Picking Up The Pieces

Monday, March 23: 7:30 AM - 7 Miles, 50 min w/ CVC
Tuesday, March 24: 6:30 PM - Track WO @ Reggie
21 min w/u
8 x 800m w/ 2.5 minR
2:23, 2:20, 2:21, 2:20, 2:21, 2:20, 2:20, 2:19
25 min c/d
Wednesday, March 25: 11:30 AM - 11 Miles, 74 min w/ Rupprecht & Kirby
Thursday, March 26: 9:30 AM - 6 Miles, 40 min
5:00 PM - 6 Miles, 40 min
Friday, March 27: 11:00 AM - 6 Miles, 40 min
6:00 PM - 7 Miles, 52 min w/ CVC
Saturday, March 28: 9:00 AM - Long Interval WO @ BC Res w/ Dave
22 min w/u
4 x 2K w/ 400m jogR (2:30)
6:29, 6:35, 6:35, 6:30
15 min c/d
Sunday, March 29: 0 Miles (Anterior Tib)

Week Total = 65 Miles, 8 Sessions

Monday, March 30: 0 Miles (Anterior Tib)
Tuesday, March 31: 6:00 PM - Track WO @ Bentley w/ Ryan & Ari
25 min w/u
5 Miles @ Alt 5:12/5:28
26:26 (5:11, 5:27, 5:12, 5:28, 5:08)
25 min c/d
Wednesday, April 1: 0 Miles
Thursday, April 2: 9:00 PM - 6 Miles, 42 min
Friday, April 3: 5:00 PM - 3.5 Miles, 25 min
Saturday, April 4: 7:30 PM - Track WO @ Bentley
20 min w/u
1200m/3200m/1200m/3200m/1200m - all w/ 2 minR
3:41, 10:17, 3:39, 10:16, 3:39
15 min c/d
Sunday, April 5: 8:00 PM - 6 Miles, 41 min

Week Total = 40 Miles, 5 Sessions

Another delayed post this week which is why there are a bunch of numbers to catch up on. You'll also see that a few of those numbers up there are zeros, which is not usually a good thing. Things were going along pretty well last week (March 23-29) on the training side. I didn't feel great in the 8 x 800m workout on that Tuesday, but felt much better in the second half than in the first half. I was starting to introduce some short doubles to bump up the mileage while squeezing stuff in around my work schedule. Prior to my second workout that week, I was feeling pretty lousy on my evening run that Friday and my calves had been like bricks. The following morning, I struggled with the workout and had to work pretty hard to stay with Juliano on the 2k's. It wasn't terrible since I got 8k of quality work in, I just didn't feel great about it.

Per usual, I was in a hurry to get my cool down done and get to work, so I threw on my trainers and went off on my own. About 5 min into the cool down, I was feeling a throbbing pain on the medial side of my lower left shin. I tried not to think about it too much and figured I'd ice later after work. I worked for the next 11 hours on my feet and during this time, the pain that I felt on the medial side had moved into the anterior side, mostly in the lower tendon and some into the belly of the muscle with most of the pain in the lower attachment area. It went from being an uncomfortable annoyance to a very painful concern. I've had some history with this type of problem before and lost a lot of training time the last time I had it; therefore, I was not happy that it was coming up again. In an effort to get rid of this before things progressed, I took Sunday and Monday off from running, iced every chance I had, took about 1200mg of ibuprofen daily and scheduled a massage with Mike ASAP.

I saw a lot of improvement from this treatment and by Tuesday night, I was ready to try running on it. The warm up didn't seem to cause much flare up so I talked with Kevin about doing a lighter workout than the one he had scheduled. Since Ryan was doing a 10 Mile In/Out Tempo on the track, Kevin figured it would be a good pace for me to jump into and test things out. Ryan was already 5 Miles in with Mario helping him out, so I jumped in at that point and just followed along quietly. Ari came along for the ride as well. It seemed like the leg was doing alright so I offered to help out with the pacing duties after Mario dropped off. Ryan and I switched off every 800m and took care of business like clock work. I finished feeling very relaxed and was happy that the pace felt so easy. The leg was a little sore from all the attention I was giving it and was not at 100%, but definitely didn't flare up like before.

Still being very cautious, I kept my appointment with Mike the next day and put another zero in the training log to be safe. I continued with the ice, ibuprofen, and stretching/strengthening to try to nip this thing in the butt. I was planning on working out again on Friday (since I would miss Sat practice due to work), but there was a monsoon right around the time I was getting started. I was stretching under the bleachers, soaked to the bone, and shivering. As I watched the track pool up with water, my legs felt like junk and I was absolutely dreading the workout. As I started lacing up my flats, I made the decision to skip the workout and try for another day. I went back the next night after work and completed the workout as planned in the dark. It was pretty cold and windy, but much better than the day before. The shin seemed to hold up, but my calves were probably the most tight they've ever been. I went home and took a long ice bath and took the next day pretty easy. On Monday, I saw Dr. V. for my regular bi-weekly chiro appointment and she spent a lot of time on my lower leg issues followed up with some stim treatment.

I feel like I dodged a bullet with this shin issue, but still know that I need to be careful as I move forward. I'm at the stage in my training where I'm not really getting ready for a specific race but just trying to get as fit as possible. As fitness progresses and workouts get better, I try to push things a little further to advance my fitness. It's at this point that I need to be careful and try to avoid any issues. I'm trying to be patient and doing as much as I can in this process, but I know there are a lot of things I should be doing that I'm not. Most of this is due to time and energy restraints. Again, it's something that will just take time and hopefully I'll be out there competing again before too long.

Much like I'm picking up the pieces in my training, I have also been picking up the pieces in the rest of my life. It's been almost 6 months since I moved back to the east coast, and it's taken all of that time to get me settled again, figure out what I'm trying to accomplish, how I'm going to accomplish it, and how it's going to fit into my everyday life. I am enjoying my new home with my amazing roommates and am doing the best I can with work, training, and everything else in my life. I've picked up a second job, adding an extra 15 hours a week into my schedule and have also taken on the role of Elite Coordinator for the Santa Barbara International Marathon. I'm taking on this task to help my fellow Auburnites of Rusty Snow, Dan Campbell, and Sarah Crispin, but also to help the sport and learn more about the industry. You'll probably hear more about that on here in the future and may even hear from me directly as we move forward with this event. So my life continues to be pretty busy and it's certainly becoming a bigger puzzle with all sorts of complex pieces. Not all the pieces are fitting together perfectly just yet, but there is some progress being made and you can even start to see some sort of picture coming together. But then again, you can never tell for sure what the picture is until every piece is in place.

Still hoping for a masterpiece I guess...