Training Update: Long run up to 70 minutes, 4 days per week schedule, started "tread striders"

I am now over a year out from my 2nd right knee surgery and 19 months out from cartilage surgery. After experiencing a setback about 7 weeks ago, I took a few extra days off from running and reduced or eliminated exercises other than walking, running, and strength training. I slowed my pace during runs and stopped doing the "tread hills" incline workout I had been working on for several months. This has worked well. I've bounced back nicely over the last 6 weeks.

For the past couple of weeks I've been running 4 days per week (vs. the every-other-day schedule I had been following). My pattern looks like this:

• Mon: strength training (w/ BFR)
• Tue: easy run (4 to 4.5 miles)
• Wed: off
• Thur: tread striders (4 to 4.5 miles w/ 12 x 30-second striders getting progressively faster. 1:30 jog intervals)
• Fri: strength training
• Sat: short easy run (2 to 3 miles)
• Sun: long run (6.5 to 7 miles)

The distances approximate what I'm doing now. Of course I'll gradually add distance as I adapt to this more frequent schedule. 

My previous pattern had me running a longer run every 4th day. Now that my long runs are over an hour, I figure once per week is sufficient. This has given me room to insert the tread striders workout once per week, so I can start to work on rebuilding my stride for faster running. I've done two tread striders workouts thus far. I was able to work my way to 8:34/mile pace (7.0 mph) on the first, and 8:20/mile pace (7.2 mph) on the second workout last Thursday. I've been able to hold form well on these workouts. I'll keep increasing the top speed during this workout a few tenths of a mile per hour as I move forward. Eventually I'll likely get to a speed where my stride starts to fall apart...and that is when I expect it to become a bit of a grind as I reestablish the neuromuscular control necessary to rebuild my stride and thus my speed.

My knee does not significantly swell after running, so I'm encouraged to keep running and gradually increase my load. My right knee did feel a little achy on my 6.88-mile (70-minute) long run today and I was not feeling as sharp as I did on the previous long run. I have to be careful here while I am adapting to a slightly higher frequency, a slightly higher load, and an increase in speed (at least on my Thursday workout). Hopefully I'll adapt to the new pattern rather than having it break me down over time. I don't expect things to always go smoothly and to linearly improve...I'll back off when necessary and hope my peaks are higher than my valleys.