Chapter 2 - Finding Nemo

MY BAD · 06-08-2019 9:42pm

Swashbuckler wrote: »

I'd love some thoughts from people on their own approaches to base building, phasing training etc. But I expect most of ye are all feckin marathon runners in which case it's a very different ballgame.

Any thoughts of marathon training for me have gone out the window at least for the first half of next year anyway.

If I was to ask specific questions to the gang on here it would be;

Is there such a thing as too long base building?

Not us all though!

As a non marathon runner who picked up an injury in February, it took me six months of building to feel I could race again. For you I guess it will depend on your targets, goals, and what distance you want to focus on. I would say once you get over this injury and start to build the mileage again you'll want to start testing yourself a bit more adding tempo stuff, maybe short hills etc. My advice would be use the next few months to get in the habit of supplementary running specific work, but never let it be too taxing that if will affect your running. Don't ramp it up too much, not just the mileage but more importantly the training load. Also get in the habit of strides just to keep a good turnover. Obviously the longer you're out the longer your base building period will be...

healy1835 · 06-08-2019 10:10pm

Mellow Yellow 26.2 wrote: »

As a non marathon runner......

What's with the username S?

MY BAD · 06-08-2019 10:26pm

healy1835 wrote: »

What's with the username S?

Past notions!!

Maybe some time in the future myself Swashbuckler can join the DCM novice thread :pac:

Swashbuckler · 06-08-2019 11:30pm

Mellow Yellow 26.2 wrote:

As a non marathon runner who picked up an injury in February, it took me six months of building to feel I could race again. For you I guess it will depend on your targets, goals, and what distance you want to focus on. I would say once you get over this injury and start to build the mileage again you'll want to start testing yourself a bit more adding tempo stuff, maybe short hills etc. My advice would be use the next few months to get in the habit of supplementary running specific work, but never let it be too taxing that if will affect your running. Don't ramp it up too much, not just the mileage but more importantly the training load. Also get in the habit of strides just to keep a good turnover. Obviously the longer you're out the longer your base building period will be...

Thanks for the feedback S. Someone took the jump!

When you say supplementary stuff do you mean Drills, strides etc or do you mean the core, foam rolling, stretching/flexibility/S&C stuff?

You were one guy I was interested in getting feedback from. How long were you actually off the road?

In terms of racing Im not pushed. I'd happily spend the year training without specific targets. Like you said though it all depends how long I'm out. I don't feel too optimistic right now!

MY BAD · 07-08-2019 7:20pm

I've had a spell n the past when I hadn't ran in months then months of slowly slowly building thinking I'll never race again. When you go over a year without a race if can be hard be optimistic but never give up and keep it positive. I suppose some background, I actually had two injuries. The first was a issue with my left shin which I got in the middle of February. That kept me out for a maximum of 7 consecutive days in a row but I had another 5 and 6 day spells out too in that period. I only ran less than 30 km for the next 4 weeks. I blame the shoes for that injury because I never got fully diagnosed. When I felt I was over it I started to ramp things up pretty quickly. Big mistake! That's when I picked up at IT band issue on my right knee. This kept me out for four days straight first, a very frustrating 4 weeks with some runs as short as 3km followed. I was running between 2 and 4 times a week and stopped as soon as I felt any pain. I got in the habit on my days off doing supplementary work. The next four weeks I made good progress, all easy runs with strides added once a week or so. I finally did my first session after 9 weeks of easy running. But it was 14 weeks really since I was doing sessions consistently. I'm still base building even though I've raced twice in July. I think because of the strides and strength work I never really lost my speed in this period I can knock out 800s at the speed before these injuries but my endurance strength definitely has gone backwards. In terms of supplementary work what am I doing? No foam rolling, and not much stretching either. My week target is the following but not always like this...
Monday is strength work day. Deadlifts maybe 60kg 3x8, single leg squats with 25kg kettlebells in each hand 3x 10, planks, Copenhagens maybe 3 sets of 15second holds, tippy toe farmer walks with the 25kg kettle bells. Heel drops/holds with weight. Strength running on YouTube has some good excerises I add in. I can spend a hour doing this if time permits.
Tuesday easy 45 minutes run finish off with strides. Then the myrtl routine at home with resistance bands.
Wednesday is track session. Drills and strides before any session. What ever the boss prescribes for the workout. And maybe 20 minutes of light strength work with body weight only at home afterwards.
Wednesday 60 minutes of running easy. If I can't be arsed or tight for time after Wednesdays sessions I'll do that 20 minutes of body weight strength work after this run.
Friday 45 easy again with strides or short hills sprints. Then I've a very basic plyometrics routine I follow for 10 to 20 minutes as it gets the tendons firing. Sometimes I swap this routine with my mytrl on Tuesday and vice versa depending if I do hill sprints or strides.
Saturday is normally tempo day. Drills and strides before it. I'm not too pushed about paces so much more so by feel, even if I'm given a pace target. I'd like to spend another 20 minutes doing strength work using body weight after this but I don't usually have time.
Sunday. Long ish run 10 to 12 miles at the moment. If I notice a flare up in my knee I might do a few single leg squats with weights after as I find this the best.
It sounds a lot but it's not very time consuming. If you do your run in the morning then what ever routine you follow in the evening to complement your running.

Swashbuckler · 07-08-2019 9:42pm

Cheers for all that detail S. A lot to digest there! I think I know where I've gone wrong this time so at least that's something. Moving forward (if and when that is) I definitely think I need to add some sort of s&c/myrtl/core work.

Now if only I could shake this feckin injury. Frustratingly flaky. Fine one minute and angry hip the next. More physio tomorrow and scan next week.

Swashbuckler · 10-08-2019 2:11pm

Thought I'd update y'all incase ye were worried.

What a difference a couple of days and a second physio visit makes.

Feeling much much better the last couple of days. Went to physio again on Thursday. Earlier in the week I had to go back to the doc for more pain relief (and stronger). Sleep has been badly hit with this injury. No comfortable position to be found.

So in terms of the physio visit I went into her on Thurs feeling a fair bit better but still some pain in the hip and plenty of numbness and tingling in the thigh. Went through a lot of questions and checks before even putting her hands near me. It's one thing I like about my physio is the level of detail she goes into before even going near me. Maybe they're all like that! After the checks she was a little surprised and went over the notes from the last day. Now that things have calmed down and the whole area is less angry it seems like the quad is the main culprit.

She did lots of work on it and some dry needling. Went at the piriformis, psoas etc and they seemed fine. First time dry needling. Not a fan of it but it seemed to be effective. Anyway yesterday and today I'm much much better. Was even able to sleep on my belly last night with pretty much no hip pain and much more feeling in the thigh.

So I need to make sure I keep rolling it. The core is something the physio wants me to make part of my routine. Very simple core work and told me to stay away from planks, sit-ups etc. The exercise she showed me is super effective and I can feel the core getting hit nicely but most importantly it's focused there and no loss of form elsewhere.

In terms of running its up to me really. I'll see how I go. Realistically I'm gonna be starting simple, bring the mileage back up conservatively and base build for a long chunk of time assuming I stay healthy. I can't say I've been overly pissed off the last two weeks. I think the injury forced me into a break that I needed. Work has ramped again and baba on the way so need to stick to my rule.

Anyways all good it seems. No big plans forthcoming in terms of running. Have kinda steered clear of strava a bit but checking every now and then incase anyone was wondering why I wasn't giving kudos. Lol.

skyblue46 · 10-08-2019 2:27pm

Delighted to see you get significant improvement. Long may it continue. There's no doubt you are planning the right steps going forward as well.

MY BAD · 10-08-2019 3:39pm

Good to hear you are making some progress. Hopefully you're on the right path.

Swashbuckler wrote: »

Have kinda steered clear of strava a bit but checking every now and then incase anyone was wondering why I wasn't giving kudos. Lol.

I was the same I stayed away from strava and here. I didn't want to add to the anxiety of been injured and seeing everyone flying