In no mans land

Sat:  had a decent run ~ 80 min.  Felt pretty good, except for about a 20 min stretch during the back half of the run.

Sun:  opted to skip the 10 miler race and race prep for obvious reasons (in hindsight).  I took off w/ the plan of running 2 hours and throwing in some uptempo work to see where I was.  Did fine at easy pace, but the uptempo stuff was not so great.  I did some 2000's on the trail at steady-ish effort.  Fitness wise I was ok.  But after the 2nd one, the pains started to come on.  I ran a third one and stopped after a mile, because I did not want mess myself up any worse.   Alternated walking/jogging back to the gym while I pondered what to do w/ myself (running wise).  Ended up w/ about 90 min...maybe.

So, I know I can run for the most part.  But it does not seem like I am able to train.  For now, I am going to continue down the training path.  However, I do believe it is time to go purchase an MRI to see what is really going on.  Good times.

Nothing is fucked here, Dude

Well, I did not even come close to getting up this morning to run.  The alarm went off; I laughed at it, shut that fucker off and went back to dream land .  So much for that.

This afternoon, I did manage to run...for 90 min w/ 5 strides toward the end.  I felt a lot better today.  Not out of the woods yet, but today was the first day I would say I made good progress.

Test run pt 2

Easy hour.  The groin feels much better, but I still have strange aches and pains in the hip flexor and lower ab area.  Guess that pretty much goes w/ the territory, however, these issues are more pronounced than in the past.  Not sure what to think of this.  I was trying to being optimistic the other day when I said this deal was no biggie.  Thing is, I really have a sneaking suspicion that I am in trouble.  Hopefully, I am wrong.  The plan is to peel my ass out of bed tomorrow morning to run w/ the team (likely just an easy run for me)...

Test run

Late last night (possibly while I slept), I decided that maybe going out for a LR was not the best way check out my aches & pains.  So instead I opted for a shorter run ~ 70 minutes.  Things went ok. My left groin was tender at the start but loosened up well after about 5 min.  My hip abductors and hip flexor(s) were achy throughout (due to tightness). But anyway, it seems like I am going to be good, just need to be careful in the near term.  Tomorrow, I think I will go long-ish.

Groin pains

Hmm, let's see, where to start?  In April of 2009, I hurt my lower abdominal area when running somehow.  It was weird because I did not notice any pain until later that afternoon upon waking from a nap.  I trained through this pain, ran the Boston Marathon, and kept on training after Boston.  This was a mistake, because what started out as mild lower abdominal aches eventually led to groin pain and severe abdominal pain after runs.  The funny thing about this issue is that it would not really bother me during the run, but after the fact, I could not sit up on my own for hours on end.  The next day things would have subsided for the most part and running w/ it was never an issue.  So I kept running.  Meanwhile, I did some reading and pretty much realized that I prob had a mild sports hernia.  Went to the doctor and did some PT, but never really made any progress with regard to healing.  Gave up on PT and I came up w/ my own routine based on what I read.  This seemed to work pretty well.  The aches and pains never completely went away, but were def under control.

That was until about 4 weeks ago:  we did a track workout, and after it, my groin area was on fire.  I really did not think too much of it; my groin has hurt on/off for the last 18 months (no biggie).  And just like usual, it got better for the most part within a couple days.  Last Thursday after our workout, again the groin hurt - this time it was worse, and I hobbled back to BS after our workout.  It did not bother me during the IBM race, but after the race, again, on fire.  This past Tuesday was basically the last straw:  this time I felt things sorta yank out of place in the last couple of mile of the steady run.  Still, I pushed on (deep ingrained don't give in to the pain mentality that was sunk in my head at a early age I suppose).  After we finished, I really wanted to walk it back, but hobbled it in instead.

So that's the run down basically, I was in enough pain on Tues finally realize I need to slow my role.  I have basically rested since then.  I have been focusing on stretching mainly and other activities to loosen my quads, groin, inner hamstrings, and abductors. Oh, and lots of icing.  Icing the inner thigh is the greatest!

Today, I feel much better.  The pain in my groin is pretty much gone, the lower ab pain is mostly gone (or as gone as I can hope for it to be), and the bruising where the groin muscles attach is disappearing.  I jogged for a few minutes at lunch and things seem to be much better.  Tomorrow, I will test things out for real.

Summation:  I have lost some training momentum, but I don't think this issue going to be a show stopper.  At least not if I listen to my damn body and not my crazy mind!

10 steady

Steady run today @ 1:01:37.  The last 4 miles, I was feeling the effects of the 10K.  Was very glad when this one was over...

Mon run

Easy 50 minutes - added in some form running at the end.  The form running was a good add-on.

IBM 10K

Tough day for me, the 10k whooped my ass.  That is pretty much how I felt (whooped) throughout this race.  The sustained 10k pace 'felt' like it was too much for me (mentally & physically) so I backed off after about 1.5 miles.  I was pretty miserable throughout the race until about .7 of mile to go.  Knowing I was close to the finish, I let out a good push, ended up at 36:17 (with a negative split).  I was about a minute slower than expected.  Still, I did have fun out there, and if I had  a chance to do it over, I would run it all over again.

Gremlin Splits:  534, 552, 556, 548, 606, 539, 1:20 (for .28)

Easy hour in preparation for the the 10k tomorrow.  I have pretty high expectations, but a lot of uncertainty too.

Easy watch-less run today (maybe 30 min), by the end of the run I was feeling pretty good.

I am now at a point where I like to run on Fridays rather than take the day off.  I have done this 3 out of the last 4 weeks, and I seem to 'feel' better without the rest day.  Something about getting out there and letting the legs move. There's a lot more to it, but I am not in the mood to yada yada yada on and on about it.  That is all for now. 

Pecos Loops pt II

Today's workout was a repeat of one we did three weeks ago, Pecos Loops (3 miles at steady effort in the hills).

Loop #1:  1823
Loop #2:  1814

This go around the workout was much more manageable.  Pretty sure that is a good thing.

12 for the day

Registered for the IBM 10K just now, today is the last day to register online for $35, FYI. I can already tell I am going to get nervous leading up to this one (especially w/ the evolving aggressive race plan floating around in my head). Oh well, a lil nervousness never hurt anyone.

On the daily running front, I logged 76 min today - felt pretty good too after the taking a day off yesterday. Tomorrow, we go back to work.

Easy 40-ish min. 6 x 20 sec pick-ups during. Still recovering from saturday, but i felt much better afterward today (than yesterday ).

8 weeks out from CIM 2010

I felt pretty ragged the 1st 15-20 min today, but loosened up nicely thereafter.  I did cut the run a little short just to be on the safe side, ending up with about 9 miles.

With another day or two of easy running, I should have my legs back under me.  This Tues instead of a workout, we are doing a MLR, and I am thinking strides after that easy run.  And then on Sunday there is the IBM 10k.  I am definitely looking forward to that.  

Race Prep #2 for CIM 2010

The plan for today was 20 miles at goal pace.  Going into this thing, I felt real confident I could run 630s, but was not sure if I could run 620s.  After kicking it around in my head for most of this week, I decided to go for 620-625 range, run on effort (no gremlin).

Before we started this AM, I was kind of concerned because Sisson said mile markers would be every 2 miles.  I was expecting every mile, but now with markers every 2 miles, my ability to 'feel' the right pace was def going to be tested.

We ran two 10 mile loops, which made my goal for each loop 1:03:20 (ie, 620 pace).  Two mile split goal would then be 1240.  Here were the splits I had:

102:50 (1242, 1250, 2502, 1215) ~ 617 pace
102:26 (1237, 1257, 1219, 1212, 1221) ~ 615 pace

Needless to say, I had a good one today.  By mile 5 or 6, I knew I had this thing.  I was really relaxed and felt like I was using very little effort to maintain pace.  The last 4 miles I got a little tight, but never to the extent where maintaining pace was struggle.  The miles just really clicked off today.

So, I suppose I am in close to 245 shape.  This workout was a great confidence builder.  But I am not going to rest on my laurels, because I feel like I can still improve in the next 6 weeks of training.  I am basically 100% healthy, so it should be fun and interesting - uncharted waters!

Last thing, I gotta send a big shout out to Chris for steering me toward the right mind frame for this workout.  Thanks man!

Tempo sets

• 2 x 3 miles @ tempo pace: 604 avg and 554 avg
• 12 miles for the day
• One hour in the gym this afternoon
• 15 min in the ice bath after the gym

11 of em, easy style.  My legs felt a little tired during the last 2-3 miles.  But the weather was outstanding, so the leg issue was no biggie.  Hopefully a large helping of red meat for dinner and a good night of rest will allow for a quick recovery.

Rollers workout

Today, we did one of Steve's staple hill workouts, The Rollers in W Austin.  The wkout this time was a little diff than previous iterations:  we did a 4 mile warm-up, 4 miles of 2 min hard (10k pace)/2 min easy, 3 min rest,  4 miles at tempo/steady, and about 2 wd.  Actually, we did about 4.5 miles 2 hard/easy due to a wrong turn...oops.

The hard/easy part lasted for 30 min and the next 4 miles lasted 24 min.

About 14.5 for the day

Slow & easy

Monday is always my shortest run of the week.  I don't have any sort of goal for this run.  I go pretty slow allowing my body (legs) to dictate the pace.  Half of the time (like today), I don't even wear a watch. Actually, I guess there is a goal, to get recovered from the weekend runnings and prep the body for the upcoming week.  I guess that makes it a recovery run. 

No watch, so I am not sure how long/far I ran.  You should try it sometime...

Sunday Runday

• 90 minutes on the TL trail
• 6 x 100m strides
• 50 min in the gym
• 15 min w/ the foam roller

24er

Another good run, they continue to get easier.  Today, I ran for 257, not sure of the distance cuz I ran without the gremlin (but it had to be close to 24).  The last hour was strong, even though there were several substantial hills.

The next real test will be Saturday week when we run a bunch of miles at goal pace.   I feel a lot better about the upcoming race prep than the first.  Just have to keep the positive/strong momentum going...