Running - the beginning
I have been biking a lot the past few years, but I have not been running much. In fact, I have almost not been running at all. Because of the biking, I'm in reasonably good shape (resting heart rate in the 40s, body fat below 15% and so on) but I just cannot run. My legs just won't do it. It hurts, especially the days after a run. So, I decided to go ahead and start running regularly.
In order to fit everything into a tight schedule, what I can do is, that I can make two weekly runs - one in the morning and one in the evening, on a single day of the week. The run will be 8.4km in each direction (to and from work). That's it. Clearly, running twice a day on a single day of the week is not going to be an optimal training schedule by any stretch of imagination, but this is that I have to work with.
The reason for this post, is the rapid change I experienced over the first four weeks (four times two runs). I have put some key numbers in the table below.
| Run | Avg moving pace | Efficiency | Avg. HR | Pain following |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1A | 5:06 [min/km] | 13.1 [m/kC] | 161 [bpm] | - |
| 1B | 5:26 [min/km] | 12.7 [m/kC] | 159 [bpm] | Severe leg pain for 4 days |
| 2A | 4:51 [min/km] | 13.5 [m/kC] | 161 [bpm] | - |
| 2B | 5:10 [min/km] | 13.1 [m/kC] | 154 [bpm] | Some leg pain for 4 days |
| 3A | 4:44 [min/km] | 13.9 [m/kC] | 162 [bpm] | - |
| 3B | 4:56 [min/km] | 13.8 [m/kC] | 157 [bpm] | Only slight soreness for a day |
| 4A | 4:34 [min/km] | (N/A) | (N/A) | - |
| 4B | 4:43 [min/km] | 14.7 [m/kC] | 158 [bpm] | Nothing |
Personally I was very surprised to see the numbers change this much over just four training days (two sessions a day, one day a week, for four weeks). Due to illness I have had to skip two weeks, so it will be interesting to see how much damage that did, and how the numbers will progress from there. I would expect the average pace to stabilize first, and see the energy efficiency continue to grow further. I am curious by the way - what energy efficiency do you have as an experienced runner?