Another disrupted week

I went to Arizona last weekend to cleanup my brother's house. As a result, I didn't get a run in on Friday or Saturday and only a short one on Sunday. I'm going back for a week in two more weeks but will try to get a regular workout in then.

• 10/26 - 10
  
• 10/27 - 11.3 (10 on track, 1.3 in morning)
  
• 10/28 - 9.64 on trails, 1942 vertical
  
• 10/29 - 11.7 (10 on roads, I guess 1.7 in am)
  
• 10/31 - 3.6 roads
  

The last two weeks - life (and death) intervenes

My mother and sister were visiting on the week on 10/4 since my niece was getting married out here. I just didn't feel like running on Tuesday of that week. That workout (long tempo on the track) has been suffering for a few weeks due to problems with my right soleus (see previous months) and disruptions (see previous weeks). I will be going to Arizona for 3 consecutive weekends starting Halloween weekend in order to clean up my brother's house. That will disrupt my long run on Saturday which has been progressing steadily. So I'm using this opportunity to move my workouts to more of a Lydiard schedule which I was pretty close to anyway. So the plan is to get the weekdays into that schedule over the 3 weeks when I will be in Arizona on weekends. Then I'll see where my long run is on the 3rd weekend in November. Hopefully I won't lose anything and I'll be able to resume with a long run around 26 miles.
So here are the last two weeks:

• 1st week
  
• 10/4 - 7, 5@7:34 pace
  
• 10/5 - 4 easy
  
• 10/6 - 2 just didn't feel like it.
  
• 10/7 - 11.33 on trails, 2308 vertical
  
• 10/8 - 8.38 on trails, 1405 vertical
  
• 10/9 - 24.25 on trails, 4929 vertical, 13:06 pace
  
• 10/10 - nothing (niece's wedding)
  
• 2nd week
  
• 10/11 - 7, 5@7:27 pace
  
• 10/12 - 4 easy
  
• 10/13 - 1.25 (soleus complaint)
  
• 10/14 - 7.56 on trails, 1378 vertical
  
• 10/15 - 1 easy
  
• 10/16 - 25.93, 5405 vertical, 14:11 pace
  
• 10/17 - nothing (memorial service for my brother)
  

September

Summary:
I stopped struggling in September and started progressing. The keys to this were:

• 3 hill workouts per week
  
• Consistent schedule of track workouts on Mon and Wed, trail on Thu, Sat and Sun, easy on Tue and Fri
  
• Gradual increase of 1 mile per week for track workouts (combined) and 1 mile per week on long run.
  

Mon	Pace	Tue	Wed	Pace	Thu	Vert	Fri	Sat	Vert	Pace	Sun	Vert	Total	Vert
			4				5	16.93	2962	14:10	7.5	1378	48.5	5140
7	8:11	4	9	7:52	7.5	1378		18.18	3336	13:02	7.5	1378	53.3	6092
7	8:22	3.25	10	7:52	7.5	1378		19.86	3812	12:56	7.5	1378	55.2	6568
7	7:36	4	10	7:28	7.5	1378		21.88	4485	16:27	7.5	1378	58	7241
7	7:54	4			7.5	1378							49.7	7717

Note that I hit my goal pace of 7:30 for my long tempo run. Now all I have to do is double the distance.
Note also that I have 2 miles warmup/warmdown for my track workouts so the actual miles for Monday topped out at 5 and Wed at 8.

Weekly Update - 9/27 - 10/3

• Mon - (track) 7, 5 at 7:54
• Tue - (park) Easy 4
• Thu - (trails) 7.56 w/1378 vertical
• Sat - (trails) 23.56 w/ 4961 vertical (14:04 pace)
• Sun - (trails) 7.56 w/1378 vertical
• Total - 49.68 w/7717 vertical

Saturday was 1.7 miles farther than last week and I ran it 25 minutes faster with no big drop in energy at the end. This was due to eating sweet potatoes during the run and probably some conditioning from last week.

When I came back from my run on Tuesday, my wife told me that my brother had hung himself. I spent Wednesday talking with my younger daughter.

Weekly Status - 9/20 to 9/26

• Mon 7, 5 at 07:36 pace
• Tue easy 4
• Wed 10, 8 at 07:28 pace - Goal pace! mostly around 7:32 splits, last mile in 7:02
• Thu 7.56, 1378 vert.
• Fri off
• Sat 21.88, 4485 vert. last 3 miles went from pathetic excuse for running to almost blacking out. 16:27 pace
• Sun 7.56 1378 vert.
• Total 58 miles, 7241 vertical
  

Found out I had not been counting one segment correctly, hence my long run increased by 2 miles, not one. I'm actually not worried about dying at the end of the long run. It was a hot day and I got low on water. Also, I kind of expect to have long runs that end like this while my body is getting reacquainted with running longer distances. Right achilles/calf was tight earlier in the week (from the 7:02 mile) but otherwise, legs have been performing well.
I was quite pleased to hit my goal pace - over 20 seconds faster pace than last week. The hill workouts are definitely driving the faster pace of track workouts.
On the track workouts, I've evolved into this format:

• Ride bike two miles to track.
• 1 mile jog with maybe a stride at the end
• Stretch (soleus, gastrocnemius, touch toes, quads, 2 hip stretches, hurdle stretches)
• 1 lap with two strides
• Run tempo run
• 3 lap warmdown
• Ride bike two miles home
  

Weekly Report - 9/13 - 9/19/2010

• 9/13 7 miles, 3 at8:22 pace
• 9/14 3.25 miles (in flats - rt. soleus started bothering me)
• 9/15 10 miles, 8 at 7:52 pace
• 9/16 7.56 miles, 1378' vertical
• 9/17 0
• 9/18 19.02 miles, 3812 vertical, 13:30 pace
• 9/19 7.56 miles, 1378 vertical
• Total 54.39 miles, 6568 vertical

I'm happy with the progress. For the trail workouts, my pace has been aggressive on the flats and uphills and prudent on the downhills. I'm very happy to be running this well on the trails. The track workouts are doing fine too.

Weekly Workouts

Great week. Hit all workouts except Friday recovery (walked instead).
Actually 5 more miles than last week, vertical is up about 950'. Paces were faster too.

• Mon - 5 on the track with 2 warmup.
  
• Tue - 4 easy - tight spot on calf
  
• Wed - 7 on the track with 2 warmup/warmdown. 7:52 pace, last mile in 7:12. Started conservatively with calf issue.
  
• Thu - 7.5 on trail
  
• Fri - Death of a friend - only walked
  
• Sat - 18 on trails, 3300'+ vertical, faster pace than last week (14 to 13 min/mile)
  
• Sun - 7.5 on trail - hauled on last uphill.
  
• Total - 53.3 miles, 6092 vertical
  

Last Week

• 8/30 - 2 mile warmup, 4 on track (8:15 pace)
• 8/31 - 2 mile warmup, 7 on track
• 9/1 - 4 barefoot easy in grass
• 9/2 - off - heel sore from running barefoot
• 9/3 - 5, about 800' vertical - El Modena Open Space - rocky and steep at times
• 9/4 - 16.93, 2962' vertical
• 9/5 - 7.56, 1378' vertical

August

Date	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
8/1							11
8/2		9		7.5	4	19
8/9		6		7.5	4		0.5
8/16	0.5	1	8	7.5	2	14	9.5
8/23	6	1.5	8	7.5	0.5		15
8/30	6	9

July

Date	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
7/1					4	16
7/5	7	4	12.5			8.4	14
7/12	10		4.75			11	3.85
7/19		11	10	5	5		11.33
7/26	3.5	10.5	0.5	2.5

June

Date	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
5/31		8.75	8.6	8.6		6.25 2500'	8.5 9:16 pace
6/7	7	4.42	8.5	8.5		3	7.75 3000'
6/14	9.42	9.25 9:03	10	3.75 1500'		10 2500'	10 2000'
6/21	10.42	10 8:43	10	5 1400'	4	12 4000'	10 2000'
6/28	11.42	12 (11@8:36)	11

Issues during the month:

• Inside right ankle pain (tendonitis) at first when running downhill. Seems to be going away toward end of month.
  
• Foot pain (stone bruise? neuroma?) on right foot just behind index toe. Long standing problem getting worse. It's worst when running on pavement, for some reason worse in Pumas (softer). Started wearing NB XC flats when running in dirt where there are rocks. Also bought NB MT100 shoes on 7/2.
  
• Dealt with being worn out twice. First response (which was correct) was to return to taking iron supplements. Second response (which also was correct) was to incorporate more rest once my mileage got up to 11 mile days.

Changes during month:

• Started with 4 day rotation
  
• Went to 7 day pattern
  
• Incorporating more rest
  
• Got out to the mountains - Hooray!
  
• Reduced then eliminated pavement
  

I'm excited about my proposed workout schedule, as follows:

• Mon: 4 miles easy (grass), possibly with non-running drills
  
• Tue: Long tempo on track, building to 16 miles, reducing pace gradually with goal of 7:30
  
• Wed: 4 miles easy - may incorporate a little speed work - strides at first, maybe some 150's
  
• Thu: Hill repeats or possible interval workout at some time in the future.
  
• Fri: 4 miles easy (grass), possibly with non-running drills
  
• Sat: Mountains
  
• Sun: Trail or mountains
  

I'm happy with how the long tempo has been going. I'm gradually increasing the length and gradually increasing the pace. I was pretty tired going into it this past week and was surprised to bring the average pace down.

I'm happy with how the weekend runs are going.
I'm determined to be patient with the Thursday night hill repeats. I want to get these up to 10 miles with about 2800' of gain, then keep it at 10 miles but increase the gain to 4000'. I think these will start improving with my new plan to have short recovery days on Mon/Wed/Fri.

If I feel I'm doing enough vertical on the weekends, I may convert the Thu workout to intervals.

As far as the problems are concerned (foot pain, ankle), I think it is important to come up with a plan, execute the plan and if it doesn't work, adjust the plan.

May Workouts

Date	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
4/26	3.25 grass Bruised shin running stadiums	3.25 grass	3.25 grass	4 grass	4 grass	4 grass	4 dirt
5/3	4.75 grass	23 miles on bike Shin and ankle swollen See last Tue	4.86 dirt	4.75 grass	4.82 pavement	6.28 trail	5.49 grass
5/10	5.5 grass	5.5 track, 7:58 pace aggravated soleus	0	1 grass	2.5 grass	4 grass (17 on bike)	5.5
5/17	5.5@9:28	5.5@9:26	5.79@9:29	6.25@9:15	6.42@9:54	6.25, 2500' elev gain	6.28, 800' elev gain
5/24	7	7.42	6.89, rode 23	0 - sore rt heel (see Wed)	7@9:05	8, 700' elev gain	8.4
5/31	8, 800' elev gain

Hardship and Poverty

Hardship and Poverty seem like they are often in the background of great distance runners. Somewhere I have a printout of a training manual authored by Gordon Pirie. As I recall, his father was a race promoter. I think he described a lot of the runners as young Welsh men who ran to escape the mines. I was reading about Joseph Ebuya who won the world cross country championships. He has a fascinating story. Part of it is that his family is nomadic goat herders. His family's goats were stolen by bandits, forcing them to move closer to the city where he survived by making charcoal. He was discovered when he could keep up with a group of professionals running in long pants and barefoot. Apparently just a few years ago, Tsegaye Kebede - whose last 3 marathons have been 2:05:20, 2:05:18 and 2:05:19 - was gathering firewood to survive, eating one meal per day. I was just reading that even Usain Bolt's home did not have running water when he was growing up. His strength is attributed to the fact that he had to carry water to his house. Even Greg McMillan - coach of McMillan Elite - talks about how suffering is a component of one's training.
Is suffering in of itself important, something like what Gary Cantrell calls "meaningless suffering without a point?" I don't think so, otherwise Cambodian survivors of Pol Pot would dominate endurance sports. My wife who is such a survivor is a hard worker and very strong-minded but does not have an athletic orientation. So there are some other factors. Greg McMillan talks about logging mileage consistently - year after year. We can see that in Haile Gebrselassie, running 10 km to school and another 10 km home for 10 years. I also recall reading that Shadrack Biwott would run 5 km to school, 5 km home for lunch, 5 km back to school, then 5 km back home every day. Even Ed Whitlock runs very consistently -about 20 miles per day. So I think the idea is to make it normal to run consistently every day as you would if you did it of necessity.
So my current plans are to stick to a plan of gradual increase in mileage, hopefully getting to a certain goal. But if I start having problems prior to that goal, I'll just back off and slow down progression of mileage at a maintainable level.

Recovery progressing well

I started running again on April 15th, starting with 1.75 miles at a time. I've been running 4 days at one distance, then increasing the distance by .75 miles, so 1.75, 2.5, 3.25, 4, 4.75, and now 5.5. Since 4/20, I've only missed 2 days where I didn't run. I've been running most of it barefoot. All of it has been barefoot on grass until 5/2 when I ran 4 miles in dirt wearing shoes. I did my first trail run today which means the first time with any vertical (probably about 1000'). I did get hurt one more time when I tripped while running stadiums and really bruised my left shin (on 4/27). This hasn't affected my running much. I only skipped one day (on 5/4) when I rode my bike 23 miles and my leg looked pretty ugly - ankle swollen, a lot of discoloration from under my ankle to above my knee. The bruise has been improving recently as I've been trying a number of things to get the bruise to clear.
Today was the biggest deviation from the plan because I accidentally ran 6.25 miles instead of the planned 5.5. I did an extra out and back which accounted for .68 miles.
I'm planning on sticking with the increases until I get up to 16 miles per day. I'd also like to run a lot of it at 8:48 pace and try to run the Hotter Than Hell 6 hour on 8/14 in Cameron Park at that pace. I'll continue for a while at least to run about half of it barefoot and rotate surfaces between grass, dirt, track and pavement. But most of all I'm intensely listening to my body. If I get a little tingle in my soleus, I stop and massage it. If I start getting sore by the base of my heel, I make sure I warm up with a bike ride before my next run. And I've been doing plenty of cross training with core exercises and bike riding. I just got through a 16 count Pedestal core routine for the first time - woops - forgot the crunches. Actually, Trey Hardee and Diana Pickler really make these look easy - and they are TOUGH!

Amy Palmiero-Winters wins Sullivan Award

USATF

AAU

I just heard the news. I bet this is the first ultra runner to win the Sullivan Award. A list of winners is at Wikipedia.

Congratulations Amy!

Latest Struggle/Action Plan

I started timing my track workouts about a month ago. On March 4th, I did a disrupted workout where my pace for the last few miles was somewhere around 9:45 (bad). Then I got sick. On March 15th, I ran 6 miles in 50:45 - 8:28 pace. On March 18th, I started off not pushing it and came up with 7:46 for the first mile. My goal pace for my long tempo workouts is 7:30 so I'm thinking that I'm there as far as pace is concerned. Now I just need to build up to the distance. Within half a lap after that mile, my right achilles starts hurting. I stop within 30 yards, walk back to my bike and ride home. My old problem with the heel counters (or whatever those things are called) of shoes hitting my achilles is back. I was wearing a pair of flats which I hadn't modified. I thought I was over that problem but I guess not.
Ok, so I take the next day off and go for an easy trail run on Saturday. I'm tentative on the first long gradual climb but everything goes ok. The first downhill gets me to notice the achilles but nothing to worry about. Then I step in a little dip and bang; time to walk back to the car. This one was worse. I went to the chiro about it. It gradually got better day to day. So 3/29, I shuffled through 2 miles barefoot in the park. I was a little sore but not injured. So 4/2, I went for a easy little 4 mile run. Everything was going very smoothly until a little before 3 miles when I felt a little pop and started hopping on my left foot, then limped home. So 3 injuries in the same area in 2 weeks.
The first injury was some kind of bruising of my achilles tendon due to the top of the heel of my shoe hitting it. The second injury left the outside of the tendon and a spot up at the top sore. After the third injury, my achilles is not sore at all. The injury is up in the soleus. In fact, I've felt points of pain all along the full length of the right soleus along its centerline. The last two injuries are what I consider sympathetic injuries where compensation or tightness due to an initial injury results in a secondary injury in the same general location.
What to do...
Two days later, I think I can walk slowly without a limp but running on my right leg would really be stupid. Rest it? I did that yesterday so that's done. Rehab has started. I have been icing it in a bucket of ice water. I've decided to take the next 4 weeks to work it and the rest of my body hard but no running. Weak areas noted earlier include hip flexors and quads. I've been looking at the John Cook et al drills recently, so here was the work schedule for today
Note: ABC's means write the alphabet forwards and backwards with that part of the body

AM on the floor

• supine ankle ABC's
  
• supine double leg ABC's - tough on the mid-section
  
• supine single leg ABC's
  
• supine leg toss
  
• prone single leg ABC's (alphabet is upside down on these)
  

AM standing - 64 counts each (32 squats), repeated for 30 minutes

• double calf raise (not very high - trying to avoid pain)
  
• Single leg knee flex
  
• Prisoner squats
  

I got in 5 sets w/o squats, then 5 more sets w/ squats.

AM - roads

• 1 hour/15 miles on the bike
  

PM - Medicine Ball - I think 16 reps each

• 2 hand standing overhead throw
  
• Throw to the side
  
• Place/Pick from desk in back of me (soccer drill)
  
• 2 hand kneeling overhead throw
  
• Good mornings
  
• Pike throw (I think) - go from lying on your back in a pike position to seated with an overhead throw forward.
  
• Some twists
  

I think I'll alternate this with some routines that I saw on Flotrack (Pedestal, Waterloo) that work more on core and upper body strength.

So keep this up for 4 weeks and build up my strength. Maybe reacquaint myself with push-ups and certainly crunches.

Making the medicine ball:
I got an old soccer (rubber - really cheap) ball from the garage, worked the little receptacle for the air needle out of the ball (it is shaped like a cross in cross section), put about 8 pounds of uncooked rice in it and jammed the little air receptacle back in so the rice wouldn't fall out. I think similar medicine balls were on sale at Big 5 for about $10 but I like those little DIY projects because I learn something.

Struggling

I'm still struggling to get to where I want to be. I think the only thing constant is constant struggle. I am making progress. I got through a 10 mile run on the track this week. I quit early the previous week with a very sore foot (because of callus). But now I'm working on that callus with a pumice stone - see - drug stores are good for something. Then I got sick on Friday from various sources of stress over the last two weeks. I tried chasing the sickness away with a workout on Saturday but what I really needed was rest which is what I got today. I revised my plans slightly to introduce a little more variety in my workouts (at least the locales) and maybe a little more routine. So this week, I hope I feel well enough to get out tomorrow and run some stadiums and maybe some drills. Keep struggling.

Barefoot in the Park

10 miles per day - barefoot - for the last 3 days. Saturday was just after it stopped raining with standing water. Of course running in puddles is no fun with shoes and socks on but the real reason I took my shoes off was that my left knee was in pain. I was wearing the heavily armored New Balance flats which was probably part of the problem. Running through the puddles barefoot was a blast. The water wasn't as cold as I thought it would be. The on Sunday, I was cruising at a pretty good pace. Tonight (Monday) I just wanted to see if everything still held up. Niece and nephew are here - later.

Weight

First: I saw a reference to this article - while trolling Lets Run.. It occurred to me that I know what my optimum weight is. Back when I was running big miles, I found that if I went down to 142, I felt worn out. 143 was ok. 145 was ok for long periods of time.

Second: My weight seems to be a function of my mileage, not a function of how much I eat. If I run 100 miles/week, I drop down to 145. I am not running that much now because of various ongoing issues (see previous posts). My current weight is 151. I have backed off on how much I eat. I eat one bowl of cereal for breakfast instead of two. I'm eating plenty of fruits and vegetables. I typically have one helping at dinner, not 3.

151.

Third: I figure that some of my current problems are due to weighing 151. So how to ramp up miles to lose weight without picking up injuries (because I weigh too much)? I decided it's a combination of gradual increase along with running on soft surfaces. So anyway, I see a lot of 10 mile runs on grass in my immediate future.

Harding Truck Trail - 6 miles of snow

I ran Harding Truck Trail on Saturday after a week of a lot of rain. Rain usually wreaks some havoc on forest roads but HTT was in pretty good shape considering. I noticed water completely bypassing one of the new drains put in since the fire. There were some debris flows especially between 4.5 and 5 miles. There was also one slide just before the 8 mile mark. But the most remarkable thing was that the road was covered completely with snow starting a little after the 6 mile mark. The elevation doesn't get much higher after the 6 mile mark but I think the road is a little more sheltered after 7 miles so the snow was deeper in that area. I think it was about 6 inches deep at the most. My foot would break the crust and compress the snow down so that my shoe was below the surface of the snow - but no post-holing. I don't see many animals on my HTT runs but with the snow, I saw a lot of tracks. It looked like maybe skunks and squirrels, rabbits and I think some coyotes. Have you noticed the peculiar way that coyotes leave their droppings prominently displayed? Before, I've seen where they pick out a rock in the middle of a dirt road and poop on that. I saw a few places where they pooped a little on the snow, I guess showing off to the other animals. Maybe coyotes mark their territory with poop instead of pee.

I got tired a little from breaking through the snow with my steps and walked in a few spots. After turning around and heading back down, I went through the series of my hip, then hip flexors, then knees (lower quads) hurting. And as with recent runs, I feel stronger a few days later. I scooped some snow in my water bottles just because. Unfortunately, that got my right hand in particular pretty numb. I finally got it warmed up again at about the 6 mile (to go) mark.

So another joyous day in the mountains.

POSE Method, heel strikes, and evil shoe companies

This is a post of some comments I placed on the ultra list.

Since about March of 2009, I have not been able to run in shoes with the usual 1/2" elevation of the heel without really bothering my knees. I had run in cross country flats prior to this and a little bit barefoot but as of March, getting rid of my heels has become mandatory. Cross country flats work well on dirt tracks and trails but they are not flexible enough to run long distances on paved surfaces. I've used Mizuno Revolver "flats" in a road 50k. There is some heel build-up to them but not as much as the usual trainer. I've tried cutting off the heel of my trainers (as described by Anton Krupicka) but it is hard to get it right for road work and the shoe is still somewhat inflexible. Sidewalks are just too abrasive for me to run more than about 8 miles barefoot. Recently, I've had the best luck for road running with moccasins (from Tandy Leather Company - nfi) or water socks without the insoles (Body Glove, again nfi). The good thing about these choices is that they are cheap - $35 for the moccasin kit, $20 for the water socks. These are taking some getting used to. I ran 18 today in the moccasins and the skin on the ball of my foot is sore, particularly where I have some corns. FWIW, I do not like the five fingers. The first pair I had required me to wear socks and started falling apart. The second pair gave me a blister on the first run.

An earlier poster stated something to the effect that you can be a forefoot striker with heels. Certainly that is true but there is more tension in the ankle and knee and less shock absorption with higher heels. The same is true with running in flats - lack of flexibility in the sole means that flexing of the ankle needs to absorb shock that could have been absorbed by the foot. This seems to become an issue on paved surfaces but not dirt, at least for me.

I have a couple of pairs of racing shoes (the Mizunos and some Nike Zoom XC) which I'll reserve for racing but for practice runs, I'm going with the water socks and the moccasins and barefoot in the grass for recovery runs. I'm also trying to work on the strength of my knees.

Use It or Lose It

WARNING! NEGATIVE COMMENTS FOLLOW!

2009 was a lousy year for me as far as running was concerned. I unexpectedly ran a pretty good road 50 mile at Ruth Anderson on November 1, 2008 - 7:42 for a course which we were told was a mile long. After that, I got a coach for 3 months who I thought wasn't having me work very hard. But the problems started before that. I used to work where it was convenient to run hills before work. It wasn't unusual for me to run hilly workouts 4 of the 5 weekdays. The other thing was that work location had showers and lockers which I used all of the time, sometimes getting in 4 quick miles (sub 7:00 pace) at lunch. Then my company moved their location to brand new buildings in which they declined to build any locker room, health club, etc. So the result was that I ran a lot less vertical and couldn't stop off for a run before work. This coincided with an interest of mine to run a road 100k. This prompted a mistaken belief in me that I could run lots of road workouts. The results suck. I ran 2 50k's in 2009 and that's it. I have been struggling with sore knees for the year.

POSITIVE SPIN FOLLOWS-

OK - I am resolved to

• Run more vertical. This includes what has been 2000' of gain on stadiums on Tuesdays.
• Work on strength in general. I've picked up some good exercises and drills from a Shannon Rowbury video on Flotrack.
• Put in double workouts. Riding a stationary bike qualifies as a workout.
• Stay off pavement. Current plan is to limit it to no more than one 18-22 mile run per week or possibly a 30 to 35 mile run every other week. Run on grass and later dirt tracks.
• Ignore my weekly miles and even ignore weeks. Concentrate instead on getting in good workouts with recovery - first vertical and other strength related, then start working in intervals and tempo. Include work on the bike.
• Base workouts on previous workouts. Try to improve on only one aspect of a workout from one to the next. So add work without going faster or keep the volume the same at a faster pace. List limitations encountered with a particular workout and figure out how to improve on those limitations. Setbacks/injuries also will feed into lessons learned. So for instance, I did a high intensity hill workout the other day and strained my hamstring on the third time up. So next time I plan to a) only go up twice and b) use The Stick to loosen up my hamstrings.
• Don't over-do the high intensity work. Watching elites on Flotrack, I'm impressed by how little they do during these workouts, anywhere from a little over 2 miles to less than a mile. And stay relaxed.