First off, Ken, I was thinking of the “experiment-of-one” comments of last week, and how most of our experiments have value primarily for ourselves, but your experiment carries much larger implications. I admire your tenacity and steadfastness as you pave new ground into cancer therapy. I’m certainly praying that it proves most fruitful. Continued Godspeed on this journey.
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Week 89
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Great stuff already posted up this week! Thanks for keeping this ball rolling! By most accounts, it was an undisciplined week for me. The constant interruptions of daily life made for pigeon-holing of my training (or maybe that is the norm around here), but I still managed to get in about 45 miles for the week. The log reads as such:
Sun: 7 w/5@6:36 avg. pace (but highly variable)
Mon: 1.3 (wrenched my knee :-(, so quit after it didn’t loosen up.)
Tue: 8 easy w/5 on grass
Wed: 7 w/1.4@6:05 pace +post-run+upper+dynamic
Thur: 5 easy +post-run+static+balance
Fri: 7.4 w/3.4 accel from 7:30 to 5:30 pace +post-run+upper
Sat: 9.3 easy (4 am, 5.3 pm mostly on grass) +post-run+dynamic+balance
Reflections:
Sunday was really more like two back-to-back 2.5-mile acceleration runs, with about a 45s rest in the middle. I wrenched my knee while demonstrating Newton’s 3rd law in lecture on Monday. I couldn't seem to work it out during my afternoon run….so I quit not wanting to risk more serious damage. By Tuesday, it was “better”, but still a little tender; I ran a lot on grass, which seemed to help. Wednesday onward felt more like a normal week, but I stayed away from the squats this week, owing to Monday’s debacle. Even so, my faster pace stuff on Wednesday felt weak and lethargic. Friday’s hard effort felt much better and it evolved into an acceleration run. According to the Garmin, the pace was remarkably linear in its increase, so the average over the 3.4 miles was 6:29, with the last 1.4 averaging to 5:55 pace, and the last .4 was 5:39 pace; I followed it with another 4 easy (7:30 pace) miles. Saturday afternoon I was going to do some stairs, but a large lunch that didn't digest well, left me feeling bloated the rest of the day, so I just ran on easy grass. I was surprised that I struggled completing my balance routines after not doing any balance work Sun-Wed, so that is a lesson that I’ll have to remain vigilant with these. Dread is probably too strong a word, but these really are uncomfortable for me; some of the muscles in my shin that control my toes really get fatigued as I struggle to maintain balance over the two minutes that I continuously remain on one leg (it’s especially bad on my right leg). Also, the tinnitus (ringing in the ears) that comes and goes doesn't help (note: I'd never had persistent tinnitus until last fall, now I routinely wake up with it; it’ll usually subside as the day goes on. Anyone else get this?)
OK, hopefully the knee fully settles in the next day or so, and I can get back to doing my squats. I really want to graduate to lunges and on to dynamic drills before the late spring of racing begins.
I hope that everything is going well in your sphere. As always, I love to hear what you've got going on---be it training, racing, or recovery---it’s all good.
May your runs have purpose, may you run them with resolve.