Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Running from November; Swimming to December

November was a great running month for me @ 104 miles, my highest ever run volume month and 2nd 100+ mile month ever.

This was also a huge confidence boosting month. After my foot injury at the end of August and all through September, my running confidence broke. I dreaded rebuilding my way back.

Well, I did it by following the 10% rule and stayed injury free. It took a solid 6 weeks, but it worked and I am ready to knock a 10K literally out of the park (Central Park) this weekend.

What helped was I am running 5 times a week and keeping the long runs down. My longest run since August 22nd was a 10 miler done only this past weekend. Frequency, I have found, has been paying bigger dividends than shear volume. I added a speed workout on the track once a week for some variety.

December will be a swimming month. I am taking two swim workshops that will go into January. One will be with my coach, the other with a tri club over in Greenwich, CT. The cool thing about the tri club workshop is that we will do a 500 yard TT the first week, then repeat it the last week to show if we progressed, and if so, by how much.

Today I did one for practice with my super swimming buddy, Bob, who back in the day once went 4:50 for the 500 @ a meet. He gave me a good strategy for the 500: Cruise the first 200, build the middle 100, then gun it for the last 200.

I did just that today and wound up with a 7:38 for a just-under 1:32 pace. Considering I went a 8:47 18 months ago, I am going to take this as a HUGE improvement considering I am not in the best swimming shape right now.

Looking forward to the swim workshops ahead and hopefully I can get my long distance pace down.

14 comments:

  1. YAY for the "highest ever run volume month"!

    YAY you!

    Worth celebrating!

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  2. Great running !!!
    what is the 10% rule?

    with you on swimming in Dec

    D

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  3. Awesome!! Im working on the whole swimming thing too but you definately have me beat in running!

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  4. Sounds like you had a great running month! Yay!
    December is going to be a swimming month for me too. It is time for me to get back in the pool on a consistent basis..no more excuses!
    Good job on your TT! That's awesome! Just think how much you're going to improve with these two swimming workshops...awesome!

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  5. good to read that your running is getting back on track. you reminded me that i need to get back in the pool. been slacking in that department naturally.

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  6. Wow that is a huge improvement and considering you don't feel like you are in the best swimming shape. Great job.

    And getting to 100 miles in a month is an accomplishment and one coming on the heels of an injury is even more impressive.

    Keep it up.

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  7. Great improvements on both the swimming and running fronts!

    I have found that the opposite works for me - less frequency and higher volume. I used to run 6 times a week but have backed of to 3 or 4 and found my times dropping faster. To each their own though - glad you found what works for you!

    Ummm... over a minute off your 500 in 18 months??? Yeah. I would call that an improvement!

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  8. congrats on the mileage-quantity PR! i spent sept/oct "rebuilding" as well (after a very sloppy june-july-august) but from health-issues instead of an injury. just gotta take it slow and easy.

    this cooler weather does not make me want to get in a pool at all. i could not be a triathlete (aren't you supposed to work on your weak sport in the off-season? i couldn't do it)

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  9. That is an awesome gain in the pool! wow!

    Good luck this weekend at the 10k! I don't start racing until next month, phew!! Dealing with some ITB issues anyway.

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  10. Great 500 TT Jon, freaking impressive. It will be cool to see if you can improve on that after the workshop?

    104 miles is huge, aren't you supposed to be in the offseason or something like that? haha

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  11. Great November for you! Enjoy your swimming December!

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  12. Great run volume this month!! On to Dec!

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  13. Wow, thats some crazy mileage! Congrats on the new record :)

    I'm new to running and opted for less frequent but longer runs. I am sticking to the 10% rule too. OK, maybe it's closer to 15-20% but who's counting? lol

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