Training log - Week ending 1/15/12

This week was 29 miles of “real running”, 22 “miles” pool running, and 28 “miles” on the arc-trainer plus 2000m of swimming breathing drills -- training log is here.

Nope. Didn’t do Houston. I procrastinated the decision all the way until Friday morning, because it was a hard decision (made harder by the fact that both an orthopedist and my PT were on board with me running it). But I finally made the tough but right call to skip it. I’ve come too far in my running to risk a major setback with one race. So cancelled the hotel and plane, and stayed home and foam-rolled, stretched, did rehab exercises, etc.

But I was feeling just a bit childishly sorry for myself. Immature, I know.

And then I learned that my friend Julie (she had the Houston 5K as her goal race, and was one of the people I was really looking forward to hanging out with in Houston) lost her father Friday morning.

Nope. Not sorry for myself anymore.

"CBS News remembers Dick Threlkeld"

***

I saw the orthopedist on Tuesday morning, and besides him telling me that I could run the race (and shouldn’t have cut back my mileage) he also told me I was crazy for not taking Aleve or the equivalent for my shin. I am crazy, but I also really HATE taking anything with a pain-reducing effect. Not because of masochistic tendencies, but just because I don’t like hiding pain while running – I think it’s risky. But, doctor’s orders are doctor’s orders.

Sort of. I ended up compromising by timing doses of Aleve so that they would wear off right before each run, and then taking again right afterwards. It gives me some comfort to know that there’s nothing going on with the shin that I’m not feeling.

I tested the shin out on Friday with a baby tempo – not so much a workout as playing with running at a slightly faster pace to see if it aggravated stuff. Nope – no real soreness at the end, though there was a bit of stiffness in the calf and shin that reassured me that skipping Houston was the right call.

One humorous thing about the Aleve –one of the side effects of it can be retaining water, and I’m definitely doing so…4 pounds up on the scale since Tuesday, and rocking the muffin top look. Which is less than pleasant. But it also means that I’m much more buoyant in the pool than normal – and beltless pool-running has suddenly become easy. It’s surreal.

Dailies

Monday: In the morning, 70 minutes of easy poolrunning for “7 miles”, followed by a PT appointment.

Tuesday: In the morning, upper body and core strength training plus injury prevention work, followed by 9.5 miles easy (7:46 pace), followed by a PT appointment.

Wednesday: In the morning, an arc-trainer tempo of 20 minutes, 15 minutes, 10 minutes at tempo effort (2:30 recovery between each), followed by 35 minutes of easy pool-running for “3.5 miles” and then a PT appointment.

Thursday: In the morning, 55 minutes of beltless pool-running for “5.5 miles”, followed by 2000m of swimming breathing drills, and then upper body and core strength work, plus injury prevention exercises. Foam-rolling at night.

Friday: In the morning, 6.5 miles on the track, including a careful test tempo workout (2 miles in 6:40/6:31, then 5:00 jog, then a mile in 6:30), followed by injury prevention work and then a pool intervals workout of 8x2:30 hard, 0:30 recovery. Hot yoga and foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 100 minutes on the arc-trainer – we’ll call it equivalent to 11 miles of easy running. Weights, core strengthwork, injury prevention exercises, and foam rolling in the afternoon.

Sunday: Another “hybrid long run” – first 13 miles easy (7:57 pace) followed by 40 minutes on the arc-trainer at hard effort. Foam rolling and then yoga tonight.