Training log - Week ending 1/7/2024

This week was 19 miles of running and 30 "miles" of pool-running -- training log is here.

On Thursday of this week I decided not to run the Houston Marathon, and to instead take my running break this weekend.  I'm bummed, but it's the right decision.

The sciatica that I've been managing was massively improved by a sports massage on Tuesday night, where a big knot in either my quadratus femoris or my obturator externus (the QF lies right on top of the OE) got released. Those muscles had been pressing on my sciatic nerve, and so the relief was substantial and near immediate.

Unfortunately, the muscle grabbed back up during a careful tempo on Thursday morning, and that convinced me to pull the plug on Houston.  This isn't a big issue, but it's hitting at a bad time - I just don't think I can run the race I wanted to at Houston as long as I'm managing this issue.  And I'm concerned that running a marathon right now could result in a more significant injury.  Even if I made it through the race without an injury, I'd have an extended post-marathon recovery.  That in turn would interfere with my spring goal races, which include a very fast half-marathon in March and Boston in April.  So the smart decision is to cancel the trip.

Those muscles in my right butt are inflamed right now because they are extremely (comically) weak and I've been doing PT to strengthen them.  I've been careful about not pushing rehab exercises to the point of really inflaming things, but I think that the bout of frigid weather that we had two weeks ago made my muscles really tight and was just too much for muscles already stressed by PT and marathon training - that started the downward spiral that resulted in the sciatica/bum butt.

So I shut stuff down and took my pool-running/junk food/sleep in break this weekend.  I'm going to spend the time that I would have spent tapering and recovering from Houston to rehab and strengthen instead, so that I can run some solid spring races.

I think that ultimately this is all for the best.  Those muscles are deep hip stabilizers, and I believe the fact that they are so weak has been making my gait and balance issues even worse.  So getting those muscles strong and working correctly will be worth the disappointment I'm feeling right now.

Monday:  3 miles (9:51), 6 "miles" pool-running, and upperbody weights/core. Foam rolling in evening.

Tuesday: 5.5 miles, including some gentle fartleking, followed by leg strengthwork.  Sports massage in evening.
 

Wednesday: Streaming yoga and then 4 miles very easy (9:50) followed by 3 "miles" pool-running/  Foam rolling in evening.

Thursday: 6 miles, including 3323m on the track (8 laps in lane 3) in 15:28 (7:30 pace).  Streaming pilates in afternoon and foam rolling in evening.

Friday: 6 "miles" pool-running and upper body weights/core.  Foam rolling in evening.

Saturday: 7 "miles" pool-running and streaming pilates. Foam rolling in evening.

Sunday:  8 "miles" pool-running and upper/lower body weights.  Foam rolling in evening.