Bret

AM - 4.5 miles with Dan and the dogs from his house doing the normal route along the horse farm roads.   I wore the Alphafly Nike's this morning and I had very little if any left hip pain, but because it is still a little swollen, the range of motion is a little restricted.  Dan's dog was really not in the mood for running a third day in a row, and as a result the pace was slower - which honestly was of benefit to me to keep from potentially pushing too much.  Finally got a full night's rest without coughing.   Heartrate on this effort was nearly back to normal after being so high the last week or so.  New bruising I noticed yesterday, was likely from Saturday's run in the NB shoes which are now in the garbage can, and it expanded a bit over the day yesterday in the upper part of the hip.  So strange...never had a muscle or tendon strain with such marked bruising in all my years of running. 

AM - 4.5 miles with Dan and Finn in the neighborhood.  Dan, feeling unencumbered by slow Rosie ran a bit faster than I wanted to, as I am being cautious not to cause any further issue with the hip.  We kept it right at or below 9 min pace as a compromise.  Honestly, I am actually quite pleased with the progress of the injury - feels like I am a week or so away from resuming normal training volumes.  

AM - 5.25 miles with Dan and the dogs from his house onto the horse farm trail roads.   Ran in the Rides again.  Good that we ran with Rosie who kept pace easier than I would have probably pushed.  I am perhaps a little impatient to feel "normal" - the hip is remarkably improved perhaps only slight discomfort, but functionally still not 100% with some weakness.  I am also still dealing with a cough with a virus that has not exited my system yet.   Hopefully I will gradually improve day to day to get back to feeling myself on runs. 

AM - 3.25 miles with Finn in the neighborhood before church.  Tried to keep my HR under 130 for the run - in doing so, I ended up running around a 10 min pace.   Either the virus and / or the injury depleted my fitness more than expected, or the strength in the area of the hip is not yet normal - either way the higher than normal HR is starting to concern me.  Will try to do some runs at an even slower pace for several days to 'reset' the HR. 

PM - 4 miles on the treadmill - pace was like 11 mins per mile but avg HR was 126 which was the goal.   Did 2000 meters on the indoor rowing machine afterwards and my HR was like 10-15 bpm faster than what I normally see at that effort.  So, I think it is more likely not so much lack of strength in the hip as it is loss of fitness.  

AM - 4.25 miles with Dan and Finn on the Milton trail - at 10 min pace - which kept the HR in check under 135 until the last couple of miles where I was telling a story about the Olympic trials marathon and got excited and was running faster - and the HR climbed.   I got home and ran another 2 miles on the treadmill at 11 min pace keeping the HR under 130.   Hoping this HR training will work over the next several days to a week or two.  

AM - 5 miles with Dan and Finn through the neighborhood to the Groves subdivision across Birmingham Hwy.   Cold today - run was slow-paced again to try to keep my HR under wraps.   Couple of the uphills I walked a bit to keep the HR from reaching 160.  I felt fine - and the hip is really not causing any issue; but I am frustrated with the high HR at such slow paces as 9:45 to 10:15 per mile.   From what I have read, post viral infections (even non-covid) it is not uncommon to have HR jump 25-30 beats on normal training efforts for a while until the body is fully recovered.   Still have a cough - so I will just have to be patient and keep my pace slow enough to allow for a recovery - hope it is sooner than later.

PM - 2 miles on the treadmill - was able to run at 9:20 pace with the HR average of 132, but much of the second mile was nearer to 141.  So, some improvement even over the course of the day.   

AM - 4 miles with Finn in the neighborhood as Dan was out of town on business.   Ran slightly better today with my pace gradually returning to normal - with the HR not quite as high - but still higher than normal.  

AM a little over 4 miles with Dan and Finn at Milton HS and then another mile or so on the treadmill.  Much improved pace today (it is mostly a flat route) but the HR was still on the high side especially near the end of the run - so my treadmill run was more of a cool down effort with HR in the low 120s.   Traveling to VA Bch to visit family this afternoon and over the weekend.  

AM - 6.25 miles in Va Bch from my brother in law's house out to a large lake in a nearby neighborhood - did a couple of loops around it.   Pace is alarmingly slow and concerning.   It is as if my legs do not have the strength to drive a normal training pace and so the extra effort it seems to be taking is resulting in a higher than normal HR.   I intentionally kept the effort in the high 130's HR range but the last couple of miles it crept up to the high 140's as the legs fatigued.   I know I cannot force things - but I also don't look forward to running a marathon at 10:30 pace...hopefully I will strengthen and my HR will settle down in the next 3 weeks. 

AM - 8.25 miles in Va Bch - intentionally slower to keep the HR below 130 - picked it up after 4 miles a little bit - but overall a very slow pace.   

AM - 4.5 miles in VA Bch in the rain.  Heading home today.  HR was up too high for the pace I was running.  Calling the cardiologist tomorrow. 

AM - 3.25 miles with Dan and Finn in the rain this morning in the neighborhood.  Watch was not recording the HR very well - and we kept the pace very easy at just under 10 mins.  Did not feel as bad as I had felt the previous couple of days - but will be scheduling a cardiologist appt as soon as possible later this morning. 

AM - 4 miles with Finn up to North Valley.  Felt much better today - more fluid and relaxed and though my HR was still higher than normal, it was not nearly as high and the overall "feel" was better.  

AM - 3.25 miles with Dan and Finn at Milton HS.  I had an early cardiologist appt. so we just did a short run.  Dan actually ran less because his left hamstring was really painful.  My pace was better and I felt stronger - so I think the additional iron supplements have begun to make a difference.  Cardiologist agreed that the iron-deficiency symptoms (weakness, fatigue, high HR in exercise) are more consistent than heart/circulatory problems - but will keep an eye on things over the next several days.  

AM - just less than 5.25 miles with Finn this morning through the neighborhood across Birmingham and into the Grove.   Pace and strength was good.  HR was high after the second mile climbing the steps - and remained just under threshold at 8:45 pace; last mile was anaerobic at 8:15 pace - so not great or even normal for me, but its getting in range and the improvement over last Friday for example was materially better where I could not even cause myself to run sub 9 min pace let alone 9:30( like physically unable regardless of the HR).  So this is progress from that perspective.  Probably categorize this as a tempo run with a VO2 max finish.   Will run light and easy aerobic pace tomorrow and the next few days, hoping to see more progress by next week this time.

AM - just under 5 miles this morning with Finn in the neighborhood.  Ran easy with the intent of keeping this aerobic and this seemed to go well today - pace gradually went down as the run progressed and my body got comfortable and though the last mile or so which had some uphills saw my HR get a little high, the overall average was where it should be, and the pace was nearly back to normal for me.  

AM  - 11.25 miles with Finn on a windy chilly morning as a front was making its way through.   This was an interesting day as initially I was not super motivated to run too far outside and in fact had considered doing a longer run indoors to manage my HR better without all of the hills outside, but Finn really wanted to run.  So, my thought at first was to go about 7.5 or 8 but the route I chose gave me options - and because I felt reasonably decent around 2-3 miles I opted for one of the longer turns, which took me out Taylor road.  At that time my HR was in zone 2-3 and I was running about 8:30 pace for mile 4 but when I turned on Batesville and the long uphill, my HR got up to 160 and correspondingly, (or maybe because of it) the left hip injury just seemed to be weak and fatigued - as if 5 miles was the limit for it today but I pressed on, bypassing the Triple Crown turn (mostly because I wanted to avoid the very steep hill to Freemanville) and turned later instead at Providence which honestly at that point my pace slowed to just under 9 mins and though I was ok on the flats, and downhills, I wanted to get at least 10 miles without too many sharp climbs, so I ran the cut-through at Summit Hill elementary and headed up Thompson Rd.   The two climbs on Thompson and the one in North Bluff when my HR was already in the high 150's were humbling.  When we started up the climb on Dinsmore, Finn unexpected stopped to throw-up and so I decided to take the shortest option home down the trail behind the old Milton country club.   My form was completely favoring my right side for strength to carry the left side functionally weakend muscles through.   Nothing hurt, but I probably looked pretty bad finishing up essentially on a tired set of legs and nearly bonking.  Pleased with the pace just over 9 mins which last week was almost a minute slower and the distance was 3.5 miles shorter.   Hoping to recover well and see additional progress next week.  Never had a marathon where I was training with the goal of being able to endure just to finish - but this is the reality given the last several weeks of set backs. 

AM - 5 miles recovery effort on the treadmill - mostly because I wanted to keep the HR in check but also it was in the 20's outside.  About 4.5 miles into it I notice my form started to falter a bit on the left side/hip - it is as if that muscle gets to a fatigue point and things start to gradually get a little wonky.  Not sure if the muscle will get stronger with the workouts or if I should run less for more rehab/recovery to allow for more time to heal/strengthen.  

AM - just 2 easy miles on the trail with Finn this morning.  Goal is to allow my body to rest for the next 2 weeks.

AM - same as yesterday - ran slower kept the HR under 110. 

AM - same 2 mile route as yesterday in the neighborhood - but instead of staring at my watch and worrying about my HR - I just ran to feel, which this morning felt very close to feeling normal - and so after my run I looked at my watch and my first mile was 9:30 and my second mile was 8:23 and my avg HR was 135.  Not completely terrible, and not completely normal for me yet, but I felt very pleased how I felt today.  

AM - same as yesterday - did not run quite as quickly in the first mile - felt a little less pleased today than I did yesterday - and I suppose if I had no race in my immediate future I would just do these short easy runs for a little while until I didn't have to think about it. 

AM - same as yesterday in the neighborhood, but I did not feel as good and my HR was higher again. 

AM - 2.25 miles on the trail with Finn - started off easy enough but my HR jumped into the 130's on the climb in the first mile and though I ended up with an avg HR of 135 at 9:30 pace, my HR was in the 150's in the second mile on the long climb back.  It is a bit distressing and discouraging to me.   I am otherwise feeling reasonably healthy with the hip and the other lingering injuries from the last year or so.  It is almost as if my HR issue is one that may linger for a while until it resolves itself.   

PM - I did another 2.75 miles on the treadmill later in the day to experiment a bit with the HR.   

AM - 1 mile very easy with Finn.

AM - 1 mile with Finn - very careful yesterday with zero activity and NSAIDS every 4 hours, got 8 hours of sleep and felt remarkably improved.  Ran at a pace 70 seconds faster per mile today at the same HR and felt much more normal.  I have my Garmin set with an alert should my HR go above 130 and today my avg was 124 with a pace of 10:40.  Would love to see similar progress over the next few days.  

AM - same as yesterday about the same time and HR. 

AM - 1.75 miles with Finn on the trail.  Got a course of prednisone yesterday for the hip and because it was late in the day, and the pack said to take the full day's dosage all at once if you do not get it in the morning - I took it, which resulted in a spike in my BP and HR which resulted in a collective decision in my house that I should go to the ER just in case it is something more serious...so 3 hours later they released me finding no major concerns and telling me to have fun on my trip to Japan tomorrow.  

AM - 1 mile with Finn before heading to the airport to go to Japan for the marathon.