Yesterday began phase two of my training plan for the Atlanta Track Club Wingfoot Mile.

Phase One

Phase one was rough. It was just easy running and getting back to strength training. After the Big Beach Half Marathon I did a little over a week of recovery runs, 30–45 minutes. The very first 65-minute long run of the training cycle, my hip adductors/flexors tightened up, just like during the race, except this time much earlier. Ever since, they have gotten tight on every run. Not as severe as the race, but uncomfortable. Strangely, doing strides at the end of a run where it has tightened up has felt fine.

Additionally, I did something to my knee squatting at the gym. It felt stiff part way through my work sets, and then hurt later that day. I took the next day off, walked the day after that, and then eased back into the running. After being unable to squat just 55 pounds without pain, I skipped a week of squats. The pain was entirely at the bottom of the squat. I’m back to barbell back squats now, but at a much lower weight. Things seem to be okay so long as I keep my butt back and focus on sitting into the bottom of the squat.

Generally, I’m not feeling confident lifting or running right now.

Phase Two

So where does that leave me for phase two? I plan to plow ahead so long as nothing hurts. I have an unfounded hope that some speed work might help my hip, but that may just be me being stubborn. On my 30 minute easy run today, I gave myself permission to walk if needed, but never felt like the tightness got to a point of needing to do that.

Assuming these things will work themselves out with time, my plan is to introduce Repetition (R) paced workouts this phase. This training cycle will be R heavy, but this phase has only Easy (E) and R with some strides (ST) on recovery days.

This phase will last three weeks.

1. Week 1
   1. Wednesday: 10 min E + 9 x 200m R with 200m recoveries + 10 min E
   2. Thursday: 30 min E + 9 ST
   3. Friday: 30 min E + 9 ST
   4. Saturday: 70 min E
   5. Sunday: OFF
   6. Monday: 10 min E + 2 x (200m R with 200m recovery + 200m R with 400m recovery + 400m R with 200m recovery) + 10 min E
   7. Tuesday: 30 min E + 7 ST
2. Week 2
   1. Wednesday: 10 min E + 3 x 200m R with 200m recoveries + 2 x 400m R with 400m recoveries + 2 x 200m R with 200m recoveries + 10 min E
   2. Thursday: 30 min E + 9 ST
   3. Friday: 30 min E + 9 ST
   4. Saturday: 65 min E
   5. Sunday: OFF
   6. Monday: 10 min E + 5 x 300m R with 300m recoveries + 400m R with 400m recovery + 10 min E
   7. Tuesday: 30 min E + 7 ST
3. Week 3 (down week)
   1. Wednesday: 10 min E + 3 x 400m R with 400m recoveries + 10 min E
   2. Thursday: 20 min E + 9 ST
   3. Friday: 20 min E + 9 ST
   4. Saturday: 50 min E
   5. Sunday: OFF
   6. Monday: 10 min E + 7 x 200m R with 200m recoveries + 10 min E
   7. Tuesday: 20 min E + 7 ST