Today was the test. The test to see if I'm okay to attempt a run.
It's something my coach is a big fan of: water running. But this time it was different than before. This time it was shallow (as opposed to deep) water running, so I was actually putting a limited amount of impact on my knees while doing it.
I ran back and forth in the shallow end (4 feet deep, I think) doing anything I could come up with. Running forwards, backwards, side stepping, cross stepping, electric slide, you name it! I even mixed in some high knees, butt kicks, and hot coals from when I used to run track. The idea was to work as many muscles as possible in order to strengthen up my legs and get them ready to run.
And... I passed the test. I went 30 minutes without so much as a peep from my knee.
Here's the short term game plan, assuming all goes well:
Wednesday - Bike 10 miles in sunny 70 degree weather
Thursday - Same as Wednesday + water running
Friday - Rest
Saturday - Run around the block S-L-O-W-L-Y
Sunday - Swim
Showing posts with label Planning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Planning. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Game Plan
Two of my favorite runners (if you read this, you're one of my favorites) over at Runner's Lounge are having Take It and Run Thursday once again. This week's topic applies to what has been on my mind lately: training plans.
My main plan for the foreseeable future is "don't over do it!" Big surprise, huh? An injured athlete doesn't want to over do it. But thats my plan and I'm sticking to it. For a while.
I am going to keep the effort on workouts fairly easy. I'm going to live in a world somewhere in between the edge of over training and half-assing it. Normally, I teeter on the edge of over training. Honestly, thats how I like to be. Right on the edge, improving as fast as I possibly can.
But then I inevitably crash. Every time. Thats not where I like to be.
I'm taking a page out of Chuckie V's book and I'm going to go by it this time. I knew it was a good idea before, but I didn't have the patience to do it; as a result, I got injured. Through the end of July I am going to stay away from any anaerobic exercise. None of it. My average heart rate for each workout will be between 150 and 165, with anything above 160 being rare, and anything over 165 being forbidden.
My goal is to be able to live healthy while training. If I want to run to the pool, I want to feel as though I can do it without teetering over that edge of over training.
"But Doug," you say, "won't that slow you down?"
Nope. It won't, unless you're only looking at my 5k time, it will make me better. It will make me stronger because my one limiting factor lately has been injury. Until I can eliminate injury, there's nothing I can do to improve fitness over the course of time. This sporadic training is not going to make me faster in the long run, and backing off from the edge will help me control that variable.
Once August rolls around, I'm going to start incorporating limited anaerobic workouts into my schedule. Starting with very few fast miles and building up through August and September. This should get me in shape to run well at Chicago, but at this point I haven't even ran for a month so I'm going to keep that on the back burner. Let's just say I'm considering backing off my goal at Chicago to 3:10 and shooting for sub 3 at Boston, because I want nothing more than to run Boston with Nic, Bill, Reid, and Nitmos in 2009!
In summary, here's my long term training plan:
April - July: Slow build in all three sports, all aerobic base building. Half ironman at end of July.
August - September: Change focus back to running, and begin limited anaerobic workouts
October: Taper, Chicago Marathon, Recover
November - April: Train for Boston, maintain base in swimming and biking. Maybe use a bastardization of the FIRST training plan to incorporate a lot of cross training.
April - September: Train for something I dare not utter until I complete half of one first.
Well, theres the plan. I guess I better get to it, huh?
My main plan for the foreseeable future is "don't over do it!" Big surprise, huh? An injured athlete doesn't want to over do it. But thats my plan and I'm sticking to it. For a while.
I am going to keep the effort on workouts fairly easy. I'm going to live in a world somewhere in between the edge of over training and half-assing it. Normally, I teeter on the edge of over training. Honestly, thats how I like to be. Right on the edge, improving as fast as I possibly can.
But then I inevitably crash. Every time. Thats not where I like to be.
I'm taking a page out of Chuckie V's book and I'm going to go by it this time. I knew it was a good idea before, but I didn't have the patience to do it; as a result, I got injured. Through the end of July I am going to stay away from any anaerobic exercise. None of it. My average heart rate for each workout will be between 150 and 165, with anything above 160 being rare, and anything over 165 being forbidden.
My goal is to be able to live healthy while training. If I want to run to the pool, I want to feel as though I can do it without teetering over that edge of over training.
"But Doug," you say, "won't that slow you down?"
Nope. It won't, unless you're only looking at my 5k time, it will make me better. It will make me stronger because my one limiting factor lately has been injury. Until I can eliminate injury, there's nothing I can do to improve fitness over the course of time. This sporadic training is not going to make me faster in the long run, and backing off from the edge will help me control that variable.
Once August rolls around, I'm going to start incorporating limited anaerobic workouts into my schedule. Starting with very few fast miles and building up through August and September. This should get me in shape to run well at Chicago, but at this point I haven't even ran for a month so I'm going to keep that on the back burner. Let's just say I'm considering backing off my goal at Chicago to 3:10 and shooting for sub 3 at Boston, because I want nothing more than to run Boston with Nic, Bill, Reid, and Nitmos in 2009!
In summary, here's my long term training plan:
April - July: Slow build in all three sports, all aerobic base building. Half ironman at end of July.
August - September: Change focus back to running, and begin limited anaerobic workouts
October: Taper, Chicago Marathon, Recover
November - April: Train for Boston, maintain base in swimming and biking. Maybe use a bastardization of the FIRST training plan to incorporate a lot of cross training.
April - September: Train for something I dare not utter until I complete half of one first.
Well, theres the plan. I guess I better get to it, huh?
Thursday, March 20, 2008
The Diagnosis
Well, I have good news and bad news.
The good news: I talked to my friend Tracy, who is about to get her PhD in Physiology, and now know what is wrong with my knee. That means I have a game plan to tackle the problem. Something to preoccupy myself with and to make myself stronger again. I know the likely cause, and with enough patience I know the solution.
The bad news? It's IT band syndrome (ITBS). Yuck.
Here is the gist of what is going on with my knee. My IT band got tight, either from the race or too much biking. Also, the muscles above and to the right of my right knee are significantly weaker than on the other side. Now that she's pointed it out, I can tell that it's actually visually noticeable. I can see the problem.
Great. We know the problem. Now, what to do about it?
I'm also going to keep at it with the swimming. I've swam twice this week just using the pull buoy (no kicking), and although its extremely boring my knee always feels better afterwards. It's all I can do to get an aerobic workout in, so I'm going to force myself to go at it with all I got.
So there's the game plan. Now all that stands between me and running is to do it. Time to get on top of it!
The good news: I talked to my friend Tracy, who is about to get her PhD in Physiology, and now know what is wrong with my knee. That means I have a game plan to tackle the problem. Something to preoccupy myself with and to make myself stronger again. I know the likely cause, and with enough patience I know the solution.
The bad news? It's IT band syndrome (ITBS). Yuck.
Here is the gist of what is going on with my knee. My IT band got tight, either from the race or too much biking. Also, the muscles above and to the right of my right knee are significantly weaker than on the other side. Now that she's pointed it out, I can tell that it's actually visually noticeable. I can see the problem.
Great. We know the problem. Now, what to do about it?
- Foam roll the shit out of it (thats the technical term), twice a day
- Dig into the trigger points to loosen it up
- Incorporate some of my old PT exercises back into my routine
- RICED (Thats RICE + drugs)
- Do some balance exercises too, to strengthen the leg
- Get back on top of my core workouts
I'm also going to keep at it with the swimming. I've swam twice this week just using the pull buoy (no kicking), and although its extremely boring my knee always feels better afterwards. It's all I can do to get an aerobic workout in, so I'm going to force myself to go at it with all I got.
So there's the game plan. Now all that stands between me and running is to do it. Time to get on top of it!
Monday, February 4, 2008
Nutrition & Training Plans
Lately nutrition has been a big topic on a lot of blogs I read. Chuckie V really drilled it into the ground a couple weeks ago, and The Everyday Athlete had a great series of posts recently. The main emphasis? Eat simple.
Avoid foods with huge ingredient lists. Your body has to process that crap. Generally, if you can't pronounce it, don't eat it. In other words: If it can't come out of your mouth, don't put it in your mouth! Chuck has been on a rather extreme (but convincing) caveman bit recently. The idea is to eat the foods that we evolved on. It's more extreme than a lot of people would go, but sadly it does make sense. Heidi had a great list of Ten Super Foods recently. Her list is simple too, foods like: cottage cheese, apples, fish, eggs, almonds. Simple foods.
Recently I've been trying to revamp the way I eat once again. I'm taking it in steps, though, otherwise I have a feeling I wouldn't stick with it. Every week, a few new foods to add to the mix. This week I added eggs, almonds, raisins, and tuna. So far, I'm enjoying the variety. More filling food for breakfast and healthier snack choices -- its so incredibly easy to grab a handful of almonds on the way out the door!
I'm not sure what I'll add next week, but I'm open to suggestions and will be trying at least one or two new foods. What healthy foods can't you live without?
On a completely different note, I've decided to make some changes to my training plans this year. Remember the goal for a 1:20 half marathon in May? I'm throwing that out the window. It isn't that I don't think its possible, I do, but I don't think its smart. Going for such a fast time so soon would be absolutely begging for injury. I need to keep building my base. I can't be stupid.
The result for my training? I'm getting rid of my ultra-fast tempo runs. Faster runs are staying on my agenda, just none of the six minute pace stuff. I'm going to back it off a bit and train below my lactic threshold for a while; the goal is to keep my HR under 175 on my hard runs. Once I no longer see any benefit from this, I'll start working in faster stuff. For now, though, I'm noticeably improving every single week, so why risk the injury? My major races are ages away!
My race schedule is getting altered a little bit as a result. I'm only going to run one of the half marathons (St. Louis, April 6th) and then focus on triathlons through July. In June I will have my tri for TNT, then in July I'm strongly considering the Half Ironman in Racine, WI. After I survive that, its back to a focus on running to Hammer. Like. Hell. At. Chicago.
Two major peaks for the year: the Half IM and Chicago. Everything else I'm mostly going to train straight through.
Sound like a game plan? I think so!
Avoid foods with huge ingredient lists. Your body has to process that crap. Generally, if you can't pronounce it, don't eat it. In other words: If it can't come out of your mouth, don't put it in your mouth! Chuck has been on a rather extreme (but convincing) caveman bit recently. The idea is to eat the foods that we evolved on. It's more extreme than a lot of people would go, but sadly it does make sense. Heidi had a great list of Ten Super Foods recently. Her list is simple too, foods like: cottage cheese, apples, fish, eggs, almonds. Simple foods.
Recently I've been trying to revamp the way I eat once again. I'm taking it in steps, though, otherwise I have a feeling I wouldn't stick with it. Every week, a few new foods to add to the mix. This week I added eggs, almonds, raisins, and tuna. So far, I'm enjoying the variety. More filling food for breakfast and healthier snack choices -- its so incredibly easy to grab a handful of almonds on the way out the door!
I'm not sure what I'll add next week, but I'm open to suggestions and will be trying at least one or two new foods. What healthy foods can't you live without?
On a completely different note, I've decided to make some changes to my training plans this year. Remember the goal for a 1:20 half marathon in May? I'm throwing that out the window. It isn't that I don't think its possible, I do, but I don't think its smart. Going for such a fast time so soon would be absolutely begging for injury. I need to keep building my base. I can't be stupid.
The result for my training? I'm getting rid of my ultra-fast tempo runs. Faster runs are staying on my agenda, just none of the six minute pace stuff. I'm going to back it off a bit and train below my lactic threshold for a while; the goal is to keep my HR under 175 on my hard runs. Once I no longer see any benefit from this, I'll start working in faster stuff. For now, though, I'm noticeably improving every single week, so why risk the injury? My major races are ages away!
My race schedule is getting altered a little bit as a result. I'm only going to run one of the half marathons (St. Louis, April 6th) and then focus on triathlons through July. In June I will have my tri for TNT, then in July I'm strongly considering the Half Ironman in Racine, WI. After I survive that, its back to a focus on running to Hammer. Like. Hell. At. Chicago.
Two major peaks for the year: the Half IM and Chicago. Everything else I'm mostly going to train straight through.
Sound like a game plan? I think so!
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Unscheduled Rest Day
This morning I woke up at 9am with every intent of getting some errands taking care of, running, and heading back to Kentucky. Well, I was pooped. Again.
I got up for a little bit, packed for 30 minutes or so, then went back to bed until 11:30. I'm calling this over training from my really sharp increase in working on this past week or so, and decided just to take today completely off. I still got my errands and packing done, but working out definitely didn't happen at all.
Tomorrow I'm heading back to Kentucky, no matter what. I gotta get back there so I can get my stuff in order before this next semester starts.
I've been looking at my tentative race schedule for 2008, too. I want to do a few half marathons, few sprint triathlons, one marathon, and a half ironman if things all go my way. As always, some spontaneous 5k's will probably appear as long as I stay injury free. Here's the races I'm considering.
02/09/08 - 9 on the 9th - Theres no way I can pass this one up!
04/06/08 - Spirit of St. Louis Half Marathon - Some friends are wanting to run this one, so I'm thinking about heading there to see old friends and tear up the pavement.
04/19/08 - River to River Relay - This was the most fun race I did last year, so I gotta do it again. 8 runners, 80 miles, going mostly non-stop from sunrise to sunset. Its a great way to meet great runners.
05/04/08 - Flying Pig Half Marathon - Everybody is telling me great things about this half marathon. Also, they have a "Pump N' Run" event that looks fun; check it out!
07/20/08 - Spirit of Racine Half Ironman - If I do a half IM, I want it to be late in the summer so I have time to train, but I don't want it to interfere with school. I also want time to do specific training for Chicago. This race just meets those requirements and is fairly close to where I live.
08/10/08 - Greater Cleveland Half Ironman - Same as above, mostly mentioning them due to their logistics.
10/12/08 - Chicago Marathon - I have a bone to pick with this race. I got jipped time-wise last year, and I'm going back to show what I'm made of. Who's with me?!
I'm sure some other races will come up, and some of these will fade away, but I gotta start somewhere and have something to work towards!
Who's ready for a great '08?
I got up for a little bit, packed for 30 minutes or so, then went back to bed until 11:30. I'm calling this over training from my really sharp increase in working on this past week or so, and decided just to take today completely off. I still got my errands and packing done, but working out definitely didn't happen at all.
Tomorrow I'm heading back to Kentucky, no matter what. I gotta get back there so I can get my stuff in order before this next semester starts.
I've been looking at my tentative race schedule for 2008, too. I want to do a few half marathons, few sprint triathlons, one marathon, and a half ironman if things all go my way. As always, some spontaneous 5k's will probably appear as long as I stay injury free. Here's the races I'm considering.
02/09/08 - 9 on the 9th - Theres no way I can pass this one up!
04/06/08 - Spirit of St. Louis Half Marathon - Some friends are wanting to run this one, so I'm thinking about heading there to see old friends and tear up the pavement.
04/19/08 - River to River Relay - This was the most fun race I did last year, so I gotta do it again. 8 runners, 80 miles, going mostly non-stop from sunrise to sunset. Its a great way to meet great runners.
05/04/08 - Flying Pig Half Marathon - Everybody is telling me great things about this half marathon. Also, they have a "Pump N' Run" event that looks fun; check it out!
07/20/08 - Spirit of Racine Half Ironman - If I do a half IM, I want it to be late in the summer so I have time to train, but I don't want it to interfere with school. I also want time to do specific training for Chicago. This race just meets those requirements and is fairly close to where I live.
08/10/08 - Greater Cleveland Half Ironman - Same as above, mostly mentioning them due to their logistics.
10/12/08 - Chicago Marathon - I have a bone to pick with this race. I got jipped time-wise last year, and I'm going back to show what I'm made of. Who's with me?!
I'm sure some other races will come up, and some of these will fade away, but I gotta start somewhere and have something to work towards!
Who's ready for a great '08?
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Planning the New Year
Yesterday a friend put an idea in my head: The St. Louis Half Marathon.
At first I discounted it as a bad idea, but then I really got thinking about it. Currently I'm running the River to River Relay on April 19th which will consist of running three legs of 3-4 miles from sunrise to sunset. The half is on April 6th, just two weeks before the relay.
I'm really thinking a half is doable by then. This week it looks like I'm going to have 17-18 miles total, which is pretty respectable looking at my training log these past few months! I think a half marathon is easily doable on just 30 miles a week, so building up to that over three months doesn't seem like too much of a stretch to me! What do you guys think, good idea? Is anybody else be up for it? eh? eh? They have a full marathon too.
Speaking of planning, I got my training log spreadsheet all setup for 2008. Maybe you weren't aware of my dorkiness, but its bad! New in 2008, it now tracks swimming and biking too, as well as combining all of them in one graph so I can see where I need to pick up the slack and also see how my total volume is doing. This Garmin might be bad for my health, since it gives this number addict all the numbers I could ever want!
Today I headed back to the pool and swam for about 45 minutes. I'm not doing anything I would call a workout just yet, just practicing technique. Once I get my technique down and make all the little things habit, I'll start thinking about doing real workouts again. In the end, having the technique down will help me more than anything!
Now I'm going to hide up in my room with a book for the next few hours, my mom and sister are both still pretty sick and I don't have many excuses left to get out of the house!
At first I discounted it as a bad idea, but then I really got thinking about it. Currently I'm running the River to River Relay on April 19th which will consist of running three legs of 3-4 miles from sunrise to sunset. The half is on April 6th, just two weeks before the relay.
I'm really thinking a half is doable by then. This week it looks like I'm going to have 17-18 miles total, which is pretty respectable looking at my training log these past few months! I think a half marathon is easily doable on just 30 miles a week, so building up to that over three months doesn't seem like too much of a stretch to me! What do you guys think, good idea? Is anybody else be up for it? eh? eh? They have a full marathon too.
Speaking of planning, I got my training log spreadsheet all setup for 2008. Maybe you weren't aware of my dorkiness, but its bad! New in 2008, it now tracks swimming and biking too, as well as combining all of them in one graph so I can see where I need to pick up the slack and also see how my total volume is doing. This Garmin might be bad for my health, since it gives this number addict all the numbers I could ever want!
Today I headed back to the pool and swam for about 45 minutes. I'm not doing anything I would call a workout just yet, just practicing technique. Once I get my technique down and make all the little things habit, I'll start thinking about doing real workouts again. In the end, having the technique down will help me more than anything!
Now I'm going to hide up in my room with a book for the next few hours, my mom and sister are both still pretty sick and I don't have many excuses left to get out of the house!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
