Another one bites the dust...

10/04/2009 - 10/10/2009 (Week 6)

Things fall apart. Shit. The worst part is that I'm still not entirely sure what has broken, but something has definitely gone awry, because I wasn't walking normally on Tuesday after the workout. The best case scenario is a tweaked L hip flexor, which has happened to me with some regularity, and can be resolved with more diligent implementation of core strengthening. The worst case scenario is a stress fracture of the femural joint. I've been taking my gummy calcium bears, dammit! Clearly my runty left side doesn't respond to encouragement, so fine... die, left leg, die.


Sunday: 11.6 miles, 1:42:11 in the Arroyo then around the RB perimeter (8:49 min/mile)

Aaaaaahhhhh... turtle turtle. Why is not my long run pace improving?! I really didn't want to run today, but around noon, I finally cobbled together enough motivation to head out. It felt fine, except for I could tell that I was getting tired, and I was really dehydrated towards the end. I knew I should just have stopped for water at the RB or the casting pond, but for some reason I was determined not to stop. I think that the reality is that I run all of my runs as accelerations... in the Arroyo, I think I start out at 8:45 pace and then pick it up on the second half to average 8:30, but on this run, the picking it up thing never happened. It didn't feel particularly horrible... just long, and slow. I think it was too early for this jump, I should have stuck with a few more weeks of the 9 mile long run. Blahhhh.....

Monday: Off. I had felt really good immediately after yesterday's run, but woke up today with some aches and pains that distinctly felt like the beginning stages of injury, rather than a good healthy sore. Took a precautionary day off.

Tuesday: 6.5 miles, 2 x 700m, 2 x 1500m, 2 x 700m pickups with 100m jog rest at Lacy

Woke up at 6:50 am and realized that I wasn't going to run today if I didn't rush to 7 am practice (team has started T/Th morning workouts again). The prospect of 2 continuous days off scared me more than the twinge I still felt in my L hip, so I rushed out, and then sprinted again to Lacy bc I had missed the start yet again.

Felt like a good workout, my goal was to practice running fast, but still remain comfortable and consistent. I'm just not ready for a super high intensity thing right now, so these continuous loops are really ideal. Times were 3:03, 3:00, 6:44, 6:54, 3:13, 3:14. Legs were comfortable throughout, but I struggled cardiovascularly on the 1500's and that carried over towards the end. Not exactly sure how to fix this gap, cardio always lags leg strength for me, but its usually not as bad as this. (Strangely on the bike, its the reverse... )

Wednesday - Friday: Off. L hip took a turn for the worse after Tuesday, should have listened to the tweak while it was just that. The joint seemed to seize up after Tuesday's workout, I had trouble walking normally. Tried to sort out exactly what was wrong, but it was difficult. Just kept trying to stretch and loosen it, but a number of things seemed to have clenched around the joint. Kind of scary. There was a large improvement in the first day, but residual issues persisted for many days afterwards. In addition, some small muscles keep spasming in my calf. Bad news bears.

Saturday: 4.2 miles, 33:21 Glenarm/Hillcrest (7:56 min/mile)

Short run to test out the hip. Smelled like burnt tires out. Ran at noon, so it was warmer than I would have liked. I felt sluggish and my breathing was out of whack, but I assumed I was going really slow and I just felt badly bc of the days off, and the temperature. Felt better about the run once I got home and realized that I was going a decent pace. Did a lot of stretching and exercises afterwards. I felt like my L hip was different from my R hip, but it felt like a difference of strength vs. a difference of injuredness. It may have been better to take it a bit easier on the first day back, but I'm actually heartened to see the faster pace because it demonstrates that I'm still getting full extension out of my stride. Towards the end of my last cycle of injuries, I couldn't run faster than a 9 minute mile, simply because I had shortened my stride drastically to minimize the pain.


Week Total: 22.3 miles, ack, wrong direction!