This week went exactly as planned. This easy running is really starting to seem easy too. Here is what I did this week:
Sunday: 40 minutes, 7.44km at 5:21, An out and back on a dirt country road, even got a sun burn.
Monday: off
Tuesday: 30 minutes, 5.75km at 5:13, on grass
Wednesday: 32 minutes, 6.13km at 5:15, on road and dirt track
Thursday: 30 minutes, 6.04km at 4:59, on paved trail (Don River)
Friday: off (walk and stretch)
Saturday: 30 minutes, 5.87km at 5:01, on chip gravel trail (South Huron)
Time to bump it up for next week, I'll use an average of 5:11/km to determine my time to get the distance of 42km, with 25% of that for tomorrow. 42km @ 5:10 pace is about 3:37:00 total time.
Sunday: 10.5km or about 55 minutes,
Monday: off
Tuesday: 7.875 or about 41 minutes
Wednesday: 7.875 or about 41 minutes
Thursday: 7.875 or about 41 minutes
Friday: off
Saturday:7.875 or about 41 minutes
The right hamstring still bugs me a little a few hours after the run, but it happens more after the days when I run with a really short stride or my push off is just done with my legs up to the knee. (I think that this is the sitting in a bucket feeling that mike has talked about) I find that I need to use my legs all the way up to my gluts muscle. It helps keep me from getting a bouncing feeling and I feel lighter. I guess you can say I am still trying to find the best running technique that will be the most efficient and smoothest. I have also been trying to land as lightly as possible as jack Daniel's states "like running on egg shells."
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Monday, June 19, 2006
Increase Distance?
This week was a great week. It feels like things are finally coming together. I ran a total of 29km:
Sunday: 5.07 in 29:04 (Trail) (5:43/km)
Monday: Off
Tuesday: 5.78 in 30:04 (Grass) (5:12/km)
Wednesday: 6.38 in 32:50 (Road and Track) (5:08/km)
Thursday: 5.78 in 30:05 (Grass) (5:15/km)
Friday: Off (Rolfing massage)
Saturday: 5.07 in 29:04 (Trail) (5:09/km)
I was starting to feel a little bit of soreness in the shins by Friday. However, there was no inflammation. I think that I can contribute this to soaking in the cold baths for about 15 to 20 minutes immediately after the runs. Also the mizumo's may be helping a little bit, but I am not sure.
The above mileage is what I was doing 3 weeks ago. I have been so tempted to increase the distance this week by Jack's rule 1.5km or 6 minutes per training session. I think that I will stick with this distance for another week, if everything feels as good as it did this week, then I will increase my distance. I am not sure what rule to follow though. There is another way to increase the distance as well. In the Daniel's Running Formula there is an "adjustments to training following a setback" table. You look up the amount of time you have been off and then it gives you a break down of how to progress to the previous mileage. What distance could I use? I don't think that I can use my weekly distance I ran when I got injured. I obviously increased way to quickly. I was thinking of using an average distance of 60km, which is what I was running when I got my 10k down below the 40 minutes.
If I use this distance then I should be able to run 1) 60km at 33% for 3 weeks (20km) I think I can consider that done.
2) 3 more weeks at 50%, (30 km) done.
3) 3 more weeks at 70%, (42km) starting next week.
4) 3 more weeks at 85% (51km) + strides and R.
5) 3 more weeks at 100% (60km) + strides + Tempo + R..
I think that I can place myself at stage 2. How do I progress? Increase of 7.5km every 3 weeks or do I follow the setback formula? I want to increase the distance to 42km next week, because it gets me to my distance sooner. Is it safe though, or will have another setback?
Yesterday, I ran about 7.5km in 40 minutes. I feel the need to do something a little faster though, like maybe a tempo run. However, I am not sure what that would do at this point. I think that I need to get my total distance/time up before I introduce this type of a workout into my schedule. The schedule above shows that I should not do this for another 3 to 4 weeks.
My Hamstring has been bothering me a little bit. I think that it may have to do with stretching while the muscles are cold. I'll add a short 10 minute walk at night before I do any stretches. This should be enough to get the muscles warmed up but not give me any problems with the shins.
Sunday: 5.07 in 29:04 (Trail) (5:43/km)
Monday: Off
Tuesday: 5.78 in 30:04 (Grass) (5:12/km)
Wednesday: 6.38 in 32:50 (Road and Track) (5:08/km)
Thursday: 5.78 in 30:05 (Grass) (5:15/km)
Friday: Off (Rolfing massage)
Saturday: 5.07 in 29:04 (Trail) (5:09/km)
I was starting to feel a little bit of soreness in the shins by Friday. However, there was no inflammation. I think that I can contribute this to soaking in the cold baths for about 15 to 20 minutes immediately after the runs. Also the mizumo's may be helping a little bit, but I am not sure.
The above mileage is what I was doing 3 weeks ago. I have been so tempted to increase the distance this week by Jack's rule 1.5km or 6 minutes per training session. I think that I will stick with this distance for another week, if everything feels as good as it did this week, then I will increase my distance. I am not sure what rule to follow though. There is another way to increase the distance as well. In the Daniel's Running Formula there is an "adjustments to training following a setback" table. You look up the amount of time you have been off and then it gives you a break down of how to progress to the previous mileage. What distance could I use? I don't think that I can use my weekly distance I ran when I got injured. I obviously increased way to quickly. I was thinking of using an average distance of 60km, which is what I was running when I got my 10k down below the 40 minutes.
If I use this distance then I should be able to run 1) 60km at 33% for 3 weeks (20km) I think I can consider that done.
2) 3 more weeks at 50%, (30 km) done.
3) 3 more weeks at 70%, (42km) starting next week.
4) 3 more weeks at 85% (51km) + strides and R.
5) 3 more weeks at 100% (60km) + strides + Tempo + R..
I think that I can place myself at stage 2. How do I progress? Increase of 7.5km every 3 weeks or do I follow the setback formula? I want to increase the distance to 42km next week, because it gets me to my distance sooner. Is it safe though, or will have another setback?
Yesterday, I ran about 7.5km in 40 minutes. I feel the need to do something a little faster though, like maybe a tempo run. However, I am not sure what that would do at this point. I think that I need to get my total distance/time up before I introduce this type of a workout into my schedule. The schedule above shows that I should not do this for another 3 to 4 weeks.
My Hamstring has been bothering me a little bit. I think that it may have to do with stretching while the muscles are cold. I'll add a short 10 minute walk at night before I do any stretches. This should be enough to get the muscles warmed up but not give me any problems with the shins.
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Rolfing Massage
By Wednesday there was no pain in my shins. I dug into the shins deeply trying to find any little hint. There was none. This was good, but I did not run anyways.
Friday I went to London to get a rolfing massage (structural integration). I walked up and down a hall way so that the therapist could see my posture and legs. Right away he noticed something that no body had noticed before. My IT band was tight. He asked me to lay down on my right side on the bench and then started with his lower arms on the side of my upper leg. I asked him my "IT band is tight, really?" He kind of chuckled and stated "it's as hard as rock!" He moved the arms apart while applying a large amount of continuous pressure on the side of the leg. What a weird feeling! He also worked on the shin and calve muscles. It hurt a little, but well worth the pain. I honestly feel like I have some new legs. Just amazing!
I also talked to him to him about inflammation. You will always have inflammation after a run, it is just a natural response to the type of exercise. You need to give it the time it needs to recover. He suggested I take a cold bath immediately after my run. No stretching just head to the bath. This got me thinking, so when should I stretch? I will do this in the evening after doing some strengthening exercises. I need to come up with a better plan for these exercises. I get bored of them and need to mix it up a little.
Sunday; Run during the morning/day, strength exercises in the evening sitting and standing calve raises, ankle exercises with the elastic band (physio)
Monday morning: pushups, situps, leg tube exercises from Robert
Tuesday; morning run, evening ankle exercises, standing calve raises
Wednesday;morning run, evening leg tube exercises
Thursday; morning run, evening ankle exercises
Friday; off
Saturday; morning or day run, evening tube exercises
I hope that I can stick to the evening exercises. I am usually really tired from work by that time.
There is another little exercise that I have been doing at work every once in awhile. I have a 5 pound weight with duck tape as a foot strap. I rest my leg up on something so that I can pull my toes up and hold for 30 seconds, then release and repeat until it burns. This is to try and strengthen my shin muscles. I have included a special exercise to stretch my shin muscles later.
I ran 5km in about 25 minutes yesterday in Ascics 1110's (These were suppose to be my marathon shoes) on the grass. I followed the Saturday plan above and it worked like a charm. Absolutely nothing to complain about. No tenderness, no soreness, no tightness and I finally got a really good nights sleep. I didn't wake up in the middle of the night thinking about software design crap from work. Don't get me wrong, I love my job, but I hate not getting a good nights sleep.
Today I am going to spend a ridiculous amount of money on a pair of Mizuno wave nirvana 2. They are a very high stability shoe with a forefoot drop at the metatarsils. This forefoot drop should help with the ball of my big toe being lower then the rest. I tried a pair on and they provide much more room in the toes then the asics gel empires. They feel very different, but still comfortable. These things better help out!
One more thing. Last weekend I borrowed the first edition of the "jack Daniel's Running Formula" from Ken. I like parts of Lydiard's and part of Daniel's training plans. I went out and got the second edition. Now I can refer to them as often as I like. Man, what an exciting week! I sure am thankful for all the help I have been getting lately.
Friday I went to London to get a rolfing massage (structural integration). I walked up and down a hall way so that the therapist could see my posture and legs. Right away he noticed something that no body had noticed before. My IT band was tight. He asked me to lay down on my right side on the bench and then started with his lower arms on the side of my upper leg. I asked him my "IT band is tight, really?" He kind of chuckled and stated "it's as hard as rock!" He moved the arms apart while applying a large amount of continuous pressure on the side of the leg. What a weird feeling! He also worked on the shin and calve muscles. It hurt a little, but well worth the pain. I honestly feel like I have some new legs. Just amazing!
I also talked to him to him about inflammation. You will always have inflammation after a run, it is just a natural response to the type of exercise. You need to give it the time it needs to recover. He suggested I take a cold bath immediately after my run. No stretching just head to the bath. This got me thinking, so when should I stretch? I will do this in the evening after doing some strengthening exercises. I need to come up with a better plan for these exercises. I get bored of them and need to mix it up a little.
Sunday; Run during the morning/day, strength exercises in the evening sitting and standing calve raises, ankle exercises with the elastic band (physio)
Monday morning: pushups, situps, leg tube exercises from Robert
Tuesday; morning run, evening ankle exercises, standing calve raises
Wednesday;morning run, evening leg tube exercises
Thursday; morning run, evening ankle exercises
Friday; off
Saturday; morning or day run, evening tube exercises
I hope that I can stick to the evening exercises. I am usually really tired from work by that time.
There is another little exercise that I have been doing at work every once in awhile. I have a 5 pound weight with duck tape as a foot strap. I rest my leg up on something so that I can pull my toes up and hold for 30 seconds, then release and repeat until it burns. This is to try and strengthen my shin muscles. I have included a special exercise to stretch my shin muscles later.
I ran 5km in about 25 minutes yesterday in Ascics 1110's (These were suppose to be my marathon shoes) on the grass. I followed the Saturday plan above and it worked like a charm. Absolutely nothing to complain about. No tenderness, no soreness, no tightness and I finally got a really good nights sleep. I didn't wake up in the middle of the night thinking about software design crap from work. Don't get me wrong, I love my job, but I hate not getting a good nights sleep.
Today I am going to spend a ridiculous amount of money on a pair of Mizuno wave nirvana 2. They are a very high stability shoe with a forefoot drop at the metatarsils. This forefoot drop should help with the ball of my big toe being lower then the rest. I tried a pair on and they provide much more room in the toes then the asics gel empires. They feel very different, but still comfortable. These things better help out!
One more thing. Last weekend I borrowed the first edition of the "jack Daniel's Running Formula" from Ken. I like parts of Lydiard's and part of Daniel's training plans. I went out and got the second edition. Now I can refer to them as often as I like. Man, what an exciting week! I sure am thankful for all the help I have been getting lately.
Monday, June 05, 2006
Let's Try Again
All I have been able to think about this weekend is running. I practically read the "Daniel's Running Formula" over the weekend. There are alot of similarities between Lydiard and Daniels and there are also a lot differences. You can go to letsrun.com, and read the thread on this or get the books and read them. I learnt more about the Daniel's base building by reading his book than from the thread. I think that if I follow Daniel's Formula I will be able to run fairly close to my potential and prevent injuries.
I went to see a Podiatrist in London today. We discussed a number of issues:
- Overstriding, I am well on my way to correcting this with regards to controlling my cadence on easy/long runs.
- The Gel Empires, for me, are great for faster runs, but not the slower ones. They are too flexible and I require more stability. The shin splints are caused by over pronating on runs were I am heel striking. However, during races and tempo runs, he suggests, and I agree, that I am landing at the mid to fore foot. Therefore, the orthotics would not help. He does not yet want to put me into Orthotics.
- my calf muscles are much stronger than my shin muscles and I should work on strengthening those muscles. He gave me a number of exercises, they are different than what I have been doing and I think they will focus more on fixing the cause rather than just healing the injury.
- He pressed the anterial area of the shin, between the tibia and fibia? It stung like crazy. At first, I don't think that he thought it was a big deal. "There are a lot of fast runners that have the same problem." I don't think that I gave it enough time to heal. He suggested I see a massage therapist and get a "ralphing" massage. He had a huge smile on his face and said it will hurt! I have an appointment to get this done on Friday. It will take an hour! ouch.
- I will be off for 2 weeks, and then I will start with short runs, very short.
Even though the outcome of today's meeting is not what I expected, I feel much more confident that I have a plan in place to correct the causes. If this doesn't work, I am certain that I will get some orthotics.
Could I keep running with the shins in the current shape they are in? Probably. Would it come back to haunt me in 6 to 8 months when I really start running harder? Definitely!
I went to see a Podiatrist in London today. We discussed a number of issues:
- Overstriding, I am well on my way to correcting this with regards to controlling my cadence on easy/long runs.
- The Gel Empires, for me, are great for faster runs, but not the slower ones. They are too flexible and I require more stability. The shin splints are caused by over pronating on runs were I am heel striking. However, during races and tempo runs, he suggests, and I agree, that I am landing at the mid to fore foot. Therefore, the orthotics would not help. He does not yet want to put me into Orthotics.
- my calf muscles are much stronger than my shin muscles and I should work on strengthening those muscles. He gave me a number of exercises, they are different than what I have been doing and I think they will focus more on fixing the cause rather than just healing the injury.
- He pressed the anterial area of the shin, between the tibia and fibia? It stung like crazy. At first, I don't think that he thought it was a big deal. "There are a lot of fast runners that have the same problem." I don't think that I gave it enough time to heal. He suggested I see a massage therapist and get a "ralphing" massage. He had a huge smile on his face and said it will hurt! I have an appointment to get this done on Friday. It will take an hour! ouch.
- I will be off for 2 weeks, and then I will start with short runs, very short.
Even though the outcome of today's meeting is not what I expected, I feel much more confident that I have a plan in place to correct the causes. If this doesn't work, I am certain that I will get some orthotics.
Could I keep running with the shins in the current shape they are in? Probably. Would it come back to haunt me in 6 to 8 months when I really start running harder? Definitely!
Saturday, June 03, 2006
Slow and Steady
The training is starting to look better and better all the time now. This weeks running:
Sunday: South Huron Trail 9.22km in 51:40, 5:18/km( miles, 8:33/mi)
Monday: Grass 3.52km in 18:37, 5:17/km (2.19 miles, 8:30/mi)
Tuesday: Grass 3.35km in 18:31, 5:31/km (2.08 miles, 8:53/mi)
Wednesday: Grass 7.05km in 36:59, 5:14/km, (4.38 miles, 8:26/mi)
Thursday: off
Friday: Grass 4.34km in 21:41, 5:00/km (2.69 miles, 8:00/mi)
Saturday: South Huron Trail 9.73km in 49:43, 5:06/km (6.05 miles, 8:13/mi)
Total of 37.7km in 3:17:11,5:13/km (23.43 miles, 8:24/mi)
I ran with Ken today, and next week he racing in a 5000m track meet. He ran it in 16 something last year and he is hoping to improve on his time this year. I wish him the best. The Garmin is just not working very well on the trail anymore and it didn't really feel like we were going that fast. We were chatting up a storm too.
A really good week, man it feels good to be running again!
The shins are ok I will be going to speak to Robert on Monday. My biggest questions for him will be:
1) Can I correct the overstriding, if so then how? (Maybe he can tell me something I have not read yet.
2) Why is the inflammation in my shins caused by the overstriding mechanically? I want to know more details.
3) Show him the following graphs and see what he has to say.
I hope that I can keep this progress up and get to the state I was at in January without injury.
The following graphs shows my weekly mileage for the year. Ignore the first week, it is when I got the Garmin.
Next Weeks plan is to run on the grass, 2 days at 20 minutes, 1 at 50 minutes and then 2 at 20 minutes and then back here on the trail for an hour, if things go well on Monday.
Sunday: South Huron Trail 9.22km in 51:40, 5:18/km( miles, 8:33/mi)
Monday: Grass 3.52km in 18:37, 5:17/km (2.19 miles, 8:30/mi)
Tuesday: Grass 3.35km in 18:31, 5:31/km (2.08 miles, 8:53/mi)
Wednesday: Grass 7.05km in 36:59, 5:14/km, (4.38 miles, 8:26/mi)
Thursday: off
Friday: Grass 4.34km in 21:41, 5:00/km (2.69 miles, 8:00/mi)
Saturday: South Huron Trail 9.73km in 49:43, 5:06/km (6.05 miles, 8:13/mi)
Total of 37.7km in 3:17:11,5:13/km (23.43 miles, 8:24/mi)
I ran with Ken today, and next week he racing in a 5000m track meet. He ran it in 16 something last year and he is hoping to improve on his time this year. I wish him the best. The Garmin is just not working very well on the trail anymore and it didn't really feel like we were going that fast. We were chatting up a storm too.
A really good week, man it feels good to be running again!
The shins are ok I will be going to speak to Robert on Monday. My biggest questions for him will be:
1) Can I correct the overstriding, if so then how? (Maybe he can tell me something I have not read yet.
2) Why is the inflammation in my shins caused by the overstriding mechanically? I want to know more details.
3) Show him the following graphs and see what he has to say.
I hope that I can keep this progress up and get to the state I was at in January without injury.
The following graphs shows my weekly mileage for the year. Ignore the first week, it is when I got the Garmin.
Next Weeks plan is to run on the grass, 2 days at 20 minutes, 1 at 50 minutes and then 2 at 20 minutes and then back here on the trail for an hour, if things go well on Monday.
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