Another Training Week In The Books

I finished out my training week with back-to-back 40-minute runs on Tuesday and Wednesday and another 40-minute run on Friday (the Tuesday and Friday runs were at 7:19 pace, while I dialed back the Wednesday one to 7:30 since I ran the day before). My leg continues to get marginally better, including less post-run pain for shorter periods of time. I think my strategy for the next several weeks will be to run four times a week, with three quicker 40-minute runs and one longer run, with the duration increasing five minutes a week until I get up to an hour and 20 minutes. I will also continue with my strengthening exercises 2-3 days a week (including this morning after a half hour on the elliptical machine) and a weekly physical therapy session (I am like two sessions from reaching my annual deductible, at which point the sessions will be "free")...

Taking It (Back) To The Streets

Today was a rare Spring-ish day in Evanston, with the high temperature hitting just over 50 degrees. Thus, I decided to skip the treadmill and run outside, which also gave me an opportunity to use my Garmin Forerunner 35 outdoors for the first time. I did essentially a five mile out and back along Lake Michigan and ended up averaging 7:31 pace with super even splits, with a fastest mile of 7:28 and a slowest of 7:34. While I was not pushing super hard I must say it did not feel super easy either; I guess maybe I lost a bit more fitness in the several weeks I took off from running than I thought. I also was probably overdressed with a long sleeve shirt, heavy tights, and gloves and felt uncomfortable carrying my gloves and large smartphone.

I like my new watch—it picked up a satellite signal very quickly, and after the run was over my Garmin Connect mobile application had all kinds of statistics on my run. For example, my average run cadence was 160 steps per minute, my average stride length was 1.34 meters, and the total elevation gain was 46 feet. Not sure I will do much with this data, but kind of interesting nonetheless. Once again my left leg became a bit tight and sore a few hours after the run (I find the delayed reaction so random), but just a bit of additional stretching seemed to do the trick. I also have a physical therapy session tomorrow morning which should help even more.

The New Normal

I finished my largest running volume week since I hurt myself in December with 40 minutes at 7:24 pace. From a fitness level perspective the run felt very comfortable—I have really been surprised at how little fitness I lost given the fact I barely ran for a month and a half. My left leg felt fine during the run, but a few hours later tightened up the most since my "comeback." The pain was pretty manageable and did not last for very long, but it was yet another reminder that I am still not back to 100%. This morning I did 15 minutes of strengthening and stretching exercises after my elliptical workout and I feel a ton better. I think this is just going to have to be the "new normal" from now until the marathon—some degree of tightness, ongoing physical therapy (particularly given the fact I am fast approaching my annual insurance deductible),  and a whole lot of stretching. Getting old blows...

An Impromptu Test

This morning I was originally planning to take the day off from running and just do some cardio. However, as I arrived to my gym I realized between a physical therapy session and work flight tomorrow it would be difficult for me to get a run in. Thus, I decided to run again today instead. Given the fact this would be the first time in several weeks I had run two days in a row (and three out of four for that matter), I was definitely a bit nervous.

I decided to stick with another 35 minute run and increased the pace slightly to 7:30. The run was pretty uneventful--no pain during it and once again very little afterwards (with the exception of some tightness behind my left knee). I spent a good 15-20 minutes afterwards on stretching and strengthening exercises, and made a point to do plenty of walking the remainder of the morning and early afternoon, which I am beginning to think is very important. While I am not ready to declare myself completely "out of the woods," I am becoming more confident that if I can be consistent with my stretching, strengthening, and physical therapy I should hopefully be able to remain "healthy enough"...

Upping The Ante

The plan for today was to run for 35 minutes, or five more than two days ago. Originally I was planning to increase the pace slightly, but given the fact 7:53 pace felt slower than a jog I decided to crank it up to 7:36—i.e., a longer distance at a significantly faster speed. Once again, I cruised through the workout with minimal discomfort during and afterwards. I did a fair amount of stretching, strengthening exercises, muscle massage, and walking afterwards, which I am guessing helped as well.

While I am obviously more excited about the continued recovery of my left leg, I am honestly really surprised at how little fitness I lost given the fact I barely ran for over a month and a half. I guess I had a better base than I anticipated, and I was pretty good about keeping up the cardio while I wasn't running. I still need to reign myself in and not push too hard, too fast—as I got toward the end of my run I was really tempted to add another few minutes on just to get to an even five miles. I now think I am just going to gradually increase my weekly long run based on time as opposed to distance, with the goal of getting up to 1:20 minutes at 8:00 pace (10 miles) by the start of my formal training program.

Woo Hoo!

This morning I headed to the treadmill for another run. I decided to run 30 minutes at 7:45 pace, or five minutes longer at a slightly faster pace than Wednesday. And for the second run in a row I felt ZERO pain in my left leg during the run, as well as less soreness for a shorter period of time afterwards. Woo hoo! I actually feel like I am finally back to being almost 100%. I am a bit tempted to run again tomorrow, but I think I will take a day off and run on Sunday instead—I don’t want to get ahead of myself at all. I figure that I can just ease back into running four or so days a week while the weather is freezing cold, and hopefully by the time Spring rolls around I will be back to being able to run 5-6 miles at high 6:00/low 7:00 pace injury free.

Ground Zero

So I haven’t logged a blog post in a few weeks, due to the fact that I haven’t run in a few weeks. At some point I decided that it was probably best to just let my body rest and get better as opposed to continuing to try to run through this injury. I was planning to probably wait a week or so more to try running again, but yesterday I received my new massage stick in the mail (I ordered a different one a few weeks ago but returned it). As I was testing out the new stick I realized that for the first time in weeks my IT band was not sore when I ran the stick over it. Given this development, I attempted to run again this morning.  That said, I decided to take it nice and easy and ease my way back into it. Thus, I ran for 25 minutes at 8:00 pace.

My left leg felt totally fine the entire run. While I was pleased, I have had these false starts before in which my leg feels fine while I am running and then is killing me a couple of hours later. Today I felt no such pain—just a little bit of soreness and tightness which dissipated fairly quickly. Needless to say, I am very encouraged. I have another physical therapy appointment tomorrow, and then will try running again on Friday. I am going to keep my fingers crossed, but I think that I may finally be back. The key of course, will be to ease my way into it and really listen to my body this time.