Run Less Run Faster: Week Ten

Finally - the last week of rest for my injury is done! The last few days I've been going a little stir crazy and had a growing irrational hatred of people I've seen out running. I can't wait to dive back in Tuesday!

Though, of course, we got about six inches of snow this weekend and temperatures are going to drop into the negatives. Thanks for sidelining me when it was 40 degrees, body. Oh well, I guess this just makes Myrtle Beach seem even more appealing!

Monday, December 29
700 yd swim


This swim consisted of 100 repeats and then some 50 repeats. It really made the time fly by.

Tuesday, December 30
11.1 mi spin
lift

I used the spin workouts in the RLRF book for the first time, grabbing the ones assigned to week 10. (The book provides swim, spin, and rowing workouts, so that you can choose whatever cross-training activity you want.) Man, I like to think my quads are pretty powerful from running, but spinning kicked my ass! And I wonder why the bike is my weakest sport. I am happy to report the bike is much less mind-numbing than the treadmill.

Wednesday, December 31
700 yd swim

It was fun to get in one last workout for 2014 before heading to Michael's parents' to celebrate the new year.

Thursday, January 1
rest


I switched up my rest day since I knew I wouldn't have access to a pool or bike on New Year's. But I did get my heart rate up cheering for MSU! I still can't believe we pulled that win out. I also spent a few minutes hating everyone able to do a resolution run to ring in 2015.

Friday, January 2
8.7 mi spin
lift

I took a long lunch in the middle of the day (almost no one was at the office) and just stayed later, so that I didn't have to worry about all the bikes being taken at the gym. (We have a perfect storm right now of students home from college, everyone from the closed gym under renovation, and the resolutioners.) This spin consisted of intervals, and I got a little vommy towards the end, but it felt awesome.

Saturday, January 3
700 yd swim
10.8 mi spin

I wasn't quite sure how to replace my long run, since all the cardio machines at my gym have a 45 minute time limit (!!!). I decided to combine a swim and spin and call it good. The time obviously wasn't equal to what my run would've been, but I still felt like I had worked hard when I was done.

Sunday, January 4
1 mi easy @ 12:24
Slow Flow Yoga

I felt like I was going insane with so many days off running, so I broke down and ran a quick mile in my neighborhood. There were some minor aches, but I think they were just my body re-adjusting to running, rather than the injury persisting. (Plus I had to run on snow and ice, so my gait was certainly altered a bit.)

I had gotten it into my head that I had a stress fracture (when I know quite well that it's just some minor inflammation from subconsciously flexing my feet while spinning), but doing a short run without my shin imploding made me feel much better.

Run Miles: 1 (awwwww yeah)
Bike Miles: 30.6
Swim Miles: 1.2  
Lifting Time: 44 mins
Yoga Time: 60 mins
Total Time: 5:05

I thought I had my plan figured out for this coming week, but I had to make some minor tweaks at the last minute, because my best friend came back from Georgia and I'm going to visit her next weekend! I'm super excited, considering I haven't seen her since August.

Blogger wouldn't let this photo be any smaller than X-Large, so it's even excited.

This is also going to be my busiest week of work of the year, so it will be nice to have something really fun to look forward to when I'm chained to my desk for a stupid amount of time. (Though, knock on wood, I had an incredibly productive day on Friday, and I might be in better shape than I think!)

But in any case, my plan is to run easy on Tuesday (instead of the presribed intervals), do the planned tempo run at MP Thursday, and modify the long run on Sunday to only 12 miles. I have these last three weeks to build before taper starts (where did the time go?!), and I'll still be able to fit in a 15 miler and a 20 miler.

My chiro was telling me a recent study showed that the net result of an injury is nothing. This means, assuming this study can be generalized to me, that in two weeks I'll be back to where I was fitness-wise, and then have an additional week to get a bit faster.

I'm hoping that my cross-training preserved more fitness than I think, and that I will come out ahead. But if I don't, I already felt pretty fit, so I'll just have to play it by ear. I believe Myrtle Beach has pace groups for 4:30 and 4:45, so I can still shoot for my original goal, but easily drop back if need be. While a 26 minute PR would be amazing, I won't say no to 11 minutes either!