Building Plan: Week 9 Complete

Another solid week of workouts. I had some extra muscle soreness during the week, so I had to take 2 rest days, but aside from that, I did really well with my workouts. I also did much better with nutrition and logging my meals. I am really pleased with my continued progress.

Swimming

I still have not been able to find time yet to get more swims into my schedule. As my body gets used to my actual planned training schedule demands and my cat gets healthier, I will be able to schedule more time to swim. I was able to get in one swim in this week, although it was short and intended to both push myself after already being exhausted from my run, as well as act as a shake-out to aid in recovery. And it served its purpose perfectly! As I am writing this, I feel amazing. And that was just after a tiny 4 x 100 yd swim. Although, that swim felt like a nightmare though. I was struggling to rotate my arms and kick my legs. I had wanted to get in at least 800-1200 yds, but I had to stop because I felt like I was going to pass out.

Cycling

I got in no cycling this week. It fell on the 2 days I needed to take as rest days. This is fine, however, as my reason for cycling right now is to just cycle and lightly work on cadence.

Running

I got in all three runs! I am so pumped about this. I am also psyched that I did fairly well. I was a bit disappointed that my cadence was so much lower than I really wanted it to be, but that is why my plan is designed to extend an extra week or so if needed. I am expecting my cadence to get closer to my range during Week 10. One thing I am noticing though is that the increased speed and duration are starting to see some strain on my knees. However, it only occurs when I drag my leg back in my kick-back for my stride. This shows a breakdown in my form and thankfully is easy to immediately correct. Once my cadence training is over, I will be starting to adjust the treadmill to incline of 0.5, and then to 1 to more closely mimic the resistance of self-propelling myself forward when running outside on a flat course or track. This might actually be a good article to explain in more detail later.

Strength

I got in 2 out of 3 sessions in this week. I had to skip my 3rd because I had used that as a rest day. My first session of the week was highly focused on legs. And man did that wreck me. I literally could not do a single thing on Tuesday, as my legs were shot. Not going to lie, it was a glorious feeling. I am so excited my legs are slowly getting stronger and I love pushing myself to the max. My second session was mostly hip and back stretches mixed with core strength. I also did a fitness test for my program. It was supposed to take 5 minutes, and it took me 15 and I was having trouble breathing. These fit tests are brutal. I was supposed to end with another leg focus routine, but I was too exhausted from my Friday run. I am going to repeat this program, as it is working really well. I am hoping one more 4 week session of this body weight program and I will be able to start moving to weighted routines.

Nutrition

I logged my meals every day! I didn't really meet my goals much, but I didn't really care about this. I am a stress eater and with the constant trips to the vet hospital every day, I am not going to remove my outlet right now. Once my cat is well, I will be working on changing my stress outlet to something more productive and beneficial.

Sleep

I am adding this section because it's so important. However, my sleep is awful. I have pretty much been passing out from mental exhaustion and my sleep quality is horrible. I don't expect this to change until my cat is better.

Final Thoughts

I going to be shooting for 3/3 for both strength and running for Week 10. Also going to be making sure to keep up with my food logging. Hope everyone is doing well with their goals!

My Running Recovery Plan - Cadence

As a little background, I had a stress fracture in my right foot and have been struggling with various knee injuries over the years. My stress fracture was a couple years ago, and I pretty much hadn't run since. I had been on crutches for over 6 months and the slightest activity would still cause my foot to swell up. However, I was able to start slowly building some strength back, but then my knees started to have lots of issues. Therefore, I had no choice but to head to a physical therapist. From my road to recovery in PT, spawned a running training plan.

Photo from runnersconnect.net

Going back in time, I used to be a sprinter and short distance runner. I was mostly a forefoot runner, with me being a little more mid foot during the "longer" distances. After college, I was in a severe car accident, followed by another bad car accident a couple years later. When I finally was able to run again, my pace was more than twice as slow as the past and I had lost all of my muscle and gained a substantial amount of weight. Ever since this, I have been a heel striker. To make matters worse, even though I did not over-stride, my foot never rolled all the way through, causing all of the impact to go to my knees. Therefore, all of the core strength I had worked on was worthless.

Why Cadence Training?

Cadence is how many steps per minutes, SPM, you take. The gold standard is 180 SPM. If you want more detail, I had a blog post about Running Cadence. When I was given the green light to start running again in mid 2016, the first thing I did was get my running form analyzed. Although my stride length was good and my upper body form was great, my foot strike was terrible. There are many ways to correct how you land or your foot strike, but the one I went with was cadence, as I only became a heel striker after being injured. For me, mid foot striking is more ideal. Keep in mind this is different for everyone. Meb, for example, is a heel striker and is a world-class runner. However, I have terrible joints from all of my prior injuries. Therefore, I need the impact from running to go onto my muscles, not my joints. Therefore, forefoot or mid foot is what I needed.

Cadence training is a great method to use for this, as typically the faster a person runs while keeping the same stride, the more your body will naturally go from a heel strike to a more mid or forefoot strike. This isn't the case 100% of the time, but is usually the case. As a note, cadence training is much easier to start out training on a treadmill, because the moving belt helps with kickback. But it's best to move outside when you can be more consistent.

My Cadence

My cadence was measured around 150. Therefore, going by the golden 180 SPM rule was the plan. As I have progressed in my initial training, I was able to get up to almost 10 minutes straight at just under 180 SPM while on a treadmill. Therefore, it was time for my plan!

My Plan

The plan is technically an 8-week plan. However, it's designed to with the idea that typically it will take 1-2 weeks of each progression. Therefore, the plan is designed to range from 8 weeks to 16 weeks.

Legend: WU = Warm-up | CD = Cooldown

Week 1/2

• WU walk 2 min
• (Run 5 min, walk 1 min) - 3 Sets
• CD walk 2 min

Week 2/3

• WU walk 2 min
• Run 10 min, walk 1 min
• Run 5 min
• CD walk 2 min

Week 3/4

• WU walk 2 min
• Run 10 min, walk 1 min
• Run 5 min, walk 1-2 min
• Run 5 min
• CD walk 2 min

Week 4/5

• WU walk 2 min
• Run 15 min, walk 1-2 min
• Run 5 min
• CD walk 2 min

Week 5/6

• WU walk 2 min
• Run 15 min, walk 1 min
• Run 5 min, walk 2 min
• Run 5 min
• CD walk 2 min

Week 6/7

• WU walk 2 min
• Run 20 min, walk 1 min
• Run 5 min
• CD walk 2 min

Week 7/8

• WU walk 2 min
• Run 20 min, walk 1 min
• Run 5 min, walk 1-2 min
• Run 5 min
• CD walk 2 min

If you feel this will be too easy or not challenging enough, then you can do:

• WU walk 2 min
• Run 25 min, walk 1 min
• Run 5 min
• CD walk 2 min

Week 8/9

• WU walk 2 min
• Run 25 min, walk 1 min
• Run 5 min
• CD walk 2 min

If you feel this will be too easy or not challenging enough, then you can do:

• WU walk 2 min
• Run 30 min, walk 1 min
• Run 5 min
• CD walk 2 min

Again, this plan was to just fix my foot strike. However, the concept of this plan can be used to help run faster, longer. Good luck with your training!

Running Cadence - The Basics

During my recent physical therapy in recovery from some foot and knee issues, I was able to get a full running analysis done. I had this done because my form has dramatically changed from my sprinting days in high school and college, and then again from my mid-distance running after college. It turns out that although I was not over-striding, I was landing solidly on my heel and not rolling my foot through to the toe. Therefore, I was having extremely heavy impact on my knees, with no real support from the surrounding muscles. I had some other issues too, but those were not related my running form. So, my PT prescribed that I do cadence training. Now, I haven't done cadence or stride training since high school. I therefore had to ask my PT for an initial training plan and also needed to do some research to refresh myself on cadence training. Since I had to do that, I figured I would share the basics.

What is Running Cadence?

Simply put, running cadence is the number of time your feet hit the ground in a given period of time, usually over 60 seconds.

You might also hear the term "turnover" used as well. However, it should be made clear that turnover is defined as how quickly your leg goes from the foot strike position back to the kick position, and then back to the foot strike position.

Determine Your Running Cadence

If you don't have a device that can determine your cadence, either film yourself or have someone else count how many times your feet hit the ground over 60 seconds. Personally, I use my Garmin HRM-Run to get my cadence. I have tested about 15 times now with the HRM vs. manually counting and they are the same each time.

As a note, some devices count only single foot strike, especially when using a foot pod. My Garmin counts both feet, which I highly recommend and is more accurate. I won't go into detail, but depending on muscle balance and many other things, there could be a large difference between the 2 legs or feet, which could cause a mess of other issues.

What Should Your Cadence Be?

Most elite runners are tracked as running with a cadence around 180 SPM, steps per minute, or higher. Some of the fastest runners set themselves apart by being able to keep the same stride length for their final kick, but dramatically increase their cadence.

However, from generally reported and tracked stats across most websites, the typical running is around 160-170 SPM.

I recommend being closer to 180 SPM due to the benefits, which I'll explain in the next section. But to be honest, it's more important to be consistent. Whatever your cadence is, you should have that cadence consistent for your run, not just have it as the average. For example, if your average cadence is 170, but you fluctuate between 160 and 180 on a relatively flat course or treadmill, you are opening yourself up to injury and probably have some sort of running form issue.

I will argue that your cadence should be the same regardless if you are on a flat, going uphill, or going downhill. Your stride length will be different for sure, and your pace will vary, but your cadence should be fairly unchanged. Also, your cadence should be the same regardless of the distance you are running.

Benefits of Improved Cadence

When it comes to running, and most sports in general, how well you do usually is a matter of how efficient you are at what you do. Cadence falls into this concept of efficiency. A consistent and improved cadence usually translates to a faster run times, less impact on joints, and more consistent paces. This makes your training more effective and you less injury-prone.

Final Thoughts

Cadence isn't the end-all-be-all. You need to make sure you have proper form when you make ground contact, that your turnover and kick-back are following correct form, that you aren't over-extending or over-striding, and that you aren't pushing yourself passed your heart rate limits or lung capacity. Just remember though that how your foot strikes, forefoot, mid, or heel, doesn't matter! As long as you are consistent and that particular form is not negatively affecting your body, you are good to go. As a personal example, I am trying to get back to forefoot and mid-foot striking; this is due to my bad knees though and needing my muscles to handle the brunt of my impact, not my joints. Happy running!