Training thoughts

I'm still trying to figure out why I had my little calf problem, this is what I changed this season. I hope I haven't overthought this

1. Started using Daniels Running formula. This structure has 2 quality days per week in it, both days are longer days than the rest. After those 2 days are scheduled, I fill in the rest of my weekly running milage with easy running. Last season my faster days were my shorter days, mostly in the 4 to 6 mile range. So the biggest change with the program is my long days are fast and my short days are easy.

2. I started to toe off much more that I had before. Keeping my arms lower in front and pushing them back has me pushing off with my toes much more than I had done in the past. For the last week I have gone back to just falling on my feet (my idea of the pose technique). When I do it I feel much better and seem to increase my cadence a bit. I think I was over doing it with the push off, lengthening my stride and decreasing my turnover in the process. I'm going to have to unlearn what I've been working on and back off on the toe off idea. One good point about the armswing - toe off work is that my armswing seems to be more efficient and my right hand is straightening up throughout the swing.

3. I increased my off season milage to a max of 40 miles per week. While this is not a large change from last summer's max of 35, there has been significantly more intensity and my off-weeks have been near 30 miles. I don't think I was recovering during the recovery weeks because of the increased milage and intensity.

4. This is not really a big change but I have done most of my running on the indoor track at the health club which is pretty small with 14 laps per mile. Last season I did my fast sessions on the treadmill and was running straight and not around curves. I just dislike the treadmill cuz of the lack of airflow accross my body. Plus, sometimes I have gas and can't let it go on the treadmill, I know, not pleasant to talk about but it's a part of running, I feel uncomfortable all gassed up.

The running this week is going better than planned but I am still not going to increase to 5 runs untill next week. I'm thinking that I'll be running 1 hour on Friday and Sunday, that should give me 25 miles for the week. Next week I'll go up to 30 and see how I feel.