All About The Base - Back to the Run

Since last fall's Achilles debacle, my running has taken a back seat.  This week I've finally been able to put feet on the ground and work on that all important running base.

Base mileage is one of those concepts I recently scoffed at...   Until I got injured...

Like anything, when you are young and really driven by something, you embrace it, and you drink the Kool-Aid.  Later, you start to figure a few things out, try another approach and discard what you started with.  You might actually repeat this process a few times with different ideas.
Then, when you are older, you realize some of those things you threw away, were actually really valid ideas.  That's where I am now.

No more quick-fixes.  It's back to the time-tested approaches I used to train other people in.  It's time to build in the base, AND... the recovery.

So it's on.

Like Donkey Kong.

So what is Base Building?

It's a simple concept really.  If you are an endurance athlete, or even someone who is just beginning.  Start slow, stay consistent, don't push it, and repeat many times for a period of about 8 to 12 weeks.

That's it.  Consistency is king here.  No need to progress, just get the time in.  Think of it as practice.

Dan John's Easy Strength is one of those books that espouse the ideal that you should lift heavy, but not too heavy, and you stop when you do the work.   How vague is that?  Well not too vague really.  It can apply to running as well.

Dr. Phil Maffetone, has a great book on Endurance Training and Racing.  I'm using it at the moment and I shouldn't have left it.  180-minus your age.  That's your heart rate upper limit value.  It works.

• Low heart rate
• Show up
• Struggle every now and then

These are the keys to success.  I've seen it happen and I'm wishing I wasn't so impatient to see results before.  Thank-you Achilles injury :)

More on this as the weeks go on.

Achilles Pain - Taking Breaks - Getting Faster at the Same Effort

Ever had achilles pain? The kind where you wake up in the morning and limp for an hour and it kind of goes away?

Yeah me too. Then last Monday night happened. It was a track workout with my friend Jerry. He and I have put a few miles in together and sometimes we push each other on the speed days. I was having a fantastic interval workout and while he has me on the short bursts (the guy has some serious quad speed!) I can usually get him on the longer sprints.

I paid the price for that speed workout. Tuesday morning I was WRECKED.  Limped around for an hour, then the next hour, then the next.  I wasn't walking right until 3 days later, and even then the pain was just dumb.

So...  I took a week off.  No running or deadlifting, just mobility work and kettlebell swings.

Yesterday I ran Rancho for the first time in a while.  Decided to stick to Maffetone for as long as I could.

As long as I kept my stride length short (i.e. POSE-like), I could run without achilles pain.  The moment I opened up my stride, shooting pain in the heel cord.

So.  Low heart rate (180-age).  Quick step POSE running, and I get a PR on a half mile segment in Strava at the SAME heart rate as I did in August of this year.  Also I am battling a head cold.  Odds were NOT in my favor for a decent run.

Here's the therapy I've been doing on the calve muscles:

• foam rolling the upper calves
• 2 minute stretch on each side with toe flexion
• 45 reps each side of heel eccentrics (my legs are a little sore from this actually)

Here's the Strava run: