This past week, I almost ran my first 50 mile week since before my neck injury last April! I didn't count up my weekly mileage until after my run today and was surprised to come up about a half mile short of fifty. Nice! It has been such a gradual build up that I have hardly even noticed that I've been increasing my mileage and adding a little faster paced running to the mix. This is thanks to taking objective training advice from Jack Pilla http://jackpsblog.blogspot.com/ for the past few months. I trust Jack, he's well into the Masters age group (like me), winning races outright (unlike me), and not showing any sign of slowing down (again, unlike me). He knows what he's doing!
If left to my own devices I would have been impatient to push the mileage and intensity, gotten disappointed or injured as a result, and fallen back into a half-assed ineffective running routine. I have a lot of years of running behind me so it is sometimes difficult for me to take advice from others, but this arrangement with Jack seems to be working. I'm not second guessing or over thinking things, I'm just doing what I'm told. Pretty simple.
This evening I ran some good fun miles on icy trails in my screw shoes. I picked up the pace and the screw shoes felt like track spikes. There was no slipping or catching at all. While I ran, Kevin walked the woods on the island and found my missing microspike! Now, I just have to find a way to make them stay on my shoes. Other than that small problem, they seem to work as well as the screw shoes but they offer the option of carrying them in my hands on stretches where they aren't needed. Bring on the Winter, I'm ready!
It's good to hear your training is going well. Keep listening to Jack. :-)
ReplyDeleteHmmm, maybe I need someone to tell me what to do. I'm always finding new ways to hurt myself!