Going With The Flow

AM - Ran a couple miles then decided to do a mile faster. I was aiming for marathon pace but didn't look at the watch until the end and saw 5:55. Not bad! Ran easy for a half mile then did another half mile at 5:57 pace. My breathing was completely out of control by the end and I was wiped. Jogged it home.

I'm surprised that I was able to run even one mile at half marathon pace. I'll be back before you know it! My glute pain has come back in the last 10 days when I wake up and throughout the day, but I'm going to physical therapy tomorrow. He was able to get rid of it before so I'm hoping that's all I need. I know there will be a lot of random aches and pains for another month or two while I'm still healing. Just got to be careful and smart.

Happy New Year to everyone! I'll be working on my resolutions today and hopefully have a good list tomorrow!

AM - 4 miles on the Alter-G at 80% bodyweight, 7:03 pace.

AM - Scheduled day off. I've run 16 days in a row so I'm past due for a day of not running. I'll probably do some sort of easy cross training later. 

In terms of New Years Resolutions for running -
Get injury-free
Stay injury-free
Take days off from running regularly
Log consistent mileage throughout the year

This year is devoted to developing a strong base and becoming resistant to injuries...set myself up for a breakthrough year in 2014. 

Just a reminder...this is the time of year when eating Vitamin D rich foods and taking a supplement is very important. No stress fractures this year!! 

AM - 3 miles on the treadmill. The last few days I've been having some burning pain in the upper gluteal region and distal hamstring into the lateral calf muscle so need to figure out what's going on there. 

PM - 2 miles with Jake then hot tubbing.

Functional Path Training has some great Lessons from 2012 - 

We may think we are training the body but we are really training the brain â€“ To borrow Tim Noakes terminology the brain is the “Central governor” it controls everything we do.

Talent development is not survival of the fittest â€“ It is not about ten years or 10,000 hours it is a process that involves deliberate practice. It is understanding growth and development, individual rates of maturation.

You cannot separate excellence in sport from excellence in life â€“ You can’t be a chump outside of training and a champ in the game. You may get away with for a little while but eventually it will catch up with you.

Important to learn how to ask the right questions â€“ This is the key to learning. Asking questions that are insightful and on point.

You must train the way you want to play â€“ Yes it is about specificity, but it is more than that. All aspects of training must line up with the demands of the sport. Train fast to play fast; if you train slow you will not be able to play fast.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained - No gain without risk. Mistakes are learning opportunities.

Coach the athlete you have not some mythical hypothetical model â€“ Know your athletes, their strength & weaknesses, individualize to the greatest extent possible.

You must train the female differently â€“ There is a whole different endocrine hormonal environment. Strength training is much more important during all phases of the training year. My rule of thumb with the female athlete is more volume of intensity.

Those who achieve at the highest levels are seldom if ever concerned what other have to say about them or judge them to be â€“ High achievers are confident and will stand out from the crowd regardless of criticism. 

AM - Got to run with the guys crew for about 5 miles - Scott, Matt, Mike, Chad, Jake, and Fritz. Then I ran a little more and headed back to home. Made it to 7 miles today, my longest run since I got hurt on August 4!! Felt great overall...only the last mile had mild aches and pains. Average pace was 7:08 with several 6:50 miles thrown in there.

Afterwards we had a nice breakfast and hung out for a while. Fun times!

AM - 5.3 miles with Fritz, Allie, James, Jake, Adam, and Adam. Cold but pleasant run with friends. I have tight hamstrings but that's about the only residual effect from yesterday. Making progress.

Plan for the next few weeks is to stay around 25 - 35 miles and start the routine of one tempo, one speed, and one long run. Very modified, meaning the the tempo will be 1-3 miles at marathon effort, the speed will be 100m strides and drills, and long run will be in the 6-8 mile range. Everything must be pain-free. Small doses for now to retrain the muscles to work appropriately and efficiently.

AM - Hit snooze on my alarm this morning and then proceeded to sleep until 7:30! That's 10.5 hours of sleep...getting back into shape must be totally wiping me out! Anyways, I quickly got ready and went out for a 2.6 mile jog before rushing into work. I was a little late but that's okay - it's Monday. Planning another short run this afternoon.

PM - 2 miles with Jake. 

Yoga in the morning then lunchtime Alter-G session - kept it easy for 4 miles at 7:30 pace and 80% bodyweight. Lots of random aches and pains still from IT band, hip, glute, hamstring, and calf...you name it. Still working out all the kinks but I'm confident they will all work themselves out in the next couple months.

AM - 2 mile warm-up then 2 mile tempo in 6:18, 6:21. Scaled back workout for my baby steps training approach post-injury. The first mile felt great and the second mile felt hard. Obviously my (lack of) aerobic conditioning is the limiting factor for now. I do love running faster  though :)

I did a 2012 Review on the Wasatch blog...took me a while to post b/c Jake was taking over the blog all last week! Very tough year of injuries but I'm finally on the upswing.

AM - I really wanted to run outside during lunch b/c it was beautiful outside with the sun shining and 50 degrees, but I finally convinced myself that I need to be smart and stick to the Alter-G plan. 4.3 miles in 30 minutes on the Alter-G treadmill at 80% bodyweight. Ran 5 minutes at 6:20 pace which aerobically felt like 7 min pace but is perfect right now as I am trying to get used to running faster without overworking all the muscles and breathing out of control. 

Woke up this morning with my psoas achy and annoying. After the run, I feel great with no annoyances. This has happened several times in the last couple weeks, and I wonder if the running is enabling the muscle to relax for the rest of the day...

AM - SNOW RUN! Really beautiful outside with all the snow. It was a tough run though...there was about 12" around our place and that's a lot of snow for running (East Millcreek won for most snow in the SLC valley and even the mountains)! Jake and I ran together for about 3 miles then I ran back home for a total of 4.6 miles. I had to take a walk break at 3.8 miles because my lower abdomen cramped up on me but made it home. Average pace 9:45 and that took a lot of effort! :) Jake has a lovely picture of me running on his blog. 

Now the drive in to work...that was not fun at all. Seriously, work isn't cancelled unless there are at least 2 FEET of snow? Geez, we got out of school/work if they even mentioned the chance of snow in Tennessee. This should be a day for building snowmen and sledding!!!

AM - Went to the Oval with the guys crew this morning. I ran 30 minutes with them on their warm-up then proceeded to do my "speedwork". For now, that just means drills and strides - high knees, butt kicks, skips, karaoke, etc then a few pick-ups. Every once in a while I jumped in on a recovery laps from the guys workout and then ran their cooldown. A fun morning, and I'm guessing I ran about 5.5 miles or so.

PM - Took out the skis and did some skinning/skiing for an hour or so above the Avenues with Amiee. I was glad that I could do this without any pain - I'll be able to do some real backcountry skiing before you know it!

Midday run with Jake, Rob, Allie, Kevin, and Collin. The sun was shining so the frigid temps didn't seem too bad. The crew was nice enough to do loops close to the cars so I wouldn't get in over my head, but I made it to 7 miles for the second week in a row. Besides some soreness/fatigue from running and skiing yesterday, I felt good the whole time.

Plan for this next week is very similar to last - about 30 miles total with a tempo, strides + drills, and a longer run. Goal is to have even less pain throughout the day and feel stronger.

AM - Day off from running. I got on the treadmill for about 30 seconds and could feel some weird soreness in my groin, so I decided today would be a good day for recovery. It's been 10 days since I took a day off and the most active weekend I've had post-injury. I did 20 minutes worth of elliptical and walking backwards. 

Really good points made by Running Writings in the post 52 Lessons Learned from a year of weekly writing. So many good ones but here are a few of my favs - 

3.    When it comes to "core strength" for runners, strength in the hips and glutes is most important for preventing injury

25.    A headwind can stifle your running pace by a significant degree, and a tailwind only aids you about half as much as a headwind slows you down.  But on the bright side, you can cut 80% of the air resistance by drafting behind another runner! 

26.    Marathoners should try to do some longer runs right away in the morning in order to improve their body's fat-burning capabilities.  "Fasted workouts" will be slower and more difficult, but they can stave off hitting the wall in a marathon by shifting the energy substrates you rely on while running.

30.    Ice baths can help reduce muscle soreness and maybe even avoid a drop in performance the day after a hard effort.  A large part of the benefits appear to come from the water pressure, not the temperature, so standing in a swimming pool might be nearly as good as sitting in an ice bath. If you do want cold temperatures, don't go below 50° F.

39.    Missing a few hours of sleep on a single night is unlikely to impact your performance significantly, though it can increase your perceived exertion level.  However, chronic sleep deprivation leads to undesirable changes in hormone levels. 

AM - Alter-G Treadmill for 30 minutes at 80% bodyweight. Felt awkward running today...I still have some soreness and I just couldn't get into a rhythm. I used a frozen Diet Mtn Dew that was left in the car as my ice roller afterwards. 

AM - I was planning to do a short tempo during lunch, but the temperature outside was already 20 degrees this morning so I decided to go ahead and run. 2 mile warm-up then 2 mile tempo in 6:18, 6:15. Cooled down 0.6 miles back home. The tempo loop had several sections of ice/snow so I had to be careful not to slip. The effort felt significantly better than last week - still heavy breathing but my legs felt great. I might try for a 3 mile tempo next week. 

Lunch - 4.7 miles in 33 minutes on the Alter-G Treadmill at 80%. Went back and forth between 6:40 and 7 min pace in an attempt to keep things interesting since I forgot to charge my ipod. Felt pretty good today.

USATF Utah Facebook page is giving away free entries to all the circuit races this year! Today we started our first giveaway for the SLC Winter Series 10K. Because the page is still fairly new, you have a pretty good chance of winning :)

AM - 2.6 miles really easy around the neighborhood. 

Spending the day trying to get out all Lulu's secrets while she's still drugged up on pain meds from hip surgery yesterday. 

PM - 2.5 miles around the neighborhood again. Hamstring acting up.

Midday - Ran in Park City with the sun beating and no smog. Felt great for about 6 miles then my injury problems started acting up a bit. I didn't have a watch or Garmin so I didn't realize that I had run so far out which resulted in a pretty slow shuffle the last 2 miles. I'm hoping that I didn't overdo it. Afterwards, I laid in my car for about 30 minutes just soaking in the sunshine.

AM - Headed up to Park City with Allie and James. We ran from the parking lot at Jeremy Ranch to about a mile and a half down the snowpacked Jeremy Ranch Road and back for a total 6 miles of running. Then we took a nice stroll for about a mile afterwards. Beautiful morning up there and so nice to see the blue skies and sun.

Huge congrats to Jake for his 2nd place finish and sub-1:06 at Rock and Roll Phoenix Half!!

AM - 10 minutes on the recumbent bike and 15 minutes of speedy weight training. Jake was talking to the coach of 42 year old Dorota Gruca that ran 1:15:56 yesterday, and he emphasized eating lots of meat, high mileage, and strength training. I've been such a slacker on the strength training lately, but the positive effect it has on hormones, injury prevention, and a whole lot more makes it silly for me to not be doing it. I still can't be doing much lower body yet except for specific PT exercises, but it turns out there's an entire upper body too :)

Day off from running. I always like to take advantage of the weekend, so Mondays are a great day to rest as I'm still recovering from injury. I feel a little achy this morning in my groin and hamstring. 

AM - 3.8 miles outside. Felt very cold this morning which it was (~5 degrees). After 2 miles, I decided to throw in a hint of speedwork - 6 x 1 minute on/1 min off. Ran the "on" portions at about 5:35 pace and easy jog for the "off". It was hard to move faster with 5 lb of clothes on and cold, so this was a great start. Small steps forward.

Lunch - It was a little too soon to run again, so I used my Alter-G time mostly to loosen up. 65% bodyweight (75 lb) and 9 min pace. Ran for 10 minutes then one of my groin muscles cramped so I took a 5 minute backwards walk break, then 15 minutes of running again. Hard to count this as running, so I adjusted the total mileage to 65% (1.8 miles).

AM - 2.1 miles. Speed work was too much, my psoas muscle is throbbing and the glute pain is back this morning. 

PM - Strength training for 30 minutes. Then 2.6 miles, met Jake halfway through. Felt a little better, psoas loosened up more during the run.

AM - Seriously - 20 degrees and raining?! Ran 2.5 miles. Injury feels better today (whew!) but probably needs another day. The short two-a-days make me feel the best so I'm going to be doing a lot more of those for a while. Plus, as Bam pointed out, splitting up the runs is easier on my tendons and ligaments as I'm increasing mileage.

The drive in to work was terrible - 28 cars on the side of the road on 6 miles of highway. Extremely icy and scary conditions. Be careful!

PM - 2.6 miles with Jake on the tempo loop. 

AM - 5.5 miles with the TADA! crew at Sugarhouse Park. The loop was very icy, but we only had two falls total so I'd call it a success. Probably should have considered bringing the ice skates though! Best part of the run was Allie running through the ice layer/snow instead of the sidewalks and yelling "Take that Woodlands!". Hahaha, still laughing about that. 

AM - The last few days I've had a lot of ups and downs with injury pain so I wasn't sure if I was going to jog this or use it as a tempo run. I felt pretty good on the 2-mile warm-up with Allie and James. So tempo it was! Ran a pretty consistent 6:16 pace throughout. No problems with my hip and only a little fatigue towards the end. I think the fastest I could run with my current fitness is high 18s...not too bad. A great workout! I did not cool down at all because the race was enough stress.

Lulu was nice enough to take some photos. Here are more pics of the race.

AM - Beautiful morning outside, no smog and much warmer temperatures. I ran 5 miles easy around neighborhoods. Although I felt great, the distal hamstring got a little irritated after 4 miles so I headed home then.

PM - 1 mile in the snow. I couldn't resist - loved it! Strength and drill circuit.

AM - 2 miles. My hamstring and glute are a bad achy today...I'm in a really frustrated mood. I don't know what I'm doing wrong to get over this injury. If it's not the hip, it's the hamstring, glutes, or abs. Just tired of dealing with it today. 

PM - Weight training 30 minutes and pool running 30 minutes. 

AM - Ran Jake's to-work route with him for 2 miles then back home. My glute muscle is acting up...I don't think it's firing correctly. I can feel the compensation of other muscles and I bet that's why my hamstring is bothering me too. I might have to take a couple no running days to let everything calm down. 

PM - 30 minutes of pool running with Jake. 

AM - 20 minutes on the exercise bike. 

I figured out why my injury has been so irritated. On Sunday, I decided to try this Drill and Strength Circuit. I would highly recommend it for others that are healthy, but it turns out my muscles cannot handle that yet. It's crazy to me that a few high knees and butt kicks can cause so many problems, but it's good to know because I still have a lot to work on before trying to run more. 

PM - Upper body weight training and strengthening for 40 minutes. Alter-G treadmill super easy run, 9 min pace at 65% bodyweight. Walked backwards for a while. Then I floated in the pool while Jake did his pool running.

AM - 5K around some new neighborhoods, felt better today and made sure I didn't feel any compensation.

PM - 1.7 miles with Jake around the SH 24 Hour Fitness.  Terrible place to run.

Coach Jay Johnson posted this a while back but I re-read it today -

When you get injured you need to do your best to fight impatience. You’re injured. Accept the fact that the original training plan you had is no longer valid. Could you go crazy on the elliptical and do hours of General Strength and Mobility (GSM)? Sure. But the body heals faster when the macro stress is lower, so you’re probably better off maintaining levels of GSM and doing a bit of pool work or walking (assuming your injury is one that would safely allow for those modalities) to give you body more energy to heal. You’re a runner, so you’re dying to get back to running, yet you need to give your body time to heal and when you spend hours cross training you may or may not be aiding the healing process. I get that you’re dying to run, but you need to be intelligent about the road back to running.

What you can’t do is this. Let’s say you have a goal race, a half marathon, in twelve weeks. In week ten you get a foot injury. You’re out for ten days with no running, then you need another ten days to get back to normal running (for example, some light running every other day). So now, after missing three weeks of running, you’re seven weeks out from the race. If you’ve raced that distance before, then you should be able to finish the race. Will you PR? No. But can you finish? Yes. Should you try to get back on the original schedule, the pre-injury schedule? No way. You just got injured and the volumes that the original plan had you running in week seven are much too high for you, a you that has missed three weeks of normal training. This is where acceptance comes in. You have to accept the idea that while you won’t be able to PR at the race, you can have a good time and race the race. Note: this is where a coach can help because they can give guidance as to all of the intermediary steps between the injury and the race.

When you get injured, be patient. Accept that when you experience an injury the training plan that you originally had is no longer going to work and that you’ll have to come up with a new plan. If you’re impatient with this process then you’ll either get injured again or you’ll be extremely disappointed in your race performance. So instead be patient, knowing that consistency is the key to long term improvement