relentless forward progress

That's a great plan Brandon. Makes perfect sense. I'll just throw in my two cents - as usual:)

If you're doing 'faster' stuff like 400's off short recoveries, it might be wise to get out of the marathon recovery mindset. Don't worry so much about the 'speed' of the recovery; the idea is to recover so you can go again.

It's ok to jog at walking pace; you're just trying to get the heart rate down, keep the venous return going - to flush everything through and prevent pooling. If you make the recovery too hard, you'll end up with a 'nothing' session or at best a mediocre session.

That said, what you did was perfect. You didn't go straight in and give gastroc. and the rest of your lower limb muscles and tendons a hammering. You eased your way in.

Another thing to consider is strides. Although they don't seem like much - in terms of effort etc - they are great in so many ways.

Pay close attention to your achilles and surrounding areas and watch you don't ping anything, especially the MTJ of gastroc/soleus - at your age this is a vulnerable area. Proper warm up and cool down. Do the basics right and you'll be fine.

Oh, one other thing, make sure you recover properly on the recovery days. From what you've said it seems like you are all over that. But it's hard to come down from marathon training and go really slow on easy days.

Good luck and if you decide to do some drills (high knees, skips etc) please record it and post it: it'll be such a laugh:)

ps, be careful about doing more than one hill session a week: Hills are great but they need to be respected as they can bring on a lot of the problems we were suffering with, especially if you do too many sessions. I'd strongly recommend that you don't do any dowhill sessions. Yes, they are great workouts - if you are young and strong and not prone to injuries. Unfortunately, you are old and broken:)

Also, stay away from the downhill races: if you do the downhill races, you'll end up injured. Have a look around the blog and look for the common denominator...

That was more like 10 bucks worth of waffle rather two cent(s). Oh well:)

Actually Brenda, I'm not happy about your training at all...

I've just got back from my 10 mile progression run (I'm great, aren't I?). During my run for, about 30 secs:) I thought about you and your training. I'm concerned that you might be throwing together a hotchpot of mumbo-jumbo pellmell.

I wanna see it: I wanna see how you are planning all this 'stuff'. I think you're jumping into the intervals too soon. Speed as in alactic stuff is ok early on, but going in for the jugular with 400's and everything else, nah... you're gonna get injured and we don't want that. They will not let you have the operation if you're injured and you know how much you wanna be called Brenda, don't you?

So, lay it out for me, I wanna see what you're planning. Don't disappoint me. If I have to come over there little lady, you'll rue the day:)

A few thoughts:

It's not ok to jog at walking pace or stand between intervals. Ever. haha! :)

I like strides, high knees, and 3-4 different skips and incorporate them, I just try not to get all crazy detailed on my posts. I'm a minimalist when it comes to word count :). I figure I'm not fast enough that anyone cares. I hope to change this.

I’ve never had any problems with the lower legs or feet (knock on wood). I think the very low to zero drop shoes have helped strengthen these areas. Trail running has also helped in this regard. All of my issues thus far have been pelvis/ pelvis attachment related. I somewhat buy into a study I read regarding cardio fitness being far ahead of the body fitness to support it. When you lose 63 pounds you are not suddenly just strong enough to start banging out races without something giving out. I've been very diligent in strengthening my body but I'm still trying to do more in this regard to build it to be able to better handle the stresses that I aspire to put it through. (At my age!? I'm still 23 at heart Bam lol)

The easy on easy days is something I have and still do struggle with. I'm really going to try and stay out of that 6:30 - 7:00 avg zone for everyday runs that just happens when I'm not paying attention. I know that I need to really slow it up on non-quality days. Lots more runs needed ~8:00 pace. I've done pretty good for the last week and a half I just need to keep it going.

As far the downhill goes, the trails that I run go up and then they come down. So do most of the paved roads and canyons. Here it’s near unavoidable. The key for me is to resist the desire to bomb the downhills hard when I’m training. It’s a lot of fun to do this on the trail, just ask Tokemaster Taylor :). There are a few races that I’m looking at with some downhill but those few are not the straight down variety that seem to be popping up all over. There is a big difference in running a race with some gradual downhill and running one with 3000 feet of drop over 13 miles. Some intelligent downhill training must be incorporated if one plans on racing anything with downhill. We train for whatever challenges the race presents. The common denominator on the blog is that we are all runners, that’s it.

I want to be strong enough to be able to run every day of the week, for many many weeks. Part of my focus is to slowly and patiently get to this point. But as far as a training “plan” or “schedule” I really don’t believe in them. The loose idea is to run every day of the week. Then add in the quality. No rocket science here, 1-2 quality sessions a week and a long run. Rotate through intervals, hills, and tempo on the quality days and mix up the individual sessions so no week or individual workout is quite the same. We’ve already discussed the long run: getting to where I can run easy for 1-2 hours depending on what distance I'm training for and then start throwing down tempo to finish off the long run, and increasing the length of that tempo on the end of the long run as the weeks click off. Even with this loose idea I want to take it one day at a time and be in tune with my body enough to switch it up if necessary, right up until lacing up the shoes that day. There’s nothing wrong with switching up a quality day with an easy one or vice versa if you’re “feeling it” that day to get the most out of the quality session, or to take a rest day if it’s needed.

As far as some grand master plan, I really don’t have one beyond this. I may not even run a fall marathon this year, we’ll see. At the end of the day I simply want what most everyone else here wants, to run faster. I’m not afraid of hard work. I’m not afraid of trying something new or experimenting. I’m not afraid of failure. That being said, moving forward (post Boston) I’m not going to do what I did post Top of Utah 2011 or post St. George 2012. I’m going to approach it as intelligently as I can (which for me isn’t saying much). I’m going to try really hard to take it one tiny brushstroke (day/run) at a time, enjoy the process, learn and adapt, and paint a masterpiece. The important thing for me is to have fun along the way. I’m but a humble student of all of this and I don’t claim to have it figured out but I feel really good about where I’m at and how I’ve decided to proceed. 2:29:00 is going to happen.

If you do eventually cross the pond, bring your A game with you. By that point I will give you far more than you can handle. :D

Downhill is bad? Phhhtt. Downhill monster say Bam just weak. Of course when the largest local feature is (you're not going to believe this) Brandon Peak, at a tad under 800m, (don't get too excited, it's just north of Dingle) I can see where one might get a bit frightened of a decent trail descent like, oh say, Timpanogos to Sundance :)

Dave when one is as old as Bam, a descent down more that 3 stairs is terrifying :).

Have a nice day:)

[Edit] I seem to have touched a nerve. Sorry chaps. Best you don't read my blog or you'll be sending the boys round to my house.

Once again, you pair of downhill monsters, have a nice day.

xoxo

I'm considering changing the name of my blog to:

Cnoc Bréanainn

You do realise that you are Irish. St Brendan discovered America, even before the Native Americans:)

Don't mock the mountain, it has special powers...

No nerves touched at all good sir, and no offense intended if there was any taken. Just thought we were having a good bit of fun. Plus I'm trying to generate some traffic to help pay for my operation :).

Hey, next time you do that speed workout let me know, that's just my speed and it's easier when you have somebody pushing you.

No way Dave. If I'm feeling good in a few weeks I may try and give you some competition on the 18th ;). To train with you so soon before would violate some art of war principle or something. Besides, I'm trying to kick my grass habit :).

:)

Heyy maaan, only the best stuff for those who keep up :)

Wait a minnut - did you put Bam's new blog name into Google Translate? All I can say is you better grab it first...

Go on then... what's my new blog name?

It translates to "Brandon"

Oh, you mean Mt Brandon. Yes I get it now. That's very funny. Ironic really. Very good. Sometimes, I am very slow:)

Nice start with speed, Brandon! Your plan is very smart and well thought-out.

I enjoyed the banter. Feel free to critique me and my schedule any time Master Bam.

Brandon - 400s are always my first post marathon workout too. Wish you were running PC this weekend!

Melody I am running the 5k :).

Thanks Matt, I hope it works!

Melody - anybody who has a 5k pr (downhill or otherwise) from a race with 'The Luck Of The Irish' in the title, doesn't need any help with their training from me, especially with your super fast pr's.:)

And, although I'm old, I'm not quite at the senile stage: once bitten, twice shy:), especially when the biting's from a herd of hillbillies - hope that isn't too insulting of a moniker for you folks who live in them there hills of Utah; from my point of view, which is omnipotent, it's meant as a term of endearment:)