Tired.
The first week has safely been complete and I find myself mostly well. My toe is doing well, the feet and ankles have had their aches and pains but nothing major or chronic, so all things considered, good. What I hadn't really expected though, was to be so exhausted. It's not so much the running itself, which is, minimal... but there's physical therapy every day for my bad feet, then there's the grueling hour of core strengthening every other day for my bad hips...
When all is said and done, my body is getting used to a drastic increase in exercise, which sometimes makes it feel like progress is very, very slow. It's sort of like, before, through brute force I was getting relatively efficiently to some sort of training local maximum, but this point would forever be limited by injuries and misfortunes. I like to think that now I'm on a new path, that by being patient and creative, I am traversing the topographical map of my running ability, towards a point that will eventually be higher, even if the starting point is somewhat farther away.
Sunday 11/18: 33:57, California to RB. Feeling the effects of exhaustion, both from lack of sleep and dehydration, and also from yesterday's core strengthening. Vague headache throughout the day, hopefully from tired and dehydrated, and NOT from the beginnings of coming down with the plague... but otherwise, the run felt fine--it was just slow. Felt good about the fact that locking into the right stride and effort level is coming easier now. The only evidence of tiredness is the headache and the slow overall run time.
Monday 11/19: Off. Woke up in the morning and the low level headache is persisting. Stomach also feels barfy. Argh. Going to cash in the off day and still keeping those fingers crossed for NOT plague. I think I'll feel well enough for core strengthening in the PM.
Tuesday 11/20: 35:24, Monterrey to rock. Several consecutive nights of not getting a good night of sleep is getting to me. Almost tripped and fell on my face not once, but twice... argh. Kinda felt sloppy today, and after the run, my left foot felt funny. Definitely one of those runs that is closer to the type that is just slogged through, rather than enjoyed. On the plus side, I don't think I'm coming down with the plague... headache is gone, thankfully. I think I blame the chicken wings at IH on Saturday... stomach has been feeling vaguely barfy since then. Much better than yesterday though. Met a funny old retired man whose morning pastime is to collect errant golf balls from the Arroyo golf course and place them on car windshields to freak out the golfers who come chasing after them.
Wednesday 11/21: 39:30, 3 x Arroyo Tempo Loops plus jog back up the switchbacks to car. As of this morning, felt tired and still waffling about whether I should increase the training minutes at all this week... but by the time I left work early, full of free turkey and holiday cheer, it seemed a waste to piddle away my day-where-I-am-NOT-exhausted-from-core-strengthening on a shorter run.
Goal was to run a steady medium-easy pace for ~40 minutes to test if the feet would tolerate some longer runs. Loops ended up being in 38:04 (12:53, 12:28, 12:43) for just above 8:15 min/mile pace, which is just about base pace if I were in shape... which means I probably put too much effort into them. I always feel kind of iffy about base runs where the pacing is erratic like that, it usually means some funky psychological phenomena is at play, compromising ideal training effort level. I think a little bit of frustration definitely went into this run--I've been feeling crappy about the past few days, cranky about feeling physically unwell, and exasperated at how little my body seems to be able to handle.
I knew that I was expending more effort than the usual pleasantly plugging along state, and I tried to tone down the last lap, but it was honestly hard to curb the aggression. I did manage to stick to the breathing out of my nose only rule, and I didn't feel tired at the end going up the little hill to my car, and I felt like I kept good form and relaxed shoulders throughout, so it wasn't as if it was an egregious effort... but I think what troubles me is the lack of ability to control my emotions. It's this sort of impatience and frustration that left unchecked, will eventually cause me to do something stupid and end up back on the injury heap--and for ONCE in my life I want to avoid that mistake and complete a season of *something*.
Thursday 11/22: 34:15, California to RB. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! :) Extremely, extremely slow run. Everything feels a bit worse for the wear after core strengthening and the longer faster run yesterday. L foot felt funny throughout as well, making for a kind of consterning experience all around... but felt much better after a large helping of turkey and stuffing and gravy with Peter. Wonderful day except for the run...
Friday 11/23: 36:06, Monterrey to rock. Put in the squishy pair of orthotics again. Had a suspicion that the new orthotics that unloaded pressure off of the second toe was starting to put undue pressure on the third toe, so wanted to give that little guy a break. Considering alternating days to see if that helps, but did notice that the old pair of orthotics does a worse job of keeping my ankles aligned. Almost took a nasty spill on the way back, rolled out the L ankle, but no popping sound and minimal pain so just ran through without breaking stride. Still kind of consterned though, a bit of soreness during PT afterwards. Argh.
Toes felt better after today. Stride felt smoother, just took it really easy and felt like the system was recovering. Maybe its a good thing the gym is closed, so core strengthening will get pushed back to tomorrow. A bit more food in the stomach than I'd like though... there is just so much food around these days. Must try to mitigate the weight gain though, as that will certainly not help out my feet.
Saturday 11/24: 38:53, Parked a few blocks up on California, ran to RB. Some football game going on at the RB, traffic backed up and streets blocked off where I would normally park. Felt particularly cantankerous today about these annoyances... Had to run some extra pavement (eee...) minutes to get to car, which made the run longer than intended. Also had a meal uncomfortably close to running time, so felt kind of blimp-like and breathing constricted. Otherwise, a nice, chill run. Feet felt mostly okay, nothing felt sore or tired, hi-fived a drunk guy on his way back to his car.
Core strengthening at the gym with Peter, had to squeeze the mandatory 3rd session in this week on the last day. Felt a renewed sense of consternation about how weak my core is... but have to plugging away at this. Can actually feel some new abs growing under the layer of turkey-induced blubber.
Target Training: 3 hours 30 minutes
Actual Training: 3:38:05
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