Training Blog October 2 to 8, 2017

Monday AM 4 miles with Uta in 30:38
PM road 10, 1:09:12.  After 5 miles the hip kept locking up and I would stop and stretch and go about a mile and repeat the lock up/stretch thing.  So this is a bit worse then it was last week...

Tuesday AM 5 miles with Melissa and Uta, 39:18
PM 3 miles in Lowell, all I had time for
After the 3 miles I got a massage from Anna, very painful.

Wednesday PM 6 miles solo, 45:20, this seems to be about as far as I can go without the hip locking up

Thursday AM 4 with Uta, 29:25
PM 6 solo, 40:19

Friday AM 5.7 with Melissa and Uta, 45:23
PM 6 miles solo, 40:23

Saturday AM 5.1 with Melissa and Uta, 40:23
PM 6.2 solo, 42:23

Sunday AM 5k warm up with dj, light light drills, light strides, Race Wayland xc 5k 4th place 16:03, made a move with a bit under a mile to go and felt real strong but couldn't really find another gear only maybe went from 5:0's pace to high 4:50's pace so the field came back by me in the last 400m or so.  Better than last week when I didn't even make the push.  Also not bad considering the hip which wasn't an issue in the race physically but I was worried about it.  5k cool down with DJ.

Shot from the race bit before the mile.  This pic and the next two are all by Tom Derderian.

Summary Not really sure what is up with the hip.  I know how I hurt it obviously but it just won't let go.  I have been doing a ton of mobility and mashing and it loosens up but then the results on the run seem to be exactly the same.  I have also been doing a bunch of feldenkrais to touch up the form which also hasn't helped.   I can't seem to pin down the source of the problem which is concerning.  Hopefully it will come around this week.  Of course where there is pain both front and back it could be a stress fracture of the pelvis like I had on the other side 18 months back.  In case that is the case I am going to do the minimum in terms of running fast and I'm not going to push the distance past when it locks up.  I also will avoid taking any days off because when I have done that with stress fractures in the past it seems the muscles let go a bit and it becomes crazy painful to run on them and I don't want that either.  I'll also start drinking bone broth daily.  Hopefully it is just muscular and the continued daily body work and feldenkrais will get me right sooner rather than later.  If not I can sneak in 10 to 12 miles a day and try to stay reasonably fit that way until it comes around....

Form looks pretty decent so I'm not sure what is going wrong but something isn't right...

Training Blog September 25 to October 1, 2017

Monday AM road 4 with Uta, 30:38
PM road 10 solo, very tight hip, made holding coordination very hard, 1:09:12

Tuesday AM road 4 with Uta, 30:33
PM 3 warm up, drills and a tempo 400 in 76, 30x100m avg. 15.6 with 100 jog recovery, stupid hot made this unpleasant hip better but not great, 3 cool down

Wednesday AM 15.2, 1:46:22, very hot even though I was running in the dark from after 7pm until about 9.  Hip sore coordination not great.

Thursday AM road 4 with Uta, 30:21
PM 10 miles around Phillips fields, first 6 with Melissa and Uta, 1:12:00

Friday AM road 4 with Uta, 29:12
4PM 3 warm up, drills, strides, 200 in 32, 600 jog, 6x800 with 2min recoveries.  Ran the 800's at about 5k pace but I pushed the first 200 in 31 then settled into 5k/10k pace, 2:23, 2:21, 2:20, 2:21, 2:21, 2:20, 3 mile cool down

7PM 6 miles with Uta and Melissa in 47:47

Saturday Off, spent the day from 7am to 9pm helping my Mom move.

Mom and me after the race.

Sunday AM 6k warm up with DJ, drills, strides, 30 second hard effort, extra jogging, 6k xc race, 5th place 19:09.  Not a great race but I am starting to feel stronger.  Ran a bit better last weekend but this wasn't that far off. 6k cool down
PM road 10k with Uta, 42:30, hip very sore, really fighting to hold coordination.

Summary 97 miles, 2 decent workouts and a decent race. Hip started with fighting the coordination last Sunday on the long cool down.  I did a lot of mobility work for it over the week and it helped but Sunday made it worse.  So just do more work and see Anna this week.

January 30 to February 5, 2017

Monday AM road 4 with Uta, 30:42 tot. 4
               PM drills and massage with Anna

Tuesday AM road 4 with Uta, 30:51 tot. 4

Wednesday PM road 14.3, medium long run, 1:32:56

Thursday AM road 4 with Uta, 30:23
                 PM Moneghetti Fartlek, did 3 mile warm up with Uta in 21:11. dropped her off at the house, jogged another quarter mile or so, did drills- a skip, b skip, a+c skip, fast exchange, side shuffle, side shuffle with cross, karaoke, 3 hop fast exchange and sensory hops, 4 strides.  Did a Mona fartlek on my normal glendale loop.  Covered 3.75 miles, .05 more than 2 weeks ago and this got me back up to the area I was finishing in last year, albeit barely, but still nice to be back in the normal range.  Basically I have a 2/10th of a mile window that I finished all but one of my Mona's in prior to last years stress fracture. I was into that zone by about 30 or 40 yards.  I mean on gmaps this is 3.9 which is right in the zone I was very happy with last winter.  So I'm very happy now to be back in that range. 3.6 mile cool down.  I did 6x6 dead lifts after starting at 135 lbs up to 185lbs.

Steve Moneghetti rates this Mona a "good job" showing steady improvement and working back to competitive fitness.

Friday AM road 4 miles with Uta, 30:08

            PM road 10 miles solo, 1:05:03, felt pretty good for a Friday night normally I feel like death warmed over.  I did 6x6 squats after starting at 95lbs up to 145lbs.

Saturday AM boxford road 10, 1:03:29, felt a little heavy.
                2PM 6.4 miles road, 42:24
                4PM bikram yoga, 90mins hot yoga

Sunday AM Race Super Sunday 5 mile, Cambridge, MA.  3+ warm up, 22:15, full drill set, Strides, 30 second hard effort, Race, did most of the leading which I didn't mind.  I really just wanted a sub 25min time and didn't care much about place today.  Not my normal attitude but for today that is where my goals were at.  At 4 miles the pack just rolled by me and I didn't have a gear to shift to.  I ended up at 24:50 in 4th.  I'm really happy with this for a bunch of reasons.  first 14 straight years with at least one sub 25. Second this is one second faster than I ran last year which is a huge return to running in my normal range.  The low end of normal but normal all the same.  Third I split 15:25 which is about what I raced a month ago in very similar conditions. Fourth John Schilkowsky, I raced him in early December or late November and he beat me and today he was 1:34 behind me.  Now maybe he has been hurt or he doesn't run in the winter.  That's ok it is just very nice to be the one moving in the right direction for a change.  Splits 4:55, 9:54, 14:50, 19:49.  Then did a 3.5 mile cool down in 25:31. Total 12.5ish

Summary 81 miles for the week.  One good workout, one good race.  Good week with a rough start, not feeling very well, not sick just run down and feeling like I was going to get sick and played it safe. Feeling very optimistic about being back into regular shape and having a chance to build up to some good racing in the coming months.  Hope you are running well. 

Weekly Training Blog November 21 to 27, 2016

Monday AM road 4 with Uta in 30:05 tot. 4
               3:30PM dead lifts, handstands and massage with Anna
              6 PM 5.8 with Uta extended Bear hill loop, 37:17 tot. 5.8

Tuesday AM road 4 with Melissa and Uta in 30:55 tot. 4
               PM 10k version of bear hill loop with last 3 miles progressively faster, 5:28, 5:27, 5:21
                      actually more progressive than it looks as each of those miles was a bit tougher terrain
                      than the one before it. squats after tot. 6.25

Wednesday AM road 4 mile in cold rain with Uta, no time I forgot the watch. tot. 4
                     PM coventry 10k loop solo, 41:07, first run of the week in the daylight, thank you half
                           day!! tot. 6.25

Thursday AM road and trail 10+ with Uta, 66:11, box jumps after tot. 10
                   Spent the rest of the day cooking and eating.

Friday AM coventry 10k solo, 40:25, cold rain, dead lifts after tot. 6.25
            PM road 4 with Uta, 28:29, I felt good, Uta did not want to go any faster than that. tot. 4

Saturday AM raced European style( there were hay bails, and it was multiple loops of the same
                        course) xc race in Woburn, listed as 4k, Chris Mahoney's garmin had it at 2.83, I won in 14:37,
                        ok effort but not great. I'll take it, total of 10 miles with drills if you include warm up and
                        cool down etc.. tot. 10
                 PM road 4 with Uta, she needed her run and I wanted to flush the legs a bit, 29:36, tot. 4

Sunday AM road 12.1, first 5.2 with Melissa in 37:40, then solo, 1:22:55, did squats after tot. 12.1
              PM 90 mins bikram yoga

This is my form looking decent at the start of the race.

Summary ~76 miles for the week, two good efforts.  Downside was I didn't get in the extensive muscular session, though I got in more intensive muscular work than usual so not all bad.  A good step towards regular running, which I generally view as 90 to 110 miles a week around work but more honestly anything over 80 is fine.  So hopefully this week I step up to that.

  I need to come up with a winter workout plan.  I know the types of workouts my body needs but I need to figure out workouts and locations for those workouts that will work with the weather and footing that is soon to be arriving.  I don't have an indoor track at my disposal unless I want to spend some very late nights going into Boston and with 4:40am wake up calls that is a fools errand.  I have been loving the flat rail trail for tempo stuff and I will continue to use it until snow and ice forces me off it.  Anyway that will be my focus mentally this week.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to do two week micro cycles. I know some of the workouts I want to do.  I know all of the types of workouts I need to do.  I want to find a flat, low traffic mile stretch of road, if it could be within 3 miles of my house I would die of joy but so far that isn't presenting itself.  I'd also like to find a flat loop or longer straight stretch for tempo work but so far I'm struggling there as well but I may find something by driving to it on that one.  I need to figure out how I'm going to attack the muscular side of things.  In the past I have done hills but my core isn't strong enough yet to hold form consistently on hills so that would be counter productive, but sprinting in 12 degree weather on icy roads isn't exactly ideal either.   Anyway at least I'm confident I'll be doing some real training, now I just have to sort the details.   Hope your running is going well.