dont know how to train

Hey there! I didn’t quite get an exact idea of what your training plan looks like, so here’s a couple of things you might not be doing exactly right (and that could have gotten you injured):

1) 3 hard sessions a week is a LOT, especially if you are taking them hard. Most people’s bodies simply don’t recover enough in that timeframe and based on your injury history you may be most people. The limit for just about everyone is about two hard sessions a week, taken days apart, with days of easy runs in between. You might do a tempo or VO2 thing Monday, then a speed session Thursday. Your hardest other session if you do those other two hard should be a relatively mild long run.

2) Are you only running 3 days a week? I would suggest bumping that to 5, maybe 6 so you can get more mileage and keep your legs a little looser too. Just doing that will increase your mileage and get you some good aerobic (air-related) gains (as opposed to sprint speed-related ones)

Also, which is your 400m time? That’s sort of the way distance runners gauge the absolute sprint speed of each other. It seems like you might be in the low 50s, which is great. If you keep that speed and start to increase the mileage to get more aerobically strong you’ll be in tiptop shape.

Average week might look like:

Mon - 1 mi warmup, 20 minute tempo, 1 mi cooldown

Tues - 3-4 miles easy (8:00/mi pace, don’t overthink it)

Wednesday - Workout if Mon was light, if not, push it to Thursday. You might do 8x30s hills and jog down recovery (or longer rest with shorter intervals for pure speed), 1 mi warmup and CD

Thurs - Workout if Mon was hard. Otherwise you can flip flop these and do one day 3-4 easy miles and one day workout.

Friday - 3-4 miles easy (8:00 pace)

Optional run Saturday - 5 miles close to easy pace, give or take some.

Overall, this is 22-25 MPW. You will notice that only about 4 miles of it (tempo and hills) are actually intense, and the vast majority is easy running. That’s very key to getting more aerobic gains and not injuring the crud out of your body.

I would also suggest with chronic injury problems to either see if you can swap the shoes you run in (unless you know those work better for you than other shoes), or try and reduce to 1 hard session a week and keep all of the others as easy running.

thanks for the tips!

my training looks something like

hills (very hilly mile+ 200m hills)-hard effort

2x workouts

+ a slower run

i train with a club but i will move in the summer so i will be left alone. my race is end of july.

what do you think i should change in the training after the race meaning something like a base summer training schedule?

also i m kinda only running in racing shoes (nike) for the cushion

wow this looks really nice. thanks!

so it is: monday tempo, tuesday easy, wednesday hilss, thursday workout, friday easy

or do the wornout on wednesday and do the hills after the workout ?

I read it as the Wednesday workout is hills: 1 mile wu, 8 x 30s hills, 1 mile cd.

I also read it as a suggested workout, so you can get creative.

The main point is to do only two hard workouts with the rest of your week being easy running.

And if you want to bump up the mileage, add a long run or run twice a day, but make sure that the double is an easy run.

oh yeah makes sense. so hills is a suggestion of workout.

i played soccer and ran. are you practicing/playing league on the weekends while also doing this? my personal experience i would run fast early in the season -- soccer would show me up fitter than the competition was -- and then late with the taper. in the middle i would get tired and times would stagnate.

i generally did sprints and hurdles, but my one period where i tried XC, i was best when i was given dispensation off the workouts, sort of factoring in 2 practices plus a league game every week, and tournaments some weekends. so, like, 4 mile intervals instead of 6. when dispensation was removed i got worse and sick.

i say this because your health problems scream overtraining. if you are also playing soccer, same time, ask your coaches for some leeway. if they won't give any, my suggestion is shift over to 400/800/300H if they run less. the soccer endurance and speed mix will serve you well. and you won't run yourself in the ground physically. you have to manage the workload doing 2 sports or your body will pay you back.

if you switch to more like a low hurdle or long sprint, then the workouts are less heinous as a two sport guy. a fit soccer guy can run sprint increments in their sleep and shouldn't break down. but if you ran 5k in a game last weekend, plus 1 mile TF meet race, plus dozens of practice miles TF, plus a couple 90 minute practices, plus plus plus......it adds up. particularly if you eat poorly or push hard in the practices.

thanks for the advice! but i did quit soccer before starting TF. I definitely agree with doing 300h or sprints while doing soccer tho.