Running Workouts and Injury

Until a few months ago running was the workout, at least in my reality.  Sure, you can have long runs, short runs, hilly or flat runs, even running in sand.  But mile repeats, tempo, hill repeats ... really, I thought.  That's insane.  A running workout is like ... a swimming swim? 

Hello, Department of Redudancy Department, hello.

I started doing a few of these workouts before I had a sufficient running base built and got injured.  I'd take a few weeks to heal and try again with similar results.  I just wasn't ready physically or mentally.  Physically I didn't have the flexibility or strength, certainly not the mechanics.  Mentally I didn't have the experience to say "UNCLE," and not feel like I was wimping out!

Then I had a major injury, not releated to anything like this (stepped in a hole on a trail run and injured my hip and knee).  The time off and the subsequent SLOW rebuilding while paying attention to a specific injury did me a lot of good actually. 

Now I have the base and the experience.  I know how to gauge my exertion and have a general idea of my pace.  I know how it feels to quit a run after 3 minutes of running.  I know what it feels like after 40 minutes.  Regarding pace, I don't know how a 7:00 mm feels different from a 7:30 mm, but I know how a 7:00 feels different than an 8, or 9 and 10.  That's good enough for now. 

Before this morning, though, I only suspected I knew as much about pace.  Today I wanted to shoot for sub-8 minute miles for my mile repeats.  A friend of mine suggested I try them opposed to 400 or 800 repeats after reviewing my previous injuries and how they occurred.  So, I rolled out of bed at 4...well, 4:10, I hit the snooze button, did my normal calestenics routine and then a mile warm up, three mile repeats and a mile cool down. 

The splits were 7:42 (overall drop in elevation, but biggest single hill of the three miles), 7:52 (reverse of the first mile), 7:24 (greatest elevation change and all up hill).  The last mile didn't actually feel like the fastest, but maybe that's because it was uphill.  (There was a timed 2:00 break between the repeats.)

You may wonder:  What do I have to say about running workouts now?  I love them!  I'm excited about them.  I can't wait to get better at them and learn more of them.  I'm excited for what changes they'll promote and I love how I feel after finishing one. 

Ain't the honeymoon great?  How long until I wake up at 4 am and sarcastically moan, "Great, more mile repeats!"

But after several months of barely running at all, it's fun to run hard!