And also run about 18 minutes flat eventually

- 10km - Ultimate aim is to break 40 minutes, with a goal of 38 minutes

All the above goals must be achieved before I ever train for HM' or marathons again!!

First run for the new year

I did the first run for the new year:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/138218040

Plus a short fast run after:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/138218043

I did 5min on the cross trainer before the run and another 20 minutes after.


I also did a run - the last one for the year:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/138218033

And again a shorter faster running after:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/138218036

I also did a 40 minute session on the cross trainer on new years eve, that was hard.


From the data recorded it does appear that my fitness is slowly building. My heart rate is marginally lower in my latest run compared to earlier ones  where my pace is comparable. I should see a good improvement in the next couple of weeks.

I have had a Christmas/New Year period where I have over consumed both food and alcohol.  I have resolved to abstain from alcohol as per last year and the year before, so I should have better energy levels soon and thus be able to train harder as well as recover better after hard sessions.

Heels are OK, left is completely good, right is a little sensitive at the beginning but nowhere near as bad as it had been in the past.

Now I need to make a training plan - Next blog post.