I am one with the levee and the levee with me

1st run - I've got a little catching up to do on the blogging, but I got a few good workouts in during Christmas break. I missed a couple of runs, which wasn't good, but it was partly because my heart stopped for about 4 seconds while I was playing basketball with my family one day. Yeah, it stopped. It scared the living daylights out of me, but supposedly this is a normal phenomenon among athletes. Yikes!

Anyway, I ran 8 miles this afternoon in the glorious snow. 64:xx total time. I ran into Sasha on the trail running with one of his girls and chatted for a bit. I'll have to add a few more miles tonight.

2nd run - Added an easy 4 tonight. The roads were slippery - average pace was about 8:20.

AM - 3 easy miles this morning. Again, the pace was at least 8:15.

PM - I showed up at the track this afternoon to run mile repeats with the team. I think that my expectations for myself just got bumped up a notch. I've been doing these on my own at around 5:00/mile thinking that I was doing a good workout. Today I averaged 4:49.

So after my workout Saturday, my confidence was lacking quite a bit. One of these days I'll get around to blogging it, but I ran 2xmile on the short track in 4:50 and 4:46, and it felt difficult. I was worried that I had lost fitness from being at sea level and missing some of my workouts. Coach wanted the slowest guys to start at 4:52 and work their way down. I figured I might be able to average 4:55 for the entire workout.

I started with a few of the rear guys, and came through the first one in 4:52. I felt very sluggish and didn't think I could run another that fast.

The second rep felt much better, and I didn't pay much attention to the time, but just to stay with the guys I was with. 4:45 on that rep. I was shocked. A little too fast, but I didn't start to tire till the final lap.

The third one was more conservative, and we ran a 4:49. Again, I didn't start to tire too bad till the final lap. The fourth rep was a lot more difficult, and the last two laps felt closer to race effort. I lost contact with the two guys I was with, but finished in 4:49 and was happy with it. They were 4:45ish.

So I am very pleased with this workout. It gives me confidence that I can run considerably faster than last race. The team is running a tempo on Thursday, but I figure I'll sit it out in the interest of saving my legs for my last shot.

Mile reps (4:45 - 5:00 rest):

4:52

4:45

4:49

4:49

AM - Ran an easy 7 this morning. 56:10 total time. Ran into Sasha on the river trail and ran with him about a mile. My legs feel tired.

PM - Added an easy 4 tonight down 800 N.  

Something very bad happened today. I slipped on an icy sidewalk and hurt my knee. I had it X-rayed and it's not broken, but it's in a lot of pain. Lots of swelling. Too much to run on. I'll have to rest up and see if it will be usable by Saturday, but I doubt it. I asked the doctor about getting a cortisone shot, but she laughed at me. Yeah, laughed at me. No sense of urgency in these doctors.

So I swung by Eyestone's office, he didn't seem too concerned about it. Just let it rest and heal up, either I can run Saturday or I can't.

I'm bummed.  

No change in my knee from yesterday. I can't bend it more than about 15 degrees. I've kept ice on it as much as I can, but it's still swollen. I'll be able to run on it by late next week, if I'm lucky.

This isn't looking good. I notice very little improvement over yesterday - my range of motion is still incredibly limited. I'm keeping ice on it, but it is healing a lot slower than I'd hoped.

Anyway, I went to the track to watch the men's 3k. Brandon Hebbert won in 8:31ish. The guys I was with during the workout with finished in low to mid 8:40s. It was fun to watch. With luck I can be racing again in a couple weeks. ISU has a meet in 2 weeks, I'm tentatively planning to run it. Some UVU guys I talked to today are going to drive up and split a hotel room and invited me to come along if I'd like.

Some of the range of motion is coming back. I went to the weight room to use an elliptical, but didn't realize there are only 4... and I came at the worst possible time. I'm getting up early tomorrow so I can make sure to get a workout in. I tried a bike, but I couldn't bend my knee enough. I tried to jog a little, but it couldn't take the weight. It was frustrating. 

AM - Got to the weight room right at 6 so I could claim my elliptical. Did an hour on it, and managed to keep my heart rate between 140 and 145. I've measured it at about 140 on training runs, so hopefully this will help me preserve some of my aerobic conditioning. It's disgusting how much I sweat in stationary air.

I also dropped by Eyestone's office, and I didn't make the cut. Bad timing on this injury, I think I could have had a great race last weekend.

45 minutes on the elliptical tonight. I got there a little late, so didn't get as much time as I wanted. Kept the HR around 140-145 the first half, then up around 160-165 the last 20 minutes. I jogged about 100 meters, and things are feeling much better, but it's not quite there. My knee isn't lifting and my foot kind of drags on the ground.

Got to the weight room bright and early this morning for an hour on the elliptical. They wouldn't let me in until I shaved (what do they expect, who shaves that early, anyway?) and I feel extremely resentful for it. Mostly because my only option of shaving without missing the workout was to use their butter knife razors and watered down shaving cream. It felt like taking a potato peeler to my skin. Anyway, HR stayed at about 135 the first 20 minutes, then 142-147 the last 40 minutes.

I'm itching to run again. Tonight I might try a short one. I can bend the knee more than 90 degrees now, but it is still stiff. Maybe a slow shuffle would be sustainable.

45 minutes on the elliptical this morning. Tried to run tonight, but could only make it about one block.

Got an hour in on the elliptical. HR 140-145. This has got to be the most boring form of exercise ever invented. It's driving me insane. I ran a few strides but decided not to risk making it worse. I'm still optimistic, maybe by the end of this week I'll be able to run again.

Another hour on the elliptical. I might try to run a little bit tonight, but I don't want to push things. I had trouble getting my HR up to the normal levels. I was working harder than last night, but it was difficult to keep it about 140. 

Ran a couple of miles today. The knee is stiff and hurts a little but seems to be working okay. I only ran 2 miles to see if it would hurt it, help it, or if the knee would care at all. It's Saturday that I'm typing this, and the knee doesn't seem to have cared. I'll try a few more miles tonight.

I should be supplementing this with the elliptical work, but 1) I'm not sure if the elliptical is helping or hindering the knee recovery, and 2) I hate the elliptical. I've taken a couple days off and the knee seemed to do much better. I'm afraid that if I keep forcing myself out of bed at 6 am that I will quit everything altogether. Since walking on got shot down, I think I'm going to turn my attention to the marathon. 

4 miles! Woohoo! My knee actually felt better today after yesterday's run, so I pushed the run to 4 miles. Not pain-free miles, but it wasn't bad. I probably won't go past this until I've made better progress, but this is starting to look better.

I'm a little surprised at how bad this injury turned out to be. I thought I'd only miss a couple days. This has been much worse than I'd hoped, but at least it's getting better. With any luck, I won't have to sue that gas station after all ;)