HELP...I think I am going nuts....

[VeloVT]

A few thoughts:

1. Does your "new" running schedule represent a big increase from your (running) mileage over the past few months? I find that when I increase after not running much for a while, it's not uncommon to get all sorts of transient pains -- kneecaps, IT band, achilles tendon -- but after two weeks they all go away. Running makes very different demands on your body than biking, because of all the pounding, and not only do your muscles have to get used to this (even if you're already in good shape from another sport), but your tendons and things do too.

2. Maybe you're trying too hard to force yourself into a prescribed pace? Maybe better to leave your watch at home and run at whatever pace feels good (assuming you have some courses you know the approximate distance of)? When I was training for a marathon last spring (no, I didn't run, stumbled and got a nasty case of tendinitis six weeks before the race that took two months to heal), my long runs were a little slower than my bread-and-butter mileage, but maybe 30 seconds per mile slower. I just felt better running faster, and it didn't hurt me. I know there's a strong basis in "the literature" for running base miles very slow, and there's a physiological argument for it. But it's also not totally uncontroversial -- there are folks out there who say "the way to prepare for a fast marathon is to run your long runs at close to race pace." I'm actually not taking either position here, just suggesting that there isn't ONE RIGHT WAY, and maybe you are forcing yourself to run slower than you really need to. Every runner is an experiment of one, maybe it would help just to forget what you "should" be doing and try to see what feels good. (I know when I run with my boyfriend, we often run 1:30 -- 2:00 per mile slower than what I run alone, and it IS more wearing on my body in some ways than running faster. First, you're just on your feet for longer for any given distance, and also, until you get tired at least, the form you use when running faster tends to be more efficient than when you run slower).

3. I am able to increase mileage by more than the recommended 10% per week without injury, as long as I have some base conditioning. The most important thing for me is to make sure I'm running enough mileage during the week to support the long run (i.e., it doesn't work well to run 20 miles per week and have a 12 mile long run). And I normally don't increase distance of the long run by more than two miles per week, and not every single week (though I will increase total weekly mileage by more than that). So I wouldn't necessarily be too freaked by what your coach suggests. But here again you just have to listen to your body.

Good luck!!!


(Sorry this is such a grammatical mess, I can normally manage not to end every other sentence with a preposition ...).

Edit:
Also, do they only have you running three days a week for three months? That seems like an unusual plan, two long slow runs and one tempo run... More usual would be 1 long, slow run, 1-2 tempo runs, and 2-4 short/medium, easy/moderate runs, total 5-6 days of running.

Edit 2: But then again, I don't know anything about training for triathlon and what's normal for that. Are you training to race 10k as part of a tri, or simply as a road race?