This was a very good week overall: I hit 82 miles (although not all of it was running), I got in two decent workouts and I upped my long run to 13 miles. I am dealing with a bit of a hip issue though - my hip flexor has flared up and is a little tender, especially after hard runs. I can still run on it but decided to do most of my easy runs on the elliptical trainer to give my hip a rest. I still did all my hard workouts, my long run and a couple other runs outside or on the treadmill. It was fairly painful on Monday but was much better by the end of the week.
Based on this recent injury, yeah I get a lot of injuries now for some reason, I think that I am going to do a little experiment this spring racing season. The ultimate goal is not to see who can run the most miles. The real goal is to get to the starting line (actually, the finish line) healthy and run the fastest time. Since I am already running most of my easy days much easier than I have in the past I am going to go one step further and do all of my easy runs on either the elliptical trainer or the stationary bike. This will have a twofold benefit - first, it will cut down the pounding and two, it will provide for a little cross-training and work some of the support muscles that I do not regularly work when running high mileage. On my easy days I will do the long run on the elliptical and run the short run and on hard days I will do the short run on the elliptical and run the longer, harder run. This way I am running every day and will still get in almost 80 miles per week of running at my peak but will cut the abuse on my tired, old body by 40-50%. Hopefully this works out.
Based on this recent injury, yeah I get a lot of injuries now for some reason, I think that I am going to do a little experiment this spring racing season. The ultimate goal is not to see who can run the most miles. The real goal is to get to the starting line (actually, the finish line) healthy and run the fastest time. Since I am already running most of my easy days much easier than I have in the past I am going to go one step further and do all of my easy runs on either the elliptical trainer or the stationary bike. This will have a twofold benefit - first, it will cut down the pounding and two, it will provide for a little cross-training and work some of the support muscles that I do not regularly work when running high mileage. On my easy days I will do the long run on the elliptical and run the short run and on hard days I will do the short run on the elliptical and run the longer, harder run. This way I am running every day and will still get in almost 80 miles per week of running at my peak but will cut the abuse on my tired, old body by 40-50%. Hopefully this works out.
Monday: 8 mi (57) Slow, easy recovery run. My hip is a bit tender so I iced, took advil and used the foam roller to work it out. I am not sure if it is tendonitis or if I strained it by running on the ice last week. Hopefully if I attend to it this week I can get over it before I have to take any time off.
Tuesday:
- AM - 4 mi (30) Real slow and easy on the treadmill.
- PM - 9 mi (63:00) I did 56 minutes easy on the elliptical trainer since this was just an easy recovery run and I wanted to give my hip a rest and followed this up with just a mile on the treadmill. Felt good.
- AM - 4 mi (30min) Real slow and easy on the elliptical trainer to give my hip a rest.
- PM - 10 mi (64:20) I did a slow 2mi warm up and 2 mi cool down along with a 6mi steady-state run. I started the workout at 10mph/1% incline and then increased the incline by 0.5% each mile. I was only able to do this for 3 miles (mile 3 was 10mph/2.0%). 2.0% incline seemed a bit too hard so I backed off to 1.5%. I did the 5th mile at 2% again and then did the last mile at 1% but gradually increased the speed from 10.2mph to 10.5mph. 10.5mph/1% seemed much easier than 10mph/2%. Easy tomorrow.
- AM - 4 mi (30min) Real slow and easy on the stationary bike to give my hip a rest.
- PM - 8 mi (60:00) On the elliptical trainer again just to work out the legs a bit.
- AM - 4 mi (30min) Real slow and easy on the elliptical to give my hip a rest.
- PM - 9 mi (64:20) This was a "progressive hill fartlek" again. I did an easy 2 mile warm up and 1 mile cool down (should have done more but I was pressed for time) and 6 miles of hill work. I alternated 0.5mi on and 0.25mi rest, all at 8.6mph, with the hard parts at 5.5-7.0% incline and the rest was at 1% incline. The interesting thing about running hard runs this way is that you get the effective workout of running at a faster pace, but you also have to run for a long time. For example, in bouts 7 and 8 I ran at an effective pace of 5min/mi for 0.5 miles, but was only actually running 8.6mph. Therefore, I ran this effective pace for 3:30 while if I were doing this workout on the track I would cover the 0.5 mi in 2:30. So, not only are you running at a faster pace but you are doing it for longer. The 0.5 mi hard sections were more like 1120 meters (0.5*3:30/2:30 *1600m = 1120m). The following table shows the incline and effective pace for each section.
| Bout | Incline | Effective Pace | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5.5% | 5:28 | Good |
| 2 | 5.5% | 5:28 | Good |
| 3 | 6.0% | 5:19 | Moderate |
| 4 | 6.0% | 5:19 | Moderate |
| 5 | 6.5% | 5:09 | Hard |
| 6 | 6.5% | 5:09 | Hard |
| 7 | 7.0% | 5:00 | Really hard |
| 8 | 7.0% | 5:00 | Nearly died |
Saturday: 9.0 mi (70:00) This was on the elliptical trainer for the entire time. Really boring but part of the routine I guess.
Sunday: 13.0 mi (1:42:) I went up to Hollis and ran with Brian, Joe, Trent, Molly and Chris around parts of the Applefest Half Marathon course. The weather was awesome (if you were in New England this winter you would understand) - it was 45 degrees but really windy. We went at a pretty easy pace but I think this is what my body needed. I felt really good afterward and my hip did not bother me at all.
I am hoping to get into the high 80's next week and try to hit three workouts (hill fartleks on Monday and Friday and a steady-state run on Wednesday).
I am hoping to get into the high 80's next week and try to hit three workouts (hill fartleks on Monday and Friday and a steady-state run on Wednesday).
