Training log - Week ending 7/26/2020

This week was 46 miles of running, 15 "miles" of pool-running, and 1800 yards of swimming -- training log is here. 

Just more rehab work.  The first part of the week was gently building the mileage; the latter part was starting to gently phase in some faster running.   I started with "gentle" hill repeats on Friday, on a decently steep hill near my house (thunderstorms were forecast, so I wanted to stay close to home).  I didn't really pick up the pace much, I just tried to use the hill to force me into pushing off with my glutes and using both legs evenly (when you are running up a steep hill, it becomes very obvious if you are running unevenly).  So...2 minutes trying to run perfectly, and then 3 minutes recovery.

Sunday, I went with a modified progression.  I've found that when coming back from injury I'm not always the best at judging effort levels, so I went with heart rate ranges instead - doing 3 miles with a heart rate in the 140s, 3 miles with a heart rate in the 150s, and 3 miles with a heart rate in the 160s.  This run was not continuous - any time it felt like my gait was getting uneven I stopped, stepped off the road, and did a few drills to try to reinforce correct patterns.  Right now, I'm less worried about aerobic fitness and more worried about strengthening the hamstring and reinforcing correct gait patterns.

It's really frustrating to be where I am right now, when my fitness was in a good place just a few weeks ago.  On the other hand, I'm making solid progress, so I just need to stay the course.  And hopefully come out of this better than I was before.

Dailies 

Monday: 5.5 "miles" of pool-running and live streaming yoga.  Foam rolling at night.

Tuesday: 8 miles easy (9:15), upper body weights/core, and streaming yoga.  Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday: 5.5 miles easy (9:31), streaming yoga, and 5.5 miles easy (9:07) plus drills and four gentle hill strides.  Foam rolling at night.

Thursday:  upper body weights/core, 5.5 "miles" of pool-running.  Streaming yoga and foam rolling at night.

Friday: 8 miles, including six very gentle hill repeats (around 8:30 pace) - 2 minutes up a 5% incline with 3 minute jogging recovery, followed by 1800 yards swimming and streaming yoga.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 8 miles aerobic (8:57), streaming yoga, and 4 "miles" pool-running; foam rolling in afternoon.

Sunday: 11 miles aerobic (was too hot to call easy).  Did a gentle progression over the run, with the first three miles averaging 9:18 pace, the next 3 averaging 8:34 pace, and the next 3 averaging 7:34 pace, and then a 2 mile jog.  Took several stops during the run to reset my gait any time it felt like it was getting awkward.  Followed with streaming yoga and leg strengthwork.

Training log - Week ending 7/19/2020

This week was 21 miles of running, 21 "miles" of pool-running, 5500 yards of swimming, and some easy walking on the treadmill -- training log is here. 

Returning from injury is always a challenge.  I've found the best way to do it is to mix cross-training and jogging, which results in a muddled training log that looks like I did a lot more than I actually did, since I do so many different things.

I started off with "medicine running" - basically running that was done to encourage and reinforce recovery rather than build fitness.   Short jogging intervals aren't going to do anything for me cardiovascularly. but once I'm past that initial inflammatory stage in an injury, they seem to help the process along - giving just enough movement and bloodflow and mobility to the tissue.

I think also that when one is injured, the body tends to shut down and protect itself - reintroducing running with short intervals convinces the body that it's safe to run again.

I played stuff by ear, but progressed quickly.  There was no way I could have run 9 miles on Monday, but by the end of the week it was a non-issue (except for the fact it was fairly warm).

Hopefully things will progress and I can start adding in some faster running by the end of the week.

Some surprising good news is that I may have actually "fixed" my hip in the process of pulling the hamstring.

I've had a lot of problems with that left leg feeling sticky and nervy and not as mobile as the other side. But...when I pulled the hamstring last Wednesday, I felt a "pop" at the sit bone. The pop was clearly not the hamstring or any other muscle tearing from the bone (we know this because I'd be in lot worse shape right now if it had been). The weird thing was, the mobility of that left hip improved almost immediately after the injury. And my regular nerve pain on that side faded away by the weekend. 

So...we're thinking (without any MRI or US to confirm) that I've had some old scar tissue in that left hip that has been gumming up the hamstrings and sciatic nerve on that side. And the "pop" I felt was the scar tissue tearing and freeing up that area. Fingers crossed that is the case.

Dailies 

Monday: a medicine run of 12x(30 seconds jog, 30 seconds walk).  Then 1900 yards of swimming and live streaming yoga.  30 minutes easy walking on treadmill and foam rolling at night.

Tuesday: a medicine run of 10x(60 seconds jog, 30 seconds walk) followed by upper body weights/core, 5 "miles" of pool-running, and live streaming yoga.  Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday: a medicine run of 8x(2 minutes jog, 30 seconds walk), followed by 5 "miles" pool-running and streaming yoga.  Foam rolling at night.

Thursday: 5 miles very easy structured as 10x0.5 mile with 30 second walk breaks, followed by 1800 yards swimming and streaming yoga.    Foam rolling at night.

Friday:  Upperbody weights, core, and 5.5 "miles" pool-running, followed by streaming yoga in morning.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 7 miles easy (9:24), 5.5 "miles" pool-running; streaming yoga and foam rolling in afternoon.

Sunday: 9 miles aerobic (was too hot to call easy) (9:21), streaming yoga, and 1800 yards swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Training log - Week ending 7/12/2020

This week was 20 miles of running, 1500 yards of swimming, 5 "miles" of pool-running, and some easy walking on the treadmill -- training log is here. 

Kinda a frustrating week.  The roots of it lie in last Sunday afternoon when I tweaked my left leg (a hamstring/adductor/glute/sicatic thing) while doing reverse planks with leg lifts.  I jogged over to the track on Tuesday to do a workout, but the leg felt not ready, so I just ran easy.

Wednesday morning, the leg felt better, so I warmed up and then ran a controlled workout.  Only to feel the left leg give out and start spasming at the end of the very last interval.  So I did the walk of shame home and applied compression and ice, and then started some gentle mobility.

I had a PT appointment scheduled on Thursday anyway, which was quite convenient.  It's a whole cluster of things on my left inner/upper thigh - spasms in the hamstrings and adductors, tenderness at the ischial tuberosity (sit bone), stiffness in my lower back (with a lot of stiffness in the lower thoracic area) and a tight left glute.  Plus occasional pain shooting down my left leg to the inside of the foot (probably because my sciatic nerve is irritated by the swelling at the sitbone.

So...I'm off running for a few days.  As with nearly all injuries, careful mindful movement is better than complete rest.  So I started with lying on my back and moving my left leg in a pain-free range of motion, plus a lot of nerve flossing, and some tennis ball work on all the muscle knots in my adductor/hamstring/glute.

I also got in to the chiropractor on Friday morning to get my spine mobilized and some Graston on the inner thigh.  Then, as I was able, I started adding in more work - lotsa glute bridges and very cautious eccentric hamstring work throughout the day.  

With excellent timing the local pool opened up on Saturday, and so I was able to swim on Saturday and then pool-run on Sunday, both of which did a great deal to loosen things up.  I also added in some very slow walking on the treadmill - keeping my steps short not to irritate stuff.  The whole point of all this was just to add in some careful motion to keep tissue mobile and blood flowing.

I'm supposed to start some careful jogging as soon as I feel comfortable doing so.  Through Sunday of this week, the leg still felt a bit grabby and spastic and unstable, for lack of a better term.  And also very weak when trying to climb stairs.  As of tonight (Sunday night), it's feeling better.  Sore and stiff, but that's fine.  I don't need to wait until it's pain free, just until it feels reasonably strong and stable, which is does now.  If it still feels this way tomorrow morning, I'll do a test jog/medicine run before swimming.

Dailies 

Monday: Live streaming yoga, upperbody weights/core, and back unloading work plus foam rolling.

Tuesday: 2 miles very easy (9:45) to track, then 10 miles very easy (9:30), followed by streaming yoga.  Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday: 8 miles including 3x1200. 3x400 in 4:43, 4:40, 4:36, 90, 88, 87; 2:40 recovery after the 1200s; 90 second recovery for the 400s.  Left leg grabbed at end, so no cooldown.

Thursday: Core in the morning; foam rolling and very gentle streaming yoga in afternoon. 

Friday:  Upperbody weights, core, and very gentle streaming yoga in morning.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 1500 yards of swimming and streaming yoga in the morning; 20 minute slow treadmill walk  and foam rolling in the afternoon.

Sunday: Streaming yoga, upper body strengthwork and core, and 5 "miles" pool-running. 30 minute slow treadmill walk and foam rolling in afternoon.

Training log - Week ending 7/5/2020

This week was 60.5 miles of running -- training log is here. 

Back to a kinda normal rhythm: hard aerobic + mile pace stuff on Tuesday; tempo intervals + mile pace stuff on Friday, and a shorter long run on Sunday.  My focus is speed/mechanics right now - hence the 200s on both Tuesday and Friday.  At the same time, some high end aerobic and shorter tempo work is necessary to support that speed.  Hence the combo workouts.

My asthma improved slightly but continued to be iffy all week, so I saw the asthma doctor (virtually) and got another script for prednisone (banned in competition, but legal outside of it).  Luckily, I don't need much pred to kick these asthma flares usually - the official prescription is for 3-5 days at 20-40 mg, but I've found that two days at 10 mg can do the trick.  So I took that on Friday and Saturday, and by Sunday morning I was puffing almost normally on my peak flow inhaler (just under 500 when 500-525 is ideal).  Sunday was a hot and humid day, but I felt so very much better than earlier in the week.

So hopefully that did the trick.

Dailies 

Monday: Live streaming yoga, upperbody weights/core, and back unloading work plus foam rolling.

Tuesday: 12 miles outside, including a track workout of 2x1200m, 3x800m, 4x200m.  Splits were 4:36, 4:36, 3:06, 3:04, 3:01 and then 41, 41, 40, 41.  Just under 3 minutes recovery after the 1200s, and ~2:40 recovery between the 800s.  Full recovery for the 200s.   Followed with leg strengthwork and live streaming yoga. Foam rolling at night.

Wednesday: 8 miles easy outside (9:26), live streaming yoga, 4 miles easy on the treadmill (8:56), and drills and 4 strides. Foam rolling at night. 

Thursday: Upper body weights/core and back unloading work/foam rolling in the morning; live streaming yoga in the afternoon. 

Friday: 12 miles outside, including a track workout of 2x3200m, 4x200m  Splits were 13:09 (6:35/6:34), 13:05 (6:37/6:28) and then 42, 41, 41, 41.  Five minute recovery between the 3200m repeats; full recovery for the 200s.  Followed with leg strengthwork and recovery yoga. Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 10 miles very easy (9:22), followed by drills and four hill strides.  Live streaming yoga,  back unloading work, and foam rolling in the afternoon.

Sunday: 14.5 miles, split as the first 12 progressive (first three miles averaged 9:22 pace, the next four averaged 7:49, and the last five averaged 7:08) and then ~2.5 miles cooldown. Followed with leg strengthwork and streaming yoga. Foam rolling in afternoon.