I have been pretty beat about posting in my blog lately and it is directly correlated to my ability to run. If I can not run I do not feel like posting, eating right, reading race results or even thinking about running. I guess that it is a defense mechanism to keep myself from getting depressed. I am slowly switching back to running and figured that I should start posting again too. I was planning on running the first New England USATF Grand Prix race, the Jones Town and Country 10 Mile race in Amherst, MA, last weekend but did not want to risk running on the injury too soon. Based on what I heard about the weather it was probably not a bad thing that I missed that one. Unfortunately, I have to miss the second Grand Prix race, The New Bedford Half Marathon, on March 15th because of a wedding. Hopefully all of my friends will be married soon so that I can stop missing races for weddings.
So, about the injury. My hip flexor was bothering me on every run so I just bit the bullet and stopped running cold turkey to give it a rest. Since I did not want to lose all of my conditioning (I was up to 90 miles/week before I stopped running), I have been doing the equivalent time on both the stationary bike and the elliptical trainer. Over the last three weeks I generally spent between 30 and 40 minutes on the stationary bike in the morning and then about an hour on the elliptical trainer in the evening or at lunch each day. This has been REALLY boring, but I have to do it. Last week I started adding 1 mile of running each day at the end of the time on the elliptical trainer. At first I was not too hopeful because although it was not painful to run I was definitely aware of my hip. Since I did not seem to be going backwards I upped the run to 2 miles on Sunday (3/1) and that felt good too. I am not sure what to do about entering the equivalent miles in my log but I may just punt it and start fresh next week.
The plan going forward for this next week is to run about 3 miles/day after an hour on the elliptical and try to squeeze in 30 minutes on the stationary bike at lunch. That should give me about 15 equivalent miles per day, or 105 miles/week. I will probably go by feel but plan on upping the run portion by a mile/day every 3-5 days so that I can hopefully run a full 10 miler by the end of the month, just in time for the first NH Grand Prix race, the Great Bay Half Marathon in New Market, NH on April 5th.
So, about the injury. My hip flexor was bothering me on every run so I just bit the bullet and stopped running cold turkey to give it a rest. Since I did not want to lose all of my conditioning (I was up to 90 miles/week before I stopped running), I have been doing the equivalent time on both the stationary bike and the elliptical trainer. Over the last three weeks I generally spent between 30 and 40 minutes on the stationary bike in the morning and then about an hour on the elliptical trainer in the evening or at lunch each day. This has been REALLY boring, but I have to do it. Last week I started adding 1 mile of running each day at the end of the time on the elliptical trainer. At first I was not too hopeful because although it was not painful to run I was definitely aware of my hip. Since I did not seem to be going backwards I upped the run to 2 miles on Sunday (3/1) and that felt good too. I am not sure what to do about entering the equivalent miles in my log but I may just punt it and start fresh next week.
The plan going forward for this next week is to run about 3 miles/day after an hour on the elliptical and try to squeeze in 30 minutes on the stationary bike at lunch. That should give me about 15 equivalent miles per day, or 105 miles/week. I will probably go by feel but plan on upping the run portion by a mile/day every 3-5 days so that I can hopefully run a full 10 miler by the end of the month, just in time for the first NH Grand Prix race, the Great Bay Half Marathon in New Market, NH on April 5th.
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