Showing posts with label plan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label plan. Show all posts

Sunday, March 29, 2015

I'm running again, if you call this running

The 12/6/14 run that started it all
Today's run (treadmill): 3.25 miles

Recovery should happen slowly and in stages, and that's the plan I've been following over the last four weeks. Last year at this time, I was training for the Brooklyn Half using the Hal Higdon intermediate plan. That required some type of running workout nearly every day. It was a mixture of long and easy base runs, short and fast speed drills and 3-4 mile tempos. I could manage that because I was injury-free and had a very flexible schedule.

One year later, conditions are different. I have a long early commute four days a week and my running comfort has been compromised since December 6. That's when I let my ego get the best of me and foolishly overextended myself to prevent another runner from passing me on a long road. The symptoms I had the next day match the ones I have today.

It's been a roller coaster of recovery since then. A race in late December, along with the New Year's Hangover Run, reignited the pain and soreness. An icy and snowy January and an unusable treadmill provided time for healing. By the time we acquired our new Freemotion unit, I was ready to return to the run. So ready, that I did a high intensity workout that (unfortunately) produced some serious pain near the end. One week later, I suffered through an extremely painful three miler. It was the last time I'd run until yesterday's session.

Which brings me to today. After yesterday's encouraging experience on the treadmill, I considered taking it to the street this morning. It had snowed all day on Saturday and there was still a coating of powder on the roads. I opted for the treadmill and slightly increased both my speed and the length of the run. The soreness was there, but it was fully tolerable during the run. Like yesterday, it felt better as I went on and the soreness is responding to the massage roller.

So I've transitioned back to running, but I'm doing it a lot slower than I had before my injury. The things I like about running (fresh air, changing views and the sense of forward progress) that come from being outdoors, are absent. When the weather gets better, I'll run outside and take it easy. I think I've finally learned my lesson but I hope I don't get challenged to race anyone too soon.

Saturday, March 7, 2015

The end of running, for now

Patience is a virtue
Today's workout (elliptical): 50 minutes

For now and for the foreseeable future, I am no longer a runner, emerging or otherwise. Like the old adage that insanity is repeating the same action but expecting a different result, I've concluded that running right now will only result in pain. I'm not as upset about this as you'd think. I don't plan to change the name of this site to "The Former Runner." I'm just hitting the pause button until nature fixes the problem.

Thursday's treadmill run was (literally) an exercise in determination. I was sure that getting through my three mile workout would somehow prove that I could always run through this problem. The bigger issue was that it hurt. First a little and then a lot. I knew that this was no way to handle things. I ended up skipping my workout on Friday because I needed to meet an insane work deadline that used up every minute of the day. An opportunity to recover somewhat offset the guilt.

I was still sore this morning and I knew that I couldn't repeat Thursday's experience. My strategy was to first do an elliptical session and then test the waters on the treadmill. The elliptical session went great. No pain during the 35 minute workout and no pain after I'd finished. I hopped up on the treadmill and set the speed to 4.1 MPH, hopefully fast enough to "run" without aggravating the source of my problem.

It only took a few seconds to realize that running at any speed right now will result in pain. I further backed down the speed and switched to walking for ten minutes, playing with inclines and declines between +/- 3%. Once done, I returned to the elliptical for 15 more minutes of pain free exercise. Stepping up my effort on the elliptical did not produce any pain. Better still, the soreness from my brief treadmill "run" was completely gone.

So today's lesson is that running hurts and ellipticals heal. I'm going to use the elliptical exclusively while my body works on whatever it is that's causing my running pain. I've decided to give it three weeks before I try another easy treadmill run. This is exactly what happened between the time when the old treadmill failed and the new one was installed. I did fine in that transition, but made the mistake of pushing my speed (and my luck) and that brought me back to square one.

If this plan doesn't work, I'll visit a orthopedist to get an MRI or meet with a physical therapist. They say time heals all wounds. Let's see if that's true.

Sunday, December 21, 2014

Throwing caution to the run

Gimme shelter
Today's run (street): 3.8 miles

We have guests staying with us until Tuesday, so I've lost my running locker room (AKA the guest room) for a few days. I got my stuff together early so I could go out before our visitors arrived. My goal was to run about 5 miles. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out that way.

The soreness I've experienced over the past two weeks seemed to be going away and I had high hopes that I'd be free of it by next week. When I started my run, the pain was even more noticeable than it was at the beginning of yesterday's run. My plan was to do a couple of loops around the business park and then add some miles in an adjacent neighborhood. After running a mile in my neighborhood, I felt concern about overdoing it and modified my route in the name of caution.

I ended up staying on my local streets and kept it moderate. As I warmed up, the pain began to minimize and I wondered if I should do some extra dynamic stretching or put direct heat on the sore area right before my next run. It was chilly this morning so I had a couple of thermal bottom layers that probably contributed to my fast warm up. Along with that, I wore my new-old running vest and an actually new ASICS PR Shelter beanie that I got last week.

Even though I cut it short, I was glad that I was able to get in a run this morning. Better still, the soreness has diminished throughout the day. I'm hoping that means the inflammation that is triggering my sciatica is lessening. I'm continuing to run easy, even though I want to start picking up my training pace so I can prepare for racing in early 2015. I just have to be a little more patient.

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Low mo leads to slow go

GPS margin of error
Today's run (street): 3.5 miles

Usually, after a rest day, I'm more than ready to get back outside for a run. Today was one of those near perfect running days with plenty of sun. The temperature was warm enough for shorts yet cool and dry enough to keep sweating to a minimum. Despite all these positive conditions, I found myself unmotivated. My half marathon training schedule only required a 3 mile race-pace run today, yet I was mentally unready to do it.

I didn't sleep well last night, and that probably explained the lack of drive I was feeling this morning. I didn't consider skipping today's workout, but time kept slipping by. We had people coming over in the early afternoon and I needed to get my run completed in time to shower and finish lunch. I decided to dial back the intensity and just do my mileage at whatever speed I could sustain. That got me out the door.

I set a pace that felt sustainable and changed up my route to keep it interesting. While I consciously avoided focusing on speed, I did successfully keep my cadence within my targeted range. I ended up running three minutes longer than I would have if I'd followed the race-pace plan. Although the skies were clear and sunny, my Garmin did a poor job of tracking my progress today (see comparison above). Further, I had no way to gauge my actual performance while I was running, because the readout was based on flawed data.

Tomorrow I'm due to run 8 or nine miles. I may participate in the GLIRC Clubhouse run in the morning if I feel up to it. Otherwise I'll probably head to Bethpage a little later and do it on my own.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Daft repeats: longer faster better stronger

Today's workout (treadmill repeats): 2 miles 
6 x 400m plus .5 mile warm/cool

Week 3 of half marathon training started better than week 2 finished off. After my second consecutive Sunday long run fail (only in the sense of performance, personally I had a great time) the evidence is pointing to cold induced breathing issues. Every run that I've done, either at temperatures above 40° or indoors, since my Brooklyn half training kickoff, has resulted in a decent performance. The two times I ran in high 20's/low 30's weather, I struggled mightily. Cold weather, J'accuse!

Or it could be the hills. Either way, the fact that I'm running decently more often than not is keeping me hopeful. Spring is here so chances are that one of these upcoming Sundays will provide better weather. That may help me turn the corner on my weekend base runs.

Today was speed day. It was 22° outside this morning, so I opted to do my workout indoors. Hal Higdon's program prescribed a 3.5 mile run, but I decided that I know a little more about this stuff than he does. But seriously, I've modified the Higdon training program to start my week with speed on Tuesdays and a base run on Wednesdays. Hal puts speed work into the Wednesday slot and allocates only Sundays to long runs. I felt I needed a little more base than that, an opinion echoed by some knowledgeable runners.

Hal's speed workout is 6 x 400's at 5K pace (8:24) and that's what I did this morning. In between repeats, I did 240 meter recovery jogs (.15 miles), which I may cut down to .12 miles next time. I also did a half mile warm up and cool down. I normally would have run another mile at my usual training pace to make a full three, but today I decided that 1.5 miles of speed stood on its own.

Tomorrow should be a 4.8 mile base/recovery run. The "feels like" temperature is predicted to be 19° when I plan to go out in the morning, so I'll have to decide whether to endure this cold and its effects, or suffer the tedium of a longish treadmill run. We're getting snow overnight, so that may help the decision.

Friday, October 18, 2013

Managing the pre-race energy

 
Why is it that I usually feel energized the day before a race? Could it be that I'm closest to my training peak at this point? I suspect it's related more to wanting to run because I shouldn't. I always take one or two rest days before a race and that seems to work for me. In the few times where I've violated my taper plan with a run or hike, I've regretted doing it the next day.

I'm sure it's more psychological than physical, because I should be able to do a moderate workout the day before a race without penalty. But a positive attitude about my state of conditioning on race day is almost as important as the work that it took to get me there. I need to ensure that I'd done everything I could to be prepared.

So even with this extra energy today, along with perfect fall weather, I won't give into the temptation to walk the hilly bike trail at Bethpage. It's been a low mileage week and even with the race I won't have covered ten miles. The good thing about a 5K is that I usually don't need to take the next day to rest. I can make up for the shortfall on Sunday. I hope that the energy I have today will still be present tomorrow morning.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

When a run goes according to plan

How I spent my morning
Today's run (street): 6.2 miles

My morning running plan was happily free of debate. No decisions to make about my route, gear or distance. I'd prepared to run 6 miles on the roads around my neighborhood and the cloudy and dry weather looked perfect.

I started by running the loop I use every morning to benchmark my first mile. After that I diverted my course by running towards the middle school. Once I got there, I ran across the field to a path that took me to the nearby business park. I continued in that direction and ran the hilly loop before exiting into neighborhood #3 at the three mile point.

I felt good as I moved along these neighborhood streets that led me out to Woodbury Road, a heavily trafficked street. Running along Woodbury Road's sidewalk is always interesting. In the fall there's often a thick covering of leaves that cushion each step. Today the sidewalk was bare and covered with packed dirt.  Except for the cars whizzing by on the street, I felt like I was doing a mini trail run.

I reached the easternmost point of my run and then switched directions back toward my house. I was on track to cover my intended six miles and ended up making it with a little distance to spare. I didn't run this route particularly fast but I was satisfied with the effort and pleased to have run a dozen miles over this weekend.

The best part of finishing a couple of good weekend runs is knowing that Monday is my rest day. Another 20+ mile week is in the books. So far, so good for my half marathon training plan.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Reality check: back to work and 13.1 training

Today's run (treadmill): 25 minutes

As I walked through mid-town this morning, I detected the acrid odor of a cigarette. It reminded me that being on vacation had shielded me from that toxic smell for almost two weeks. Well it's back to work for me today. I'll miss being on vacation but at least I like work.

The alarm jolted me awake at 3:45 and I debated whether to ease back into work mode by skipping today's run. With temperatures in the 20's, it was easy to justify staying indoors. But when you have a treadmill and an elliptical machine, there's really no excuse not to exercise. I did an easy indoor run for 25 minutes which actually helped both mind and body.

I'm trying to decide an approach to training for the half-marathon in May. Last year I think I misunderstood the amount of base training I would need to meet my expectations for a 13.1 mile race. It was the most difficult run I've ever done, but I still felt I that could have done better in terms of finish time. I'm hoping that with a reasonable plan, I can realistically target 2:10. To do that, I'm going to need to do a lot of 10 to 13 mile training runs between now and May.
 

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