Rebuilding after a setback

greenolivetree

Specifically in my case, I'm referring to several missed runs over the past couple weeks, not due to one specific injury but numerous aches and pains that I've been trying to control vs. exacerbate.

My weekly mileage this year has gone like this:
Wk 1 - 6 miles.....Wk 2 - 8 miles.....Wk 3 - 7 miles.....Wk 4 - 11.25 miles.....Wk 5 - 13 miles.....Wk 6 - 10.25 miles.....Wk 7 - 10.35 miles....Wk 8 - 12 miles.....Wk 9 - 13.5 miles.....Wk 10 - 13.6 miles.....Wk 11 - 18.2 miles..... Wk 12 - 20.6 miles..... Wk 13 - 17.3 miles..... Wk 14 - 11.75 miles....Wk 15 - 8.1 miles.....

In retrospect, I was probably really pushing it weeks 11-13. I had some extra time on my hands with spring break, weather was very cooperative, and I was just loving running. Then came a series of pains with my low back flaring up, pain in my left hamstring, then down to my left knee. My back has bothered me plenty of times when NOT running, so this isn't necessarily an injury caused by running, but whatever the reason, it's slowed me down and I've gone down from 4 days per week to 2 and missed my long(er) runs.

So assuming I am in no pain to start week 16 tomorrow (I count from Fridays because Jan 1 was Friday and that's when I started back after 8 weeks off), what should my mileage look like the next couple weeks? I'm wondering also if I should not do consecutive days running for a couple weeks? Should I assume I'm back at week 8 and just start back with 12 miles and increase more slowly?

MobyCarp

When coming back from injury, less is more. On this schedule, my tentative plan would be:

Week 16: 8-9 miles in 2 days
Week 17: 8-9 miles in 2 days
Week 18: 9-10 miles in 3 days, assuming you feel great at the end of Week 17
Week 19: 9-10 miles in 3 days
Week 20: 10-11 miles in 3 days

. . . and if you feel great after Week 20, continue to build, very slowly. Maybe 10% more in Week 21, then hold that level constant for Week 22 and Week 23. 10% more in Week 24, if you feel great after Week 23, then hold that level constant for two more weeks. Lather, rinse, repeat. Think about maybe some cutback weeks. @Stoshew71 is a fan of cutbacks while base building, but I haven't done them. The important thing is having the discipline to do less than you can do this week, so that you can keep doing stuff week after week for the long term.

Yeah, progressing that slow is frustrating. But it beats the heck out of sitting on the couch. I've done both.

greenolivetree

Thanks. It's sooooo hard! I just want to run. Although I'm not sure I'm actually "injured". The back problems are on-going for years and I cut back to low-impact exercise as needed. The knee freaked me out but I got an xray and apparently I was worried about nothing. But I still know I was ramping up mileage too quickly. Running 70 miles in March was a LOT for me - last year I topped out probably at 40. I just want to proceed with caution after the past couple weeks being rough.

Stoshew71

I learned the hard way to insert cutback weeks when I was building my base this time last year. I didn't think I was building my mileage up too much but I was consistently keeping my mileage high week after week. My 4 HM's in back to back weeks I bet didn't help either. I started to notice my glutes were sore right from the start of my long run each week but just pushed through anyway. Then I just couldn't run the same pace no more due to pain and my whole gait got thrown off. I had to reduce mileage big time and skipped many days until I got better. It messed up my June 10 miler last year which was disappointing. it would have been my first age group win. A friend of mine ended up winning and we were just about neck and neck. I would beat him in some races and he would beat me in a few. At worse I would have gotten 2nd.

greenolivetree

I'm not opposed to cutback weeks. I figure every few weeks the weather or life will get in the way anyway and cut me back. LOL

I am sorta entertaining the idea of putting myself on some kind of training plan even though I'm not training for anything....but then it freaks me out. I've always been very day-by-day with my workouts. I've been exercising in some form or another 5-6 days a week for just over 5 years (after about 7 years of being an overweight couch potato) and I just always wanted to keep it enjoyable and not push myself to do things that would make me start to despise working out and therefore stop doing it.

But maybe in the case of running, a training plan would be a good guide to building mileage. I can already easily run 10k though and in under an hour, and I don't know if a HM plan would be appropriate to start right now. Also, I don't want to be in the last few weeks of a HM plan in July. I honestly was planning on pushing through the end of May and then probably backing way off for summer and ramping back up in Sept. I suppose I wouldn't have to finish the plan if the heat got to be a problem?

The first couple weeks of HM Level 1 on Garmin is no more than 30 mins running 3 times a week. But by week 3 or 4 it's up to an hour long run. It's all based on minutes not miles. But for me that would be about 9 miles a week to start with.

MobyCarp

greenolivetree wrote: »

But maybe in the case of running, a training plan would be a good guide to building mileage. I can already easily run 10k though and in under an hour, and I don't know if a HM plan would be appropriate to start right now. Also, I don't want to be in the last few weeks of a HM plan in July. I honestly was planning on pushing through the end of May and then probably backing way off for summer and ramping back up in Sept. I suppose I wouldn't have to finish the plan if the heat got to be a problem?

The game changes between a 10K and a half. The key thing is, you can run a 10K in under an hour. That means you can do all your training runs in under an hour, and you might even be running mostly near lactate threshold.

That falls apart when you need to run an hour and a half or more. Then you have to learn to run slower, simply to keep running longer. That, and you get injured from running hard all the time. This is true even if you don't realize that what you're doing is running hard.

I went from being a walker to running a 10K by having a canned 5K program that didn't tell me how fast to run, then just running. To get to a half, I needed a real training program and people who nagged me to slow down.

greenolivetree

So I think what you're saying is, because by week 4 of the plan I'd already be running 6-7 miles for the hour long run, that would be bad? And yes, I notoriously run too fast and hard all the time and I've been trying super hard this year to at least run some miles slower. I at least start out slower and run negative splits now. Last year I had a huge problem of busting out like a racehorse and then crash/burn.

MobyCarp

What I'm saying is, running an hour is a key dividing point. When you get to where you can run an hour, you really, really need to learn pace control. Running over an hour on my own, with no understanding of pace control or running easy, is how I got injured the first couple of times. I got injured trying to make it to a half marathon, two years in a row. The third year, I got a paid training program and coaches who slowed me down for the long runs. Later, I learned to slow down for less long runs.

Amazingly enough, my durability started after I learned to slow down. I've now been running at least 3 days a week for 90 weeks. Before learning to run easy, I never made it through a full year without having to take weeks off for injury. After learning to run easy, I made it through the full year, set a bunch of PR race times, ran more race miles, ran a marathon, qualified for Boston, and I'm now most of the way through an aggressive Boston training program. Most of that couldn't have happened if I had continued my earlier trend of getting injured and spending most of the summer without running a step.

So . . . if you doubt your ability to control yourself and run as slow as you should for most runs, doing a half marathon training plan is a Bad Idea. It's a particularly Bad Idea if you know you're injured or trying to recover from an injury. That's a circumstance where you need to ignore all the cultural and electronic urging to run further and run faster. The higher/stronger/faster meme is unhelpful to dangerous for recovery.

greenolivetree

That's totally where I've been. Started running July 2014, crashed in October due to poor nutrition - way too thin. Restarted March 2015, super sore hip flexor by July. 2 weeks off. Then ran through a lot of pain at my sit bone until I took off Nov/Dec for 8 weeks to heal that. So I've yet to run more than a few months at a time. My mileage was low (20-40 per month) until last month. I want to run consistently with no more setbacks. The longest I've run is 7 miles, about 65 min? Average pace 9:30ish with starting slower and getting a little faster each mile. But I honestly felt like I could've kept going. I have at least made progress in trying to slow down and not run faster every time. Being okay with running a route slower than the week before. My issues right now are mild compared to last year's pain so I'm just trying to keep it under control. Thanks for all the advice

WhatMeRunning

@greenolivetree - If you have an HRM and can glance at your heart rate every so often (or get an announcement) that might be helpful to help keep your pace down appropriately. With your age and resting heart rate you can get an idea of your proper HR zones for various running efforts (not always 100% precise but good enough).

The only reason I bring it up is that is how I was finally able to learn how to run slow. I used an HRM + my phone and I found the Endomondo run tracking app most helpful for this as it had an option that could announce your statistics as frequently as every .05 miles! So I set it to announce my current HR every .05 miles and went out and ran with the goal of keeping my HR within the targeted zone. It was very eye opening about how slow I needed to go, and was a bit of a hard pill to swallow realizing that I had to walk up some hills to keep my HR down that low (you may not require that though). It wasn't long at all before I really didn't near to hear the announcements any more and I could tell I was running at the right effort based on feel and keeping note of my steps per breath.

Not sure if that will help you or not, but in case it does you may find an HRM to be the best investment ever.

greenolivetree

Definitely has been on my wishlist since I got my Garmin in December. I have at least been trying to talk outloud to myself and keep sentences going.

MobyCarp

Another tactic that other runners have mentioned is setting a treadmill to the target pace and running the treadmill to learn what the appropriate pace feels like. I haven't done that; I did my pace learning with human pace leaders.

Stoshew71

One more tactic. Find a running partner that runs your easy pace or is willing to run your easy pace. Keep a conversation going. It's hard to engage in a serious conversation and run hard at the same time. If you are the slower runner, make sure that you are doing most of the talking.

greenolivetree

I don't have a treadmill and I'm a lone runner. But I was thinking this morning about a metronome app. I did successfully run three 10 min miles yesterday. Why does running slower feel sooooo awkward and rough?

I stuck to only 8.1 miles for week 16, done in 3 runs.

Elise4270

I quit looking at my pace and just run by feel. I'm glad you've been able to get out there.

greenolivetree

I did the same last night. No looking at my watch. I was covering my watch in colder weather with a jacket but as the weather warmed up I started looking more and more. Need to stop