Filed under: physical therapy, training update | Tags: ASTYM, bottle of whiskey, bruises, leather strap, physical therapy
I missed updating week 5…if I don’t do it on Sunday, it gets away from me.
To start week 5, I saw a PT and started to get my left hip and knee back on track. She decided my gluteus medius and TFL were weak and was forcing my hammies to make up for it. (Funnily enough, I had just been listening to a podcast on this on Tritalk (episode 60) this week.). She also was concerned about latent stiffness in my knees and my history with ITBS. So the program of action is to back off the Fartlek/sprint workouts and just do aerobic runs for now; stretch, stretch, stretch & foam roller; and then start some specific strength work. For the in-office time, she’s doing some ASTYM and massage on me.
Backing off the speed work is helping limit the pain, but it hasn’t left completely. Stretching is returning to where it was, which is good. The foam roller is not yet a comfortable process, meaning that it’s not yet routine. I kind of wonder if I’m doing it right sometimes. The strength excercises are pretty simple and easy to do.
I backed off during week 5 and had a pretty successful training week. I ended it by doing my long run on Sunday, which went very well, but ended up with a sore right knee! Thankfully this has now dissapated, but it did cause me to skip week 6’s Tuesday morning bike ride. Week six was punctuated by some odd Spring weather: we had hail4 out of 5 days from Tuesday on. The weekend brought a brick on Saturday, 1:00:00 bike/20:00 run. And, today, I capped off the week with a 1800 yd swim set at 1:43/100 (plus warmup and warmdown) which made me happy, and a 40:00 run with my HR in the 130’s and at 9:30/mile…with no further pain, which made me happier.
Which brings us to ASTYM…holy crap, that hurts! My PT is working on my quads, hamstrings and connective tissues around my knees. The idea is that the therapy promotes muscle and connective tissue realignment and strengthening. After the first session, I developed a bruise or two. Thee days later, after the second session, I’m ALL BRUISES! They’re not as impressive today as they were a few days ago, or I’d post photos, but they are everywhere. Thankfully the sessions will be spaced apart by a week now. Tomorrow’s my next visit to the PT. If you look at the photos in the ASTYM link, they show lovely healthy skin being massaged. The process is more like they’re trying to skin you with blunt tools. If I were a child, I’d run away screaming. But [sigh] I’m an adult, and a friend has told me that she went through it and came out the other end with a much recuperated knee. I think I’ll ask for a bottle of whiskey and a leather strap to bite on tomorrow.
Hard to believe but there’s only 14 weeks to go to race day!!
This week I need to work on accommodations for the race.
Filed under: training update | Tags: hip pain, proof i'm getting old, PT, race for the roses
So, after an interrupted week 2 and 3, I was back at it for week 4 (minus the swim because of an incision that hasn’t closed yet). I took things slowly and tried to ease back into the schedule. Wednesday’s workout was a Fartlek run, and it beat me up! Come to think of it, the previous time I did a Fartlek run, the same thing happened, though not anywhere near as severe.
Wednesday’s Fartlek: I had to do 6×0:30 for a total run time of 40:00. I felt very awkward speeding up, almost off balance, like I didn’t know how to run. I definitely haven’t really done any sprinting in a looooong time, so I’m guessing I just need to do some more and relearn how to do it. That sounds so lame! But there you have it: proof of my getting OLD before my 37th year. Well, the awkwardness I can live with (and can practice and overcome), but the pain I need to get looked at. I could NOT stretch my left hamstring when I was done. I had a pain that started at the outside of my left hip and went under the leg along the hamstring to the inside of the knee. Not sciatic pain, but close. It almost felt like there was a tendon settling over a spot, just a little hitch when I pull my thigh up at the height of a stride. It was a lunchtime run, and by the end of the workday I had a slight limp. I couldn’t do a hamstring stretch for the next two days. I’ve called to get an appointment (which is scheduled for 2 weeks from now!). I’m going to call a private PT clinic and get one sooner because I’m worried this could really throw off my running and biking. It seems like a muscle imbalance at best and god-knows-what at worst. I need to start the fix for it ASAP. And all this to start off the week I intended to take it easy…
Well, it was definitely a little easier to take the rest of the week easy. I woke up Thursday morning and was going to put an hour on the rollers. I stopped after 30 minutes, it was just too awkward. I was worried awkward form would translate into other issues. I felt like I gave it enough of a go to be sure that I made a good decision to back off. Friday, I had another swim/run day scheduled. I did not swim, but felt especially frustrated by that because it probably would have helped loosen up my leg. I DID run at lunch. I just did 25 minutes instead of the 40 on the schedule. I took it SLOW & EASY. I got through it and stretched as much as I could, which was admittedly limited. The rest of the week was a 1.5 hour ride on Saturday and a brick today (1hr bike, 20 run). I feel pretty good considering. I still feel the hip, but, if I take it slow, it’s not acute.
I want to do the Race for the Roses half mary in three weeks. My longest run over the winter has been an hour, so my eyes may be bigger than my legs. I’m going to talk it over with the PT and see what they say. I’d like to run it but I’m not going to sabotage my HIM training to hit that date.
Filed under: training update
I was cleared to start exercise Thursday. I planned to take it easy and slowly ease back in to things. I still have an incision that’s not fully closed. I emailed and then called the doctor’s office to see what they thought about swimming on Friday. I got two answers: on the phone, an advice nurse asked a doc, and he said, “No.” Two hours later I got an email from the doc that did the procedure; he said, “yes, you can swim.” Great news! …except that I was a little creeped out by the prospect of swimming with an open wound. So I bagged the swim. My pool is not the most pristine place so I’d rather not take any chances.
I had a good 1 hr trainer ride on Thursday morning, and Friday I got a nice slow 40 min jog in at lunchtime.
I had a great 2hr ride today. It was cool and partly cloudy skies with little wind. I got 36 miles in, for an average speed just over 17mph. I think I’d like to start riding with others, especially as the rides start to get a little longer. I was happy and focused for my time on the bike, but I think a little company will help the time pass as I get over 40 miles.
I did flat about 25 minutes into my ride. I dug the offending glass out of the tire and made sure that there were not internally embedded shards. I was pretty thorough. I got the tire back on and pumped it up using the mini pump I bought this winter. I’ve been wanting to use it to see how effective it was. I did the job well though it’s definitely a lot slower than CO2. My stop by the side of the road was 14 1/2 minutes…definitely not a race pit stop time, but I was good and didn’t need to worry for the remaining hour and a half of riding. I will need to replace these tires later this Spring. As I looked over the surface for glass bits, I could see all sorts of slits and holes, and I could also see that the tire is flattening a bit from trainer rides. They’ve been fairly good tires; I can get them on and off easily. I’ve been interested in getting some Michelin Pro 2 Race tires, but I think I’ll wait until the weather changes enough that I can remove the race blades I’ve got on for winter weather.
I even threw in a transition run! Wow, it’s easy to forget what the bricks feel like! Glad I’ve got my first taste of it for the season!
Tomorrow I’ve got a LSD swim and a run on the schedule, and that will close out week 18. Monday I’m off and then week 17 starts! I’m still a little creeped out by the pool; I’m going to wait for my next swim day to get wet again (Wednesday).
I’m a little tired because of the week off, but it feels good to be back on track.
