The image above illustrates my weekly running mileage in 2008 (red) v. 2009 (blue). In 2008, I was coming off of injury that kept me out all of 2007 so I started very slowly, with lots of walking and bike commuting (neither shown), so there are more exercise hours, just not running hours. The shuffle was my first race but I ran it at a moderate to tempo pace. I had no week with more than 31 miles until August 11! But late August through early December I was doing 40 to 50 mpw. My two fall road races were PRs.This year I started off much more quickly, raced from the get-go, and got my butt injury the week before Pineland. Continued racing in June and July seems to have slowed any kind of recovery. And my July road race was 1 minute slower than predicted by my Fall 5K and 10K times. Now I'm trying to ramp up the miles using doubles instead of longer runs. And no races, intervals, or tempos for another few weeks. I'm running the breaker but not racing it (like the scuffle last year).
Hmmn...your chart is a little difficult to read but judging by the huge spike in the 2009 weekly running, I find myself wondering it you ramped up too quickly....surely it was more than the 10% standard most programs preach.
ReplyDeleteYour 2008 shows a steady incline with very little spike.
Do you think that the injury is related to that more than the timing of when you raced and ran?
That being said plus the fact that there is nothing you can do now to change the past, it seems your remedy is sound.....no speed running or races and doubling the runs to get the most benefit from higher milage without agrivating the injury.
You sound pretty smart to me.
The x-axis is the 52 weeks of the year from Jan to Dec. (it would be easier to read if I could put the months on this axis). The Y axis is the mileage for that week. The points are the actual mileage and the curves are just simple trend lines to give the basic pattern of change over time. One thing to notice is that spring 08 was very good for spring skiing because I didn't even start to run until mid April!.
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