on a plateau...

fungirl1

I took up running last year c June and by October was running up to about 12km with a 10km time of an hour. I tapered off in the winter and am finding it really hard to get my mojo back..I did the 10km in the Pheonix Park about 2 weeks ago in 1:06 - but I am struggling to get my speed back up and it just all seems v hard...any suggestions to help?

littlebug

Hi fungirl,
When you say tapered off do you mean stopped altogether or reduced your training? When did you start up again? What does your training look like now compared to last year?
Sorry for all the questions I know that my speed suffered over the winter simply by doing nearly all my running on the treadmill rather than outside over a couple of months. Though I was (in theory) doing the same mileage I felt like I was nearly starting from scratch again once I was back on the roads.

fungirl1

I stopped alomst completely for about 6 - 8 weeks with only maybe 4 - 6 runs in that time all 5km and less and almost all on the treadmill at the gym. Am back running outdoors since mid March (ish). Found the 10km in the park v hard ..it was my 3rd 10km for 2010 - the first being about 5 weeks previous> I did do 10km on the treadmill at the gym this evening in 1:03 whihc is an improvement but am struggling with how hard it is and also trying to figure out how to go faster...would hill triining / sprinint help? Thanks ;)

misty floyd

You've just lost fitness from taking 8 weeks off. Thats not tapering by the way Just keep plugging away and the fitness will come back. Consistancy.