Every day is a new day

Thought it time for a tempo day.  Reality is I think it was a day too soon as I'm still a little extra sore from the long run Saturday.  Warm up miles did not completely loosen up the legs.  Add tp that 33 degrees and heavy rain and I'm not surprised it did not work out so well.  So for what its worth is my run:

2 mile warmup at 9:10 pace

tempo miles of  7:50 7:45 7:40 7:40 8:00  and

cool down miles of 8:15 and 9:00.

I will try again on Thursday if the legs feel up to it.

Easy day after yesturdays quasi tempo day. I felt that it would be a mistake to do too much two days in a row. Turns out I felt fine today, and kept feeling like I wanted to pick up the pace. Thinking about all the issues related to the work/rest cycle I knew it would be a mistake.  So I will have to be satisfied with the thought that it was a fun very easy run.  Total of 9 miles in 80:00 for an 8:53 pace.  Will try some more speed work tomorrow and decide about this weekends 5K.

Thought I'd take another go at a tempo run.  I seem to need a warmup after the warmup or I burn out at tempo pace.  As a test I ramped up the speed today using the treadmill(.5%) to better control the pace.

2 mile warmup at 8:53

6.2 mile at 8:00 7:47 7:35 7:35 7:35 7:29 and 1:30 for 47:30

1 mile cool down

This felt much better and could have kept it going if I had to.

Easy day was the plan today.  I don't know why but I decided to do a trail run I hadn't done since early last fall. So did a trail loop with many small hills and a bunch of trail type steps. Ran real easy and did not push at all.  Ended up with about seven miles in just over an hour.  It felt great to do something different!

Had almost no time to run today. Went to the gym did a quick 1 mile warmup then at 8:53/mile ran 2x1600 at 4 % then 5% slope and then a 1 mile cool down. I hope to get more time in tomorrow.

Because I ran so little yesterday, I decided against a day off today.  Snowing heavily midday so I went to the gym.  Planned easy 8 turned into an easy 3.6 warm up/cooldown with 5 mid tempo 8:00/mile in between.  Total of 70 minutes. Try to find time for a long run during the week.

Easy day.  Snowing again today but the outdoors was calling so I ran the park/ road route for a total of 8.1 miles. Ran very easy without looking at my watch til I was done.  Went by breathing rate and feel to keep the pace at a very even relaxed pace. Total time was 70:30 for an 8:42 pace.

Legs were quite sore today which was a little surprising since I had an easy day yesterday.  Just when you think you understand your body it reminds you that you really don't. Felt tired and run down as well so treadmill 8 miler was the plan.

Legs were sore all the way through but the interesting thing was at 50 minutes I suddenly felt much better and decided I would run as long as I had time for which ended up being 1:30 so I ended up doing 10.2 miles at an 8:49 pace and felt better at the end than the beginning.  Note: dehydration was beginning as I lost 6 pounds of water since the gym was hot and humid today.  Bring water in the future!

Unplanned but needed day off yesterday.  Easy run planned for today but due to the day off I ran a little faster than I like for an easy run.  Ran the park til I realized the sun was out so left the trees so I could run in the sun.  That made it seem much warmer than the 35 degrees it was.  Ended up with 9.0 miles in 1:17 for about a 8:35 pace.

Had to be at work at 4:30 this morning and did not leave til after 9 last night so not a good nights sleep.  As a result todays run was tough.  I knew it would be so kept to an easy treadmill run of 8.1 miles at a 8:50 pace. I will be really happy on April 16th.

I am having some kind of quad injury that started a few days ago and seems to become more noticable each day.  This morning I realized it was more than soreness.  I was loathe to avoid activity so I chose to jog 5K, stop and stretch well and then do it again.  End result is if I run very slow like 10 minute miles, I have no discomfort, but at normal speed  it is noticable maybe even  painful.  I will rest tomorrow and see what happens on Monday.  Three weeks to a race I suspect caution is in order.

Leg is better but not good.  Thought about another day off but the problem is I can't cross train.  All the other equipment makes the injury noticable, while slow running seems ok.  So I ran a 5K in 27:00 then did a long slow stretch routine followed by another 5K at the same speed.  No obvious issues but when stretching after I discovered it was not a quad thing it is actually a deep inner thigh thing that I really can't identify.  Anyway since it seems to do nothing bad to jog I will continue that until it gets better or worse for that matter, and will then act acordingly.

Tax day!  The finish line was reached. I did not win but did not lose. Seven day weeks are over so now maybe we can think about other things.

I finished up electronic filing and extensions by 4:30 and realized I had not left my desk at all in the last ten hours. When a fellow tax preparer said "the day is over go for a run" I did not hesitate.  Ran the park loops and felt remarkably good.  Legs did not complain at all. Ran two mile warm up in 18:00 then two miles at 17:00 then two miles at  15:30  before a 1.5 mile cooldown at 16:45.  No issues felt pretty good.

First day off in a long time! Decided since its cold and windy that the gym would be a better place to get in a morning run.  Originally was just going to do 5 easy miles and maybe look at the park this afternoon for 4 or 5 more. I was too hyper to sleep very long or very well last night so felt really slow and tired from the beginning of the run.  The good news is that feeling subsided a bit as I sped up and when I went to7:30 pace I did not feel bad at all. That said today I would not have wanted to do a whole lot more.  Total 6.2 miles in 48 minutes.  Hope to get in a few more later.

P.M.

Raining and gusting over 40 knots all afternoon.  Regular heavy hail as well.  Not at all nice today so back to the treadmill.  Plan was to run an easy 5 in 45:00 mostly followed the plan with 5.1 in 44:25.  Funny how it seems like I've just sat around all day and done nothing productive.

Pain in the hip and back today. Feels like nerve issues rather than muscle.  Hurts the hip to run or even walk uphill.  Ran a three mile slow warm up and the pain never got bad but never went away either. I stretched for a long while and tried another slow run with the same results.  Gave up and stretched again and decided to call it a day.  I get brief shooting pain in the sciatic nerve area and suspect tight hip muscles are causing the problem.  Cannot seem to be able to find a stretch that pulls in the affected area.  Well if it is like this when I get up in the morning I will take a day off tomorrow.

Forced myself to take a day or more off.  Seems that my minor injuries have led to some gait changes that has caused an imflamation of my sciatic nerve.  I can't run, walk or do much motion of any sort without mild to moderate pain.  I am doing all the relevant stretching but think it is wise to aviod running til the pain is gone and and I can run with normal form again.

The good news is my P.F. seems to have completely disappeared which might have started this whole process.

Still out of commission with the sciatica issue.  No better no worse with three days off. Culd not stand it so I went to the gym to find something I could do.  The only thing I could do was the elliptical backwards so I did that for 75 minutes.  Guess that is worth 6 miles.  I cannot walk from our house to the dock (1/2 mile) without pretty serious nerve twinging.  Chiro tomorrow.  This is a good example of a gait change injury and why its not always a good idea to run through low to medium muscle pain as the gait change can lead to all sorts of problems.

No running today.  Went to chiro for a look see.  Turns out the locked muscles were on the other side from the pain and my stretching may have actually been making the problem worse. We will see how I feel in the morning.  I hate waiting and know this is not good less than two weeks before an event.

Ran one very slow mile.  Still in pain.  Did 45 minutes on the eliptical I'll call 2.5 more.

Interesting thing, I found out today at the P.T. visit that my left leg is noticably longer than my right. About 5-7mm longer actually.  P.T. guy thinks I reached the tipping point of mileage, repaired right achilles and leg length differential and suffered serious inflammation in th SI joint. Ibruprofin and rest should solve the problem in a day or two more.  Long term looks like a 4mm shoe insert in the right leg may help prevent a repeat.

Slow ran one mile.  Stopped to stretch.  Hurt too much to do anything but limp back to the gym.  Did 45 minutes on the eliptical for 3.5 miles more. Looks  like complete rest is in order.  Will pass on the race if required.  There are always more races.

Ran 30 minutes in the pool with the last 15 quite hard.  No S.I. joint issues while doing this.  Got out of the pool and had a few twinges but nothing like yesterday. I think this will work while injury heals. Then 20 minutes backwards on the elliptical that was pain free.

Well my back and S.I. joint are better after a few days off but not healed.  I am going to pass on this weekends 1/2 having decided it is worth waiting the 2-3 weeks I need for recovery, rather than damage the ligaments further by trying to race injured.  We have a local half in 4 weeks that I should be able to at least run in if not actually race.  Healing seems to be a better way to go.  Rode my bike for 15 miles at lunch today wearing my back grace thing and had no pain whatsoever.  Yet it still twinges a bit when I walk downhill and land funny.  Time and patience is in order.  I,ll call the effort the equal of a 4 mile run.

P.T. guru says I could probably slow run the 1/2 marathon with out re-injury as long as I stopped if any unusual or sharp pain is felt. Said I might add a number of days to the recovery but should not, if careful, do any more damage.  Suggested I do an easy 5K tomorrow, and again on Fri. or Sat. and  if no pain should be OK to run(jog) through the half.  I am OK with that since 2 1/2 weeks without training leaves me feeling unprepared anyway.