Let me just tell you right now, I never ever thought I would see 5:30 miles again. Running fast is in my heart but it’s also caused me a lot of injuries. This time I approached it ever so cautiously with the slowest build you could imagine. That gave my bones/tendons/muscles time to adapt before the next step. There were a lot of things I did right and sometimes that meant skipping lifts, speed, long runs, and strides. Having said that, here is what my training looked like:

1: DYNAMIC WARMUPS: I committed to about 5x per week. My routine always targeted muscles of the glutes, hamstrings, hips, quads, hip flexors, calves and ended with plyo exercises, which are known to increase tendon resiliency and a free storage of return of energy. Who doesn’t love free energy?

2: EASY RUNNING WITH FRIENDS. Most of miles were run 2.5 to 3 mins slower than my 5k goal pace, which was 5:35 per mile. I kept my mileage low so I ran about 30-33 miles each in this low intensity zone. In the photo are my two running buddies, Amy and Elena!

3: HEAVY LIFTS AND REHAB STRENGTH: I schedule heavy run-specific lifts 2x per week but sometimes missed days if an old injury was acting up. I scheduled rehab-specific strength 2-4x week. My main areas to target are my low back, piriformis, and right-side hamstring

4: SMALL DOSES OF SPEED: I only schedule one speed session per week and strides 1-2x per week. That’s it! This meant I needed to give myself more weeks to get to my goal pace. In total, I did about 3.5 miles each week fast but never faster than goal pace. Speed has always been the training component that is most likely to cause an injury flare up. I touched base with goal pace and stopped there.

5: PULL-UPS. Why not? Pull-ups strength has been important to my training for years and to be honest, I like the bragging rights! To be female and someone who can easily complete 10+ pull-ups is something I like to include in my training

6: LOTS OF GOOD FOOD. Most of the time, I get the carbs, protein and fat I need. Sometimes I mess that up but 90% of the time, I get it right. As a 45 year old runner, this has meant increasing my daily protein to about 120 grams per day. Most of that protein comes from real food plus one protein drink each day.

7: QUICK FUEL. This is something that quite different from any training I had done before. I fueld every run over 60 mins. Sometimes with watermelon sour patches, sometimes with Huma gels and other times with Maurten gels. I also got comfortable caring a hand held filled with an electrolyte drink.

8: SPRINTS! This was on and off the schedule over the last six months. Most of the time I choose something other than running like ElliptiGO or Skierg sprints but sometimes I did these on a steep hill.

9: CROSSTRAIN AND MANAGE VOLUME! I ride an ElliptiGO on Fridays, run five days per week and take Mondays off. I never run more than three days in a row. Historically, I’ve been someone who likes to pile on the volume: run 30 miles and spend another 5-6 hours on a crosstrain option. More recently, I’ve managed volume by running not more than 35-38 miles per week with one 20-25 mile ElliptiGO ride.

10: WALKS WITH MY BEST DOG SCOUT: Sometimes this is just what I needed after a harder session and something I would choose on a day off to promote blood flow, get fresh air and take a break from computer work.

Be in touch if want to train safely as a masters athlete!