Sock tans

Quad has been hurting since I got it massaged out last week and calves are still pretty sore from Friday. Decided to keep today's run short because we're doing 4 days of speed this week starting tomorrow. Buckling up for that.

Went into the training room after, Nate helped me stretch out. Ice and STEM on my quad. It actually seemed to help a lot.

On an unrelated note, I finished my lab for Exercise Physiology and apparently I could be a jumper. Haha. My vertical jump was 59.69 cm (23.5 in) and above 48.3 cm is considered well above average (95th percentile). Based on the highest 5 second interval during the Wingate test, my Peak Anaerobic Power was 832 Watts, which is classified as "elite" (above 730 Watts). My Absolute Anaerobic Capacity was only classified as excellent with 520.7 Watts (elite is above 541 Watts), but my Relative Anaerobic Capacity was classified as elite with 8.3 Watts/kg. So basically if I was a smaller size I might've been elite all around! Lol. To be quite honest I'm surprised at my results, I was sure my Anaerobic power was lacking.

Woke up and Coach had texted that steeplechase practice was cancelled, I gratefully went back to sleep :)

Quad hurt more today but that’s probably because I didn’t heat before. Warmups and 2 mile warmup, strides then started. Workouts were 6x500s for 800 group and 12x500s for 5k group, coach just had us all run together. Today I decided I’d try to go for the right pace and not worry about being able to finish the whole workout, it’s time I work on pacing. Coach said the goal pace for today was 1:45-1:50, which is 84-88 pace. My times went 1:41, 1:42, 1:42, 1:43, 1:43, 1:50 (consistently coming through 400 in 81-82ish on those). The last one was rough, definitely hit my threshold on the 4th. Need to work on pushing through. Coach pulled me after that, kinda disappointed but also grateful because it would’ve been a rough 6 more. Cooled down to 6.5. Then steepled a bit afterwards.

AM: 2 miles easy

PM: Best 80% I’ve done. Decided to just tackle it today. We did a mile warmup then 2 laps on the track, then straight into the 80. Mile on the track, mile on the block lap, mile on the track. First mile was 5:45, then just tried not to let the gap Morgan had on me get much bigger. The last mile was a struggle but I did better at working through than I did in my race on Saturday. Finished with 18:52, that’s a 45 second improvement. Then to the hill over the overpass and did whistle hills, 3 sets of 30, 35, 25. Worked hard on those too. Best workout I’ve had in a long time. 

Then got some really disheartening news. I might have the beginnings of a stress fracture in my thigh. Nate’s leaning towards inflammation of the periosteum but I’m going in for an X-ray tomorrow just to make sure and will get those results on Monday. It’s gotten progressively worse and while I was rolling out my hamstring I felt some sharp pain in my thigh up on top. Quad muscles seem fine, pain is deep. I’m really hoping it’s not a stress fracture, I might cry if it is. I’m finally starting to improve, I don’t want to be set back! But for now I’ll be biking and pool running, I can do a couple miles on the turf tomorrow if it doesn’t hurt it taking a couple minutes break between each mile. 

Weights later, mostly just did the core and upper body stuff.

Coach wouldn’t let me do anything today. No biking, running, or pool running. Went in and got an X-ray, should have those results in 24-48 hours. Nate says that if the X-ray doesn’t show anything I’ll have to get an MRI.

No running, biking or swimming again today. X-ray results are back, no major fractures detected. Nate said he didn’t expect there to be any, apparently stress fractures rarely show up on X-rays. Nate thinks we will have caught it soon enough so it might be a pre-stress fracture (stress reaction), but further imaging is needed to know for sure. I have an appointment with the doctor on Monday.

Core workout for a little over an hour.

Today’s positives:

1) I get to start biking and pool running next week

2) I am a lot stronger than my freshman year self. Back then I could only do like 3 proper pushups in a row. Today I did 3 sets of 15. I also would’ve called it quits after 20 minutes back then. I did well over 100 sit-ups today where 100 used to be a big accomplishment. Planks, Russian twists, wall-sits, lunges, squats, etc. all felt easier than I remember. It was only the V-ups and knee-to-elbow crunches that got me good. Can’t do any jumping but I’m grateful I can still do some things.