Therapy Part Two
The last few days have been very good. The injury is completely under control now, if not gone. I was using a heat pack for about 5 minutes prior to heading out the door, but I stopped that yesterday and have had two runs now with no special preparations.
I saw a different therapist yesterday, and even though I was basically symptom free by the time I saw him, I'm still happy I went. He checked out my old shoes, and a pair with 250 miles on, looked at my gait pattern on the treadmill for about ten minutes, examined both of my lower legs through flexion and extension, reviewed my logs, and asked about prior injuries. The appointment was almost two hours, was very thorough, and I left feeling confident that I had a good idea why I had the problems and how to avoid them in the future.
One: no more running 1100-1200 miles in a pair of shoes. Two: no more running exclusively on the treadmill for weeks, let alone months, at a time.
Shoes break down. Simple as that. I can get more miles out of a pair than the average person because I am efficient and I weigh less than 150 pounds, but I'll probably stick with 700-800 per pair max in the future. I also learned that the treadmill creates a 'dead spot' in the stride where your hamstrings and calves don't pull through the same way as on the road. That, combined with the softness of the treadmill deck can leave you vulnerable to injury when returning to the roads.
I had a good conversation with Fatboy last night about training and racing during the build-up to October 1st. I will probably be doing a half-marathon in mid-August, followed by a 10k the first week of September. Otherwise my training will be sufficiently challenging to keep me from testing my fitness in crappy little 5k somewhere. Eyes on the prize. I know the Lydiard thing about training to race, not training to train...I guess I am training to race, just not for a while.
The converation last night also opened my eyes to the fact that I can train a lot smarter and more efficiently than I have been. I can do a better job of running near my aerobic threshold and recovering properly, rather than just going out and putting in the miles. This morning I set out for 14 with a goal of running the elusive 'comfortably hard' pace that Lydiard talks about. I settled in after a couple of miles to an average 6:20 pace, and finished with two 5:40 miles. The final mile had me pushing 170 on the HRM, so I pulled back a bit. Overall a very good run that I felt I could have continued for several more miles (at 6:20 pace!). I think that is the direction I am going. Hopefully I can stay injury free now long enough to make the trip.
I saw a different therapist yesterday, and even though I was basically symptom free by the time I saw him, I'm still happy I went. He checked out my old shoes, and a pair with 250 miles on, looked at my gait pattern on the treadmill for about ten minutes, examined both of my lower legs through flexion and extension, reviewed my logs, and asked about prior injuries. The appointment was almost two hours, was very thorough, and I left feeling confident that I had a good idea why I had the problems and how to avoid them in the future.
One: no more running 1100-1200 miles in a pair of shoes. Two: no more running exclusively on the treadmill for weeks, let alone months, at a time.
Shoes break down. Simple as that. I can get more miles out of a pair than the average person because I am efficient and I weigh less than 150 pounds, but I'll probably stick with 700-800 per pair max in the future. I also learned that the treadmill creates a 'dead spot' in the stride where your hamstrings and calves don't pull through the same way as on the road. That, combined with the softness of the treadmill deck can leave you vulnerable to injury when returning to the roads.
I had a good conversation with Fatboy last night about training and racing during the build-up to October 1st. I will probably be doing a half-marathon in mid-August, followed by a 10k the first week of September. Otherwise my training will be sufficiently challenging to keep me from testing my fitness in crappy little 5k somewhere. Eyes on the prize. I know the Lydiard thing about training to race, not training to train...I guess I am training to race, just not for a while.
The converation last night also opened my eyes to the fact that I can train a lot smarter and more efficiently than I have been. I can do a better job of running near my aerobic threshold and recovering properly, rather than just going out and putting in the miles. This morning I set out for 14 with a goal of running the elusive 'comfortably hard' pace that Lydiard talks about. I settled in after a couple of miles to an average 6:20 pace, and finished with two 5:40 miles. The final mile had me pushing 170 on the HRM, so I pulled back a bit. Overall a very good run that I felt I could have continued for several more miles (at 6:20 pace!). I think that is the direction I am going. Hopefully I can stay injury free now long enough to make the trip.
posted at 7:19 AM [+]
7 Comments:
Since you talked to Fatboy before posting, the joy of beating him to comment seems hollow.
Wait, no it doesn't! Take that Fatboy!!!
Now that you're doing the comfortably hard thang, what's your threshold? Will you be monitoring it by heart rate, pace, or (god forbid) feel?
One thing that seems good is that now that you're well you still have time for a good 6 month build, which should be perfect.
I know I'm going to take a lot of flak for this...but, I'm going to run by feel! *gasp*
BOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
I will continue to wear the HRM and GPS and upload all my data to the mother ship through my skull mounted anten...I'm just going to keep measuring the data because I can and I am a geek, but I will always rely on my brain and body to tell me what I need to be doing on the run. I've been doing this for a long time, and that is what works best for me.
Way to beat Fatboy to the punch. Tony Jasica will probably be sending you a nasty e-mail now. Picking on fat people...real class, Mike.
Based on the conversation last night, I think Fatboy should be changing his name to Quadzilla.
Glad to hear things are better, Eric. Wow, 2 hours for that appt. is great. I guess we know where you'll be going 1st in the future.
"Quadzilla?" How about "Plodzilla?" I wish they'd bring back the Clydesdale category.
I'm shocked that you'd run by feel. What are you, some kind of human? Integration of mind and body is about as good for you as separation of church and state would probably be for the country (oops, sorry for the radical political thought). If you can't run by feel, you have no business training for this marathon. If you had run by feel, you wouldn't have pounded out a 22-miler with a sore calf.
Sorry to rant. I think the HRM is a good check, a bad crutch. The only exception is that, if your morning, resting heart rate is significantly higher than normal, take an easy day, even if you feel great (unless your wife is the cause of the elevated heart rate, then you should be running more).
It's funny, I would never have finished that 21 miler if I hadn't planned to meet a friend. In the last year I have run with someone else like three times, and that happened to be one of those times. I was ten minutes late to meet him at six in the morning, so I would have felt bad to have left him hanging. So I was running by feel...more Air Supply feelings than running feelings, but feelings all the same. Air Supply was awesome.
You have no business talking politics where you live. Haven't they burned you at the stake yet, capitalist?
The anti-capitalist thing died down here after the average price of a house crossed the $800k mark. They might burn me at the "steak," however.
Thanks for reminding me of Hyponatremia. I had read about it recently in Runner's World and forgot about it. You're right too much water is not a good thing.
Cheers
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