Training log - Week ending 12/8/2019

This week was 60 miles of running, 18 "miles" of pool-running, 1000 yards swimming, and a whole lotta shoulder rehab work -- training log is here.

This was both my last week of recovery from Richmond and my first week of ease_into_it training for One City.  I did a three week recovery from Richmond - week 1 was mostly pool-running with a bit of land-running at the end; week two had me building mileage back up with some aerobic running at the end; and then week three was a return to full mileage, plus gentle re-introduction of workouts.

I started with my favorite half-ass workout on Tuesday.  I jogged down to Georgetown and then did hill repeats up the sidewalks of one of the side streets rising from Water Street up to M Street.  It's about 60-70 seconds up, and then about 2:30 to jog around and back down (I do a loop - up one side street, down the other).

I like this workout as a re-introduction because it's safe.  Uphill running is much safer than flat or downhill running - it's less impact, and the uphill nature forces good form.  70 seconds is too short for my form to fall apart due to fatigue (we often get injured when our form breaks down), and the long recoveries ensure I start each new repeat relatively fresh.

At the same time, 60-70 seconds is just long enough to rediscover what workout suck feels like, and to work through it.  It makes it easier to return to real workouts.

Normally, I'd go with 2-3 weeks of hills and non-track aerobic running before returning to formal workouts.  But, with only 3 months between now and One City, plus the Houston half-marathon in January, I don't have space for that period of training now.  So instead I returned to the track with 3200, 1600 on Friday.  It went just about how I expected.  Slower than I was running a few weeks ago, and mentally challenging.  The first track workout back is always like ripping off a band-aid - you just gotta get it done.

Continuing on with the theme, I ran 14 miles progressive on Sunday.  Marathon effort ended up yielding just over 7 minute pace for me - I could have run faster, but not without departing from marathon effort.  Gotta train where you are, and my legs are still a bit heavy.  But hopefully as I continue to recover from Richmond and rebuild fitness that will change.

Separate from all the above, I got cleared on Tuesday to start swimming laps again (real 25 yard laps - not the short trips back and forth across the diving well that I played with last week).  Surprisingly, swimming was nowhere near as hard as I anticipated, given the shoulder injury and what has essentially been a full month away from swimming.  

I've always had a problem with hunching my shoulders when I am working hard, whether running or in the pool.  The silver lining is that this injury may have broken that habit.  Right after the injury, I couldn't hunch my shoulders (amusingly leading several people to comment on just how relaxed I looked while running, even though I felt awful).  And now, via a lot of work with small weights and bands, I'm learning how to use my shoulders correctly, without hunching.

I may just end up a better runner from all of this, and it's definitely improved my swimming stroke.  What a silver lining.

Dailies

Monday:  Yoga and 8 "miles" pool-running. Foam rolling at night.

Tuesday: 12 miles, including 8 short hill repeats of 60-70 seconds each, with ~2:30 jogging recovery, followed by leg strengthwork.  PT session for the shoulder in the afternoon; foam rolling at night.

Wednesday:  8 miles very easy (9:12), yoga, 4 miles very easy (8:49), and drills and four hill strides.  Massage in the afternoon.

Thursday: Upper body work and core, and shoulder work, followed by 10 "miles" of pool-running.  Foam rolling at night.

Friday:  12 miles, including a track workout of 3200, 1600 in 12:59 (6:35/6:24) and 6:16 with ~6 minute recovery between the two.  Followed with leg strengthwork and shoulderwork, plus 500 yards recovery swimming.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 10 miles very easy (9:06), drills and four strides, upper body work, core and shoulder work.  Foam rolling in afternoon.

Sunday: 14 miles progressive, split as first 4 miles averaging 8:44, next 6 averaging 7:40, last 4 averaging 7:04 and then leg strengthwork and shoulderwork, plus 500 yards recovery swimming.

Training log - Week ending 12/1/2019

This week was 56 miles of running, 24 "miles" of pool-running, a tiny bit of swimming, and a whole lotta shoulder rehab work -- training log is here.

Second week post-Richmond.  I started easing back into faster running at the end of the week with some relaxed hill stuff on Friday, and then a moderately paced not-so-long run on Sunday.  Neither of these "workouts" are going to build fitness, but both serve as a nice bridge between race recovery and hopefully easing into workouts at the end of next week.

I'm definitely returning back from Richmond a bit faster than I did after my last marathon, CIM.    After CIM, I intentionally took a big rest break with the intention of losing some fitness - one step back to take two steps forward.  I think it worked well - I believe I was fitter a week before Indy Monumental this year than I was the week before CIM last year.  Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to show off that fitness due to life getting in the way, so no way to know for sure.

The benefit of taking a big step back is that you can then take a big step forward over time - it's a long term approach.  However, there is a short-term cost - it took me a while to get back in shape this spring.  This time, with the Houston Half-Marathon not too far off, I've decided to strike a different balance.  I'm not shorting the recovery from Richmond, but nor am I going to take a break the way I did after CIM.  I want to rest just enough to recharge and control injury risk, and then hopefully maintain what I had this fall so that I can have a nice race at Houston - ideally finally getting under 84:00, if not faster.

I've already decided on a spring marathon, which I'm now three months out from: the One City Marathon in Newport News, Virginia on March 1.   After my frustrations of this fall, I want another shot at a marathon with a better taper, ASAP.   However, the reality is that I started Richmond with half a gas tank, and then ran myself into the ground.  Running a truly fast marathon requires tapping into reserves that take a while to replenish.  And it's going to take me several months to get those reserves built back up.  So March 1 is realistically the earliest I can run a marathon with a complete gas tank, so that I can run a great race.  March 1 is ASAP.  

One City also works very well from a team coordination perspective - some women from my team are targeting the Olympic Marathon Trials (the day before One City), and so my long run schedule should mostly sync with theirs, though the paces will certainly be different.  Having everyone training for a marathon on the same weekend will make life easier for my coach.

We'll be going with a short training cycle again for One City - I don't need much to get into marathon shape.  So even though we're 3 months out, the training won't get marathon-focused for another few weeks.  I'll race Houston in January, which will work well as a hard marathon workout as well as a goal race in itself.  And then one or two 20 mile long runs, and we'll be good to go.   I don't need to improve my fitness to run a great marathon - I just need to get back to where I was a month ago, while making sure I don't get fried or burned out or peak too soon (or have an epically bad taper again). Hence the abbreviated cycle even though we have room for more.

As for the shoulder?  It's getting there.  I'm now working towards reintroducing lifting at the gym - albeit using machines instead of free weights until I'm more confident in the stability of my shoulder.  I'm using really low weights (have you ever used the shoulder press machine with the weight set to 0?  I hadn't.  Until this week).  But I'm seeing progress.  And on Sunday I actually tested a few short laps of freestyle swimming - it felt awkward, but also fine and even wonderful.  My hope is that I'll be able to swim a bit more this week.

It really would be nice to be done with this shoulder business.  I know I'm incredibly lucky and incredibly non-appreciative.  But at the same time I want my old fitness life back.  And carving out an extra 30 minutes each day for intricate shoulder rehab exercises with 2 pound dumbbells is getting tiresome (*whine*).

Dailies

Monday:  Light upperbody weights/core, shoulder work, and 10 "miles" pool-running. Foam rolling at night.

Tuesday: 4 miles very easy (9:21), yoga, 7 miles very easy (8:50), followed by drills and two hill strides.  PT session for the shoulder in the afternoon; foam rolling at night.

Wednesday:  6.5 miles very easy (9:18), yoga, 5.5 miles very easy (9:08), and some leg strengthwork and shoulder work.  Foam rolling at night.

Thursday: 10 "miles" pool-running, light upper body work and core, and shoulder work.  Foam rolling at night.

Friday:  10 miles aerobic (average 8:38), including drills, two strides, four 30 second hill repeats at 5K effort with full recovery, two 10 second sprints up a steep hill with full recovery, and 3 miles on a net uphill rolling hills route at moderate effort (guestimate 7:40 ish).  Followed with yoga and some shoulder work.  Foam rolling at night.

Saturday: 7 miles very easy (8:58), drills and four strides, light upper body work, core and shoulder work, and then 4 miles very easy (8:40).  Foam rolling in afternoon.

Sunday: 12 miles aerobic (7:53) and then leg strengthwork and shoulderwork.  4 "miles" pool-running, a tiny bit of swimming, and foam rolling in afternoon.

Training log - Week ending 11/24/2019

This week was 25 miles of running, 31 "miles" of pool-running, and a whole lotta shoulder rehab work -- training log is here.

My first week of post-marathon recovery.  Like always, I started it in the pool, and then transitioned to land running.  However, while I normally do a lot of yoga in the first days post marathon, this time I had to hold off until the end of this week, when my shoulder finally felt good enough to fake my way through a class (skipping the planks and vinyasas).

A slight change this time around was my introduction of "medicine running" - this is my term for a short duration (10 minutes or less total) set of walk-slow jog intervals.  You don't build or maintain any aerobic fitness doing this, but it does present your body with a very gentle extremely low risk running stress.  It's just enough to remind the body that you are still a runner, and that the body needs to maintain its connective tissue accordingly.  But it's not going to aggravate any nascent injuries, unless you've got a broken bone sticking out of your leg or similar (in which case, medicine running will be impossible anyway).

I've recommended medicine running to others on a running break, and have used it myself when coming back from injury - it's a good stepping stone between not running and running.  I hadn't used it for marathon recovery before, but the more I thought about it, the more sense it made.  That first run back after a marathon can be rough on the body; this would hopefully make it easier.

So, I did medicine runs on Tuesday-Thursday of this week, before starting to run again on Friday.  And sure enough, Friday's run felt much better than the first run post-marathon normally does.  Of course, that is relative - I was still stiff and sluggish.  Just not awfully so.

I also officially started PT on Tuesday, working with the same physical therapist I use for all my running injuries.  There's such a huge advantage to working with the same PT over time - my PT knows what it means when I say "this hurts" or "this doesn't feel right" - which can mean something totally different when a different patient says it.   He (my PT) also understands my normal level of activity and my baseline strengths and weaknesses - something a new person would have to learn.

I continue to be pleasantly surprised by how quickly my shoulder injury (officially winged scapula due to serratus anterior dysfunction) is clearing up. If you look on the internet (which of course I did - who are we kidding), a winged scapula due to a traumatic blow supposedly takes months to a year or more to recover from.  

And yet, in just a bit over two weeks, I've managed to go from literally not being able to lift my left arm (in order to type, I had to use my right hand to lift and place my left hand on the keyboard) to having nearly full function for daily living.  I still can't grab or place things on a high shelf with my left hand, but I can dress myself, wash my hair, unload and load the dishwasher, pill cats, etc now.

And the gains continue to accrue daily.  Friday morning I couldn't hold a plank.  But...by Saturday I could, albeit for only about 5 seconds.  Sunday I made it 10 seconds.  So all very cool and exciting.  Though I still have a way to go before I can return to the pull-ups, push-ups, rows, and dumbell presses that used to be my norm.  I want to be able to swim again.  I might want to ride a horse again someday.  So this ain't over until those are available to me again.  But we're getting closer.

I think the credit for the so-far-quick-recovery goes to a few things.  

1) Since heavy upper body lifting has been a regular part of my fitness routine for over a decade, I have a lot more strength and proprioception there than the average person, or even the average runner.  Thus I have a better baseline from which to work.  It's similar to how my high level of aerobic fitness means that I can be having a bad asthma flare and still climb a flight of stairs.

2) I have a friend who is a PT, and her advice (plus connecting me to a good orthopedist) meant that I was able to start restoring the arm by doing the correct (gentle) exercises within 24 hours of the injury. Had I simply placed the arm in a sling and let it sit there for a week, I have no doubt I'd be much worse off now.  Motion is lotion (when done correctly). 

3) I'm ambidextrous, but my left arm is my dominant arm. Which made the whole left-arm-not-working thing mildly inconvenient at the start, but also means that it has been easier to relearn the use of that arm.  And, since my default is to use my left arm, I keep testing the limits of that arm in a way that I might not if it was my right arm that was injured.

4) I'm now working with a good physical therapist who understands my body and personal motivation very well, due to our past history.    So we're doing the exact right exercises for me to keep me on this path.  2-3 sessions with a good PT who knows the patient very well are a far better investment than 20 sessions with a stranger.

Hopefully this progress will continue.  And starting next Tuesday, my 10 day post-marathon make-no-commitments period will be over, and I'll be able to map out my spring racing plans.

Dailies

Monday:  10 "miles" pool-running. 

Tuesday: 7 "miles" pool-running and a "medicine run" of 8x30 seconds jogging with 30 second walking recovery.  PT for the shoulder in the afternoon.

Wednesday:  6 "miles" pool-running, a "medicine run" of 10x30 seconds jogging with 30 seconds walking recovery, and some core and shoulder work at the gym.  Sports massage in afternoon.

Thursday: very light upper body work, core and shoulder work, 8 "miles" pool-running, and a "medicine run" of 8x60 seconds jogging with 30 seconds walking recovery.

Friday:  3 miles easy (9:19), yoga, and 4 miles easy (8:45).  Foam rolling at night (!!! I could foam roll again !!!)

Saturday: 8 miles easy (8:52), very light upper body work, core and shoulder work.  Foam rolling in afternoon.

Sunday: 10 miles very easy (9:03) plus drills, followed by leg injury prevention work and shoulder work, and then a yoga class.  Foam rolling in afternoon.