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Hi all,

I’m well into my first sustained base building period in about a year following some interrupted training from injury and the arrival of Kid #2. As I continue to build volume, I was wondering how best to start incorporating speed work once a week into my base weeks. For some background, I’ve always been able to handle the uphill sprints prescribed in TFUA without any issues, and regularly incorporate sets of 20-ish second strides into my easy runs. My problem comes when I transition to more traditional intervals for Z4 or Z3 work, I almost invariably injure myself. I think this is partly due to my own lack of strength, and the fact that mostly these intervals were done in flat segments near my house in Philadelphia so they’re quite hard on my body.

A good, sustained strength program that started with PT and that I’ve transitioned into a max strength program is helping my legs feel more resilient than ever, but I’m still a little nervous about starting anything more intense.

I have the luxury of a long ramp-up to my B race (Marathon, 8000+ vert) and A Race (100K, 9000+ vert) in May and July respectively so no need to rush it. In general I’m not planning on doing any of these more than once a week during a standard 8-ish hour base week, and only once I’ve done a good block of hill sprints to get the power in my legs back. Here are a couple of approaches I’m thinking about:

1) Take this winter season and 2024 to rebuild my base after a much-interrupted 2023. So don’t sweat it! Continue to build my base and strength, do the hill sprints and my ME work, let the rest take care of itself.

2) After an appropriate amount of max-strength and hill sprint work, concentrate on a small number of Z4 efforts that are relatively short, and maximize rest in between. So 1 min or so, 2-3 min rest, make sure my HR recovers fully during each rest period, and slowly ramp up the number of reps per session so I know I can handle it.

3) Do a more standard number of reps of Z4 work, ie 4-6 to start with, with a more standard 1:1 work to rest ratio, but do them on an inclined treadmill to save the pounding. I.E. try to maximize the metabolic adaptations while keeping the impact on my legs pretty low. Again, move as slowly as needed during the rest periods to ensure HR recovery.

4) Same approach as option 3, but do more Z3 work on an uphill treadmill, again to save the pounding and the recovery cost while maximizing metabolic adaptations.

Curious what everyone thinks. Thanks!

Nick