Someone emailed me the other day and asked me an interesting question:
How do you maintain a 70m week without being injured?
Let’s face it. Injuries and running go hand and hand. I know that first hand. Infact, to tell you the honest truth-all of my injuries have come from treadmill running and because the treadmill forced me (well I mean I pushed the buttons…) to run faster then my body wanted…another story for another day…granted someone is interested.
First and foremost, I don’t run 75% of my runs with a watch. Literally I don’t care. I could run at a 10 minute pace (and I have) or a 7 minute pace (and I have). I won’t know either way. Life is thrilling that way.
When you run for time every single run is when you force yourself into an injury.
So my first point is that IT DOES NOT MATTER YOUR PACE ALL THE TIME! I will continue to preach that until I die. I will straight up tell you this.
My 20k PR is at a 6:50 pace per mile.
My recovery pace has reached 10 minute miles before. I don’t EVER regret it or wish they could have been better. In fact, I enjoy easy runs just as much as fast and I trust my body 100%.
Moving on-when I get 10 miles in daily-I don’t run 10 miles straight all the time. Sometimes I run 2 “5 milers”…sometimes I run a 7 and 3. Sometimes I do run all ten at once. Sometimes I run 12 one day and 8 the other. I’m very flexible.
So point 2-be flexible.
Point three is something I’m new too. Stretch and foam roll. Yes, straight to the point but it really does work. I’ve been consistently foam rolling every night and feeling fantastic.
Point 4: I didn’t go from 0 to 70 miles, I slowly upped the mileage. I would rather do 10 painfree miles then 70 that I have multiple injuries.
So there you go, really I think I could have answered the question with be flexible and don’t get your panties in a bunch.
But that sounds somewhat crude and dirty.
Recovery pace is so important. I’ve definitely learned in the past few months that I need a slow mile (like 10:30-11 pace) for the first mile, and if I’m doing any speedwork, I do a slow mile at the end too. Long runs always start off slow too – it 100% helps me not die at the end but actually pick up my pace. Great topic!
Running slow and easy is key. I cannot maintain 70+ weeks because my body simply can’t handle it. Everyone is different and obviously your body can! You’re distance impresses me!
I’ve wondered this too. I’m glad because I mostly do what you’ve said… while I take my Runkeeper app on every run, I never look at it and only run by feel… only looking at it after I’m done. I don’t care what people think of my slow pace!
I think my problem that gets me injured is I do too much random cross-training which isn’t consistent… so one week I’ll do 6 hrs exercise and the next 10… screws with your running!
Thanks for this post though 🙂
foam rolling OMG. I work at a gym and I seriously tell everyone to (a) crosstrain, (b) do intervals, and (c) foamroll. I even tell this to the 90 year old ladies who do like half a mile on the treadmill at 2 mph. NO ONE CAN HAVE ENOUGH FOAMROLLING IN THEIR LIVES.
Love it Hollie! I’m finally seeing how important taking it slow is! We need to run together after break 🙂
haha your last line make me smile 🙂 I agree with you, run to run… not to prove anything 🙂
haha- in Australia we say “Don’t get your knickers in a twist”… so kind of the same thing!!
Nice post- I am working on upping my mileage slowly because I am injury prone. I am a long way off 70 but I would like to work towards 50 I think.
Love this! I love that you made it all simple. Being flexible is such a huge thing in running that people never think about… it’s usually like “I HAVE to run X amount of miles at X:XX pace or else!” and then people force themselves into terrible runs that bring on an injury.
Thanks for sharing. From speaking to some running specialists when getting some new shoes many injuries are caused my incorrect footwear and increasing mileage too quickly. great job on the 70 miles.
I am kind of loving your last line there haha. Thank you for sharing this… very helpful for anyone that is just starting out or who has gone balls to the walls to quickly!