2011 Training Log–Week 7
Setback time. Again. Was feeling pretty good early in the week, then tore my calf muscle on a simple little jog at the park. Running is out of the question for now, just taking it a day at a time and trying to get on the bike as much as I can.
| Monday Run – 5 / :50 / 115avg Easy early morning treadmill. |
| Monday Run – 5.1 / 1:01 / 122avg Easy VFF jog in the snow. |
| Tuesday Bike – 27.4 / 1:28 / 151avg Excellent. Could tell first thing this morning that I was on a good day. Took the MTB out on the roads, which is not that exciting, but a helluva good workout. Have been trying to crack 20 miles in under an hour, got it this time with a 58:48 for a 20.4mph average (previous best on this course was 19.7 with 163 heart rate). Had to contend with some wind, but dosed my effort well to minimize the losses when it was working against me and really open it up when it was helping.Stats for loop: 20 / 58:48 (20.4) / 158avg |
| Wednesday Run – 6 / 1:00 / 118avg Easy early morning treadmill. |
| Wednesday Run – .75 / 10:00 Beautiful day out, so decided to run a few laps around a soccer field in the VFFs. Happily trotted along until I was blindsided by the worst calf cramp I’ve ever had. Hit me mid-stride and I couldn’t even put my left foot down. I hopped around until I found something to lean against. The muscle was like a tape measure snapping back. Ended the run and limped back after trying to stretch and rub it out for a while. |
| Thursday Nada. That wasn’t a cramp yesterday, I tore some calf muscle. Somewhere between a grade I and grade II strain. Very sharp pain the rest of the day yesterday, had a hard time walking. Feeling slightly better today, but it’s going to take several days to get past this one. |
| Friday Bike – 21.9 / 1:21 / 132avg Feeling pretty low today. Didn’t want to ride and was going to skip it. I’d have more time to feel sorry for myself that way… Ended up going and had a great time. Thankfully the leg didn’t bother me on the bike and I was able to ride without thinking about it for the most part. Joined in with a group of guys I hadn’t seen in a while. I think I might have cracked a rib from laughing so hard, we had a good time. Just what I needed. |
| Saturday Bike – 27.1 / 1:49 / 149avg Rode Deer Creek and High Grade Road. Big ring the whole way on the mountain bike. Very windy at times, but had a pretty good day. Tried to dial in my heart rate around 165 and just concentrated on turning circles. Went much better than I thought it would. It’s a lot of fun to ride a climb like this on a mountain bike. If you pass a roadie, your the man – and if one of them passes you, then you have a built-in excuse. Best of both worlds! Not that it means squat, but I passed about a dozen and didn’t get passed myself so that ended up being a lot of fun. Slightly off my 53 minute best on the road bike… but I’ll take it considering the circumstances. I was stoked to average over 10mph. I’m glad I’ve been putting in time on the bike over the last few months so I can transition to it in times like this, when I’m injured and can’t run, without feeling like I’m starting from scratch.The climb: 11.6 / 1:08:13 (10.2) / 167avg / 75cad / 2,838′ (4.7%)
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| Sunday Run – 1 / 16:30 Time to test the calf with a little walking and jogging. Alternated walking @ 3mph and jogging @ 4.5. Was very knotted up and tight. I would take it right to the edge of feeling that sharp pain and then back off to a walk. Was happy to get through this. Couldn’t have gone any farther or faster, though. |
| Totals Time – 7:54Bike – 76.3 / 4:39 Run – 17.9 / 3:15 |
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Pic of the week:
While playing Mr.Mom this week, I let my daughter do her own hair. She was very happy with her ponytail/pigtail creation.
2011 Training Log–Week 6
Strong week. First time topping 60 miles since the first week of August last year. Can’t believe it has been that long. Finding it tough to get fit-lose weight-recover from injury-transision to minimal shoes all at once, but I think I’m making steady progress in each area.
| Monday Run – 10.2 / 1:29 (8:46) / 148avg Tough run. Worst footing conditions of the year, several inches of new snow on top of several inches of old snow. Worked hard. Temp was 23 with a little sun, so it was nice to finally wear shorts again. First yard sale of the year, too. Ate it hard on a slippery sidewalk section, not 10 steps after congratulating myself on a nice save from a slip just before. Luckily I popped right back up with no damage done. |
| Tuesday Bike – 19 / :55 / 155avg Trainer in the basement. Warmed up for 10 min, then shifted into the big ring and pushed the hardest gear I could for 40 minutes while still being able to keep a decent cadence (85+). Worked out really well, worked hard. Great way to build some power and squeegee out all the tightness from running. |
| Wednesday Run – 11.2 / 1:39 (8:55) / 139avg Ran this at a comfortable trot. Crazy conditions again. Everything from bare pavement to knee deep snow. 9 degrees – shorts and 2 shirts with light gloves. |
| Thursday Run – 10.3 / 1:39 (9:42) / 136avg Wow, this was a tough run. Snow conditions on today’s route were super challenging. Lots of calf-deep powder on top of old snow. Tough to grind out a 12-13 min pace for some parts. Kicked my butt pretty good. |
| Thursday Bike – 8 / :30 / 112avg Easy spin on the trainer to loosen up before rolling the calves for 30 minutes and doing a little stretching. |
| Friday Run – 6 / 1:00 / 128 Easy recovery run on the treadmill. |
| Saturday Run – 20 / 2:59 (8:57) / 146avg Need this one after my last two long run disasters. Out before dawn on a Saturday again to get it done. Endured a lot of discomfort in the heels, but everything else was really good. Tough footing yet again with the snow and ice, but at least the temp was a balmy 32. Lap times: Then added 2 miles on the end. Hustled to get under 3 hours: |
| Sunday Run – 4 / :40 / 129avg Easy spin on the treadmill followed by some stretching. Heels still a little tender, but everything else still feels good. |
| Total Time – 10:53
Bike – 27 / 1:25 Run – 61.7 / 9:28 |
2011 Training Log–Week 5
Planned easy week. Can’t complain too much, got a little variety in which was nice. Ready to ramp it up again next week. No bike, I need to get back on that even though it will be the trainer for the foreseeable future due to all of the new snow.
Hopefully got some good adaptation out of taknig it easier this week. The TSB and ATL are lined up pretty well now meaning that my rest break timing was optimal. I’ll drive the TSB back down over the next few weeks and watch the CTL climb a bit more. Long way to go.
Made some progress on the diet side of things. Eating habits were much improved, and I’m starting to see some downward movement on the scale for a change.
| Monday Rest day. Spent 30 minutes on the TriggerPoint rollers. |
| Tuesday Run – 2.5 / :38 Hiked on the treadmill @ 3mph with 15% incline while doing curls, presses, and rows with 15lb dumbbells while barefoot. This workout doesn’t do a thing for the weekly mileage total, but I like it because it stresses the body without any real impact. I then finished with 1.5 miles barefoot at 0% incline and 5 mph. There is no speed or fitness component to that, it is purely a technique drill sort of like riding rollers on a bike. I’ve found that going at a slow jog allows me to fine tune my stride and footstrike and really listen to the feedback my feet are giving me. Spent about 45 minutes on the TriggerPoint rollers. |
| Wednesday Run – 2 / :32 Repeated the same workout from yesterday. Barefoot on the treadmill 1 mile @3mph with 15% incline. Did continuous curls and presses with 15lb dumbbells. Felt better than yesterday. Then jogged a mile. 30 minutes rolling calves. |
| Thursday Run – 10 / 1:26 (8:39) / 151avg Was feeling pretty good this morning, eager to get after it. In the past, that would mean jogging for about 10 seconds as a warm-up and then cranking for 90 minutes right at my threshold. Today I tried to be a little bit smarter and slowly jogged for a 1.5 mi warmup, then did 3 x 1.6mi ‘gentle’ efforts with 5 min rest. I struggled a bit with these, I think I rolled all of the spring out of my legs. They were dead. I plugged away and just kept it moderate, knowing that today was just one step in a long journey. Was 17 degrees and snowing hard, which was much better than -17 the day before. 1.6 / 12:03 (7:29) / 163avg 1.6 / 12:12 (7:34) / 165avg 1.6 / 12:11 (7:33) / 166avg |
| Friday Run – 6.1 / 1:09 (11:16) / 134avg Mellow VFF jog in 5 inches of new snow. Lots of hills. |
| Saturday Run – 2.3 / 23:47 (10:20) / 133avg Disappointing. Headed out at 5:30pm in several more inches of new snow. The snow was a great consistency for running, just wet enough to pack down well underfoot. Legs felt springy and I was looking forward to around 2 hours. The heel said otherwise, though. It was tweaked, feeling like it needed to pop but couldn’t. The more I ran on it, the worse it got. Reluctantly bagged the run and walked home. |
| Sunday Run – 5.3 / :44 (8:24) / 153avg TM. Heel was a bit better today, rolled out the calves quite a bit last night. After a thorough warmup, did several efforts from 1/4 mi to 1.5 miles in the 9-10mph range. I was running at 10mph when the fuse tripped on the surge protector that the treadmill was plugged into. Luckily the belt slowed a bit instead of coming to an abrupt stop, was still a little dicey. Everything felt good and I was planning on going longer, but need to re-route the treadmill power source before I work the motor that hard again. |
| Total time – 4:53
Bike – 0 |
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Pic of the week:
VFF track.
The Scene Begins 