Week of Sep. 23 - 29, 2024
I had been planning to do the Mendon Trail Run, which is a 20k trail race with about 2000 ft of elevation gain on Nov. 2. However, my training has not been going great. I'm getting the runs done, but I'm not seeing any kind of speed increase like I might expect, and I'm definitely tired. I think the various knee/leg pains are wearing me out and maybe they aren't letting my legs recovery properly.
I had been thinking that I would do the Schaeffer Farms half-marathon trail race, which is also on Nov. 2. That's actually a bit longer than 20k but it's only got about 1000 ft of elevation gain, so quite a bit easier. Also, Mendon is up near Rochester, NY, while this is local, so it would save me a trip and hotel. The bummer is that I was really looking forward to a road trip and driving up to the race for the weekend - I kind of like traveling on my own for race trips. Now I'm stuck at home for the rest of the semester because it's hard justifying a random road trip (and three-day weekend) without a good reason. Sigh.
But now after my long run today (see below) - I am wondering if I should do the 10k that is running along with the HM. The run just was SLOOOWW, even given the elevation gain and humidity. I hate to not do any race because I like to have that to motivate my training, but wonder if it would be better long term to do something shorter. Of course, that was what I did in the summer this year, and I saw NO benefit from that. Part of me wonders if going easy this summer de-trained me too much. It's all very frustrating. My trail 28k in April went very well! I'm not sure what has happened since then.
This coming up week is a cut-back week, which is good. I'm getting my flu and covid shots Thursday after work and then working at home on Friday because usually the covid shot makes me feel like crap for three days. (I'm getting the non-mRNA version this year to see if that helps.)
At any rate, I should decide about the race in the next few days because they all have a rate increase with October...not that I can't afford it, anyway, but it is a good time to make a decision.
Monday
- Before breakfast:
- Core workout
- 60-sec plank
- 20 starfish
- 20 dead bugs
- 20 bird dogs
- 20 each side flutter kicks
- 20 bicycle crunches with hold
- 5 10-sec hollow-body holds
- 2 30-sec side planks
- 20 double leg lift/lowers
- Foam rolling and stretching
- After work and PT: walk on treadmill
- time: 43:00
- distance: 2.39 mi
- ave pace: 17:59
- incline: 0%
Tuesday
- Before breakfast:
- Workout 3
- 3 x 5 each leg - Bulgarian split-squats with 20-lb vest + 5 lb
- superset
- 3 x 5 - prone lat pulls with 49-lb bands
- 3 x 5 - overhead pull-overs with 32.5 lb
- 3 x 5 each leg - bench step-ups with 20-lb vest
- superset
- 3 x 5 - front raises with 12 lb each arm
- 3 x 5 - back flyes with 12 lb each arm
- Foam rolling and stretching
- After work:
- Hill repeat HIIT -- 13min easy + 3 x [7 x (20sec sprint uphill + 20sec walk downhill) + 4min walk downhill]
- T+D 127, 2% effect, T 64 F, rained most of time
- time: 40:00
- distance: 2.84 mi
- repeat splits: 8:54, 9:29; 9:52, 9:17, 9:19, 9:30, 10:05, 8:31, 9:06, 9:44, 9:35, 9:03, 9:22, 10:17, 8:40, 9:53, 9:35, 9:05, 9:23, 9:23, 10:08
- elevation gain: 187 ft (corrected)
- route: neighborhood loop 1
- comments: I take these splits with a huge grain of salt! I think they were too short for the GPS to necessarily track well. The point was to be going all-out. I was sprinting uphill, then turning and walking downhill for about 15 sec before using the last 5 sec of walking to get turned around uphill again. It takes me 7 intervals to get to the top of the hill, and so that's when I have the 4-min walk back down to the bottom.
Wednesday after work:
- 60 min easy on trail
- T+D 139, 3% effect, T 70 F, rained the whole time
- time: 1:00:00
- distance: 4.49 mi
- average pace: 13:21 (GAP ave pace 13:01)
- splits: 13:39, 13:21, 13:13, 13:21, 13:00
- ave HR: 136 BPM - within my target range
- elevation gain: 255 ft (corrected)
- route: Valley Trail, Rock Creek National Park
- comments: When I did my Sunday long run on this trail about 10 days before, I forgot to mention that I saw a black rat snake - no big deal, just let it pass. On this run, saw a thicker, big brown snake of some kind. It was hanging out on the edge of the trail and didn't want to move. I went up on the trail embankment to get around it. When I turned around and came back 20 minutes later, he was still there. Then when I was about 10 min from being done, I almost stepped onto a little garter snake - startled the crap out of me, and out of it, too - it darted off. I think the rain keeping the people away gave the snakes more opportunity to be out!
Thursday
- Before breakfast:
- Core workout
- 60-sec plank
- 20 starfish
- 20 dead bugs
- 20 bird dogs
- 20 each side flutter kicks
- 20 bicycle crunches with hold
- 5 10-sec hollow-body holds
- 2 30-sec side planks
- 20 double leg lift/lowers
- New PT exercises
- After work:
- Tempo intervals on trail: 15 min easy + 2 x (10 min tempo + 2 min walk) + 15 min easy
- T+D 148, 4.5% effect, T 77 F, soooo humid
- time: 54:01
- distance: 4.23 mi
- tempo splits: 11:08, 10:54
- elevation gain: 277 ft (corrected)
- route: Northwest Branch Trail
Friday
- Before breakfast:
- Workout 1
- 3 x 5 - suitcase squats with 60 lb + 20-lb vest
- superset
- 3 x 5 - reverse-grip lat pull-downs with 49-lb bands
- 3 x 5 - bench presses with 60 lb
- 3 x 5 - Romanian deadlifts with 60 lb
- superset
- 3 x 5 - shoulder presses with 45 lb
- 3 x 5 - band pull-aparts with 13-lb band
- Foam rolling and stretching
- After work: walk on treadmill
- time: 55:27
- distance: 3.08 mi
- ave pace: 18:00
- incline: 0%
Saturday
- Before lunch:
- Agility HIIT workout - warm-up + 3 x 8 x (20 sec work + 20 sec rest) + 4 min rest). The exercises were:
- Fast feet forward/back in ladder
- Forward/back hop
- Fast feet in/out in ladder
- Sprint/backpedal
- Fast feet forward through ladder
- Left/right hop
- Fast feet sideways through ladder
- Side shuffle
- comments: This used my agility ladder.
- New PT exercises
- Before dinner:
- 90 min easy on trail
- T+D 146, 4.5% effect, T 83 F
- time: 1:30:00
- distance: 6.35 mi
- average pace: 14:10 (GAP ave pace 13:28)
- splits: 14:02, 14:57, 14:088, 14:10, 13:51, 14:11, 13:11
- ave HR: 135 BPM - within my target range
- elevation gain: 847 ft (corrected)
- route: Western Ridge Traill, Rock Creek National Park
- comments: Not in the mood to do this run, especially with the killer humidity yet again!
Sunday before dinner:
- 130 min LR on trail
- T+D 133, 2.5% effect, T 67 F
- time: 2:10:00
- distance: 8.97 mi
- average pace: 14:30 (GAP ave pace 14:09)
- splits: 15:09, 14:00, 14:01, 14:08, 14:50, 14:46, 14:14, 14:43, 14:37
- ave HR: 140 BPM - within my target range
- elevation gain: 876 ft (corrected)
- route: Schaeffer Farms trails
- comments: The T+D undersells the humidity. It was SO HUMID. I was completely soaked from sweat, and my feet were squishing in my shoes from sweat. My feet were pruney even before I got into the shower afterward!
- comments: My route was part of the course for the HM race that I mentioned at the beginning of this post. It's a mountain bike park, so it's rolling and not hugely technical. A lot of hills - nothing is flat. I just really didn't have the pep in my legs to want to go faster. Very frustrating.
- comments: I took 1.5L of water + Nuun and drank most of it. I ate two Honey Stinger waffles.
Health
Cataract surgery: I had the one month-ish follow-up appointment for the cataract surgery in the left eye. It is still not back to "normal" vision. There is a bit of haze, and my vision is blurry at all distances (not just far) in the left eye. I got the "extended depth of vision" lens for the eye, which is not mono-focal at one distance but should allow proper focus at a range of distances. The doc says this can take even longer to adjust to than normal (...3 months). But there may be the additional problem that if the left eye is so "off" compared the right eye, my brain may be essentially ignoring what it is getting from the left eye, which means it may never adjust. The doc says a way to help the adjustment is to temporarily "correct" the left eye for one distance (i.e., distance vision) with a contact and that might spur the brain to start using the left eye and begin making the adjustment. So I got fitted for a contact for that eye...that was Wednesday, but they still haven't arrived for me to pick up yet. I really didn't want to have correction, so hopefully this really will be temporary.
Knees: I went to PT on Monday, which was the first time since the end of July. I have a different therapist because the one I had been seeing moved to a different location; this woman seems good, though, because she has more of an athletic background. She did a lot of different sorts of tests. I'll cut to the chase.
The pain I was having to the lateral side and below my left knee has pretty much gone away, but she says there's a big knot in my muscle there. I'm having a lot of stiffness behind the knee, extending down a bit into the calf and up a bit into the hamstring, and that is still undetermined about a cause, really. My left leg is a lot stronger than my right left, which is surprising because I'm a righty. The patellar tendons (running over the top of the kneecap) are both inflamed, especially the right one - I'm very tender along the front of my shins where the tendons attach. My right kneecap tends to "ride" a bit higher than my left kneecap.
She is thinking that potentially my right kneecap is a bit "out of track" (possibly due to muscle imbalances, etc.) and that is causing pain there, while my left knee/leg is trying to compensate for it and so also painful She gave me some exercises to do. Because of my work schedule, I'm only getting in to see her every two weeks. The next time, we may do some dry needling of various areas. Not looking forward to that, but if it helps....
The exercises:
- foot slides (sliding foot side to side)
- hip flexor and hamstring stretch combination move
- sciatic nerve floss
- short arc quad - VMO lift
- VMO heel tap/squat
At this point, the under-kneecap pain is there, but I wouldn't even say it's the most annoying thing. The stiffness that happens behind my right knee is extremely frustrating and takes awhile to warm up and lessen. In addition, I feel like I have just lost a lot of functional strength. Getting up and down off the floor is much more difficult (bending the knees for squatting is hard), going upstairs is more work, and even getting up off a chair seems much harder than it should. But it's not like I don't have strength - I just squatted 80 pounds a few days ago! So frustrating.
I really think this has been affecting my running training in non-obvious ways, just making me more tired and potentially slower to recover. Sigh.
) I hope next week goes better for both of us!
