Run Run Away

Question:

About a month ago or so I posted a message asking for help because I had to run 1.5 mile in 13 minutes at the police academy for physical test, and I was so out of shape to run even 1 mile. After running a few laps at the running track, I was feeling exhausted and out of breath without any energy to run another step. When I was at the police academy for the physical test, I was already limping because I had a swollen right ankle as a result of pushing myself to the limit during training. So, I ran 1.5 mile at the academy with a swollen right ankle, and passed to physical test, but the swollen right ankle got worse and pain got more intense. So, I put ice on my ankle and massaged every day. It took nearly a month to recover from that injury. After my right ankle healed up, I felt full of energy, and could barely wait to run again. So, I put on the shorts and shoes and wanted to see if I could manage to run again 1.5 mile after a month of inactivity because I had to get in perfect shape and prepare myself to run 5 miles before the police academy starts in January. When I started running something happened. I never got tired. I ran 1.5 mile, and was not out of breath and didn’t have the burning feeling in my lungs as a result of breathing too heavy. So, I kept running as much as I could… to see how much more of this I could take. So, I ran 3 miles and thought to myself that I was only 2 miles short of 5 miles. So, I kept running. When I was at the 4th mile, I felt the signs of fatigue, but it was not too bad. So I kept running until I ran 5 miles. I just wonder how I could run 5 miles now because I could barely run 1.5 mile before. What happened all of a sudden? On Monday I ran 5 miles, and thought to myself that I was just lucky and couldn’t do it again if I tried. So, I decided to try again on Tuesday. I ran another 5 miles. I started having a very minor pain again on my right ankle, and took Wednesday off and did nothing. On Thursday in spite of the minor pain on my right ankle, I ran 5.5 miles. I took Friday off, and tried to run again on Saturday. When I ran only half mile, I was tired, and out of breath. Not too much but I had a bit of burning feeling in my lungs. I stopped running and put my both hands at my waist and looked at the sky and said, "you gotta be kidding me!?!" in such disappointment. What happened? I showed super-major improvement and then super-major failure. I don’t understand what is happening. Yes I admit that since Thursday, I am under a lot of stress. I sleep 4 or 5 hours a day and eat once a day. Do you think it is the lack of sleep and protein intake getting to me? Has anybody experienced such major improvement and major failure? If so, how can you explain such major improvement and failure? Thanks in advance…

Response:

I took Friday off, and tried to run again on Saturday. When I ran only half mile, I was tired, and out of breath. Not too much but I had a bit of burning feeling in my lungs. I stopped running and put my both hands at my waist and looked at the sky and said, "you gotta be kidding me!?!" in such disappointment. What happened? I showed super-major improvement and then super-major failure. I don’t understand what is happening. Yes I admit that since Thursday, I am under a lot of stress. I sleep 4 or 5 hours a day and eat once a day. Do you think it is the lack of sleep and protein intake getting to me? Has anybody experienced such major improvement and major failure? If so, how can you explain such major improvement and failure?

Simple. Your training style goes like this: run yourself into the ground, get injured, rinse and repeat. When you run yourself into the ground, you will make improvements (which may come quite rapidly if you’re a beginner), until injury prevents you from training, or overtraining kills your performance. Lack of sleep contributes to the problem, but it’s only a very small part of it. If you want to get anywhere, you need to do something a little more sophisticated than attempting to set a new personal record on each run. The problem is that you’re simply not ready to train 35 miles a week (which is what running 5 miles each day amounts to). The fact that you can run for 5 miles without stopping does not mean that you can or should maintain 35 miles a week. There are posters here who have run marathons, but you don’t see them trying to run 190 miles per week. If they were to do that, they’d get injured, or they’d be so severely overtrained that they’d get sick. I’d suggest running 5 times a week, making 4 of the runs 2-3 miles at an easy pace (you should feel like you could run the whole 5 miles if you wanted to), and do just one 5 mile run each week. As you get comfortable with this training load (you can use the 5 mile runs as a guide), *gradually* increase your milage. Cheers, — Donovan Rebbechi http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~elflord/

Response:

    I would not say that was unusual.  First we all have good and bad days. In addition you body has not figured out what is expected of it.  It will take a few months to get your body use to what you are expecting of it.     Take it slow and easy this time.  Start easy and increase slowly. — Joseph E. Meehan 26 + 6 = 1  It’s Irish Math

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – About a month ago or so I posted a message asking for help because I had to run 1.5 mile in 13 minutes at the police academy for physical test, and I was so out of shape to run even 1 mile. After running a few laps at the running track, I was feeling exhausted and out of breath without any energy to run another step. When I was at the police academy for the physical test, I was already limping because I had a swollen right ankle as a result of pushing myself to the limit during training. So, I ran 1.5 mile at the academy with a swollen right ankle, and passed to physical test, but the swollen right ankle got worse and pain got more intense. So, I put ice on my ankle and massaged every day. It took nearly a month to recover from that injury. After my right ankle healed up, I felt full of energy, and could barely wait to run again. So, I put on the shorts and shoes and wanted to see if I could manage to run again 1.5 mile after a month of inactivity because I had to get in perfect shape and prepare myself to run 5 miles before the police academy starts in January. When I started running something happened. I never got tired. I ran 1.5 mile, and was not out of breath and didn’t have the burning feeling in my lungs as a result of breathing too heavy. So, I kept running as much as I could… to see how much more of this I could take. So, I ran 3 miles and thought to myself that I was only 2 miles short of 5 miles. So, I kept running. When I was at the 4th mile, I felt the signs of fatigue, but it was not too bad. So I kept running until I ran 5 miles. I just wonder how I could run 5 miles now because I could barely run 1.5 mile before. What happened all of a sudden? On Monday I ran 5 miles, and thought to myself that I was just lucky and couldn’t do it again if I tried. So, I decided to try again on Tuesday. I ran another 5 miles. I started having a very minor pain again on my right ankle, and took Wednesday off and did nothing. On Thursday in spite of the minor pain on my right ankle, I ran 5.5 miles. I took Friday off, and tried to run again on Saturday. When I ran only half mile, I was tired, and out of breath. Not too much but I had a bit of burning feeling in my lungs. I stopped running and put my both hands at my waist and looked at the sky and said, "you gotta be kidding me!?!" in such disappointment. What happened? I showed super-major improvement and then super-major failure. I don’t understand what is happening. Yes I admit that since Thursday, I am under a lot of stress. I sleep 4 or 5 hours a day and eat once a day. Do you think it is the lack of sleep and protein intake getting to me? Has anybody experienced such major improvement and major failure? If so, how can you explain such major improvement and failure? Thanks in advance…

Response:

I’d give you advice, but since you’re going to become a pig I’ll decline. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -About a month ago or so I posted a message asking for help because I had to run 1.5 mile in 13 minutes at the police academy for physical test, and I was so out of shape to run even 1 mile. After running a few laps at the running track, I was feeling exhausted and out of breath without any energy to run another step. When I was at the police academy for the physical test, I was already limping because I had a swollen right ankle as a result of pushing myself to the limit during training. So, I ran 1.5 mile at the academy with a swollen right ankle, and passed to physical test, but the swollen right ankle got worse and pain got more intense. So, I put ice on my ankle and massaged every day. It took nearly a month to recover from that injury. After my right ankle healed up, I felt full of energy, and could barely wait to run again. So, I put on the shorts and shoes and wanted to see if I could manage to run again 1.5 mile after a month of inactivity because I had to get in perfect shape and prepare myself to run 5 miles before the police academy starts in January. When I started running something happened. I never got tired. I ran 1.5 mile, and was not out of breath and didn’t have the burning feeling in my lungs as a result of breathing too heavy. So, I kept running as much as I could… to see how much more of this I could take. So, I ran 3 miles and thought to myself that I was only 2 miles short of 5 miles. So, I kept running. When I was at the 4th mile, I felt the signs of fatigue, but it was not too bad. So I kept running until I ran 5 miles. I just wonder how I could run 5 miles now because I could barely run 1.5 mile before. What happened all of a sudden? On Monday I ran 5 miles, and thought to myself that I was just lucky and couldn’t do it again if I tried. So, I decided to try again on Tuesday. I ran another 5 miles. I started having a very minor pain again on my right ankle, and took Wednesday off and did nothing. On Thursday in spite of the minor pain on my right ankle, I ran 5.5 miles. I took Friday off, and tried to run again on Saturday. When I ran only half mile, I was tired, and out of breath. Not too much but I had a bit of burning feeling in my lungs. I stopped running and put my both hands at my waist and looked at the sky and said, "you gotta be kidding me!?!" in such disappointment. What happened? I showed super-major improvement and then super-major failure. I don’t understand what is happening. Yes I admit that since Thursday, I am under a lot of stress. I sleep 4 or 5 hours a day and eat once a day. Do you think it is the lack of sleep and protein intake getting to me? Has anybody experienced such major improvement and major failure? If so, how can you explain such major improvement and failure? Thanks in advance…

Response:

Why does a cop need to be physically fit?  Writing parking tickets, and sleeping in your cruiser don’t require any special physical skills.

Response:

Donovan and Joseph, thank you guys so much for your responses. Things you say make a lot of sense. I need to have a systematical training schedule rather than getting out there and running my lungs out. Recruits at the police academy begin week one with a daily 1.5 mile run which increases by 10% per week to a maximum of five miles at an 8 minute pace. I think it is better to follow the same pace by starting with 1.5 mile and increasing it by 10% per week. Thanks again

Response:

The problem is that you’re simply not ready to train 35 miles a week (which is what running 5 miles each day amounts to). The fact that you can run for 5 miles without stopping does not mean that you can or should maintain 35 miles a week. There are posters here who have run marathons, but you don’t see them trying to run 190 miles per week.

As if support were needed, my weekly average for a maiden 3h28 marathon was around 35 miles…

Response: