One of the lessons I took away from 2025 was to prioritize consistency over intensity; to train each day with the goal of being able to train again the next day.
I have a history of being injured frequently. Over the last few years I’ve spent about half the time nursing some kind of injury: sprained ankles, posterior tibialis tendon issues, shin splints, achy achilles, IT band struggles, and more.
For one glorious 9 week stretch last year, between August 11 and October 12, I ran 40 or more miles without injury. That training block lead to the best fitness of my life and produced a 3rd place finish at the Sky to Summit 25k on October 26, 2025. Prior to that 9 week stretch, I hadn’t run 40 miles in a week since Georgia Jewel back in September 2024. It wasn’t for lack of trying or drive, I simply wasn’t healthy enough to run that kind of volume.
Starting Over
So what changed? How did I manage to log 40+ miles per week for 9 weeks? What was different about that stretch?
The answer to that question is a bit embarrassing. I followed the advice given to beginning runners: increase your total volume very slowly, be particularly cautious about increasing the length of your long run, be super careful about adding in any sort of intensity, and just generally slow down. Sometimes the traditional advice is actually good advice.
I did exactly that. I had gotten injured running with the High School track team I coached back in the Spring of 2025. Coming back from that injury I acted like I was a brand new runner: 2 mile runs at 12 minute pace, bumping up to 2.5 miles the next week, then 3 miles, then 3.5 miles, and so forth. I rebuilt volume painfully slowly and refused to run fast. It took a couple of months but 12 mile weeks in April grew into 20 miles weeks in May, 25 mile weeks in June, 35 mile weeks in August, and finally 45 mile weeks in August.
By the time August rolled around I had also reintroduced a little intensity: strides 2-3 times per week, one interval session per week, and some quality built into my long run.
To be honest, I was pretty shocked to find my body standing up to running 6-7 days per week and running 45+ miles per week. Those are numbers I couldn’t have imagined a year prior. Being careful and conservative with volume and intensity did the trick.
Back to My Old Patterns
However, it’s hard to teach an old dog (me) new tricks, and what followed after my successful run at Sky to Summit was a return to my old bad habits. I returned to training too fast and actually ramped up the intensity considerably. What followed was predictable: I aggravated the posterior tibialis tendon in my left leg and spent the next ~10 weeks recovering.
Re-Starting Over
Now I’m back into the swing of rebuilding volume and I’m applying the lessons I learned last summer: slow down, increase volume slowly. I’m back up to about 30 miles per week running 6-7 days per week and my body keeps feeling better. Here’s hoping these hard-learned lessons will stick around this time.