Training log - Week ending 5/25/2014

This week was 52.5 miles of running and 5000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here. 

And once again, making progress (seems like I’ve written that so many times before).  My right ankle/foot, which flared last week, calmed down again.  I can’t say it’s totally pain free, but it’s not horrible.  Just a small burning sensation that I notice after runs (not during) that calms down a few hours after.  I can live with that, especially since it seems to hurting less and less.  

I've also been taping my ankle for stability (see here), and that seems to help a lot (taping for plantar fascitis, peroneal tendonitis, or achilles tendonitis just makes stuff worse).  It makes sense that taping my ankle as if it was sprained helps - one of my issues underlying all these injuries is that many of the ligaments in my right foot are stretched out - the formal clinical description was "chronic multiligamentous ankle injury involving the ATFL, CFL, and a deltoid ligament."  The loose ligaments allow the ankle to move laterally in ways it shouldn't, causing issues.  (Of course, my stupid back and groin don't help stuff either, but fixing the ankle eliminates one source of my issues).

So back to training, and to workouts.  One of the changes I’m making to my training is slowing my interval workouts down, and running them at an effort level that may be as easy as tempo effort, or perhaps a bit harder, but NOT normal interval effort.  I’m also skipping 200s when they’re scheduled, and running 400s very controlled (to avoid being “dragged out” by others, I’m even starting my 400s at the back of the pack, counting  2 seconds after the others start, and then starting).  

I discussed this with my coach, and we agreed to try this as part of a strategy to keep me healthy – looking back on it, every time I’ve focused on raw speed, I’ve ended up fried, injured, or both.   So better to be a bit cautious here, and see where that gets me.  

I’ve also continued to work on slowing down my easy runs.  Basically, anytime I’m not doing a workout, I set my heart rate monitor to yell at me when my heart rate exceeds 150 (for comparison, my tempo HR is generally in the mid 170s; races can be anywhere from the high 170s to the 190s, depending on the distance).  It’s been working nicely so far.

Dailies

Monday:   In the morning, a yoga class, some upper body strengthwork, and 4 miles easy (8:28 pace).  Foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  In the morning, 8.5 miles, including a very controlled interval workout of 400 easy, then 1600, 1200, 800, 2x400. Splits were 1:38. 6:42, 4:50, 3:05, 1:29, and 1:24 (oops on the last).  Followed with 1500 yards of swimming, and some injury prevention work.  Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday:  In the morning, 2.5 miles very easy (9:06 pace) and a yoga class.  Later did another 5.5 miles very easy (8:50 pace).  Foam rolling at night.

Thursday:   In the morning, 4 miles very easy (8:53) and a yoga class.  Later did another 2.5 miles easy (8:30 pace), followed by upper body strengthwork.  Foam rolling at night.

Friday:  8 miles, including a tempo workout of 3200, ~5 minute rest, 1600 – ran 12:55 (6:33/6:22) and 6:13 (ran both too fast, not a true tempo effort).  Followed with 1500 yards of swimming, and some injury prevention work.  Then got dry needled in my back at PT.

Saturday:   5 miles very easy (8:30) then 2250 yards of easy swimming.  Foam rolling in afternoon.

Sunday:   12 miles (8:08), followed by a yoga class.  Then drove out to visit my parents, sister, and horse on Maryland's eastern shore.

Training log - week ending 5/18/14

This week was 32 miles of running and 6000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here.  

I named them Fred and Ginger.

More ups and downs - isn't that how it always is?  Highs were a track workout on Tuesday, and possibly one of the best rock concerts I've ever been to (VNV Nation - I've seen them at least 7 times, and they've never had a bad show, but this was outstanding).

I also got a pair of orthotics from my podiatrist, and started phasing those in. 

For the first day, wore them 1-2 hours, then started working towards wearing all day, with the goal of starting to wear them for short runs next week.  They felt fantastic at first, however, they seemed less comfortable the more I wore them. 

And then I noted the outside of my right heel starting to hurt again towards the weekend.  I'm not sure whether it's associated with the orthotics, especially since I didn't wear the orthotics while running.  However, I do note that the foot hurts more when walking in the orthotics, and less when I'm barefoot.

After an easy 6 miles on Saturday, the foot was definitely sore.  Shit.  It felt much better the next morning, but I decided to sit out running anyway.  I may give it another day or two to be safe, and then start coming back carefully.  And contact my podiatrist tomorrow.

Dailies

Monday:   Yoga in the morning, foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  In the morning, 7 miles,  including a track workout of 2x400 moderate (1:33 and 1:38), 2x800 and 1x1600 (3:05, 3:02, 6:13), followed by 1000 yards of swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday:  In the morning, 4 miles easy (8:38 pace) and a yoga class; later did another 5 miles (8:28 pace). Foam rolling in afternoon;VNV show at night.

 

Final song of second encore of VNV show.
Of a list of about 14 songs I really wanted to hear,
they played 2.  Most of the set was tracks that annoy me.
And I STILL consider it one of the best shows I've seen. 
Amazing.

Thursday:   Slept in and then did a very sluggish 1000 yards of swimming just to shake out stiff muscles from last night. 

Friday:  10 miles easy (8:46) plus a yoga class; foam rolling in the afternoon.   

Saturday:   6 miles easy (8:12 - too fast) and later 2000 yards of swimming

Sunday:   2000 yards of swimming, followed by a yoga class.  Sports massage at night.

Training log - week ending 5/11/2014

This week was 56.5 miles of running and 2,500 yards of swimming  -- training log is here.  

Not too much to report here.  Just running easy, and waiting for the PRP to kick in.  I am happy to note that I did succeed in slowing down my easy runs.  Substantially.    Look at all those 8:5x runs!  I’m pretty tootin proud of this (we’ll just ignore the fact that the increased humidity plus the fatigue of a work trip contributed).  

Dailies

Monday:   In the morning, 4 miles easy (8:28) and 2500 yards of swimming, including a workout of 4x100 on 2:00 followed by 10x50 on 70 (Splits were: 1:39.7, 1:41.6, 1:42.5, 1:43.7; and 50.5, 50.1, 49.0, 48.2, 48.4, 49.3, 50.1, 48.6, 48.6, 49.5), followed by some foam rolling.  Dragged luggage around airport midday.

Tuesday:  In the morning, 11 miles easy (8:50 pace), followed by some foam rolling.

I googled "turning 40"
and got this image.
Perhaps it's for my joints?

Wednesday:  In the morning, 8 miles easy (8:48 pace) and a yoga class (did 4.5 miles before yoga, and 3.5 after), followed by foam rolling.

Thursday:   In the morning, 10 miles easy (8:39) followed by foam rolling.  Dragged luggage around airport in evening.

Friday:  3 miles easy (8:17) plus a yoga class; foam rolling in the afternoon.  Also turned 40 (seems like I should note that somewhere). 

Saturday:   6.5 miles easy (8:53) then a yoga class, then another 1.5 miles back home (8:41).  Foam rolling in afternoon.

Sunday:   12.5 miles (8:09), followed by a yoga class.  Foam rolling at night.

Training log - Week ending 5/4/2014

This week was 37.5 miles of running and 3,000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here. 

The aponeurois is where the two muscles
meet, right at the pelvis.

PRP week.  Or as I like to call it – Jabapalooza 2014.  The goal behind this round was to address my right groin issues.  The formal term of the issue is "mild chronic tear of aponeurosis of adductor and rectus abdominus."  I usually refer to it as "deep stabby pain for a few days if I run downhill too fast."

It's been an annoyance for longer than I've been running (it hurts during other things, not just running downhill fast).  And additionally, I do wonder sometimes if my issues with that right adductor have been contributing to my injury cycle, and even provoking my back.  

GIven how well the PRP worked on my hammie, I decided it was worth splurging on a round of PRP to see if I could improve the groin (it's nowhere near bad enough to justify surgery).  Since I was getting PRP anyway, I also got my back done at the recommendation of PT and orthopedist  – specifically the areas around the L4/L5/S1 vertebrae.

So, showed up for the session, and Dr. Wagner suggested that I just get everything done while I was there – everything meaning that we’d also do the left hammy and right ankle/foot again.  He usually doesn’t like to do more than two sites on a patient at a session, because of patient “tolerance” for the procedure.  But apparently I’m pretty “tolerant” (I can hear everyone laughing…), we had plenty of platelets, and it wouldn’t cost me anything more to get the old places “touched up” while I was there.  So…what the heck.

(I can’t say I was thrilled about getting the ankle done again, but I couldn’t come up with a good reason not to do it, other than “it hurts.”  Which I felt silly saying, and wasn’t a good excuse.  So, away we went.)

Since I am now somewhat of a PRP connoisseur, I can state definitively – not all places hurt the same.  The groin was the big surprise – I thought that one would suck.  Nope.   Felt like three pin pricks.  Dr. Wagner said that the groin almost never hurt for anyone, as surprising as that was.  Hamstring, back, and plantar (we did the site where I’ve been having some plantar flares) were a bit ouchy, but not too bad.  The ankle sucked, but at least it sucked less than last time.  I’m guessing that's because we only did 3 shots there, not 8-9ish like last time.

The best part, in a weird way, was that the injections to the spaces between L4 and L5 provoked many of the symptoms I’ve been experiencing in my left leg – the “funky"/weak feeling in my left hammy, some dull aching down the leg, and cramping in my left foot.  It was confirmation that my issues do stem at least in part from that area, clean MRI notwithstanding.   (and yes, I know that back MRIs are unreliable and trumped by a clinical exam, but it was still nice to have the additional evidence here.)

And then I rested.  Saturday morning would have been 48 hours, but I decided it wouldn’t hurt to take another day off (and use the time to run errands), so I kept it to a bit less than 20 minutes of easy swimming.  I ran on Sunday, and things were predictably sore.  But I know that’s how it works.  In two weeks or so, we’ll see where I am.

In the meantime, I’ve got a trip to Chicago this coming week for work.  So, a nice opportunity to run around the lake, and practice running SLOWER while I’m there.  I’m trying to slow down my easy runs, but haven’t been terribly successful so far - I get too focused on correct posture, and start running faster inadvertently.  I’m thinking I’ll turn the Garmin’s HR alert feature back on in order to slow me down – the Garmin signal/pace indicator isn’t accurate enough to rely on.

Dailies

Monday:   In the morning, 5 miles easy (8:15) and a yoga class.  Foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  In the morning, 10 miles easy (8:23 pace).  Took a yoga class in the afternoon and did some foam rolling.

Wednesday:  In the morning, 4 miles easy (8:30 pace) and then a yoga class.  Later did another 3 miles (8:27 pace), followed by 2000 yards of swimming.  Massage at night.

Thursday:   In the morning, 7 miles easy (8:34) miles easy, and then got PRP done.

Friday:  Off.

Saturday:   1000 yards of swimming in the afternoon.

Sunday:   In the morning, 4 miles easy (8:12), followed by a yoga class.  Later ran another 4 miles (8:21).  Foam rolling at night.