Since my marathon training (and the marathon itself) was derailed by knee pain, I’m approaching my next training cycle a little differently. Running isn’t fun when it hurts, or if I’m worried about the possibility of pain.

My primary focus for the next training cycle is strength and mobility. I’ve put together a little workout combining some yoga warmup, bodyweight strength exercises, and Jay Johnson’s SAM progression. The SAM progression has “hard” and “easy” days, and so my workout does also. I’ll do hard days Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and easy days Tuesday and Thursday.

I plan on following Jack Daniel’s “White Starting Plan” for the running portion, but prioritizing the pre-run dynamic warmup (Jay Johnson’s leg swings and lunge matrix) and strides. The strides allow me to get in good neuromuscular and running-form work with a minimum of stress on the body. The “White Starting Plan” is a huge step back on volume and intensity, but I need to give my muscles time to heal and give myself the energy to focus on these other foundational pieces. I’ll do 3 days of running per week (run/walking for all but the last 4 weeks of the plan) and 20-minute walks on the other days.

The worse part about my plan is missing my Saturday morning runs with friends. If it doesn’t hurt, I hope to run with them for around 30 minutes, in addition to the White Plan runs during the week. I’ll excuse it as a weekly check-in on how my body is doing, but in reality I just hate to miss time with these wonderful people.