Rebuilding the Run

8 on rolling hills.  Slow start but strong at the end.  Good enough.  Going to have to make sure I do a good warm up before the half.

Tom H wrote:8 on rolling hills.  Slow start but strong at the end.  Good enough.  Going to have to make sure I do a good warm up before the half.

Do you typically warmup before a half? I never do and that might explain why my best half was on a hot day.

Jim, my warm ups have consisted of some gentle stretching in the past. Because I've been having some grumpy glutes, I'm thinking a few minutes of actually running, perhaps wit a stride or two, might be in order. 

Back to the rollers for another 5 today.  Started out a little faster than I have been as I felt looser. Guess the extra rolling and stretching is paying dividends. Another descending run with the last mile at a 7:40.

I'd even consider not messing around too much with stretching before that half and just go out for an easy 10-minute jog beforehand. That'll get things loosened up nicely, and you can always stretch a little bit while warmed up as you're waiting for the gun to fire.

An easy jog was kinda what I was thinking, and about the same length you were suggesting.  I'll likely have to do a bit of stretching to get the glutes a bit more cooperative, especially since the temp is forecasted to be 42 and the first 6 miles are uphill. 

I drove the course today and realized I've ridden most of it in my tri training.  When I rode the big downhill (1.4 miles long, 360 ft drop) it was fast and technical, steep with lots of switchbacks closely packed.  I'm going to have to make sure and be relaxed and fast on that segment or the quads will take quite a pounding as it will be unrelenting the way it flows.  There is one uphill that is pretty awesome as well, a hill you would definitely walk in an ultra!  This is going to be an interesting one to say the least.

HM today was awesome!  5:23 PR!!  Race report is up.

Tom - Great race.  If you're running that strong on hills and rollers now, you're in ideal shape for CIM.  It's not nearly as severe, but there are some parts that will make the later miles hurt.  Taking a look at the map, I've ridden much of that course, too.  It's beautiful there, though with the drought I'm not sure what it would look like right now.

Woohoo!!

Stud.

Great job on the big PR!

That half was impressive Tom! I can't wait to see what you do at CIM.

Thanks for all the kind words.  I have to admit the race was a real blast and showed me that my training has gone better than I ever imagined.  If you had told me I would be running at those paces I would not have believed you for a minute.  And curse you Mr. Bowder, for bringing up the MacMillan calculator - you are nothing if not a nefarious pot-stirrer.  I had never considered a marathon time that would be a 3:2x:xx, but now you've got the wheels turning.  I had a nice solid plan in place, but now I have a whole month to rethink it.  Sort of like bonus taper madness time.  Thanks loads.

So I feared that if I ran the HM too hard I'd end up with an injury.  I'm obviously not smart enough to heed that fear, but was lucky enough to have apparently escaped the undesired outcome.  I must admit to having more soreness in the legs than I've had after any race before.  During the half and full Ironman training and races I became very familiar with DOMS, but think that I set a new level of 'ouch' this morning.  I knew that if I just sat around I'd take longer to get over it, so today was a comfortable 5 miles.  Well, not really comfortable, but at a comfortable pace.

I decided that I'd reward myself for the PR by making a big batch of baklava.  I haven't made it for a while and recently had some that was given to us as a gift from a friend.  The recipe is time consuming, but fun to make.  And the final product is, well, simply nectar of the Gods.  It came out perfect.  Crispy, lightly-browned, flaky layers of phyllo on the top.  A rich, cinnamonny, nutty sweet center.  The thick, honeyed, slightly lemony syrup infused throughout.  Excuse me a minute . . . . . . . had to make a quick trip to the kitchen.  This is the last remaining evidence that piece ever existed:


One key thing to take into account with this recipe is that you need to have friends who like Baklava as the 9 x 13 tray of them has a total of about 12,000 calories.  Glad I'm in the peak weeks of training

12,000 calories... lets see, if I do a 100 mile trail run...

Hmmm Jim.  I think you'd need 120   .  No wait, that's road miles.  Depending on the trail, you may need 2 batches!

Tom H wrote:And curse you Mr. Bowder, for bringing up the MacMillan calculator - you are nothing if not a nefarious pot-stirrer.  I had never considered a marathon time that would be a 3:2X:XX, but now you've got the wheels turning.  I had a nice solid plan in place, but now I have a whole month to rethink it.  Sort of like bonus taper madness time.  Thanks loads.

It's the least I can do, Tom!  

There's nothing wrong with your original plan, BTW. Running within your capabilities is a smart thing to do. Especially in the first half, in the endless hills of the Sacramento suburbs.

Then, if you're up for the challenge, it's negative split time, baby.

I'm guessing the final plan won't come together until just before the race, and will likely have a giant asterisk next to it referring to the footnote that says "subject to mid-course change".

Monday was 3 easy miles, yesterday 5 comfortably paced miles and today was to be back to training plan, 6 faster miles with rolling hills.  All was great until the steepest and longest hill just after mile 3.  On the downhill my right glute started complaining and by the the time I got to 3.5 I had to stop and try and stretch it out.  Made it about another .5 before I decided the better part of valor was to stop and just walk back to the car.  On the way back by PT partner had us stop at a grassy spot and do some yoga and hamstring stretches and when I got home I sat on an icepack to try and minimize any swelling.  Poop.  I'll likely make tomorrow a rest day or an easy day to give things a chance to quiet down.  If it ain't one thing . . .

So yup, I broke my butt.  Symptoms point to piriformis (Latin for "pain in the ass") as I do have some pain on down the leg that is activated by the same motion that sets off the painus rumpus.  My PT training partner gave me the once over today and did some good massage and stretching.  I had tried to take the dogs on a walk before that and didn't make it 3 driveways before I had to turn back.  After her ministrations, felt much better and was able to make the dogs happier by getting the full 1.4 mile walk accomplished.  Tomorrow is was scheduled to be my last of three 20 mile runs, but I'm going to have to pass on it unless some miracle occurs overnight.

Use a lacrosse or hard rubber ball and place it against the wall and then your butt against it - roll, roll, roll.

Michele \"1L" Keane wrote:Use a lacrosse or hard rubber ball and place it against the wall and then your butt against it - roll, roll, roll.

Michele, I gave it yesterday off from any sort of rolling and will see what it can tolerate today on the advice of my PT.  Things have definitely improved and was able to get a second dog walk in yesterday and one this morning with no issues.  I can definitely feel it, but seems like the nerve pain down the leg is significantly diminished. 

Also on the advice of my PT I got back in the pool yesterday. During my tri training this year, I spent a lot of time there (139 miles worth of laps through August!) but the last month or so of that was in the face of an issue with my elbow, medial epicondylitis, that came from me having a really tight calf for a few weeks and spending too much time on self release.  As such, I've been out of the pool pretty much (only one other visit) since early September.  Swimming for me is one of those things that a relatively brief absence results in significant loss of swim fitness and degradation of form.  As such, I went into the pool with low expectations but was pleasantly surprised.  I kept it easy and just swam a straight 1000 yards with very little kicking.  I think it helped loosen up the lower back and other muscles that exacerbated the piriformis issue.  Did feel it a little in the elbow during the pull, but not too bad.  Likely will be back in the water more over the next few weeks.

My hope is to get things to settle down over this next week such that I can do my 20 next Friday, but if not, I'm not going to stress over it as I've already got two 20's in this cycle and am just going to focus on getting to the starting line.

Tom H wrote:


My hope is to get things to settle down over this next week such that I can do my 20 next Friday, but if not, I'm not going to stress over it as I've already got two 20's in this cycle and am just going to focus on getting to the starting line.

You've got plenty of time to heal and get in another 20 if you don't do anything stupid and it sounds like you're getting solid advice.  I haven't done a 20 yet (this Sunday and next).  You better make it to the start.  Looking forward to meeting you there.

Oh, I'm perfectly capable of doing something stupid.  I'm just hoping I can go against my nature here and show a little patience!

Since the injury occurred on Wednesday, I've done a couple of swims, a lot of dog walks, and a fair amount of rolling and stretching.  On the walk today I noticed the further along I got, the better things felt, so I picked up the pace a bit with no ill effects.  Debated with myself quite a bit whether I should make today another rest day or see if I could do a short run.  See what I mean about the stupid quotient. 

The devil on the shoulder won the argument so I did a final rolling/stretching routine and went out the door promising myself that I would stop as soon as there was any real pain.  In the first 100 yards I could tell it was not to be a comfortable run, but there was more of a strong dull ache than a pain, so kept going as I remembered how it got better during the walk.  I had set a limit of 1.5 miles as the max distance, a loop that conveniently ends at home, and made it all the way being able to honestly say the ache did not develop into pain.  Immediately iced it once I got home and thus far it is feeling pretty good.  Fingers are crossed and I'm now allowing myself to be hopeful of a somewhat speedy recovery.

Do what you can to improve your recovery.

Yeesh. Crossing my fingers that your backside behaves.

Continuing the theme of attempting an intelligent recovery, limited today's run to 3 slow miles.  Things went well, so it looks like a good plan.  Each day, double yesterday's run, right?  The backside feels much better at the end of the run than at the beginning.  I'm not sure what to make of that, but it doesn't feel 'good' thus creating the temptation to push the run faster or further.  I think that's what they call listening to your body.  A novel concept.

I got nailed with piriformis problems this time last year.  I didn't listen to my butt and kept trying to fight through it.  Bad idea.  Just make sure you're not exacerbating the problem at all.