[S]he Conquers Who Endures

So, I'm pretty sure I solved my hamstring issue, which turns out to not be a hamstring issue but piriformis syndrome!!! I realized sitting at my desk that my hamstring started to hurt more while sitting. This didn't make sense since the hamstring should be relaxed in that position. I came across piriformis syndrome on a google search and found exercises for stretching the muscle and sciatica nerve flossing. I tried the flossing and...bam!! My pain went almost entirely away!! A dull pain that has been hanging around 3-4 weeks, almost gone...hallelujah! I spent the rest of the day sitting in positions to stretch my piriformis. Then headed out for a 12 mile run after dark. I limit my glance to my watch to check my pace during dark runs so I don't break things in my legs. After a mile and some even asphalt, I did a pace check and realized my first mile was 7:31 pace!!! Opps! Too fast. Tried to slow up just a little (normally these runs are 7:45 to 7:50 pace for me), 2nd mile 7:26!! What?!! Just went with it because it didn't feel like a threshold pace. My heart rate, breathing, and soft tissue felt in sync and working comfortably. I did 8 small bridge repeats to prep for overpasses at Disney and finished in a 7:22 min/mi average pace for 12 miles!! My theory is that flossing the sciatica not only helped the pain, but I think my pinched sciatica was limiting my ability to use my muscles (at least I read that muscle weakness can result). Also, I did notice I was "guarding" during runs when I had more pain. Oh my gosh, it felt so good to run pain free and it felt amazing to fly! I never thought I'd hit these paces for that far in this training cycle. I'm reaching my 5k race pace pr for 12 miles!! So awesome. After the run I focused on recovery - epsom salt bath and ice contrast therapy (works wonders for me) followed by going to bed in my recovery pants. :P Gotta recover for my 10k turkey trot Thanksgiving day and 22 miler Saturday! I'm not planning on racing the 10k, I was going to use it as a threshold run, which used to be around 7:20 to 7:30 pace for me. Now I'm not sure what pace that is!!! I will start by feel and try to go no faster than 7:10 min/mi pace, don't want to blow out my legs before my 22 miler. 

7 miles recovery including 6x0.1 mile strides with 0.1 mile walking recovery. First 4.7 miles were an easy 9:00 min/mi pace trying to focus on slowing down. This pace is getting to be uncomfortably slow, but this is a big week of running so why push it. Paces for strides were: 5:59, 5:27, 5:16, 5:51, 5:26, 5:32 min/mi. No PRs, but I think this may be the first set of strides all below 6:00 min/mi pace! :)

Recovery day.

Bikram AM. I can tell I am getting fitter and fitter. Bikram was pretty easy today and I was nailing the poses better than ever. My entire body felt so zen and peaceful afterward. Whoa, I'm starting to sound like a yogi! Weird...namaste...

Passing out on the plane PM 

2.5 mile warmup to the race at a 9:00 min/mi pace, felt like I was dragging. The course is a lot of rolling hills (I guess that's why they call it "Highland Park"), and the forecast says we will have 18 MPH sustained winds. Great, won't be a fun, fast race. Oh well, I had a great 12 miler earlier in the week so what should I expect? Took a honey stinger before the race, just for the caffeine. :) Started out comfortably fast not looking at my watch to go by feel. First mile was 7:12. Okay, I'll take that. This course is rolling hills and I new the first mile had a nice net downhill. The second and third miles were supposed to be more uphills, those splits were: 7:14, 7:23. Was feeling very fortunate for running all those bridge repeats in Boston/Cambridge! Mile 4 was a little easier, 7:10. Mile 5 to finish was supposed to be pretty tough. Mile 5 was: 7:20. Okay, feeling very fatigued but it's only 1.2 miles left. I haven't done this kind of running in a while, just focus on improving your threshold up a treacherous hill wind a terrible headwind!! Ahhh! Mile 6: 7:20. Last 0.2 mile was 6:44 pace. Watch time after crossing the finish and stopped running: 44:43.97. Expected chip time: 44:42 or 44:43. Posted finish time: 44:46?? Whatevs. Still an awesome run for me. 2.5 mile jog home at 9:00 pace basking in my glory. :)

5 mile recovery run with whippy wind. 9:15 min/mi average pace.

Went to an injury screening yesterday to be sure I do in fact have piriformis syndrome and no hamstring issues. Turns out I have a bit of both. Fortunately the problem with my hamstrings is that I'm getting a significant buildup of adhesions, and I know the reason. I just can't seem to find a decent massage therapist in Cambridge/Boston. I've gone to 5 different ones in the past month and a half. I need trigger point! I was sticking with Massage Envy, but now thinking I should just drop some Benjamins and go to some higher quality places. The physical therapist said I should be getting 3 massages a week to break these suckers up initially!! Luckily, I had a 1.5 hour massage lined up with my awesome massage therapist in Chicago right after the appointment. He was very surprised with how bad my adhesions got but did a great job breaking things up. So happy I had this lined up the day before my 22 miler!!

Onto my long run. I was supposed to run 7 miles early and meet up with my friend for the final 15. Got to the path ahead of schedule and realized I forgot my running shoes of all things! Got my shoes, and was able to get in 3 miles before meeting my friend. I decided not to hold back as much as normal on my long runs. My friend and I were scooting along at a comfortable pace chit chatting. I was a little oblivious of the pace and wasn't really checking my watch, but she kept calling out our paces. "Woa, were going 7:59...7:52! Maybe we should slow up for the middle of your run?" She felt good after her 15 miles, and joined me for 3 more miles. Mile 21 was pretty tough, but mile 22 was easier than 21! My GPS is always off quite a bit on this route so I always recalculate my pace based on the watch time and mile markers after the run. 8:03 min/mile average pace for 22 miles!!! Holy cow, I may just BQ in January!!!!