Tuesday, December 5, 2006

Week of 12/03/2006 - 12/09/2006 (Base Phase)

Tuberculosis? Negative.

Now that I've been electronically fingerprinted, and deemed pulmonary disease-free, I'm cleared to work with the kids at the school. Woo hoo! (Though this does eliminate one explanation for the persistent cough that I've managed to retain...) Next up, surviving one 90 minute instructional period with the bigger, taller and tougher-than-me inner city LA kids. I don't suppose they are amused by Ligand Field Theory...

Sunday 12/03: 11.5 miles, 1:40:08 quality time with el Life Coach. Outing to Morro Bay was regrettably cancelled due to inclement weather up north, so nice run up the Arroyo to JPL and back, distance uncertain. Discussed training theories and life theories, great to have Dr. Rossi around. L ankle still feels tweaked from the race, but apparently there's nothing to be done.

In other news, Happy Birthday Mark! Ran your 22 miles a tad fast, eh?

Monday 12/04: off day, oh boy doesn't that feel good! Actually, worried about ankle, hurts to walk sometimes. Didn't have a rest day last week, so figured I'd cash in an injury time-out.

Tuesday 12/05: 10 miles, 3 x 2 miles @ AT pace - wow its been a long time. 2 miles warm up with Mark, ankle felt pretty shaky. 13:27 (6:43, 6:44), 13:22 (6:41, 6:41), 13:19 (6:40, 6:39) with 2 minutes of rest. 2 miles warm down in Nike Frees, which strangely alleviated a lot of the ankle pain.

I'm really hoping that this ankle thing goes away soon. The track actually hurts it the least which is why I chose to go through with this workout. Its been a really long time since I've been able to complete a set of 3 x 2 miles, so I'm not too worried about the slow-ness. Legs felt like they had so much energy left, but the breathing system felt out of whack. Suboptimal coughing.

Wednesday 12/06: 5.2 miles, 46:24 recovery shuffle, up and down Orange Grove, which is very surreal at night with those big globe lights. Just now realizing that I'm still kinda worn out in many ways from the Tiger Run, its not clear that my ankle is improving... but its not getting worse.

Thursday 12/07: 7 miles, Bailey Canyon to Connector Trail, 28:47 to camp, 47:52 to sign post, 1:21:08 total. meh, I hardcore suck. I know my body is tired and I didn't expect a particularly strong showing, but it shouldn't have been THIS (>2 minutes worse than last week) slow.

There was nothing *wrong* with the run, per se. It didn't feel horrible, it was just slow. They say that when you're getting back into shape, some days and weeks will feel great, but then you can't consistently recover and perform the way that you're used to. Last week felt almost normal, but then something's just been off this week. Its demoralizing to have those big swings, but I feel motivated to change this situation. Easy days for the rest of the week, gotta heal and rest before I can start the mileage ramp again.

Friday 12/08: Off, again. I feel like crap. Hurts to walk.

Saturday 12/09: 6 miles, 50 minutes easy. Random pasadena and track. L ankle/arch is still not really okay. Stretched and iced, felt better. My ankle strangely feels the best in the Frees, so I'm going to give Dr. Rossi's suggestion to lose the orthotics a shot. Stopped by Steve's, he seemed uncharacteristically happy to see me--didn't even charge me the "you're not a student so I don't like you" inflated price!

Target Mileage: 45 miles
Week Actual: 39.7 miles
Last week: 53 miles

Some weeks you just don't meet your goals. Apparently, some weeks you don't even crawl over the 40 mpw line. I think it was the right decision to rest the ankle on Friday, but I just don't know. Trying to fight that creeping depression that comes with partial training... it's just such an emotional no man's land. mehhhhhhhhhhhh...

4 comments:

Ian said...

Megumi, how could you not be sore from racing those savage downhills on Saturday? My quads got sore just doing the cooldown.

kangway said...

sorry i signed off when i was talking about the free's. they're really great. I'm gonna take a guess and say that the free's allow for more pronation in your hurt ankle which allows the stress to be redistributed via pronation rather than loading the stress on whatever tendon is hurt? Maybe? Just a guess. Be careful about shinsplints.

Ryan said...

I remember when I first got the free's and people were mocking me, but now it appears that I'm some sort of running fashion trendsetter.

kangway said...

i also remember refusing to believe that the nike frees were the source of my terrible shin splints. looking back, they were undoubtedly the cause. You can't really do all that quality track work on an indoor track without some sort of pronation control, especially if you're doing short speed work.