Oh, the joys of being injured… Since the vast majority of my training is uphill (due to runner’s knee), I very rarely if ever get any speed work done. The fastest that I can run up my normal 10% to 14% slopes is just a hair under an 8 minute mile, which is almost three minutes slower per mile than the marathon pace I need to hit to qualify for the Olympic trials. Although my vertical running regimen is making my legs very strong, it’s not developing speed. The solution – I’ve decided to run a 5k race every weekend – but as a hard workout and not a race. I will do my normal training throughout the week, including leg strength at the gym the day of the race. I’m hoping that 3 miles of hard fast running will not aggravate my knee, but may help to slowly get it used to flat running again. These races are merely an opportunity to really push myself and to build speed by keeping pace with very fast runners. The fact that I’m an endurance runner and mountain runner and NOT a 5k runner will make this very challenging as Southern California has many of the best 5k runners in the country. Let the pain begin.
