Bramley parkrun this morning, 24.50, which was bang on as i had a 25m pacing vest on. I think that doing pacing runs will stop me from getting involved in any racing and taking undue risks, it must also be a big milestone for any improvers.
Luke Appleyard (Wharfedale)- quick on the dissent
Bramley parkrun this morning, 20.38, pretty much business as usual with 2 strong laps followed by a flat final lap which cost me the time. I'm going to consult the coach guy who does track sessions with horsforth harriers to see if I can do anything about this weak third lap.
The damage in my ankle from Fairfield has now stabilised, the short lived symptoms have gone and I'm now into the long haul waiting for the long term damage to repair. The talofibular has taken a bigger hit than previously thought and the whole joint capsule is affected long term. It's now about making good, rational decisions to minimise risk and promote healing...which in a nutshell is no fell racing.
After finding out horsforth harriers have access to Trinity College's track on Thursday, I headed up after work. I'd cycled home so was a bit drained. I did 15mins at 2mins/400, and 10mins at 1.40mins/400. The coach turned up as I was about to finish the 3mins rest and attempt 5mins at 1.30mins/400, so I put a few questions to him.
He was telling me how if you do too much fast and hard training the body never develops the cellular biochemical conditions to generate power effectively. It's all to do with ATP and mitochondria and crap. He told me I ought to be doing one fast parkrun a month and a lot more running at about 8.30mmp based on my typical parkrun time of 20m. The way I do things at the moment, with my fast sessions and plenty of racing, my body is missing the tools to produce maximum motion at a cellular level.
It's news to me.
Its fairly commonly regarded that there should be around an 80:20 split between easy miles:effort
For me, if i try and push above two sessions a week then its unsustainable... if i'm racing consecutive weekends then sometimes can't manage any sessions between, its just too arduous on the body/recovery.
And i think this is one of the main "disciplines" to master in training.... being disciplined enough to run easy when you should... of course if you run twice a day, most days, like me, it can be quite boring.
I should probably take more full rest days.... this is something i definitely haven't mastered.
Last edited by Travs; 09-06-2023 at 07:43 AM.
I used to think that running "slow" runs too fast meant simply being too tired to run fast runs fast enough. But it is a bit more complicated than that. If we don't run slow enough often/long enough we fail to develop our aerobic - mitochondrial - biochemical pathways, so we keep having to go anaerobic at too slow a pace so are forced to slow down even more. If you cannot chat in sentences then your slow runs are too fast.
My problem is milage getting added. I have a long standing problem with patella chondromalacia from historical maltracking, and compensation/stability issues lateral to both legs that stems from my lumbar and tend to affect ITB and anterolateral ligament. All this means i have to keep miles down. However it would be worth slowing down my tempo runs and trying to add extra slow runs on days i'm not cycling; they will be very short runs, but perhaps asking my body to generate power more often will have a beneficial effect irrespective of how far i run. With this in mind, i went for a run today, first friday run ever.
2.5m slow XC at around 9mmp followed by a micro session on the college track consisting of:
3 laps at 1.40mins/400
2 laps at 1.30mins/400
1 lap flat out, 74.53, which is now my official 400m PB time.
Then just a steady jog home.
Coach Kelvin advised me that i'm doing too many fast parkruns too, so i'm going to back off to one fast one per month and do the rest as 25min pacing runs, if i'm wearing a pacer vest i'll have to stick to that time so can't shoot off.
Luke Appleyard (Wharfedale)- quick on the dissent