Training Log Archive: Traut

decided that my right knee was feeling too tender and I needed to be smart enough to take the day off to let it calm down so I can keep getting stronger. It was a good decision as I decided to go for a 45 minute walk on the trails at the nature preserve at North Park. Just walking, my knee struggled with the terrain and downhills. My right knee has definitely taken a hit and I need to focus on damage and swelling control again. Just stretching, rolling, and active warmup for my PT at night. Right calf was feeling so much looser at the end of last week, but just in perfect timing- it has tightened up and now my right knee has gone vulnerable.

Also felt the tug of the T.A. and have felt my right glute pinch as I am driving these last few days. All the tell-tale signs.

Event: WPOC - Frick Park
 

still sick, but got through PT at night a bit more. Stretching, rolling and active warm-up in morning. Stretching, rolling, step-down squats heal raises, resistance band walks and crabs in evening. Right hamstring really tight again. Calf really tight also.

Gail's schedule wouldn't allow me to go orienteering at Frick today again. We did get out for a run on the Montour trail earlier. All in all, it may have been for the best as both my knees definitely had increased sensitivity today and running on the uneven terrain may have broken the camels back again. It wasn't that I wasn't finding form- I was finding it quite a bit. My pace was also good and felt very comfortable from a cardiovascular standpoint. What is it was that almost exactly the moment I lost focus on my form, or lost it as I was focused but I simply tightened, my right knee and left knee felt it. There was not that strength in resistance to stress that I had on Wednesday and Friday. My right knee did ache a little after the run. Nothing was bad enough for me to consider stopping and the pace was well within fatigue and my ability to hold my form (in fact 5 miles in and around 6:30s felt very easy for the first time in a while). My knees sis not take enough stress to cause damage or swelling (at least I assume so), but it does mean that running these three days in a row still wore down my resistance to that stress .Whether it is fatigue to my form or something more specific to the knee, that is the case. Hopefully over these next few weeks, my longevity of resistance will increase. that would be a good sign.


Strava: http://www.strava.com/activities/93020646

definitely sick. Stretching and active warmup in morning. rolling and stretching in evening. Wanted to do more but felt a mess. Stomach has been off for days, now it is more coughing and such...

we had to stay close to home as Gail needed to get into the office. Also the reason I skipped the Dirt Monster this year (last year: http://www.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp?userid=1164...). With my knees being the way they are, that ends up being a good thing as the downhills probably would have caused significant swelling again. I do not feel strong enough yet to carry through and it is hard to do a race and not compete.

As it was, my run today wasn't great. It was good in contrast to runs before Wednesday though. I did find my form at time (when I do it feels like my knees shouldn't hurt- but I was not able to mentally and physically hold it), and nowhere along the way did my knees get to the point I considered stopping. Both knees were irritable and did bother me some. I planned a very easy run on flat ground- so I did Irwin rd. (Blue Mist rd. for people interested in local hauntings) which is part paved and part dirt. Just a flat out and back. Most of the way I knew I was tight or fatigued enough that my form wasn't good enough to run with the minimal stress to the knees that I needed and it didn't matter how fast I was going. I kept it slow and felt a little better in the last mile which gave me a little boost in pace. All in all, not a good run by standards of this week, but good in standards on last few weeks because the irritation was kept below the threshold of causing any damage- or at least it felt that way.

Strava: http://www.strava.com/activities/92746535

Event: (Cancelled) Harriman Relay and Club Festival
 

stretching, rolling and active warmup. Getting sick, so felt like body was fighting me. It did loosen up though. still tight after run.

Didn't feel as good as Wednesday, but another post-work decent run. Just like Wednesday, my left foot was a bit tight on impact and my left knee was irritable. As I found my form hitting, with immediate push-off, underneath my hips it did get better. My right knee felt strong throughout and was not achy at all walking downhill to the car.

My hamstrings were tight- I definitely am doing something different to my body this time. The combination of the glute strength and trying moving the push-off underneath me is making a change. Both Wednesday and today have produced tightness and I have definitely been slower at the start of my runs then when I just increased my cadence (which proved not to really be a change- at least in terms of stress to my knee). I feel like I really don't know if I really could run down near 5-minute pace. I think that will take time. First I need to build my strength to hold my form. That was what today was. I did attack a little bit on the hill, but far from a real attack. I pushed the pace but relaxed to the point I was hitting my form perfectly, which I actually can do going uphill maybe- that was the attack. Instead of letting the form go to get the push, I backed off to the form threshold and worked on maintaining it through the end of the run. Accomplished.

Used North Park again for a run that used a long incline and finished on the ridge with a short walk down the hill to the car. At some point I will be able to run downhills without causing damage. Not yet, at least not with possible orienteering if it works out on Sunday.

Hill felt good and my form felt very strong and I was relaxed in attack. It was much slower then my fastest time up that hill, but it was my second fastest time and there was no breakdown.


strava: http://www.strava.com/activities/92618697

stretched in morning- still very tight. But at PT, after going to the pool... I felt great. Almost couldn't irritate my right knee. I ran 10 minutes on the treadmill, felt pretty good and Meagan looked over my alignment. My right leg is still doing some crossing overt here and there, but alignment was good.

My squat motion was good and I was firing my glutes. Everything was flowing. So the question is, was it the new form direction change with getting my foot underneath me (Meagan timed my cadence and it was 175 when I wasn't trying to increase it, just get my foot underneath me, with of course a loose foot-strike and good quick-up leg drive) or am I just coming out of a down-cycle? or both?

The reality is that increasing cadence and getting my foot underneath me (and therefor getting my hips up and glutes firing my legs square underneath them) is not a new thing for me, yet I have never had any success with them until I did this strength work focused on my glutes (with success- actually teaching my body to fire the glutes). I know that even with my best chance for success, I will still have a long period with up and down phases. Hopefully the strength in my glutes and a form that creates less stress to the knee will create fewer and fewer down-cycles. I have to keep up the work and the focus on my form, but I have to be cognoscente of the down-cycles and limit the swelling and damage (as well as loosening calves and hip flexors that cause my foot to land fled inside or outside) during them while I wait to come back up. It was a long and about the worst I have had in years down-phase that brought me back to Dr. Stone and PT this summer. That is going the wrong direction.

Today was my last day of PT, so I will be on my own- which is fine. I gained a lot, and my knee issues are now beyond the strength I now have.

40 minutes at pool in Y. Felt very good at 40:00. Finally felt like my form did not fatigue and I could have kept on rolling if I didn't need to get to PT. Didn't feel tight the rest of the night!

I could actually label this as a "joy" run. I focused on the footstrike underneath me. My left foot was tight a lot on foot-strike but I was able to loosen my right, cadence was good. I was mush slower then I felt like in the beginning, which was distressing, but is supposed to come with a change to form like increasing your cadence, maybe now I am actually doing it in a way that isn't forcing...

My plan was to go up the ridge and walk down- this time I did it (I added on last .5 mile doing a short out and back on top so I had 5 miles. this time I did it. I felt good going up ridge (fastest time for me on Strava) and I had my hips on top and my glutes working! My left knee got agitated a bit throughout, but not enough to cause me reason to consider stopping (the left is like that- it gets agitated, but not in a damage causing way). I am sure that was due to the tighter foot-strike. My right knee would get agitated, but it would slowly recede as I focused again on my form (I would lose focus here and there). I was even able to notice the and work on keeping my right leg from "drifting across here and there as Meghan noticed yesterday.

I even enjoyed being out for a road-run for the first time in a while. My pace did come together and I did let it come to me. My right knee wasn't perfect, but wow what a difference.

also of note- this was a run after a workday... my best run this fall came after work?! I have only had any success in the morning up until now.


strava: http://www.strava.com/activities/92290421

stayed the same with just stretching and rolling in evening with active warmup. Save the possibly irritating squat motion stuff for PT right now.

extremely tight in hamstrings and calves. I definitely was doing something different on my run today that my body noticed.

Didn't even feel like going to pool today. I was a beautiful day outside and the walk had felt good yesterday. walked about 45 minutes on trails before PT. This ended up being good because I ended up doing a 25 minute run in PT.

rolled and stretched in evening.

PT actually went a bit better. We did fewer of the directional squats and skipped the leg press. It was good to see that I was on the right wavelength with keeping the squat motion out of my activity.

My appointment with Dr. Stone is on Thursday so she assessed my flexibility and strength- which were really good. This is, as usual, frustrating i in light of this recent down-cycle and shows how variable my state is and how things may simply be dependent on the day and how tight I am...

Exercises felt mush better then they had over weekend, when I had difficulty moving through active warmup and maintaining my balance. They got better as I went as well.

We did try to run today so she could look at my mechanics. To avid running after possible high irriatation with squat motion stuff, we ran right after active warmup. We went to the usual 6.7 mph (which on a treadmill may as well be 6:30 pace the way it feels. I am terrible on a treadmill. We tried to go up to 180 bpm cadence. throughout one knee would get a little bothered and then the other. My foot-strike would go in and out and was especially off and tight with my left foot. We stopped thinking of cadence and instead pulling my foot-strike underneath me. Even though this is not a new thought and idea to me-it made difference?! As I went I eventually feel my glutes activate and my hips get on top of my legs. It ended up being my best run in a week...