Training Log Archive: immy

Hmm, I can't really remember this much... oh yeah, but now school has started again so I really should leave earlier. Too much traffic.

Warm up - 20 minutes while I waited for Mike; 2 minute recovery between sets of intervals, then about 8 minutes warm down.

Mike did make me feel better about missing Sprint the Bay because it was mostly urban sprint races after all, which aren't my strongest point. But I am kind of sad that I missed races from the Superseries, because I think this year is going to be a good one.

2 x (5 x 2:30) with 30s recovery after each interval, and 2 minutes recovery between sets. I really really enjoyed my 2 minute recovery :)

The intervals were straight legs, cadence, switching, butt kicks, straight legs and so on. This time I found the straight legs really hard on my hamstrings, they felt quite tight and sore. Better watch out that I don't break something... I made the switching one a bit harder today by trying to extend my legs more.

Wasn't sure how my legs would feel today... Surprisingly, they were ok.

Warm up, warm down and recoveries.

I saw Aaron and Kim in the beginning and they were doing the session I showed them last week :) but were nearly finished, so I was by myself for most of this.

Pfitzinger week 5: 2 x (9 x 90:30s), with 2 min recovery between sets. It's definitely getting harder - I'm a little bit worried about week 8 - but I also know I will manage because I always seem to :)

My legs were sore all over to begin with - hamstrings sore from bikram, glutes still a little sore from straight legs aqua jogging, and quads totally smashed from yesterday. The only part that wasn't sore was my stress fracture.... hahaha :/ But after warming up, they felt a lot better and my cadence was really good for the whole session (did all of the intervals as high cadence ones, no drills today).

C • training.. 3

Legs quite tired coming home today.

Cycled from home to Whitford, then to Maraetai, Clevedon, Brookby and home via Sandstone Rd and Te Irirangi Drive. This is the longest ride I have done in fact... that's kind of sad because it wasn't that long - 85km. My legs are totally smashed now though. Parts of the ride were quite hilly, and in one place I actually got off the bike for a minute because it was such a steep hill and my legs were just burning and full of lactic acid... rather embarrassing! I do believe my lowest gear isn't actually that low, although I fully admit to being a pretty average hill climber.

I'm happy that I did the ride and it feels like an achievement :) hopefully I can do some more long rides soon? It would be nice to have a friend for some of these though.

My garmin is fixed now too so I could measure distance and climb for the ride :)

Event: Sprint the Bay
 

Warm up, warm down and recoveries (1 minute each).

7 x 5 minute intervals: straight legs, high cadence, high knees, butt kicks, straight legs and 2 x high cadence. I worked really hard, as usual. But the straight legs one didn't feel so hard today? Hmm.

Felt really happy about this session, but then I looked at photos and results from Sprint the Bay and aqua jogging just seems so lame :( It's not fair.

C • chin up! 6

Bikram yoga. I actually don't know why I put myself through this, it's torture. We had the older guy Bruce today and he really makes sure you push hard. I was sweating before I even started...

Well, funny story. I went to the sports doctor again today after having reactivated my limping problem by running. First thing he asks me when I come in was "did you look at the X-ray? what did you think?" and I said, funny you should mention that, because I thought I saw something there. And he says me too, but the radiologist reported it as normal... And so we take a look at the X-ray and I point to the spot and he says "yes, that's definitely a periosteal reaction"... then rings up the radiologist and tells her off for missing something that the med student spotted. He really enjoyed doing that.

Anyway, long story short, I have another stress fracture. Very frustrating, most of all because I didn't have any early warning signs (or else I'm just not good at noticing them). How did I let this happen?? So angry at myself. It doesn't feel like the last one because there is no pain in the bone - tib post is sore however, and the muscle over the periosteum is very tender.

So I need to have 4 more weeks off running (I'm actually surprised it wasn't more, given that I have actually done a few short runs over the past few weeks), during which time I can bike and aqua jog as much as I like. It's kind of perfect in a way, because by then I will have reached the end of the Pfitzinger programme :) Let's see how good aqua jogging really is!

My conclusion is that I must have built up the volume too quickly after the last fracture, and in particular, doing those long runs over New Year's and not allowing myself the time to recover really put a lot of stress on my muscles and bones. I need to be better at recognizing when I should be taking a break. One potential sign could be tight calves? but I don't know if this is an early or late sign.

Also another important lesson: last time, as soon as I was able to run again, I started to think of my running as training. But that is the wrong mindset to have. For at least the first 3-4 weeks, the running I do will simply be allowing my body to adjust. It's not training. My main training during that period will still have to be in the pool - otherwise I will start pushing myself to run more or run for longer before my body is ready.

I was actually super motivated today to do my aqua jogging session, but completely ran out of time! I think I'll do it on Sunday instead. I had so much to do in the lab today, combined with the fact that I only started work after 10 because of the sports doctor appointment. Then went to the NZSO concert, Beethoven 6 this time, so good :) But didn't even finish what I needed to do, so will have to go in to work tomorrow...

C • Really sorry to hear :-( ... 2

Long run in the pool. The ones on Pfitzinger's programme are not very long in my book, so I decided to start with the time of the longest aqua jogging session I have done before and build up from there. Managed to stave off the boredom by singing through Beethoven's 7th symphony in my head ;) that lasted a good 30-35 minutes. Haha, what a geek. Then Rachmaninov cello sonata, but I didn't remember the 4th movement too well. Then I just thought about random stuff and plotted about what I can do next time to get through the session - probably should study some medical notes and then go through what I have studied in my head. Sounds like a plan.

Went to see the sports doctor today, a different one to last time. He seemed pretty good, but I had hoped he might have seen someone with my symptoms before - he hadn't. Instead he gave me crap for being a typical med student and coming up with bizarre symptoms :/ He was a bit puzzled by my description of "awkwardness" and not much else. I think he tried every test in the book to check for stress fractures - tibia, fibula, foot - but couldn't find any evidence. Still, I had to go and have an X-ray but I don't think that showed anything (he wanted to rule out a healing stress fracture). The only notable thing was pain when he palpated tibialis posterior - it had been recovering well until then but was pretty sore after he pressed it so hard.

He wants me to run 15 minutes today and 20 tomorrow to try to "aggravate" the problem, then I have another appointment on Friday.

Cycled to uni after seeing the sports doctor.

Yesterday's aqua jogging session that I missed... When I started warming up, my legs felt pretty sluggish as they sometimes do.

The session felt quite short today and I got a bit bored during the warm down so didn't do a full hour as usual.

9 x 2:30 intervals with 30s recoveries. Despite my legs feeling slow in the beginning, I totally nailed this session - felt strong and had a good fast cadence the whole time.

Next week's will almost be easier as then it splits into 2 sets of 5 intervals with a recovery in between :)

Cycled home from the pool.

So I thought I would give running a try... Just Churchill Park again, one biggish loop. I actually felt quite good during the run - there were twinges in the lateral compartment as usual, but it wasn't awkward! I was quite optimistic... But then I felt the beginnings of the awkwardness towards the end of the run, and my limp came back after I stopped. Tib post was not sore, but tender afterwards, which is the usual scenario.

Overall, I don't think doing Sprint the Bay would be wise - firstly, this tibialis posterior thing really needs time to recover properly. And secondly, I do believe this awkwardness is something else - not sure how it's related to the tib post issue - but running is not enjoyable when it happens, and I need to work out what is going on before I commit myself to more races. Have had such bad luck with races lately - it seems if I enter something I am jinxed and will end up injured and having to pull out...

Ah well, I'm resigned to the fact now, I just want to do what it takes for my leg to recover. Nothing else is more important.