Running tip #24 – With speedwork and long run mileage, always apply gradual progress.
This morning I am headed over to have a reunion of sorts with a few of my cross-country teammates from college. I remember well my first day of practice as a bubbly freshman on the beautiful campus at the University of North Carolina @ Chapel Hill. I had come from a low-mileage running program in high school – one where all season long we worked up to a 7-mile run called “Thermal” – so when my new UNC coach assigned a ten-mile run for that very first day, well, let’s just say some of my freshman bubbles popped. At around the 8 mile mark, I started crying. “I can’t make it.”
“Sure you can, Little Hot Rod,” my bold (cough cough) bossy! captain encouraged, dropping back to run with pitiful me. And I did make it, eventually, through those last ridiculous 2 miles but it was so wrong to make a freshman run 10 miles without a gradual build-up. ChiRunning explains: http://www.chirunning.com/blog/entry/applying-gradual-progress-to-distance-running
For tips #25 and #26 I will share my simple formulas for speed and endurance adaption.