Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Run Less Run Faster: Week Eleven

So I may have lied when I said last week was my final week of rest. After continuing to feel my tendonitis, I decided to extend my running hiatus a little longer. While I've certainly run through tendonitis worse than this, I'm still not 100% what straw broke the camel's back this training cycle, so I wanted to be conservative.


I was also challenged this week when I realized spinning was inflaming my tendons further and slowing my recovery. Michael had suggested this might be the case, which I quickly dismissed because there was no pain while spinning, but after a particularly painful flare-up following Tuesday's spin, I realized he was right. (These are my symptoms when I run, so I don't know why I was so stubborn.)

I did my best to modify the schedule again, but other life events took precedence for once. It was my busiest week of work of the year, which left me pretty burned out by Thursday night, and I took some mental health time instead. I also went to visit Hannah over the weekend. Considering she won't be back from Georgia until July, I wanted to maximize time with her, rather than worrying about workouts. I think both of these were good choices.


Monday, January 5
1000 yd swim

I was really nervous about this swim, since it called for me to swim 20 minutes continuously. I think the longest I've swum before was about 12 minutes. I decided to just take it very slow, and I was super excited that I got in 800 yards. Once again, I showed myself I'm stronger in the pool than I think.

Tuesday, January 6
lunch - lift
PM - 7.5 mi spin

I did some quick intervals on the bike, and I felt like I had really worked hard when I was done. But like I said, my leg hurt a lot, so it did more harm than good. (Why, body, why?!)

Never not use.
Wednesday, January 7
lunch - 1000 yd swim
PM - Ashtanga Yoga for Beginners

Maybe I was giddy that books were closed at work, but for some reason I threw in a yoga video this night. I really wanted to try Ashtanga, so I did Do Yoga With Me's super beginner version. It was quite challenging, and I was even sore the day after! However, I still was able to follow along pretty well, since it turns out my Slow Flow class is just an easier version of Ashtanga.

Thursday, January 8
lift

I had plans to do yoga that night, but I played video games instead. I felt much better afterwards.


Friday, January 9
rest

Saturday, January 10
rest

Hannah and I did do some walking around downtown, but we spent most of our time staying warm inside and talking.


Sunday, January 11
rest

The two of us did a bit more walking around a local park, but otherwise we were inside, plus I had the long-ish drive back. I gave myself just enough time to do my Sunday chores, so a workout didn't happen.

Bike Miles: 7.5
Swim Miles: 1.2  
Lifting Time: 42 mins
Yoga Time: 1 hr, 12 mins
Total Time: 3:29

I will be truthful and admit I almost had a heart attack when I added up my total time for the week and saw how low it was. Then I stopped for a second and took a step back. I wasn't just laying around on the couch because I had caught a case of the lazies - I was working lots of overtime, resting an injury, and seeing a good friend. There's nothing wrong with actually acknowledging life happens outside of running for once!

 
And in any case, today will officially be my first real day back to running, with an easy six miles on the schedule! This time I'm equipped with new shoes (more cushioning, heyoo!) and a new attitude (willing to adapt). I'm trying to apply what I've learned from the injury and modify the plan to prevent a relapse. (I know, who am I?)

Instead of a track workout, a tempo run, and a long run, I'm going to do an easy run, a shorter tempo run, and a progressive long run. Hopefully this will keep me healthy. I only have 32 days left to prepare!

What are you favorite ways to cross-train?
How do you find a training-life balance?

4 comments:

  1. Sorry to see that the spinning made your tendonitis worse, but it's great that you were able to figure that out and avoid it. I still don't know how you can swim that much - I could never!
    Good luck getting back to running this week. I hope your new shoes do the trick and that your leg feels great!

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    1. Trust me - it took a long time of being very bad at swimming to get to this point. I think I started with swims of 400-600 yards, which sounded like nothing since I can run, but they were so hard! My new shoes felt nice and springy today, so hopefully they make a difference.

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  2. It's always important to take more rest before things get really bad (no matter how hard it is to rest). I completely understand the heart attack about the numbers. I'm currently at 4.5 miles running for the entire year. It seems comical to me! Hope the rest is helping.

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    1. Before today I had run 1 mile this year! I'm sure after running a 50K, 4.5 miles would really seem like nothing. I hope you start feeling better soon too!

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