Training log - Week ending 10/25/2020

This week was 65 miles of running, 1000 yards of swimming and 21 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here. 

This was a rebuilding week after taking last week down due to PRP shots.  I was pretty happy with most of it; the only exception being Friday's crash-and-burn, which was mostly due to me starting the workout too aggressively, rather than easing into it.

The ankle doesn't feel any better than it did before PRP, but that's normal.  PRP generally takes around 2.5 weeks to kick in.  In the meantime, wearing ankle sleeves for stability seems to help a lot.

Dailies 

Monday: 5 "miles" of pool-running and upper body weights/core. Foam rolling at night.

Tuesday: 12 miles, including a track workout of 1600, 4x800, 2x200.  Splits were 6:34, 3:10, 3:08, 3:08, 3:04, 41, and 41.  5:17 recovery after the 1600; ~2:50 recovery after the 800s; full recovery for the 200s.  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.   Foam rolling at night.

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Wednesday: 12 miles very easy (9:23) with drills and 6 hill strides, followed with streaming yoga. 3 "miles" pool-running mid-day.  Foam rolling at night.

Thursday:  5 "miles" of pool-running and upper body weights/core in the morning; foam rolling at night.

Friday: 12 miles, including an attempted tempo workout of 2x2 miles at 10 mile race effort with 3 minutes recovery that became 2 miles, 1 mile in 6:36/6:40 and 6:46.  Took full recovery and then added in 6x90 seconds at tempo effort with 30 seconds recovery plus 10x30 seconds hard with 60 seconds recovery.  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming. Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 12 miles very easy (9:07), plus 6 steep hill sprints and drills and streaming yoga.  3 "miles" pool-running and foam rolling in afternoon.

Sunday:  16 miles, structured as the first 5 miles averaging 9:35 pace, the next 5 averaging 7:56, the next 5 averaging 6:59, and then a mile cooldown.  Followed with leg strengthwork and streaming yoga.  Doubled back with 5 "miles" pool-running and foam rolling in afternoon.

Training log - week ending 10/18/2020

This week was 24 miles of running and 18 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here. 

I got PRP injections in my right ankle on Tuesday afternoon, and so spent the next two days trying not to move very much so the platelets could settle in the right place.  Then I carefully started resuming activity.

It is amazing how sluggish even a few days of couch potato can make one feel.

My right ankle is screwed up in multiple ways, with a torn posterior tibial tendon AND torn ligaments.  The doctor agreed with me that the torn posterior tibial tendon (which is now really two parallel tendons) was healed and working just fine as is, so no need to mess with it.  So we just injected the ligaments.  

I was expecting it to be really really painful, per my past experiences.  But, it ended up just being pretty painful.  My doctor said that there's always a careful balance in how much numbing he injects.  He can't inject too much because it dilutes the PRP.  But if he doesn't use enough, the procedure is too painful to be tolerated.  He's using slightly more numbing than he did 7 years ago, which meant the procedure was much easier than I expected.

Which was a good thing, because they had no squeeze balls.  In the past, when I got PRP, they handed me a squeeze ball. So I showed up this time and asked for my squeeze ball.  And...no more squeeze balls, due to Covid 19 concerns (since the squeeze balls would be shared between patients, and are hard to disinfect).  Bummer.  I just bunched up a corner of my sweatshirt in my hand and that worked decently well.

The PRP will take about 2.5 weeks to kick in (and that was my experience in previous sessions).  My ankle is already slightly more stable, but that's just due to some residual swelling in the joint effectively stabilizing stuff.  

I was a bit disappointed to learn that my doctor thought I needed two sessions.  But...if that's what it takes.  My next session is scheduled for exactly 4 weeks after the first set.  Then hopefully I'll be done.

Dailies 

Monday: 7 "miles" of pool-running and upper body weights/core. Foam rolling at night.

Tuesday: 8 miles, including six 90 second hill repeats up a 5% incline with 3 minute recovery.  Followed with leg strengthwork, streaming yoga, PRP injections into my ankle, and crutches.

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Wednesday: Couch potato.

Thursday:  Couch potato.

Friday: Upper body weights/core, 2 "miles" of pool-running, and gentle streaming yoga. Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 4 miles easy (8:57) plus streaming yoga and 5 "miles" pool-running.  Foam rolling in afternoon.

Sunday:  12 miles, structured as the first 8 miles averaging 8:40 pace, the next 2 averaging 7:38 pace and the next 2 averaging 6:56.  Followed with leg strengthwork and streaming yoga.  Doubled back with 4 "miles" pool-running and foam rolling in afternoon.

Training log - Week ending 10/11/2020

 This week was 64 miles of running, 1000 yards of swimming and 18 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here. 

This was the last week of a training "mini-cycle."  I'm getting PRP injections in my right ankle this Tuesday, which will require a day or two off completely and then a rebuild over a week or so.  Essentially a forced down week.  

Once I confirmed the injection date, it made sense to do a short cycle of slightly higher mileage combined with three careful workouts a week - track Tuesday, tempo intervals Friday, and 15 progressive on Sunday.  I did that for four weeks in a row, with some nice progress each week.  Now...I'll get my foot fixed and take a bit of downtime to consolidate the fitness gains before starting to map out some winter/spring racing plans.

(the irony of this fall is that I've been registered for several races that have gone off - I just haven't been able to run them because of injury issues).

I'm pretty happy with the progress over the past month - I'm still not where I was this spring, fitness-wise, but I've gone from WOW I AM REALLY OUT OF SHAPE to normal-beginning-of-training-cycle out of shape.  

In separate but related news, I bought some ankle supports (think compression socks, but shorter and tighter) and started wearing them over the weekend.  They seem to help a fair bit - my gait feels more stable and I'm running faster for the same effort.  Which makes sense, when you consider that running with bad loose ankles is kinda like running in shoes that are too big/too loose - not all the power you generate gets translated to forward motion.  

For years I've taped my ankles before races or any time I've worn super cushioned shoes.  However, even after I get my ankle fixed, I think I'm going to need a bit more support, and need it for workouts as well as races.  The supports work a bit better than taping, and they also don't irritate my skin the way that taping does.  So they may end up being my thing from now on.

Dailies 

Monday: 7 "miles" of pool-running and upper body weights/core. Foam rolling at night.

Tuesday: 12 miles, including a track workout of 2x1600, 2x800, 2x400.  Splits were 6:34, 6:24, 3:07, 3:05, 90, and 89.  Recoveries were around the same duration as the intervals except for 3:30 after the second 800.  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.   Foam rolling at night.

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Wednesday: 12 miles very easy (9:30) with drills and 6 hill sprints, followed with streaming yoga. Foam rolling at night.

Thursday:  6.5 "miles" of pool-running and upper body weights/core in the morning; foam rolling at night.

Friday: 12 miles, including a tempo workout of 2x2 miles at 10 mile race effort with 5 minutes recovery between. Splits were 13:18 (6:38/6:40) and 13:17 (6:38/6:39).  Followed with full recovery and then 6x30 seconds hard, 60 seconds off.  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming. Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 12 miles very easy (9:09), plus 6 steep hill sprints and drills, and streaming yoga.  Foam rolling in afternoon.

Sunday:  16 miles, structured as the first 5 miles averaging 9:14 pace, the next 5 averaging 7:49, the next 5 averaging 6:58, and then a mile cooldown.  Followed with leg strengthwork and streaming yoga.  Doubled back with 4.5 "miles" pool-running and foam rolling in afternoon.

Training log - Week ending 10/4/2020

This week was 64 miles of running, 1000 yards of swimming and 18 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here. 

I went in to get my right ankle ultrasounded on Thursday.  The good news is that my posterior tibial tendons (note the plural) seem to be in pretty good shape.  They have good blood flow...I just have two where I should have one.  The tendon tore down the middle, healed as two parallel tendons, and that's what I have now.

On the other hand, she could not find my right anterior talo-fibular ligament at all.  She could find the ATF ligament for my left ankle, but not the right.  I'm not sure what to make of that - I'm assuming that even if the ligament was torn completely she'd still be able to see the remnants, so...  I guess I'll wait to hear from the doctor as to what to do next.

Outside of that, things went well.  My fitness is coming back, which in my case seems to be less about aerobic fitness and more about being able to fire all the muscles in the right order - my loss of fitness seems to be neuromuscular, which is weird.  But fortunately, that type of fitness is also the easiest to rebuild.

I have put together 3 solid weeks of training; hopefully this coming week will be a fourth.  Then the week after I'll get PRP in my ankle (assuming that's still happening) and take some time off, which will also serve as a pull-back week.

Dailies 

Monday: 6.5 "miles" of pool-running and upper body weights/core. Foam rolling at night.

Tuesday: 12 miles, including a track workout of 400/800/1200/1200/800/400 and then 2x200.  Splits were 97, 3:16, 4:56, 4:53, 3:12, 90, and then 42 and 42.  Recoveries were around 3 minutes for most of the intervals except for 76 seconds after the first 400, 3:30 after the second 1200, and full recovery for the 200s.  Followed with leg strengthwork, 500 yards recovery swimming, and streaming yoga.   Foam rolling at night.

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Wednesday: 12 miles very easy (9:25) with drills and 6 hill sprints, followed with streaming yoga. Foam rolling at night.

Thursday:  7 "miles" of pool-running and upper body weights/core in the morning; foam rolling at night.

Friday: 12 miles, including a tempo workout of 2x2 miles at 10 mile race effort with 5 minutes recovery between. Splits were 13:37 (6:49/6:48) and 13:16 (6:41/6:35).  Followed with full recovery and then 6x30 seconds hard, 30 seconds off.  Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming. Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 12 miles very easy (9:19), plus 6 steep hill sprints and drills, and streaming yoga.  Foam rolling in afternoon.

Sunday:  16 miles, structured as the first 5 miles averaging 9:05 pace, the next 5 averaging 7:59, the next 5 averaging 7:05, and then a mile cooldown.  Followed with leg strengthwork and streaming yoga.  Doubled back with 4.5 "miles" pool-running and foam rolling in afternoon.