So this year, I am going to make a real effort to change this by becoming a runner for the next 4-5 months. This does mean in dropping a fair bit of swimming and cycling but the benefits will be there to see, I'm sure!
I have started to 'up' my running already and I am doing it very progressively, around 10-20 minutes extra each week that's all but I am not going to do any speedwork (do Ironmen really need to do speedwork???), no really slow runs but I am going to every run at a pace somewhere in between 7:30 - 8:30. This is a pace that I can run easily without being too fatigued and it enables me to train for another session in the day if required. After reading an article on slowtwitch in which a pretty fast AGer felt his run split had plateaued, he switched to this method of just running more and it worked wonders for him! No real long runs i.e. 2:30 to 3hrs were required as these led to a lot of fatigue, he just ran more! In fact he was running around 6-7 times a week and these runs were ranging in duration from 15 minutes upto 2hrs.
I am going to slightly adapt this but I am already running 4 times a week and will be increasing it slowly but by the end of September I should be up to around 6 times? I am going to try a half marathon in November to see how I am progressing.
With all this talk of upping my running, I have to be careful though as my right achilles has been playing up for a while now. I got through the IM fine, but I stupidly did a works sprint triathlon the following Sunday and I'm pretty sure that this flared it up? Anyhow, I now have a little lump on the tendon which I beleive is scar tissue? It is a bit tender but I can run on it pretty pain free, it is just a bit sore in the mornings. I've been doing daily eccentric stretching on it and also iceing it when it feels a bit sore but I just have to be careful!! Oh, I haven't mentioned my other injury but I can't be bothered to go into it as I'll be here forever!!!
Pretty excited but also quite aprehensive at the same time as I pick up my new trainers shortly (hopefully before I go to Spain on the 5th September?), they are the much talked about Newtons - see http://www.netwonrunning.com/
These promote a mid-fore foot running style and are supposed to aid in injury prevention, decreased fatigue and make you faster all at the same time!! I'll just have to wait and see! I mentioned aprehension as I have only just read that these have been causing achilles injuries in a few runners - shit!! I have been trying to run mid-foot for well over a year after reading the chi running book and I haven't really suffered with the injuries like I did do when I was a heel striker.
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