Injuries ... Again

I was doing fine with my program and then I went to my martial arts class on Saturday and ended up with a weird injury. We were doing these drills where your opponent holds your leg and then you hop. The drill is intended to help you practice keeping your balance and prevent take downs. I am not sure how well this works. But it is a good concentration drill and hoping for a couple of minutes is difficult. It is very difficult for me. Since I did my marathon last year, my right hip is not 100%. When you are not 100% your body adjusts to keep the injured part from taking all the impact of an activity. This is what happened. As my hip was crying over the impact I was subconsciously turning away from the impact of the hopping and this meant I was landing to the side of my leg and I ended up with a bit of a high ankle sprain in my right leg. So as last week was a down week anyway, I took two days off to recover.

I ran last night without incident but sometimes things happen and you have to adjust. Today is for speed work so wish me luck.

A Decent Rest, but you know....

I am not very good at resting. This is a rest week but I have a hard time cutting back. I was supposed to do just 4 easy runs this week. Nothing fancy and no real goals just get out there and be steady. I hope I don't regret it later but today I did some speed work. I did a warm up half mile and then did two mile repeats with a half mile cool down in between. My pace was 8:45. I don't make too much of this speed as I was on a treadmill and I tend to find that pace easier there than on the streets. Everything is harder on the streets. But it was quick and at the same time serves the recovery week theme. There was less impact on my body after all. But I did break the rules of the 4 easy runs. Oh well, I am sure I will be fine.

Next week I am back into action with tempo runs and what not. Well happy running.

Strong Week

Last week was an excellent one. I managed to put in 19.61 miles, this is a big number for me these days. On top of that my Sunday run was pretty difficult. I happen to live part way up an incline that goes on for miles. I usually do not run north from my house as it is almost all hill. That is an intimidating thought to know that you are going to be running up and up with almost no break until you decide to turn around. But Sunday, I decided to take it on and went 3.5 miles up and then 3.5 miles down. I will say that I did like the last half better. The first half felt like I really did something difficult. Monday, my muscles complained over my motivation but Sunday was a good day to be a runner.

This week is a rest week so I will be toning down the miles to recover a bit.

August is Over

I am glad August is over. For running it is the worst, it is a month to be survived more than anything else. Now that it is over, I think I will run much easier. I did a little three miler and the cooler weather really made a difference. I did 53 miles for August and considering that I spent the first week swimming I think that is good. I am going to shoot for about 75 miles for September. I think this is a reasonable goal and not quite 20 miles average per week. I would like to add 100 miles for October and another 100 for November. There is no plan for December. Here is to plans and hoping it all goes to plan.

A Good Effort

I was able to put in 4 days of running last week, I had only been able to put in 3 the week before and my numbers were a bit down as a result. I will say this I was not as fresh for my long run this week as I was last week. There is something to be said for less running. But for my 4 runs I managed:

Tuesday: 3.0 miles - just a slow and easy nothing to write home about but it got the lead out of the legs

Thursday: 3.5 miles - a tempo run and I was very pleased with my speed portion and I have been doing much better on the hills.

Saturday: 3.0 miles - A steady but quick run; however, with my martial arts class later in the morning I was tired on Sunday.

Sunday: 7 miles - I started slow but found a nice pace at mile 4 that carried me the rest of the way. I was dead when I was done and didn't feel better until Monday morning.

Over all it was a 16.5 mile effort. I have been experimenting with some new shoes. I picked up a pair of END shoes that I have been mixing in on shorter runs for the past few weeks. I think I will write a shoe review later this week.

Seven Miles

My long run on Sunday was 7 miles. The heat and humidity are a bear in August and I will say that I was suffering throughout this little ordeal. I have felt for some time that August you merely survive until the better running weather of September rolls around. The heat has been chewing me up even on these not quite long runs. I dropped 4.5 pounds from start to finish on Sunday. That is way too much dehydration for a run that is only an hour and change. I had to put down 80 ounces of water and sit in a cold shower for 20 minutes before I was normal again. Well as normal as I get anyway. I will say that I will be happy when this month is over and the cooler September air rushes in.

But I did manage 15 miles on the week, so not too bad for only three days of running.

Weekly: 15.0 miles

First Week of Training

The First week of training went well enough. I managed to run 4 times last week and did well enough for a week one. I was especially proud of my efforts for the tempo run mid week but not so thrilled on the long run. It was very hot and humid and I struggled to get to the 6 mile mark. But it is in the books and I am looking forward to building on these efforts going forward. My speed was super slow and I felt destroyed when I was finished and needed 60 ounces of water before I felt normal again. My body was telling me "Dude, what they hell were you thinking."

This week I have a speed day instead of a tempo run mid week. I am looking forward to the mile repeats. It should be a good time. But first I need a nice calm recovery run. It is too bad that you can't just do a recovery run for other parts of your life when you feel over your head.

The Philadelphia Marathon is about 95 days away. I am pretty excited to be training for a race again.

Tempo Run

With the new half marathon program I had my first tempo run in months last night. Wow, I forgot how brutal those can be. But it felt good to really push myself through the three middle miles of my run. Nice! I have a good feeling about being back on the wagon. Plus I was stagnating without a true goal.

Back to a Program

I haven't really followed a program since I ran a marathon last year. I think as a result my running has not really progressed the way I would like it to. So as of today, I am back on a program and I will be registering for the half marathon section of the Philadelphia Marathon in November. I like the course, even if I did hurt myself running this same race last year. Truth be told, I was undertrained and I suffered the effects of that.

In other news, today is my birthday. I am 41 today. I don't feel as old as the number sounds.

Swimming Makes Me Tired

My swim week is at an end. I should say I am tried. I swam 5 times this week and three days in a row at the end of the week. Swimming just saps my strength, I have a great respect for those that do this on a more constant basis than I do. I needed a nap this afternoon to recover from my week in the pool. This was a good move. My muscles feel worked but without the damage that a week of running can do to your body. I feel ready to get out there tomorrow and go back to my running program.

In other news, I was a dummy for a black belt test on Saturday. I can always go with a good ass kicking so I volunteered to get beat on a bit in the name of school spirit. It is always nice to be there for those moving up the ranks. Plus, as I always say a good deal of what training provides to you as a practitioner is the removal of the shock of actually being hit. If you can get over that you have a much better chance of getting through a fight.