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.