Just started running again?

Question

I am in my second week of running and wanted some second opinions of how long I should be running or how many miles. For the first week I did 4 5 minute runs with around a minute rest. My coach thinks I could start doing 20 minutes just easy jogging but I do not know if my body can handle that stress yet. I am 16 years old and I'm trying to get ready for my second year of running and cross country season. I have just came back from a stress fracture that occured after last cross country season and had to miss track. My pr for the 5k is 16:50 so do you also think I could reach in the high 50's towards the end of July.

Answer 1

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Stress fracture.  I can fully empathize, I lost a track season my junior year in high school due to a hip growth plate stress fracture.

This is tough to answer, mostly because you have a coach and you are inadvertently second-guessing him/her, and potentially undermining his/her directions to you.

And there's a question to ask your sports doctor:  how fragile are you at this point?  Is the fracture completely healed?  His/her recommendation on training to avoid re-injuring the fracture?  Likely, if you want an answer that says "less miles," that's the person to go to.

But you asked of y!a.  So, here goes.

High 50's (mileage per week, I presume) in the next 10 weeks.  If that's an even amount of mileage per day, that's about 8 miles a day.

And you're starting from ground zero.  An incremental increase would look like:

Week 1:  2 miles / day = 14

Week 2:  2.5 miles / day = ~17 (20% increase)

Week 3:  3 miles / day = 21 (~18% increase)

Week 4:  3.5 miles / day = ~24

Week 5:  4 miles / day = 28

Week 6:  4.5 miles / day = ~31 (10% increase)

Week 7:  5 miles / day = 35

Week 8:  6 miles / day = 42

Week 9:  7 miles / day = 49

Week 10:  8 miles / day = 56

This all assumes same mileage per day within a given week.  GIVEN a healed stress fracture and doctor's go-ahead, this looks doable for someone your age.

Likely by week 7 you can be alternating 6 and 4 mile days.

This is hard to judge, but given XC starts late August, I'd suggest slowly introducing tempo runs and repeat-interval workouts by week 9, no more than one tempo run and one repeat-interval workout/week.

If this schedule and these ideas make sense to you, bounce them off your coach, but as "your own."

Regards,

Running_Dad

P.S., Pressure.  A moderate amount of pressure is a good thing, it gets us out of bed and makes us productive.  I am a bit concerned that you feel more than a modicum of pressure now.  Not much I can do about it from a distance, except to recommend that you guard your thoughts and feelings, and fight those "pressure thoughts."  

Realize that no matter what others think or say around you, running is but a part of life, a gift from God, something to thank God for every time you run.  But not something that makes you truly respected by others.  

Nothing you can do really can get you that type of respect.  That too, is a gift from God.  Not your coach.

P.P.S., in re-reading your question, it occurs to me that when you say high 50's, you may mean NOT mileage but rather high 16:50's.  If that's so, the body of this response doesn't reply.  If that's what you are asking, I would say, no, not end of July, not without risking one sort of injury or another.  However, with a gradual increase in distance and speedwork, you should be able to get well below that by end of August, beginning of September.

In any case, the advice on respect does apply.

Answer 2

be careful comming back from a stress fracture, i ave shin splints and they hurt pretty bad. just keep adding on more and more time to get your body used to it. good luck in XC this year!