Running Less. Biking More.

The Shamrock Half Marathon is roughly three weeks away and I'm starting to worry about the training I've done this off-season. I've experienced knee tendinitis, a painful IT Band, and falling down a flight of stairs. But besides the lingering effects of the injuries I guess I'm more worried about not running enough to achieve my goal of breaking last year's time. If all goes well before the race I'll have ran approximately 290 miles from November to March. In comparison, this is only slightly less than 2008's log of 318 miles. The reduction in mileage is due to running three days a week verses five. But there is more to consider...

Biking has been my weakest discipline over the past two years so I decided to dedicate myself to spinning at least three times a week and reducing my running frequency. With my history of injuries due to cycling too much and maintaining an aggressive running schedule I decided to keep my off-season workouts mildly easy at best. I followed a strict rule of increasing volume by no more than 10% in all disciplines. I also moved to a two-week "growth", one-week "recovery" routine. With this I still experienced the VMO and hamstring pain of seasons past but it was manageable.

I've now hit the peak phase of my running plan for Shamrock and I'm disappointed with the intensity I've displayed doing Yasso 800s. This is likely due to my complete lack of tempo and hill work. Last year I put one or two of those workouts in each week. This year I substituted it with spinning.

Hopefully by the end of my taper my legs will rebound from all the abuse and I'll be pleasantly surprised with my race results. One could argue I sacrificed my running for cycling but I haven't seen appreciable results in either to say I've gained anything in my off-season training. I can say I haven't lost anything though.