But, this is where I was .
It was a good workout, shortish but I did not want to stress things too much. My plan was to do some easy intervals with long walk breaks and I almost did that. Started off with two minutes walking, five minutes at 9 min miles, 2 minutes walking, 2 minutes at 9 min miles, three minutes at 8:20, two minutes at 7:50, one minute at 8:20, one minute at 8:50, one minute at 9:30. All told 2.15 miles in 20 minutes a solid workout.
Plod On
Sunday did not go off as planned, not even close. My plan was to head out to my local running room and do a run walk thing outside with all my running buddies. Well actually have coffee with them because none of them do the run/walk thing.
I woke up in time, but my foot was a little sore from the Saturday intervals, and the wind was howling so I thought it best to take the day off. No treadmill, no running, just a sitting on the sofa watching football kind of day off. That did not go as planned either. The winds grew in intensity, there were power outages and the downtown core was shut down. Debris was flying through the air over all not a nice day.
Within blocks of my house street lights (those long skinny poles) were blown over, and several large spruce trees were downed.
Then to top it all off it got cold and snowy. This is one of the poles that was literally blown off it’s base. You can see the damage to the light where it made contact with the road.
A large tree uprooted and a basketball hoop reoriented.
So anyway I took the day off and let things in my foot settle out. Then this morning I woke at 5:30, reluctantly got dressed and headed for the treadmill. My plan was to maybe try a longer interval at a slower pace and see how things worked out. I warmed up for 2 minutes then did 8 minutes at 10 min miles then 10 minutes at 9 minute miles, then cooled down.
Yee Haw an actual sort of full length very slow run. First one since September and it felt great. I could feel a little tenderness when I started but so far no post run pain. The real test will be when I wake up tomorrow.
Great day a real run 22 minutes, 2.2 miles! Woo Hoo.
Plod On
I had a great plan for the day, a nice easy recovery walk on the treadmill topping out at 4.5 mph for about 25 minutes. I put it off and procrastinated long enough that when it was halftime in the Auburn game it was do or die time , so I pulled on my running shorts and did.
I started out with the plan but when I hit the 5 minute mark things were feeling Ok so I bumped up the pace to a slow run (9 min miles) then 2 minutes later 8:30 min miles, then 2 minutes later 7:55 min miles. then back to a walk for 4 minutes and then I repeated the progression and threw in an extra minute at 7:30 min pace. Holy crap fastest bestest pace since I injured my foot. Then I progressed back down for a cool down.
Once the sweat had really started We took the dog to the park for a walk and my further cool down.
The view of downtown was crazy beautiful, and you can see that even though it was a nice day the locals are dressed for winter.
It turned out to be a great day for me, 25 minutes 2.45 miles on the treadmill, followed by 12 minutes .65 miles outside. Hitting the mall with the kids right after the shower was not the best idea.
We will have to see what tomorrow brings!
Plod On
When I ran cross country in university there were two levels of pain, the stuff you could run through and the stuff where you were lying on the ground screaming and grabbing a body part. Now thirty years later, and in my 50s there are many more layers to the pain story. I guess this latest injury is teaching me that I need to listen and back off when things start to feel not right.
I thought my foot was doing really well until last night when my daughter cut in front of me and I inadvertently stepped on her heel. Just suddenly bending the foot in that fashion sent a jolt of pain up my spinal column. I realized that it is doing better but is still an issue.
What I need is a control panel like the one on my treadmill so I can dial it back and put a limit on what I do.
Now for today’s workout. I decided to do a workout without a real plan in mind today. Partly because I was concerned about the foot twist yesterday and partly because I wanted to stress it a little more than yesterday. What I liked best about it is that I managed to squeeze in 2 jogging intervals, 5 minutes at 10 min miles, 4 min @ 9 + 2 min @ 8:20 min miles. Even though I was tempted to do more I listened to my foot and backed off. There was a little pulling but overall a good story. 45 minutes, 3.6 miles a good day
Plod On
I know that it is a hard concept to grasp, why on earth would someone need a recovery day from a WALK on the treadmill. I have taken recovery days after a speed workout where my legs felt like jello, or after a hard hill workout. But after a walk with a five minute slow jog, uh uh. This morning I could feel some tenderness in the area around my foot injury and decided that it was best to play it safe. I limited the pace to 4.5 mph and just tried walking it out.
The foot is a little tender post walk but no more than usual and I do not think any damage was done. The plan calls for gradually increasing the stress on the foot gradually so some tenderness is expected. I am just being careful not to exacerbate the injury.
All in all I ended up doing almost 2.2 miles in the 30 minutes so it was no walk in the park (pun intended).
Plod On
This morning I tried to make the treadmill walk more interesting by randomly playing my full play list on the iPhone. This is a great way to rediscover favourite songs that I don’t usually listen too. The down side is that sometimes the songs are not upbeat enough to supercharge your workout. This worked out Ok as I am trying to work my foot without stressing it too much so slower is not a bad thing.
This mornings workout was kind of cool, I took the walk up to 5 mph (12min mile) for 5 minutes, then introduced a slow jog at 5.5 mph (11 min mile) for another 5 minutes. Everything felt fine, even now an hour or so after the walk my foot is not reacting,
Good morning 25 minutes, 2 miles.
Plod On
I forgot how it felt to have a normal workout. A workout where it did not hurt much, where there is not a goal, where you are not counting strides. A workout where you are not constantly checking your Garmin for pace. In essence a workout where you just are. This mornings workout was that kind. I need to do more of them.
There was a little pulling on the top of my foot but other than that it was clean. I did a slow warm-up and then set the treadmill to 4.5 mph and rocked out to tunes (not my running playlist) for the next 26 minutes then did a little cool down. The only interruption to this state was when sportscenter showed Crosby’s return to the game and I removed one head phone to listen in.
In total did 30 minutes and 2.2 miles and feel pretty good about it.
Plod On.
