Discussion: Introduction

My friend Matzah Ball turned me on to this site . . . my introduction

Name: Bill H

Age & Gender: 52 male

Location: St Louis, MO

Years running (most recent spell): 4 years (motivated by my son's high school running career, he graduates next spring; my running interrupted by injuries, most notably a 5mm chunk of cartilage missing from the bottom of my right femur; come from a USA Cycling Cat 4 race background, so fall back to road, cyclocross, and velodrome racing when run-injured)

Favorite distance: 1M, 1500m

2015 average weekly mileage: 15M running plus 80M bike commuting per week

2016 goals: sub-6:00 mile or sub-5:34 1500m, winning my age group at the MO state senior games 1500 in June; recently started the JD Formula at 20 mpw, doing a formal 7 week Phase 1 base within a 27 week buildup to June, only 25 more weeks to go!

here's the numbers for Phase 1 Week 2 that just ended yesterday . . .

run miles: 21.33M
run time: 3:57 hrs
avg HR: 137
min weight: 188.2

and for the prior week, Phase 1, Week 1 . . .

run miles: 21.4M
run time: 3:51 hrs
avg HR: 136
min weight: 189.4

50+ PRs: 1500m: 5:47(2015), 1M track: 6:42(2015), 1M road(downhill): 6:31(2014), 1M road: 6:31(2015), 3K: 12:39(2015), 3M: 21:17(2015), 5K: 21:40(2015)

calculating . . . 3.57 hrs per 21.33M works out to . . . calculating . . . about 10 min per mile pace. JD suggest the slowest for my VDOT is 9:45 so maybe I need to pick it up a bit. on the other hand, maybe my VDOT has worsened! most recent FB race puts it at 41 while the FB 3K had me at 45 VDOT. ???

Welcome to AP! In answer to your last question, I'm thinking we are both undergoing a seasonal shift and possibly a bit of burnout from racing. I really think your easy pace is unrelated to all that, though. I would try to increase it, but not by straining but rather by relaxing and running w/ good form. It should then increase naturally.

I'm thinking of shifting to a lot of easy running for a while, that doesn't mean its going to feel like a slog, though. I'll throw in a bunch of hills, because they are excellent conditioning, and some surges, and do some progressive runs where speed increase slightly over the course of the entire run. To me, easy running is not supposed to be that different from hard running, just less strenuous, so its a great place to work on your form.

I can't recall a time in my life where I consistently ran 6/7 days per week so a true multi-week base phase is fairly challenging for me. I've always been more cycling centric or earlier, into triathlon. so for me its more of a mental game and finding the enjoyment in it. what I enjoy about running is going fast, so I have to view this phase as a way to facilitate the interval and tempo training in Phases 2-4, ie. by making my body more durable against injury. so far so good on that account, just minor stiffness in the achilles, which resolves about halfway into the run.

I hear what you're saying about form. probably my form is much different on these Easy runs than at higher speeds but I can't really tell. I try to keep a high cadence and the midsole strike rather than go completely heel strike.

did the 3M easy ( E run in JD terms) at 9:34 pace and felt pretty good, pretty much same HR 137. made sure to pause my HR/ watch during stretching, drills so not to dilute the pace. I may have let it run during previous weeks so the 10:00 pace may have been a little biased slow . . .

the Microsoft Band is kaput, got it free from my brother couple months ago, but the display is gone. realized how much I depend on it for recording my basic training data, get distance, time, and avg HR right away at the end of the run, then just type into my excel spreadsheet. to get the same data this morning, had to use my prehistoric walgreens digital watch for time, get HR from my neck manually, and map the run on mapmyrun.com, geesh. ! picking up a cheapo Garmin 405 on craigslist till I get the Band squared away, probably send away for repairs.

the numbaaahs for JD Phase 1 Week 3 of base . . . only aches and pains are minor stiffness in both achilles for the first half mile warmup then loosens up and fine. maybe I am making subconscious micro-adjustments to my stride. I wouldn't know, being subconscious and all that. :) well at least the knee injury resolved on its own with a couple easy two days and some ice. no pain at all now. maybe for Week 4 base I will celebrate by opening up a new log thread, just to break up the monotony. oh yeah, tomorrow I take Matzah Ball's advice and start a run-train/ train-bus commute for an easy 3.8M run to the light rail station. free miles and save me some time in the morning. oh yeah, the numbaaahs, nothing but daaa numbaaaahs . . . Week 3 in the books.


run miles: 21.67M
run time: 3:55 hrs
avg HR: 136
min weight: 190.2

oh intensity points per JD were 59, same as week 2, accounting each minute of E runs as 0.2 points, but much lower than the last week of work which was 130, which included 0.2 for each minute of bike commute as well. bike commute should be lower due to run commuting.