Once more I’ve gotten 3 weeks to catch up on updates. The season is in full swing now and I am hard pressed to find the time and energy to write posts, but since this blog doubles as a personal training blog, I really need to concentrate on keeping up on it more.
In the last 3 weeks I have had both highs and lows and unfortunately it started with highs and ended with the low. Three weeks ago, I was just beginning to build from just under 30 miles a week to just under 40 and on the work front, egg plants were just beginning to produce and our field tomatoes (the indicator that summer is in full swing) were just barely starting to ripen. This last week we harvested about 450 lbs. of field tomatoes on Friday alone, along with close to 60 lbs of eggplants (a more back breaking harvest than tomatoes) and I had to take both tuesday off from biking, thursday off from running and I only ran 7 miles on Monday instead of 13.
The week of the 2nd was a solid week and I was feeling really positive until my right it band, and hip flexor started to hurt near the end of my 10 miler on Monday. The week had been really fun running wise with good weather, a few rain runs and a few exploring runs. However, on Tuesday the 9th, those same tendons were too sore to justify pushing it on a mtn. bike ride. They weren’t much better after Wednesday’s run and I decided to recover more completely on Thursday instead of putting in a mere 5 “junk miles.” The same was the case this Monday and I was so sore by the end of 7 that i decided not to finish to 13 for the day.
I have been wearing my compression socks at work and trying to hit the foam roller as much as possible, but it may just be the case, that I can’t build mileage as quickly while working at this pace. Luckily, this work pace wont last too much longer, and diligence with the foam roller does seem to be paying dividends. I am very frustrated, though, that I am finding it hard to run even 38 miles on consecutive weeks. I think that this is most largely due to the fact that I took so much time off after the Chiemgauer race and so had very little base to start up with again. On top of that I have been training well below my race pace at between 7:30 and 8 minute miles; not super quick, but if i slowed it down, I think I can put some of these aches to rest. At any rate, we will see what kind of mileage I can build up to by the race, hopefully its enough to put in a solid performance.
Tuesday: 1 hour Mtn bike Wednesday: 6 Thursday: 4 Friday: 5 Saturday: rest Sunday: 10 Monday: 10 Total: 35 Tuesday: 1.5 hour Mtn bike Wednesday: 6 Thursday: 5 Friday: 6 Saturday: rest Sunday: 10 Monday: 11 Total: 38 Tuesday: rest Wednesday: 6 Thursday: rest Friday: 5 Saturday: rest Sunday: 10 Monday: 7 Total: 28
Are you still running near-barefoot? I use Nike Free once a week and still hope to graduate to five-fingers. You are training with extreme devotion; don’t kill yourself.
I am still running in minimalist shoes, even a bit more minimalist since I just bought some New Balance MT 10′s to replace my MT 100′s. I’m not a huge fan of the free’s as they have enough foam to let you heel strike. The vibrams are good for the street, but if you want to do trails I would get the MT10′s they have more aggressive tread and a sole that is thick enough to disperse any impact from landing on sharp rocks. Are you still at Willamette? I’m looking to start work this year on a not for profit that involves all sorts of data collection and analysis on soil test data as an indicator of yeild and plant health on organic farms in Eugene.