Training log - week ending 2/23/14

This week was 40 miles of running, 3 “miles” of pool-running and 10,000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here.  

Still in limbo.  Doing easy running, taking care to make sure that I am never in pain during the run.  The mobility in my right ankle has improved a lot, and my right foot is feeling better.  Still some stiffness and pain post-run, but it’s improving, and the next-morning pain is much reduced.  Extra bonus points for my sinus infection finally clearing.

Of course, I was feeling really positive, until I visited my parents, sister, and horse on Saturday.  Visit itself was great (especially getting taken out to eat – thanks Mom and Dad!), but every trip to my parents’ place involves a total of 4 hours in the passenger seat of Brian’s car.  And sure enough, the next morning my hamstring wasn’t happy.  Stiff, and not firing correctly.  It’s not that the hamstring isn’t healed, but that it gets reaggravated by simple things – indicating an underlying problem that hasn’t been fixed.  So that’s my mission – to figure this out once and for all (and "this" includes both the hamstring and foot, which have to be linked to some extent).

In the meantime (which is really what my “training” is right now – “meantime”) I’ll stick to the easy running and hard swimming – I have confidence that that’s keeping me in decent shape.  It’s great to at least be running.  But I’m not where I want to be.

There’s a Walt Whitman quote that’s quoted in an TV ad that’s getting a lot of airplay – something about life being a play, and “you get to contribute a verse.”   Which is lovely, but right now my running pen ain’t working.

Dailies

Monday:   In the morning, injury rehab work and 3500 yards swimming, including 6x200y on 4:00, followed by 7x50y on 1:00, all at “cruising” effort (splits were 3:32.40, 3:31.61, 3:30.14, 3:29.29, 3:27.12, 3:26.77, and 48.19, 49.70, 49.52, 49.97, 50.27, 50.42, 52.49).   PT in the afternoon.

Tuesday:  In the morning, injury rehab work, 4.5 miles easy (8:33 pace), yoga, and 30 minutes of easy pool-running.  Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday:   Injury rehab work, 6.5 miles easy outside (8:11 pace) and a yoga class.  Foam rolling at night.

Thursday:   In the morning, injury rehab work, 5 miles easy (8:13 pace) and 3000 yards swimming, including an interesting workout – 3 sets of 3x100y on 2:00 at hard effort, with each set divided by a set of 3x100y on 2:20 at “as slow as you can go with good form” effort; followed by 6x50y on 70. 

(Splits were: 1:38.46, 1:39.56, 1:39.13;  1:37.52, 1:38.90, 1:39.60;  1:38.70, 1:39.93, 1:39.36; and then 49.53, 50.94, 49.49, 48.24, 49.22, 49.03).  Foam rolling at night.

Friday:  In the morning, injury rehab work, 8 miles running easy (8:11), followed by yoga.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday:   In the morning, injury rehab work, 7 miles easy (8:08 pace) and 1500 yards of swimming.  Foam-rolling  in the evening.

Sunday:   In the morning, injury rehab work, 9 miles outside easy (8:15), and 2000 yards of swimming.  Foam rolling and restorative yoga at night.

Training log - Week ending 2/16/14

This week was 31 miles of running, “3 miles” pool-running, “4 miles” on the arc-trainer and 4000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here.  

Another week in a holding pattern.   Basically, my right foot feels fine with rest, but gets aggravated again when I run.  And when it gets too off, then my left hamstring starts compensating, and gets a bit tight.  I’m not injured per se, because I’m keeping the running to a level where I’m not doing any long standing damage from my gait being off, but the potential is there. And I can’t really train like this.

I’m a bit limited in my cross-training also – too much pool-running makes the hamstring angry; too much arc-trainer aggravates the ankle.  There’s always swimming, of course.  Unless you have a sinus infection, like I do.   So, I just have to sit tight for a while, which is not what I’m good at.

The cause of all of this is my right ankle, which isn’t flexing the way it should, tipping the whole ankle apple cart.  So a lot of my work is focused on ankle mobility and strengthening work, in addition to all the hamstring work.  My daily injury rehab routine is a doozy right now – the list includes:

Ankle:

• various one legged balance exercises with my eyes opened or closed, and on the floor, a bosu, or a balance board.
• inversion/eversion exercises with a theraband
• eccentric calf dips.
• single leg squats
• spelling words with my feet

Hamstring:

• one legged bridges with my foot on a bench
• supine planks
• hamstring ball curls
• bridges with my shoulders on a ball, lifting one foot and then the other.

General:

• planks (usually done with feet on medicine ball and elbows on ground; sometimes with hands on bosu and feet on ball)
• side planks with a leg lift
• glute bridges, usually with a weight on my pelvis
• curling towels with my toes

It’s a lot, honestly, and hard to fit in.  But you do what you can do.

Dailies

Monday:   In the morning, injury rehab work, 30 minutes pool-running, and a yoga class.   Went to PT in the afternoon; foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  In the morning, injury rehab work, 5 miles easy (8:13 pace) and 2500 yards in the pool, including a workout of  10x100 on 2:00 (1:38.50, 1:38.52, 1:39.66, 1:39.83, 1:38.28, 1:37.69, 1:38.34, 1:38.08, 1:37.65, 1:37.66), followed by 8x50 on 70 (49.11, 48.89, 47.33, 47.63, 47.54, 48.28, 47.09, 46.97).  Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday:   Injury rehab work and 11 miles easy (8:25 pace).  Foam rolling at night.

Thursday:   In the morning, injury rehab work and 40 minutes (“4 miles”) on the arc-trainer.  Foam rolling at night.

Friday:  In the morning, injury rehab work and 8 miles east (8:30 pace).   1500 yards easy swimming and foam rolling in the afternoon.

Saturday:   In the morning, injury rehab work and 7 miles easy (8:20 pace).   Upper body weights work and foam-rolling in the afternoon.

Sunday:   Foot sore from eccentric dips, and sinuses really hurt, so stuck with yoga, injury rehab work, and a sports massage.

Training log - week ending 2/9/14

This week was 33 miles of running, 4 “miles” on the arc-trainer, 5 “miles” of pool-running and 8,000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here.  

Another week of taking care.  I’m not majorly injured, but that’s because I’m doing what I can to make sure I’m not.  My annoying right foot continues to have a small bit of plantar fasciitis pain.  Plus stiffness/achiness on each side of the heel that is consistent with the beginning of Achilles tendonitis at the insertion point (where the Achilles ties into the heel).  Plus achiness and tightness in the posterior tibialis.

So basically all over the right foot.  I got in to see my PT on Monday, and he confirmed that my stability in my right foot was all off and the ankle was locking up.  Basically the joint gets out of alignment and then it starts bending in a way slightly different from how it’s supposed to.  Not necessarily a huge problem if you’re just walking.  But much more of a problem when marathon training and taking large numbers of repeated steps.

Part of this can be traced back to the fact that I fell off the wagon a bit on my ankle strengthening exercises the past few months.  In my defense, I don’t have unlimited time (despite what one might conclude from this blog…) and so adding in a ton of hamstring/glute exercises meant that my battery of one legged balance/ankle band/eccentric dip/etc exercises got cut back.

So now, I’m adding them back in.  Marathon training is on hold, though not cancelled.  My best chance of making it to Boston is to forget completely about Boston for the moment, and focus on getting well.  Which involves plenty of rehab exercises, PT,  and cutting back on the running.  I’m not cutting the running out entirely – that wouldn’t do my ankle any favors (I need to keep some “load” on the tendons).  But I’ve cut my mileage in half, and am avoiding fast running and long runs.  While balancing on one foot as much as possible.  And also not using this as an excuse to slack off on hamstring exercises.

I’m supplementing some with cross-training, but I am a bit limited – too much pool-running will aggravate the hamstring; too much arc-trainer may aggravate the ankle.  Swimming’s great, but not all that running specific.  But it’s what I can do.

As it turned out, I also ended up getting sick this week.  Nothing major, just a 12 hour bug that knocked me out for part of Thursday.  In a sense, the timing was perfect – if you’re gonna take time off for injury, better to get the headcold over and done with at the same time.

Dailies

Monday:   In the morning, injury rehab work, 2.5 miles easy (8:36) to check out foot, followed by 40 minutes on the arc-trainer (count as “4 miles”),  and upper body weights.   

Tuesday:  In the morning, injury rehab work and 3500 yards in the pool, including a workout of 1000 yards continuous (17:48, split as 8:57/8:51) before doing 10x100 on 2:00 (1:41.50, 1:41.28, 1:41.55, 1:40.07, 1:40.04, 1:39.29, 1:39.71, 1:38.04, 1:36.91, 1:36.99).  Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday:   Injury rehab work, upper body strengthwork and  10 miles easy outside (8:33 pace).  Massage at night.

Thursday:   Sick.  In the morning, injury rehab work.  4 miles easy early afternoon when I was feeling better.  Foam rolling at night.

Friday:  In the morning, injury rehab work and 30 minutes easy pool-running for “3 miles”.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday:   In the morning, injury rehab work, 7 miles easy outside (8:35 pace), 20 minutes easy pool-running and 1500 yards of swimming.  Foam-rolling  in the afternoon.

Sunday:   In the morning, injury rehab work, 10 miles outside (8:27 pace).  In the afternoon, 3000 yards of swimming, including a set of 6x200 on 4:00 (my fourth rep was interrupted by about 7 kids who decided to hop into my lane and start playing, so ended up being 2x3x200 in 3:33.40, 3:32.42, 3:32.99, interrupt, 3:3x, 3:33.38, 3:29.57).  Foam rolling at night.

Training log - Week ending 2/2/14

This week was 45 miles of running, “27 miles” on the arc-trainer and 5000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here.  

Oh, the ups and downs of training.  Things were looking up – I skipped Tuesday’s intervals due to the super cold temps (swimming my intervals instead) but showed up for the Friday track tempo, and was rewarded with a nice 4 mile tempo that was substantially faster and easier than I had expected.  And….hamstring felt good.  Everything felt good.  Yay.

Went out for my Saturday run – 10 easy miles.  I was tired, but no real warning signs during the run.  But… about 20 minutes after finishing the run, my right heel started to hurt in the beginnings of that classic plantar fasciitis manner that I know so well. 

This…sucked.  For many reasons.  1) – PF just sucks in general, even when caught early.  2) I had a scheduled 16-18 miles on tap for Sunday, which wasn’t looking like a good idea.  3) But… the MAJOR suckage was that Sunday was forecast to be a spectacular 40-50 degrees – PERFECT. 

I’d basically slogged through ice and snow and super cold temperatures, and when the cold finally lifts?  I have to take a day off.

To add virtual insult to literal injury, the forecast for the upcoming week is snow and more snow.  Sunday was the window of sunshine in this long cold winter.  And I had to spend it crosstraining. 

It took every bit of discipline I had to a) skip Sunday’s long run (hey – the foot didn’t feel that bad) and b) drag myself to the gym for an arc-trainer-palooza when all I wanted to do was mope and surf the internet for kitten pictures while guzzling chocolate coconut water.  

I only managed to do it by reminding myself that how you respond to an injury in the first 48 hours is key to how it progresses.  Going to the long run would be nice, but my best chance to make it to Boston was to sit this one out (and to haul my ass to the gym).

So cross-train I did.   I think I’ve caught this early, so I’m hoping that a few days of cross training, some PT, and then lower mileage (with more cross training) will steer me through.  As for why this happened?  That’s easy, with two answers. 

1)      I’ve definitely been very aggressive in ramping back up, and jumping right into marathon training – I knew there was a risk of something like this happening, and just resolved to shut things down immediately if something twinged.  And it did and I did.

2)      For myself, PF issues are generally associated with heavier shoes with higher heel-toe drops and more cushioning (PF is an individual thing, so I know others have different experiences).  And…on Saturday I decided to rotate shoes from the Brooks Pure line (very light, 4mm drop, fairly stiff – my feet love them) to the Saucony Ride (higher heel-toe drop, more cushioning, heavier).  I did it because I thought it was a good idea to be rotating shoes, and the Ride is still fairly lightweight.   In retrospect, this was a bad decision.  Compounded by the fact that I ran around Arlington on Saturday, which is decently hilly.  And then I also picked up the pace on the last 2 miles of my run – nothing crazy, just to 7:45-7:50 ish – because I was running late.  None of these are screamingly stupid on their own, but combined they had an unfortunate result.

Oh well.  I can comfort myself with the fact that a) Boston is still a long way away, and b) I acted immediately here.  

And we'll try to forget about the fact that I was forced to skip yet another workout due to yet another ouchy body part on Groundhog Day...

Dailies

Monday:   In the morning, injury rehab work and “5 miles” on the arc-trainer.   Foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  In the morning, injury rehab work, 11 miles easy (8:18 pace), and then 2000 yards in the pool, including a workout of 6x100 on 2:00 (1:41.90, 1:41.45, 1:42.71, 1:41.70, 1:41.42, 1:40.82) and 6x50 on 70 ( 48.79, 47.74, 47.80, 46.65, 46.77, 46.60).  Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday:   Injury rehab work and 8 miles easy (8:30 pace), followed by yoga.  Later did another 5 miles easy (8:09 pace).  Foam rolling at night.

Thursday:   In the morning, injury rehab work, “5 miles” on the arc-trainer and 1000 yards of swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Friday:  In the morning, injury rehab work, 10.5 miles running, including a 6400m tempo on the track in 26:20 (split as 6:48/6:34/6:34/6:24), and 20 minutes on the arc-trainer.   Foam rolling in the afternoon.

Saturday:   In the morning, injury rehab work and 10 miles easy (8:05 pace).   Foam-rolling in the afternoon.

Sunday:   In the morning, injury rehab work, an arc-trainer “long run” split as 80 minutes at easy effort and then 40 minutes at marathon effort – call it “15 miles.” (yes, I was supposed to do 16-18 miles, but I didn't want to do more than 2 hours on the arc-trainer, lest I cross train into a brand new injury).   Later did 2000 yards of swimming.  Foam rolling at night.