Running Etiquette: When Slow Training Runs Go Fast

Tonight I got home from work thinking I was going to have a nice run along the trail at a slow easy pace. At about the 1/2 mile marker I noticed there was an echo to each step of my running shoes and there was some sort of heavy breathing coming up behind me.

That echo and heavy breathing ended up being some runner dude crowding my space. I guess I could have just stepped to the side and let him pass, but we were on a 12 foot concrete trail through Dallas and there was plenty of room for him to make his own move. So, after about another 1/4 mile I decided to pick up the pace a bit to see what I was dealing with.

He matched my stride and pace as I dropped the second mile to just under 7:00 per mile and as we made it to the turn I realized I was either going to need to drop the pace to 6:30 per mile or go even faster to avoid the heavy breathing, wheezing, and hacking that was going on behind me. I gave it a quick thought and opted to pull up at the water station and let him blow by instead of risking a pulled hammy.

There is such a thing a running etiquette and I think if you're going to run up on someone you should pass the slower runner and smile because you are faster, run close to the person and give a look like "I see you running and I think I'm going to back off a bit to run behind you to let you pull me through this wind tunnel", or simply say "hey dude mind if I let you pace me up this hill while I draft off you through this wind tunnel?"

In the end, I had a good run. I made it home in time for dinner and I managed to save both hammys for another day. If I see that dude again there's gonna be an impromptu race to the street lamp. Smart money is on me.

A Mileage Ramp Up - Run Training Plan

I've been resting, stretching, and strengthening my hamstrings and back for weeks now and I'm finally starting to get back into running. That is great news... but at times like these I always find myself pushing to hard to early and end up injuring myself and taking even more time off. Not this time.

I plan on running the 2011 Dallas White Rock Marathon this year, but that isn't until December and my training for that race won't start until September, or even August, so the focus until that starts will be to build up mileage and maybe hit a couple of 5k, 10k, and Half Marathons before that starts.

The photo above shows a sample training plan that I might follow for 8 weeks to get back into a normal running routine nice an slowly. I will likely change up some of the core workouts during the week, but I think this plan provides distances to just go run if I don't have speed work, hills, or other goals in mind.

This plan is pretty vanilla, but it is definitely what I need to stay focused on not injuring my back or hamstring. That would suck.

On the Run Again

I did not feel like running this morning. It was one of those 6am wake up calls that you wish you could hit snooze and enjoy the comfortable bed, worm comforter, and general laziness. I somehow managed to pry myself off the pillow and made it out the door by 6:30.

I didn't have a big route planned for the morning, but I wanted to try my new Asics Gel-DS Sky Speeds out on a hilly route I've done a few times. Overall, I had a pretty great run. The water fountains are still turned off along miles 3 and 4 of my route which sucked but other than that, it was a good day of running.

The shoes felt great and my hamstring and back seemed to be cooperating as well. I took the time to stretch for about 15 minutes after the run which helped as well.

Happy to be on the run again. Good times.

Run Summary
Distance: 6.32 Miles
Pace: 7:46 Per mile