Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
Moraghan Training - Stevie G
The materials in this website are in no way intended to replace the professional medical care, advice, diagnosis or treatment of a doctor, qualified personal trainer, therapist, dietitian or nutritionist Runners's World, Part of the Hearst UK well-being network © Copyright 2017
Comments
try getting that mileage in easily when you have 3 kids of which their activities in one week includes, Rowing, u10s XC, u10s football training, u10s football match, ballet and tap *2, extra ballet & tap lessons for upcoming exams *2, u12 girls football training, u12 football match, netball, U12 XC, swimming lessons *2, dog training, gymnastics and thats before you include my wife going to the gym, going out for a run. its a wonder i get out at all!
I reckon Dean just does one track session a week and partakes in everything the rest of the family do. He's a secret cross-training machine! (Hmmm, ballet...)
Having not run for two whole weeks and then attempting three running days in a row, I binned a hilly fartlek session last night less than half way through. Hammies stiff as a board! Oof! So I'm easing myself back in for the rest of the week and will think about sessions again when my legs can remember how to run.
Oh and I'm doing an induction for new gym membership tomorrow (change in work circumstances), which I've decided is a good excuse to get back to 3x/week indoor rowing. Change in stimulus and all that.
Not sure I can quite match Dean, as my loins have only borne fruit twice (that I know of), but here goes:
Monday - 1 x beavers
Thursday - 1 x football training; 1 x cubs
Friday - 2 x swimming lessons
Saturday - 1 x violin/music theory/string ensemble; 1 x piano/junior choir
Sunday - 2 x rugby training
Me - 70 mpw
Dean it does amaze me actually! Kudos for getting the treadmill though! I think I'd do the same! That's of a lot of extra curricular stuff! I'm hoping my Mia will get into sports or something after school which is next year :S How time flies!
For partners etc it's about a balance and making time, the only way is sacrifice for everyone at some point and somewhere people will lose out..
LOL -PP, I'm not sure Dean in a little pink outfit is something I want to imagine but ......
I'll be resuming the gym after my race this weekend starting November probably, gives myself few weeks to get sessions in first before trying to hit the gym, well plan is at least one strength and conditioning and one weight set per week. Dachs you mentioned about getting on that train? Have you been doing anything?
beavers? what is that? I am guessing it's not my first thought.
It is. We're teaching him early.
I've got 4 kids so they keep me really busy: one is a full time teacher, 2 at uni and the boy plays computer games when the pitiful pile of homework school give him is done.
I run lunchtime weekdays as I am in the office early (before 7) to talk to those people in time zones ahead of us and work late at home for those behind us, so a long lunch break is more than acceptable.
Just over a half today (13.75): out over Wormwood Scrubs then along the Grand Union Canal, a lap of Wembley stadium as it was rich in fetch flowers and then reverse route home. 7:24 average pace and the 13.1 in about 1:36:42
PMJ - Are you sure he waits until his homework is done, doesn't sound like any kind of boy i've met before?
Nice lunch run that.
Interesting post Pete. But almost like it's your first post on this thread, and ignored that we freaking love running on here, and are generally all results hungry monsters, who do some fairly substantial mileage.
Many a time, I've asked why you do a parkrun every single week. It certainly doesn't get you quicker, so it's not about times, but if general fitness is your aim, it's perfect, fused with the other sports you mention.
But for pb chasing amateur runners, it's all about the running. And a sh!ttonne ofit.
Nice work Philip!
Two is more than enough Dachs! I can't comprehend how people can cope with 3 of the blighters, let alone the likes of my neighbour who has 5 children under 10 and both parents work shifts
My son loved beavers. No doubt he will again before long.
(ps I hope to one day fall under that term pb chasing again)
Had a reminder of why I don't talk about running at work today, someone was grilling me about it. But why do you run so much before work etc
Well...erm, you aim to work hard to get results.
What results?
Well, race times.
What?
Well, you try and do certain distance running race faster, don't you
Do you?
yeah...( looks for exit route from conversation)
I remember running with Dai Roberts, ex Marlow legend, and getting a bit of a background on his life, RAF (or one of those type setups), living random places etc, but basically a quality runner. I remember he was at real pains to state he had achieved his running quality, while bringing up a family.
Thought it odd at the time, as I wasn't gonna think later "well, he was only good as he had no commitments"
if that was all you had to have in your favour, I'd be a legend!
I met my missus when already a runner along with all my other time consuming activities.
They were technically non negotiable because they were all in place before I met her. None were taken up after I gained commitments of a family nature. In fact I choose to drop all but the basic aspects since I'd already had my fill of them.
When single (and I mean, single) I could be as 'dedicated' as I wished. My sister called me selfish. Selfish! I lived by myself ffs.
I have the one lad, which is easy. He went to golf, and ran for the club which was easy too since I was there. I asked if there was anything else he wanted to do, there wasn't anything, so just golf and running.
At some point he packed the activities in. Just as well there wasn't many of them.
As for training as for anything, I do what I want. Always did. But that doesn't mean I take liberties.
🙂
SG, My point is not that there is anything wrong with running high mileages if that's how you get your kicks; just that I don't feel it is necessary to get the best results if your aim is primarily to run 10k races and shorter. I don't doubt you and many others on here really love your running and thrive on high mileages so fair play to you. However do you have evidence that running what some would call the junk miles (those beyond races, the LSR, tempo session and intervals session) improve performance more than cross training would? Surely the higher mileage also comes with high risk of injury too, as evidenced by the injury records of most threadsters here (and myself when I did up my mileage to those levels).
Re parkrun I actually agree with you a) you deserve a proper response! and b) running one every week doesn't really improve my times. I do it to get at least one quality bit of fast running in each week and it is also quite a sociable environment and a nice way to start the weekend. In addition the stats are nice and the competitive level is actually more than a 'run not a race' as you appreciate. As such I don't really think it harms overall times, though you're right in that if I am racing the next day, it will probably slow that specific performance marginally.
If 60 miles a week are the way to run your fastest times
I've hit higher mileage this year than any other time, and it's been almost exclusively in the form of additional easy miles, either complete additional sessions (including running doubles where I'd previously done gym/run doubles) or tagging extra miles onto easy runs. This has mainly been in the pursuit of a marathon PB but it's also bagged me PB's at 5,000m, 10k, 10 miles and HM. And I've not been injured for, ooh, a few months! (Quite good for me.)
Nothing conclusive in that experiment of one, and maybe some people have injury woes linked with higher mileage in their particular situation, but I've also seen the argument that additional easy miles could be good for injury-proofing rather than increased risk of injury, by way of strengthening tendons and improving running efficiency.
Ran a double yesterday but that was 4 at 5.30am then 5 at 8pm with the usual 13 hours at work in between which is what we do when working away. Isn't woolwich a lovely place. :-/
When running doubles I usually get out before my daughter is up during the week then I can sort her out when I get back. I usually let the wife have 3-4 hours lie in of a weekend then I go for my run when she gets up. If I want to go out early I just let her know as 99% of the time it's me who gets up with my daughter so I don't really get any earache at all which is handy. Mon - thurs takes some planning round the wife's netball but if I can get back from work and fit a run in before she's collected our daughter then it's a bonus. This week has been a bind as I can't remember going for a run as late as 7.30-8 as I did last night. Worse now it's dark and cold!
I have averaged around 20-25 miles this year. I expect that to move to 40-50 miles over the next 6 months. I'll report back but I'll be very disappointed if it doesn't make me faster!
I'd consider junk miles to be when you're running miles for the sake of it to hit a target but you're too tired to run well or you're running with poor form at the end of a run. I'm not an expert like many here but deliberately running easy miles surely isn't junk?
PP - I am leaning towards agreeing on injury proofing too, last year I had 3 months off, basically zero running and even April this year I couldn't run more than 4 miles at a time. Then I switched to HR training which meant I am running slower, built up from 20 miles per week upto 65/70 pretty sensibly, legs have thanked me for it with no real problems, a bit of PF / tightness in the left foot but that's not been mega bad. But not like last year with Achilles / peroneal issues so it's done me some good as long as I've listened to the body and ran sensibly
Pete - some people run well of low mileage and some people run 100mpw and wont break 30/35/40/45 or whatever for 10km
I ran quicker last year of more than half he mileage but my training is different now, I'm guessing I'll run quicker over 10km once I start training. But without trial and error and proper scientific analysis there's no proving what works for any set person.
The fact is - more miles = more smiles right?
No... No miles = better running efficiency and better muscle reaction, recovery etc etc. There is a reason elites run more miles.. For us trying to emulate that's it's a state of progression!
For example 40 mpw for 1 year then plateau, increase to 50, improve etc etc...
I know for a fact and myself included we could all probably lower our current mileage and improve a lot if we had specific sessions tailored to us from proper testing, gym work, nutrition, massage etc all on hand and set up for us.
Difficult one the" junk" miles debate. A lot of the miles I do could be considered junk, but there's an additional psychological element involved, and also just generally keeping your metabolism up and weight down. Of course this can also be achieved through cross-training (and will-power in the case of weight!), so horses for courses really. Doing something you enjoy is pretty important! I enjoy running, eating and drinking beer so don't consider the miles as junk
I'm not that convinced either way about whether they are a help or a hindrance, but I do know that, for me, all my best times have come when I've increased my weekly mileage and a considerable percentage of the increase (but not all) will have been in the form of "junk" miles.
Conversation today:
Me to my boss when asked how I was "not great, bit of a cold"
Him "oh, it's all the running you do"
Me "that's odd, both Andy and Sue have been off in the last week with colds and neither of them run".
I don't think junk miles per se exist. If I run 35 miles a week and that is made up of a mix, then add a couple of 5 mile sessions to go to 45 miles, then this extra 10 will help. If, on the other hand, I adjust what I do in the 35 miles, so say swap a 7 mile tempo for a 7 mile easy, to account for the extra 10 miles, then they can become a hindrance.
If you add miles to a well thought out plan then all miles count. If you are adding miles for the sake of adding miles and you are juggling with the rest of the week then it isn't good. One typical mistake is to add a couple of miles to a recovery day and then wonder why the hard session the next day did not deliver as it was supposed to.
AG - Dean quoted before that every session must have a purpose. More miles will make you faster but be careful how things are planned and you still keep easy / hard routine. I agree a bit Bus with no real thing as junk miles it's just how you organise the week that works as I said to AG. Some people (me) go on 7 day plan. Others upto 10 day cycle or more. If I did 3 sessions in a row then my next easy run the day after would be junk as I'll fatigue myself more rather than get any benefits
Bus - My mum says a similar thing when I see her and run, "wrap up you'll catch a cold" urm no mum if the bug is outthere I'll catch it no matter what!
Am I the only one racing the weekend?
I thought it was pretty well accepted these days that high mileage was the way to go for fast times for pretty much any distance 5k or over (maybe even for shorter than that too).
But I don't think "high" mileage really kicks in until you're going over 60 miles. And I thought it was generally accepted that anything up to about 90 miles would be effective - it's only really when you start getting into the proper high mileage territory of 100+ that there's still an argument over whether that approach works for everyone.
Like Scott says - there's a reason the elites run high mileage - do you think Mo Farah would be winning gold medals for fun if he ran 60mpw? No chance.
The trick is with whatever miles you're doing making sure you get the right balance of quality and easy to ensure the biggest gains without injuring yourself. And - you can't go from 20mpw to 90mpw without a very gradual and sensible build up.
If I had the time to run 100mpw, I'd be working towards it for sure. As it is, 50mpw is probably about the limit with all my commitments at the moment - I might manage to push to about 60 but that would probably be a stretch.
Frustratingly, I've realised that my heel wound from the cross country won't heal unless I stop running - it started bleeding again after yesterday's run and was agonising in the evening. So I'll have to wait yet more time before being able to run properly, and then it'll be even harder to get back.
It's really annoying because it's such a stupid reason not to run. If I was a barefoot runner, I would quite happily be able to train as normal.
dachs - run in flip flops.
scott - im racing in the midlands xc relays on sat
Good luck with the 10 Scott a at the Xc Dean. I'm itching to have a go at Xc this year but they've clashed with things until after Dublin.
Missing the xc relays at Wormwood scrubs this year at going to watch the mighty Cherries probably get royally shafted at Man City (even without Aguero and Silva!). Shame as we fluked a silver there last year. Planning to do Mansfield though.
Mileage wise, I would love 70 miles a week as a base - I think that would set me up nicely - hoping to keep the mileage highish (60-70 mpw) for the xc season and the Cardiff half too in March.
Just snuck out of work for the first Primrose Hill session of the winter. 8 x long drag that gets progressively steeper and a slight downhill last 50m blast. Not nice as ever, jelly legs job. Good views though
Dachs - have you tried those proper blister plasters? The big ones cover a big area and as long as you put them absolutely as described on the packet they last through a couple of runs. Compeed are the best.
Scott - I'm also racing Sunday. Local multi terrain 10k
He would if they were County ones
When I got road rash from my bike crash I used a hydrocollid bandage or something like that, it was excellent and can be left on for a week.
A compeed plaster with gaffa tape over the top, nothing will get past that set up.
Re running with a purpose, I would run easy miles with a purpose of building up my resistance to higher mileage with a limited injury risk. Trouble is I know I get bored plodding along.
Good luck to those racing. I wanted to do Freith like Bus but I should probably do a long bike instead.
I can run high mileages, lately I don't. That's because a lot of the time has been waiting for the moment I can apply some loading without it sending me backwards or flat.
The high mileage thing is really a measure of basic strength. If you can run 100 mls/wk you're clearly stronger than someone who can only cope with 20. Getting to the high mileages takes a bit of thought and luck mind.
Fact is, the body is only as strong as it needs to be. If you sat in a chair all day and never moved except to the loo, kitchen or bed, you'll weaken fairly well.
The clever thing is that we've discovered training can make us stronger. The downside is that some of us never allow the recovery needed to get the extra strength in place.
It's smart recovery that makes the gains, not the motivation to inflict more pain.
🙂