Monday, September 1, 2014

Training log - Week ending 8/30/14

This week was 70 miles of running and 5000 yards of swimming  -- training log is here.

Upped the mileage back to 70 this week, in conjunction with a bout of really nice weather.   Our track workouts were held in blissfully low dew points this week - a nice break from the humidity of the past few weeks.  While this summer has been relatively cool in DC, it's been miserable from a breathing context - very thick and humid air, with the pollen making an early appearance.  It was nice to have a few day's respite.

Of course, the humidity was back in full force for Sunday's long run.  Temps were only in the high 70s, but the dew point was in the mid-70s - ick.  Usually my team splits our long runs into thirds, with the last third being at marathon pace.  But...given the dew point and the fact that it was still early in the training cycle, I decided to play it safe and just focus on getting the miles in, rather than run myself into the ground.  Amusingly enough, it looks like we ended up running the last third at 7:30 pace, which is honestly about what my pace would be (if not slower), if the dew point was in the mid 70s on marathon day.

(of course, I doubt I would start my race if that was the weather - you only get so many chances to run a marathon, and I wouldn't want to waste one on those type of conditions).

The humidity is back in force this week, which coincides nicely with another cutback - I'm getting prolotherapy done in my ankle and groin on Tuesday afternoon.  Prolotherapy is essentially the poorer cousin to PRP - instead of injecting my own blood, they'll inject (of all things) sugar water.  Basically, it's to give another "push" to the healing "cascade" that was started previously via PRP to those locations.  A booster shot, if you will.

On the one hand, I'm a little bit skeptical of sugar water.  On the other hand, I was also a bit skeptical of PRP previously.  And by this point, I have a lot of confidence in Dr. Wagner and his recommendations.   So we'll take another stab (hardeharhar) at the ankle ligaments (which are better but still not quite tight enough) and the groin, plus the neuroma in my right foot while we're at it.  Jabapalooza encore.

The prolotherapy has a much shorter recovery time than the PRP, and I also don't have to be sedentary for 48 hours post injections.  It is recommended that I cross train the day after the shots, so I'll plan on that.  But hopefully, I'll get the shots Tuesday, swim/yoga on Wednesday, and then be up for an easy run on Thursday and maybe even tempo on Friday.  We'll see.

Dailies

Monday:   Yoga and upper body strengthwork in the morning, foam rolling at night.

Tuesday:  In the morning, 11 miles, including a workout of 2 sets of 1600/800 (ran 6:16, 2:55, 6:05, 2:49).  Followed with injury prevention work, and 1500 yards easy swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday:  In the morning, 5.5 miles very easy (8:34 pace), followed by a yoga class.  Later another 8 miles easy (8:14) and 800 yards easy swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Thursday:   In the morning, 4 miles very easy (8:43) to yoga, and then another 2.5 back home (8:17). Also a PT appointment, where I got my glute meds dry needled.

Friday:  11 miles, including an 8K tempo on the track in 32:48 (6:42/6:38/6:34/6:34/6:19)  Followed with injury prevention work and 1700 yards easy swimming.   Foam rolling in the afternoon.

Saturday:   10 miles easy (8:26); followed by some upper body and injury prevention work.  Foam rolling in afternoon.

Sunday: 18 mile long run.  We ended up doing it as a slight progression - split as first 3 at 8:42; next 8.5 at 8:04; last 6.5 at 7:30 (average of 7:58 for 18 miles).    Followed with injury prevention work and 1000 yards easy swimming.  Yin yoga and foam rolling in the afternoon.

3 comments:

  1. Prolotherapy makes sense (to me) as it alters the osmolality in the space, but I can't think of anyone in my area who would even consider it. One doctor I mentioned it to said it was "voodoo".

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  2. Hey, I would love to hear more about your prolotherapy experience -- how does it seem to be working out a few weeks later? I had someone mention it to me for the first time for an ongoing heel issue, and I kind of think it sounds crazy and like they were just trying to tell me SOMETHING that would work, but ... I don't know how to evaluate this!

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    Replies
    1. I'm 3 weeks in, and so far so good - everything seems much improved. Neuroma is much better; ankle is sturdier.

      I'll never know for certain how much it helped, but I'm definitely glad I did it, and would do the same again.

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