Tag: workout

Anyone else check the weather for the week before they start up?

While most of the last couple weeks have been mentally preparing myself for bitter cold miles of each day, I was finally excited to head out for the week.

Wait, a clear 55 degrees? In late Feb? Count me in.

It would be another week up at 75 and coming off a great workout Sunday I was pretty pumped to head into the week. The legs were a bit tight from the run early in the week but I figured that fatigue was to be expected given the workout.

What I didn’t expect was to have one of my worst workouts in years on Wednesday morning.

A light dusting had gone over the track and I was too stubborn to move the workout to the roads. I fully expected this one to be easy. 1200-800-400 at 5:00-4:50-4:40 with 200 jog recovery then 4×200 on/200 off. None of these reps were long enough to bite me. I just didn’t expect my legs to not cooperate.

I didn’t even get 100 meters in without some kind of discomfort. My left knee had been facing issues for a couple weeks or so. I thought it was tightness from the IT band issue from the end of the year. I had no pop and I just felt like I was struggling to get into a comfortable rhythm.

5:00 pace? How about a 5:11…
4:50? How about 5:07…
4:40? How about 5:00.

I couldn’t even break 75. This was ridiculous.

I wanted to call it after one rep. This was pitiful. I couldn’t get into rhythm and this just felt labored. Maybe it was the drop in temps that was giving me issues breathing (I should’ve gotten that inhaler years ago I told myself as I struggled through another rep) or maybe it was the little layer of dewey ice that somehow wouldn’t come off the track. I stayed in. Even if it was going poorly I could just adjust. If this was my effort today so be it, stay engaged and do what you can.

Set 2:
3:54, 2:33, 73

Alright a little bit better.

Set 3:
3:51, 2:31, 72

Okay, that’ll do for today. On to the 200s.

If I was having issues on the longer reps, that was nothing compared to the 200s. I struggled to feel any sense of power in my left leg as I wrapped around the curve. Nothing felt natural but it couldn’t be that slow right?

34 seconds….

Wooooooof.

Alright, one more here. If I’m under 34 here I’ll finish it out. If not, we’re done.

Click.

I work hard to drive through the first 200, trying to get grip around the turn. Arms pump hard, 100 to go. We’re definitely under.

34.

Alright we’re done here. This isn’t feeling good and I’m worried about what another 200 is going to feel like. I have a meeting scheduled with my PT the next day.

Every time I visit my PT he’s visibly disgusted by how tight my hamstrings are. I’m incredibly inflexible and can’t really bend past my knees. I think by this point he had said this is enough and we needed to fix it. So we started doing light cupping today targeting three specific spots, hamstrings, calves, and IT band. My knee continued to have issues and basic lateral movement and touch caused me pain. The questions he asked were akin to someone facing a tackle at the knee or something. I didn’t have any traumatic incident on it. Not any that I could think of.

Wait. I fell really hard on both sides of my body last month. Could that be it?

Possibly.

Welp that’s great.

He suggested I get a knee brace to try and stabilize my knee a bit. I wouldn’t wear it while running but I would start with walking around the house and sleeping in it to see if I had any improvement.

While there has been signs that I’m in really good shape, I know Boston enough to know that any little issue will be a death wish for me on race day. The course is cruel to those that are coming in with any sort of small injuries.

So time to get on a serious rehab schedule. Better late than never right? Consistent rehab stretches and using any tool to my disposal. I have what I need to get better (I hope), I just need to do it.

Sunday came quicker than expected. Another cold morning. I had all morning to prep since I wanted to try and knock this out when we at least had a little bit of sun out there. 18 on the schedule with 3 x 3 miles with 1 mile float recovery. I had a brand new pair of shoes and I felt pretty solid heading into it. Leg had improved a bunch over the last couple of days and I was actually responsible all weekend.

The goal of the workout was:
Set 1: 5:30
Set 2: 5:25
Set 3: 5:20

I set out a variation of my workout loop from the previous week (without the big hill section) and made my way over to the loop.

I came in with the thought of just being cautious off the gun. After the issues earlier this week, being a hero and trying to force things sounded like a recipe for disaster. If today was starting at 5:35-40, so be it. Just get some work done.

Mile 1: 5:29.

Well looks like I’m feeling better than I thought.

I had a slight bit of gust as I finished off each loop but I felt incredible out there. Finally my left leg was cooperating and I felt like I was back into a rhythm for once. The hardest thing early on was trying to stay controlled. Sure, this might feel good now but you have 10 more miles to go of this workout, don’t be an idiot.

Mile 2-3: 5:31-5:27

The next set would be where I’d see if this was going to be one of those good days. By the time you get to the 2nd mile of the set, you basically have an idea of how things will be going for the next one. The only struggle was pulling back. 5:25 was the goal and my first mile was 5:23. I brought the second one back to 5:24, but got ahead of myself again on the third one with a 5:21.

After a quick stop at the portapotty I started up my next rep. Okay. 5:20 is all you need here. Nothing fancy. Well, today was one of those good days. With about a minute to go in the first mile I worked to try and pull back a bit. But I had locked into this pace. This felt good?

5:14. Yeah, chill out dude.

The next mile was closer. 5:19.

Okay… nothing flashy, just bring it home here.

5:13. Oops.

There’s signs of a breakthrough coming. I feel it. I’m still working myself back to one hundred percent and I’m able to knock out workouts like this. But I can’t get greedy, especially as the miles increase and we get closer to peak. But after a tough winter and heck, a tough week, I’ll take this. Just need to practice control.

75 Miles done.