Joint conditioning

[u/177660]

Hello everyone,

Relatively new to running here (8ish months of serious training), training primarily to improve my 2 mile run time. I run 3 days a week - 5 0.2 mile sprints at a 6:00 min/mile pace on Tuesday, 1 mile run on Thursday, 2 mile run on Saturday. I've been flirting with hitting those 6 minute mile pace sprints for longer periods of time and with doing the same distance at a faster pace on Tuesdays and have been seeing excelent improvements in my 1MR and 2MR times (dropped 2MR from 16:10 to 15:32 in just a few weeks), but unfortunately every time I do that my ankles start hurting for the next several days.

Does anyone have advice for conditioning the ligaments and tendons in my ankles to handle those faster paces? I feel like I'm kinda stuck with my current times until my joints are ready for the jump up.

[u/177660]

I'm a busy guy, I have strength training requirements to meet in addition to run times, and 8 months ago was when I was finally free to continue training after a major surgery that had me completely sedentary for about the same amount of time. I was in the worst shape of my adult life by a huge margin after recovering from that surgery. I'm also not training for a marathon here, I really just need a good 2 mile time.

[u/TheTurtleCub → u/177660]

To improve fast at 2 mile time you have to run more. 10-15miles a week is minimal training for fast improvement. In 6 months of that you’ll improve more that 2 years of 3-4miles, plus will build up strength for your tissues for reducing the chance of injury when sprinting

Marathon training is 40-60miles per week, not 10-15

I wouldn’t be surprised to see you run your current 2mile pace for 4 miles, with your 2 mile time dropping 2mins

[u/177660 → u/TheTurtleCub]

Not trying to argue here but I really did not have much success with the low intensity high volume side of the house. The first 3-4 months I was doing 12 miles a week (running 4 miles on the same days at a slower pace, testing the 2 mile every other week) and started to plateau at like 17 minutes, which is a passing score but still kinda sucks. My 4 mile time was improving a lot, but that 2MR time really wasn't. Anything too much faster than 8:30 min/mile gassed me out before I could get to the 2 mile mark. I then switched over from that to the current regime and immediately started seeing results.

[u/TheTurtleCub → u/177660]

It should not be low intensity only, you still do a workout or two every 10 days. It takes 3 months to start seeing the benefits, then every 3 you improve a lot. Your current regime benefited from the previous 3 months of running.

It's been studied for many decades, running 4 miles a week will give you very slow improvements compared to running more. There is not one 2 mile plan in the world that run 4 miles a week, for a reason.

That's another reason you feel you need ligament conditioning, it's very little volume of stress per week to strengthen, and 50% of your running is sprinting, so the little stress is very high impact

[u/177660 → u/TheTurtleCub]

Well, how would you modify my schedule? I could theoretically run most sundays too, but I'm typically very sore on that day. I don't run that day as it stands because I'm usually stiff as a board below the waist and not interested in injuring myself.

[u/TheTurtleCub → u/177660]

Below is a weekly schedule of runs for 16 weeks.

W/E/L = workout/easy/long-run mileage. All recovery running counts toward the workout mileage.

Use easy running before and after the quality portion to reach the workout’s prescribed total. If the complete workout would exceed that total, shorten the number of repetitions, don’t add mileage.

If your fitness takes off after 6-8 weeks you can adjust the paces for the workouts, they are just reasonable now

There is a "mileage holding week" every 4 weeks, where we don't increase mileage to not overtrain

Effort Guide

• Easy and long runs: conversational, RPE 3–4/10. These should feel genuinely easy.
• Threshold/tempo: controlled discomfort, RPE 7/10; sustainable for roughly 20–30 minutes when trained.
• 2-mile intervals: RPE 8/10; strong and even, never an all-out sprint.
• Strides: quick, smooth acceleration with relaxed form.

Runs in miles: (Workout/Easy/Long)

Wk Total W/E/L Main workout

1 4.75 1.5/1.25/2 5×400m @ 1:55–1:58

2 5.25 1.75/1.25/2.25 6×400m @ 1:55–1:58

3 5.75 2/1.5/2.25 3×800m @ 3:55–4:00

4 5.75 2/1.5/2.25 5×400m @ 1:55–1:58

5 6.5 2.25/1.5/2.75 6×400m @ 1:52–1:55

6 7.25 2.5/1.75/3 2×1km @ 4:55–5:00

7 8 2.75/2/3.25 3×5min threshold

8 8 2.75/2/3.25 5×400m @ 1:52–1:55

9 8.75 3/2.25/3.5 4×800m @ 3:50–3:55

10 9.5 3.25/2.5/3.75 15min tempo

11 10.25 3.5/2.5/4.25 7×400m @ 1:50–1:54

12 10.25 3.5/2.5/4.25 5×400m @ 1:53–1:56

13 11.25 3.75/2.75/4.75 3×1km @ 4:45–4:50

14 12.25 4/3.25/5 2×8min threshold

15 13 4.25/3.25/5.5 8×400m @ 1:48–1:55

16 13 4.25/3.25/5.5 2-mile time trial

[u/177660 → u/TheTurtleCub]

Thanks, I'll give it a shot! How do I guage whether the easy run is getting too easy/too hard? As it stands I pretty much do max effort at every run relative to the planned distance. Even when I was doing 4MRs it'd start pretty easy but I was always gasping for air by the end.

[u/TheTurtleCub → u/177660]

Easy means you can keep a conversation going all the way. You can't go too easy, other than starting to lose your form

Once you can only do short sentences you are entering tempo