5er

Ran for 35 min today. Two relatively good days in a row, but two very short runs. Tomorrow the plan is to approx double the distance & see how things go. Hopefully, it is my fitness level i'm whining about tomorrow and not the state of glut muscles/tendons...

30 for the week

Yep, 30 miles. I guess that's a lot better than 0 miles. Today, I felt much better than yesterday, though, i only ran for about 30 min. I did three 1/4 mile pickups during the run and was slightly encouraged that I'm on the right track. I am not however anywhere close to being able race a marathon. The odds that I run Boston are lower than I initially thought several days ago. If I don't run, that's ok, because there will be plenty of chances in the future to run as fast or faster than I had planned to run at Boston 2010.

Not a good running day

I decided to stop after 14 minutes today. Actually, I first stopped around 8 min. But then I pushed on a bit further. I could tell I wasn't doing any good, so I decided not to try to fight a losing battle. No physical damage was done. Just some added head frustration.

Got some nice release work done today and feel much looser as a result. Tomorrow I will hit up the gym and likely go for a short short run. I don't think running until the muscle locks up and pushing through it is the right thing to do. Just a guess. :-)

Fri run & gym

Easy short run today -- 31 min. Was able to extend the stride a little without too much fear of ripping something. Still, felt a little funky w/ a side order of pain after the run. Hit up the gym afterward and actually felt much better then. Squats & lunges w/ some real (but not too heavy) weight are going be my good friend going forward.

Speaking of cross-training & gym work, I need to adjust what/how I workout. I feel like I have gotten weaker in all areas over the last few months. This is mostly my fault for not taking the gym seriously...somewhat strange because I always have in the past. Also, I need to narrow my focus some; what I have done is find 8-10 lifts/exercises that I really need to do & will focus on doing them all twice a week. I don't have list in front of me, but the routine consists mainly of core, glut, leg exercises.

Not sure what I'm going to do tomorrow. Would like to run for 2 hours, but haven't decided from where. TBD.

Ran for 1:18 today (call it 10 miles). Did better than yesterday & didn't feel crippled for as long after the run. I suppose that is progress, but man this frustrating. Had to skip the gym because there was no way in hell my gluts could take the weights after a run. Maybe tomorrow.

A little longer

Ran for 59 minutes today. Felt better than yesterday, but the run today took a greater toll on me. Aerobically, I felt better the longer I went. Muscularly, my right glut seemed to get weaker and more painful (the longer I went). The balancing act continues, but at least I am running.

15:06

I've made it to a point where I am able to run again. Today I did a little 15 min test jog. Most of the major problems I was having have subsided, but various glut muscles are still out of sync, weak, possible (likely) still damaged and/or maybe some or all of the above. I'm hoping these issues subside with a couple more easy runs. But I can tell I'm forcing the issue to an extent. Ideally, I would take another week off, but doing that would give me no chance at running Boston. Chances are still pretty slim, but I figure it is worth a shot. I won't make a definitive decision on what to do for a few weeks though.

Ain't over just yet

This morning I was feeling pretty good, thus, I decided to sorta repeat the test I did yesterday. Except today I went to an area where I had 60-80 meters of runway. I got in a good 6 strides. Not too fast, but not too slow either. The results? I did much better than yesterday, and even better, I was not in much pain after the fact. With that, I am planning to try a sustained short run tomorrow to really test things out. Doing so should give me a decent idea of where I stand from a recovery perspective. Not near out of the woods yet, but if (and that is a big "if") I can maintain tomorrow, I may be able to salvage something in the form of a race on 4-19.

Better but not there yet

Well, the inj continues to steadily heal, but my body needs more time i guess. the sharp lower back pain i was getting the first two weeks is pretty much gone. However, the glut medius muscle & tendon are still pretty tender at times. Also, the piriformis must be a little jacked too, because I get this weird numbness in my big toe every once & awhile.

This afternoon I did 4 short 30-40 m strides; the first three felt decent enough. I could take full length strides, and there was almost no limp/give in my step. On the last one I began to tighten up and felt the pull from my sacrum so I decided to give it a rest. Afterward, I was in more than a fair amount of pain. No damage was done, but the area is still pretty weak. I have to be very careful. With that, I have decided to not try to run tomorrow...won't do any sort of activity. I'm used to it at this point & it doesn't bother me too much anymore. Will reassess in a day or two. II

slow going

not much has changed since i wrote last. the inj is actually getting better, just very slowly. still can't run any sort of distance. trying to do so results in this sharp pain from my lower back/sacrum area. hell, pretty much any activity i do except for sitting on my ass yields that result. also, the area where the muscle and/or tendon tore is still pretty tender. just needs more time i suppose.

speaking of, i have been telling myself that if i can't run by this coming monday i'm going to throw in the towel for Boston 2010. that is still my plan, i think, because if i lose over two weeks it is going to be next to impossible get back to where i was prior to the inj. yes, i realize i could still be ready to run the marathon, but that is not my goal. i want to race my ass off.

anyhow, i have come up with a two-part contingency plan if boston does not work out. one part of it i'm pretty sure i will do regardless. the other, though, all depends on how the next several days go...

WE 19

Not a good week for me. 0 miles. It looks like I am going to have to take a 2nd week off at the minimum. I don't think I could run 2 miles right now if my life depended on it. That's a hell of a contrast from where I was 8 days ago. Oh well, can't do anything about it now.

Tomorrow & the next day I'm getting massage work done so hopefully the healing speeds up some. Fingers crossed.

Oh, I finally swallowed my pride & went to the pool. It was a very grim day. JK! Yesterday, I did like 25 minutes in the waters at...call it a tempo effort. Decent workout. Today, I did about 50 minutes. Let's now see what tomorrow brings...

Very Little Progress

I got up today feeling a little better finally. As such, I got up the motivation to do some elliptical. 25 minutes in my ass was getting pretty damn tight, so I decided to call it a day. I've been limping ever since. Not good.

Sidelined

I apparently strained/pulled my glute and/or piriformis pretty good on the last set during the Sunday Race Prep. Currently, I cannot run at all. I did 1/2 mile on the treadmill yesterday afternoon, and that was a mistake. Today the area feels like it did on Monday. Regression.

I'm not really sure what else say, but it looks like I am going to have to take at least 1 week off. The term "pulled muscle" now makes a lot of sense. I have strained muscles before, but have never had one with the feel that is has been yanked out of place. Doom & gloom aside, I am still holding out hope I can run by Saturday. But it is not looking real good right now. Because I am not going to force the issue again. For now, I guess I am going to have to join Team AwesomeFunWaterRun.

On the bright side & as a result of the run on Sunday, I know I am ready to run a sub 250 marathon, but the challenge now is to maintain fitness until I can get back to the road. I am so close. Stay tuned to find out if it was meant to be.

6 weeks out

Forced rest day today. My glut is all jacked up. More than likely, I will rest tomorrow also. The team isn't meeting tomorrow; coach advised that we sleep in & recover. This fact makes taking the extra day off a little easier. Other than the pain in the butt, there do not seem to be any ill-effects from the workout, which is pretty impressive. Back to the ice massage...

Race Prep 1

4 x 5 miles at mgp-ish

32:40 ( 629, 632, 632, 633, 631) set avg 632
32:05 (621, 632, 621, 631, 617) set avg 625
32:17 (624, 630, 628, 624, 629) set avg 628
32:04 (624, 638, 620, 628, 611) set avg 625

overall avg = 628

This run couldn't have gone much better for me. I definitely could have kept going, but am glad I did not have to. But it was quite a plus to know I had more left in the tank. However, I prolly overdid it a little in the last mile. My upper right glut hurts like heck when I walk...no way I would try to run this afternoon. Ha! Hopefully it is nothing major. Now it is time to try to get recovered ASAP.

23.5-ish miles for the day. 72 miles for the week.

Sat. shakeout III

• Easy 40ish minutes
• Did some quick pick-ups during the latter 3 miles
• Felt pretty good
• Light stretching & rolling afterward
• Should be ready to roll

Tempo tempo

I wasn't too worried about today's run...having just done almost 4 miles at tempo pace after hill work on Tues. My reasoning was that if I can run a good controlled tempo run in the midst of Tuesday's workout, today should be a breeze. We ran 6s on Tues so I figured that pace should work good for today. You know what, I was pretty damn spot on too w/ the paces. No Gremlin. Hit the first mile in 6 min exactly. Maybe I'm the new metronome?.?. Ok, ok, I am kidding.

Anyways, the run went well. I didn't feel super fresh, but I also didn't have the dead ass legs like I did a few weeks ago when we did the mile repeats. Thus, I think I should be in pretty good shape for Sun. Bring it on fool!

Oh, 23:55 for the tempo run and 12 miles for the day.

Wed run (but thinking of Sun)

Easy 10 this morning. My legs did not feel too bad after yesterday's run, obviously a good thing. I will know more when we run tempo tomorrow though. I need to get these bad boys fresh-ish by Sun. Because the rumor around the water cooler is that we are actually going to run 20 miles at MGP on Sun (by way of 4x5 on the first 5 miles of the S Austin Ramble route). I've already begun the 'get your mind right' routine & plan to let it all hang out on Sun. We shall see if I have learned from my mistakes before & during the Austin Marathon run. Should be interesting.

Sisson's Rollers

Tough workout was on tap for today (Sisson's Rollers, no to be confused w/ Julia rollers ;-): a little under 2 miles for the warm-up, 5 miles of 1 min on/off through the hills of west Austin, 1 mile recovery, 3.64212152 miles at tempo-steady pace, and capped off w/ about 2 miles of cool down. I'm tired again after typing all that.

13.4135732 miles for the day

7 weeks out

8 miles. I managed to miss the rain completely. Not much else to report.