I have to brag on my running friends--they all ran Yamacraw this weekend! My husband, Keith, and four others did the 50K, five did the 20K, and two did the 10K. I was really proud of my hubby, who finished in just under 6.5 hours. It was his first time running that distance--with just one marathon under his belt--and he was awesome! He put in a lot of long runs on the trails while training for this race and I am super proud of him for doing the work, and so happy for him that it paid off. Way to go, Adam! Also, all the 50Kers who ran it last year knocked 1-2 hours off their times this year! I have missed running with these guys this training cycle and was super excited for them!!!
I also wanted to share this lovely video. The Red River Gorge is one of my most favorite places in the whole world, and we are so lucky here in Kentucky to have this treasure. My husband has run The Rugged Red half marathon trail race the past two years and has thoroughly enjoyed it. Even though I haven't run it myself, based on my own love for the Gorge and my husband's race experiences there, I would highly recommend it to any trail runner looking for a challenge! If you're not a runner, you can still enjoy the unparalleled beauty of eastern Kentucky through the many hiking, climbing, and boating options offered.
So this past week of training was pretty low-key, due to me still being in recovery mode and trying to heal the overuse injuries in my right leg. Here's how it looked:
Monday - Cross-train
30-minute spin
15 min. core
This is the day I went to the doctor. Even though I had gotten the okay to run up to 10 miles and do speedwork, since I had run 6 mi the previous day and my leg was still sore, I decided to cross-train (which I would normally do after a run day, anyway--this training cycle I have never run two days in a row, I've always cross-trained or rested in between each run), even though I was behind on the running training schedule. I'd actually planned to go to swim practice that morning, but I overslept and missed it so I opted for the bike and some core work after work. My husband had a meeting at 6:00, the kids had soccer practice at 6:30, and I had a meeting at 7:00, so there wasn't a lot of time and I could only get in 30 minutes on the bike and I had to cut my core workout in half for just 15 minutes.
Tuesday - Cross-train
40-minute swim (10 min. kick, 20 min. swim, 10 min. kick)
30 min. core
If I was still sticking to my training schedule, I would have done a speed workout on the track consisting of 10 x 400 @ 6:26 w/ 400m rest intervals. Even though the doc had given the okay for speedwork, I felt this would have been a bad idea just now since my leg was still sore from Sunday's run. My goal right now is to get to the starting line on April 30, and I had a feeling that if I went ahead with this speed workout I would only push my recovery back and possibly sabotage making it to the starting line--so, as much as I hated to do it, I skipped this workout for the pool. (Seriously, I actually shed a few tears over it, you have no idea how much it hurt my heart to miss this workout. I don't mind missing the long runs so much because with 20 mi x 4, 18 mi x 2 and 17 mi x 1, I've got plenty of long runs under my belt and I know I've got endurance. But it is killing me to miss these key speed workouts and tempos, because these are the runs that build speed and teach my body to keep going when the pace gets tough. Knowing that I am missing key fitness workouts is a tough mental blow.)
This particular pool workout was listed as a cross-training workout for this particular week in the marathon training plan I had been following. (The plan lists various cross-training plans for swimming, cycling, and rowing that you can choose to do along with your marathon training. Since I was already swimming twice a week and spinning or ellipticalling once a week, I had chosen not to follow any of the cross-training plans--but it worked out that they are available!) I always feel the burn when I do kicks, and this was a good amount of kicking--so I came out of it feeling like my legs had gotten a good workout.
Wednesday - Tempo
1 mi warm-up, 8 mi tempo, 1 mi cooldown
10 total miles @ 8:17
30 min. core
I probably shouldn't have, but I just couldn't help myself. My leg seemed better on Wednesday, and even thought I'd had every intention of doing a pool run, I just wanted to be out on the road. So I decided at the last minute that I would attempt the tempo and just see how it went. I told myself that I would pull the plug at any time--even if I was only one mile in--if I felt ANY kind of pain or discomfort with my knee or calf. So I went out pretty tentatively, but everything felt fine. The workout had called for an 8:12 tempo pace, but I wasn't trying to hit the pace--I wanted to go at a pace that felt good for my leg. However, I found as I went along that my leg felt fine, and the pace was there, so I went with it. I kept expecting at any time for something to start hurting, in which case I would slow down or even walk if I had to; but nothing ever did. There was a moment where my calf felt a little tight, but it neither lasted long nor lingered, so I kept going. The tempo miles were 7:55, 8:07, 8:14, 7:59, 7:56, 8:34, 8:08, 8:09. I was very pleased to find that after a full week off (I'd run 2 x 1 mile intervals the previous week and 6 easy miles the previous Sunday--so I wasn't entirely off, but I had missed a ten-mile tempo and a 15-miler) the pace felt fairly easy, which gives me confidence that maybe I won't have lost as much fitness by race day as I've been fearing after all. Immediately after the run I spent about 15 minutes carefully and thoroughly stretching, and hopped into an ice bath for 20 minutes for good measure. My leg felt totally fine and I was feeling really excited that maybe things weren't that bad and I would be ready to resume my training schedule--but then a few hours later my calf and knee started to feel really tight. So I guess even though the run went fine, my leg still wasn't ready for the strain on the muscles. So I went back to the "back off" frame of mind and reconsidered what I could the rest of the week.
Thursday - Cross-train
45-minute swim (200 meter warmup, 4 x (50 meter kick easy, 100 meter kick fast/50 meter swim easy, 100 meter swim fast) w/ 2:00 rest interval, 100 meter cooldown
I pulled this workout from Active.com. It actually called for five intervals but I only had time for the four. (And the rest intervals were supposed to be just 20-30 seconds, but I decided to be cautious and take more time in between so as not to strain my IT band. I have found that sometimes vigorous swimming can aggravate my IT band and didn't want to risk it.) This was a great workout! Again, a good amount of kicking which gave my legs a good workout; and the "fast" swim intervals were good for me because lately I've been missing swim practice and doing leisurely long swims instead--I definitely felt that burn, too!
This is what I picked up at the store Thursday night!
Friday - Pool run (1.5 hours) & 30 min. core
I'm still trying to figure out this whole pool running thing. It seems I spent a good thirty minutes just trying to get the movements correct and find a rhythm, but by the end of it I think I'd found my stride. This time around I didn't have to try as hard to stay upright, thanks to a much better-fitting buoy belt (thanks, Keith!). I'm still not sure how to tell if I am "running" fast enough. Every few minutes I would count my steps, and it'd be between 128-139 steps per minute. I don't think that is very fast? I checked the cadence for my last run (last Wednesday's ten-miler, with 8 miles being at tempo pace), and the average cadence was 164 steps per minute. I have no idea how that would translate to the pool, since there is water resistance to consider...but it seems like I'll need to step up the pace a little if I really want to make these pool workouts count.
I had hoped to be in the pool for 2 hours or longer, but my IT band was bothering me just a little bit and I didn't want to over-do it. Plus, honestly, I was pretty bored after the first hour! I was really wishing I had a podcast to listen to. My sister graciously offered to let me borrow her swiMP3, but she lives 30 minutes away and I haven't been able to coordinate picking it up yet. I am planning a 2-2.5 hour pool run next weekend in place of the 20-miler I missed this past weekend, so hopefully I'll be able to get my hands on it soon.
My husband left Friday for the Yamacraw 50K he ran on Saturday (great job, honey!), so it was just the kids and I that nigh and we had some fun of our own:
Daddy was camping out for Yamacraw--BRRRR! temps were in the 20s
Friday night!--so we had our own campout in the living room!
Saturday - 30 min. core
Saturday was a bit of a rest day. My husband was out of town, the kids had a soccer game that morning, and I had to work in the afternoon/evening--so there wasn't much opportunity for an attempted run or a cross-training session, but since I'd not had a chance to do any core work on Thursday I wanted to do some core on Saturday after work. For something different I tried a standing ab workout that was linked from a random blog I had looked at a few days prior (I can't recall the blog). Not sure I'll do it again. Although my obliques and back muscles--and even my arms from using the weight!--were sore a day later (sore in the good, like-you-got-a-good-workout kind of way), I didn't feel like I engaged my actual ab muscles as much as I would have liked. Maybe I didn't quite get all the exercises right? But, it took every bit of 30 minutes to do all the moves, and I worked up a sweat, so I'd still count it a successful workout for a rest day. After the ab workout I did about 30 minutes of stretching, "extra-cises" (that's what I call the clamshells, leg raises, donkey kicks, toe raises, etc. that I do a few times each day in an attempt to keep my IT band, glutes, and calves happy), and foam rolling.
Standing leg raise with side bend
Plank (not part of the "standing" workout, but I threw it in at the end
Wide side crunch
Sunday -30 min. core, 45-min. spin
I was very very close to going out for a run today...but I still feel the slightest twinge of pain in my calf, so I restrained myself and got on the bike instead. My butt was not happy at the 30-minute mark (well, let me be frank--it's not my butt that hurts when I'm on the bike, it's my crotch. TMI? Sorry, that's what runners do!), but instead of stopping I hopped off, grabbed a dish towel, folded it over a couple times, placed it on the seat, and hopped back on. It was nothing short of a miracle! I felt like I could ride for hours and was actually kind of sad when just 15 minutes later I had to stop spinning to get ready for church. Obviously I need to remedy the bike seat situation with either a gel seat or some padded shorts!
Seriously!
So at the end of this week I can honestly say that with a lot of modifications to my training routine, my leg is definitely feeling better. It's my hope that maybe this coming week I can get a few runs in on the road!
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