Training log - week ending 1/13/13

This week was 50 miles of “real running” and 8 “miles” pool running, plus 1700 yards of swimming breathing drills -- training log is here.

 

Adventures and misadventures this week.  The good news first.  I've been dealing with some recurring hip issues on my right side.  Nothing brand new or earth shattering - it's just that I tend to get a lot of psoas tightness on that side, combined with some hamstring tightness.  Both of these tend to flare when I'm coming back to running after time off, and also seem to be triggered by fast running downhill.  Plus occasional bits of stabbing pain in my pelvic area on that side, where the various muscles of the upper leg tie into the pelvis.  And (possibly) related to this, I've always noted that my right hip "snaps" or "pops" when I lift my leg forward in a certain way.

 

As I noted, none of these are new, but I noted them again as I started this training cycle, and I decided it was worth a pilgrimage to my preferred orthopaedist to check it out.  It's a journey - Dr. Pereles is in Kensington, which is about 30-40 minutes from me (I'm used to having all my doctors within a mile of me - spoiled), but Dr. Pereles is worth it.  I wanted to make sure that I wasn't teetering on the edge of a significant injury - i.e. a pelvic stress fracture or labral tear - and I trusted Dr. Pereles' evaluation.

 

He took x-rays and did an eval (of course, it wasn't hurting at all when I was in his office, so I had to simply describe the situations in which it would hurt), and issued his diagnosis - a very mild case of osteitis symphysis pubis.  I'm totally fine to run and train and do 20 milers, especially when I'm not feeling it at all.  If it flares, back off on the running and take some NSAIDs.  But good to go.  

 

So yay.

 

And then, of course, I got sick and missed my long run anyway.  In a way, I was a bit relieved to discover I was sick.  On Friday, despite great weather, I had a tempo workout that was a slog and much slower than I expected.  I run my workouts off of perceived effort, rather than goal paces, and I was glad I did, because I most certainly would have crashed and burned had I chased my normal splits.

 

At the time, I attributed to having had blood drawn for my annual physical the day before, which always leaved me feeling a bit off.  But I also feared (wouldn't we all), that I was in bad shape.  

 

Friday night I started feeling lousy.  Saturday morning, after some debate, I went out for an easy run, doing 8 instead of my scheduled 10-12.  Felt OK if sluggish during the run, but then even worse as the day went on.   My throat got sore on Saturday night, and  I declared myself sick and skipped my long run in favor of the couch.  Sucked to miss the long run, but a bit of a relief to know what was behind that lousy tempo. 

 

Most annoying aspect, besides the missed long run itself, was the fact that my resting heart rate remained low.  I monitor my resting HR regularly, to get advance warning of when I'm getting overtrained or sick, so I can cut back before I dig myself into a hole.  But it failed to warn me this time.  Apparently (based on discussion with others), resting HR doesn't always rise when you're getting sick, especially if you don't have a fever.

 

I feel so betrayed.

Dailies

Monday:   In the morning, 50 minutes of easy pool-running for “5 miles” followed by injury prevention and upper body strengthwork.  Foam rolling in the afternoon.

Tuesday:  In the morning, 13.5 miles, including a workout of 7 hill repeats – nonstop circuit of up a hill for about 2 minutes, a 90 second easy jog, a stride, and then some more easy jogging to the bottom (whole circuit takes ~5 minutes). Followed with injury prevention work and 15 minutes of shake out pool-running.  Floor barre and foam rolling at night.   

Wednesday:   In the morning, 8 miles very easy, (9:55 pace) followed by yoga.  Later, 8 miles easy (7:51 pace).  Also foam rolling

   

Thursday:   In the morning, upper body strengthwork and injury prevention work plus 1700 yards of swimming breathing drills.  Foam rolling at night. 

Friday:  In the morning, 12.5 miles, including a workout of 5K at tempo effort (20:20, split as 6:35/6:31/6:29/0:45), 5 minutes break, 1600m "hard" (5:59).  Followed with injury prevention work and 15 minutes of shake out pool-running.

Saturday:   In the morning, 8 miles easy (8:18 pace).  Foam rolling in the afternoon.

Sunday:   Off.  Just foam-rolling.