The Pool Update
Not a lot to report, but I'll post anyway. I've finished day four of my Ten Day Exclusive Pool Tour, and I'm a bit surprised that my leg isn't feeling 100% yet. I am still getting a pretty significant burning sensation up the lateral side of my right leg, along the peroneals, and still have some knots in my calf. The pain during walking is completely gone though, which is good I suppose. I'm going to begin light massage, stretching, and strengthening tomorrow, and gradually increase the load of each over the next three weeks. By the beginning of July, I should be able to start integrating some hill work, plyometrics, and drills which will hopefully be the insurance against this ever happening again.
As far as the workouts go, so far so good. I am able to abuse myself sufficently in the pool and on the elliptical machine that I get off of or out of one or the other with my legs feeling like I just finished a 20+ mile run. The pool workout today was especially tough. I did ten minutes to warm up, then five reps of five minutes hard with a one minute float (ha!). I was able to get my heart rate into the 150s and my breathing was labored to say the least. Thankfully, I managed not to inhale any water while I was sucking air. I finished with a cooldown and totalled fifty minutes. Even though the workouts leave my legs dead, I find I am feeling totally fine by mid-day, and am well recovered by the next day's workout. That tells me that the cardiovascular system can tolerate a lot more work than the muscles and skeleton can. I guess this has been well demonstrated by cyclists and swimmers, many of whom train upwards of four hours a day. There are precious few people on this earth who could run four hours a day for any length of time without completely breaking down.
Back to the YMCA tomorrow for hopefully thirty minutes on the elliptical and sixty minutes in the pool. I'm averaging about an hour of aerobic work per day so far, which is half an hour short of where I was. I can't do much about that without breaking in to the YMCA at 4:30 am, so it will have to suffice. The quality does seem on par with my steady run efforts, though, which I couldn't do every day on the roads. I suppose it balances out. I'm hoping to get at least eight hours per week of training in during this rehab phase, which would be approximately seventy miles plus per week on a minute for minute basis. It may not eqate in the real world, but it makes me feel better, so there it is.
As far as the workouts go, so far so good. I am able to abuse myself sufficently in the pool and on the elliptical machine that I get off of or out of one or the other with my legs feeling like I just finished a 20+ mile run. The pool workout today was especially tough. I did ten minutes to warm up, then five reps of five minutes hard with a one minute float (ha!). I was able to get my heart rate into the 150s and my breathing was labored to say the least. Thankfully, I managed not to inhale any water while I was sucking air. I finished with a cooldown and totalled fifty minutes. Even though the workouts leave my legs dead, I find I am feeling totally fine by mid-day, and am well recovered by the next day's workout. That tells me that the cardiovascular system can tolerate a lot more work than the muscles and skeleton can. I guess this has been well demonstrated by cyclists and swimmers, many of whom train upwards of four hours a day. There are precious few people on this earth who could run four hours a day for any length of time without completely breaking down.
Back to the YMCA tomorrow for hopefully thirty minutes on the elliptical and sixty minutes in the pool. I'm averaging about an hour of aerobic work per day so far, which is half an hour short of where I was. I can't do much about that without breaking in to the YMCA at 4:30 am, so it will have to suffice. The quality does seem on par with my steady run efforts, though, which I couldn't do every day on the roads. I suppose it balances out. I'm hoping to get at least eight hours per week of training in during this rehab phase, which would be approximately seventy miles plus per week on a minute for minute basis. It may not eqate in the real world, but it makes me feel better, so there it is.
posted at 5:39 PM [+]
6 Comments:
I'm impressed with the way you're handling this. You really seem to be getting some excellent workouts in, despite the zero gravity environment. I can vouch for the value of non-running cardio build-up. My last marathon was done on a "whim" with 6 weeks to prepare. Since I couldn't jump up to marathon-level mileage from the 40 mpw I was doing, I supplemented with very intense cycling. It made a big difference on my performance.
Keep it up; this will pay off.
I believe. I believe. I am feeling pretty tired after six days of this stuff. I just did a 30 minute run today to try to recover a bit. I am feeling about the same level of tired as when I was doing 100 mile weeks.
I'm definitely ready to start phasing in some running again. I think next Wednesday will be a 2-3 miler before finishing off in the pool. WooT! Can't wait.
I have a question about pool running...a real basic one. How does it work? Are you floating while running, or are you actually running in the pool? Thankfully, I've never had to experience it before. I'll just live vicariously through you on this one.
If you have the body for it you can float on your own, but if you have little body fat, like me, you have to use a belt or you will drown like a sack full of puppies. Sorry. Bad imagery. Then you just run. It takes some getting used to, and you can immediately tell which muscles are lacking in strength by the burn. And if you think treadmill running is boring, leave your guns, ropes, and razor blades at home before heading out to the pool.
Nice story and Pool running info
Your pool at the "Y" is much nicer than ours, which is situated on one floor of a parking garage. The ends are too shallow to flip-turn, and on a warm day you can actually smell the urine from the "family swim" hours that precede "lap swim".
I have to say that our Y is actually pretty nice. It has a 25 yard pool that is in good condition, which is great, but it also means it is really busy. Hogging up 13.5 yards of a lane is starting to make the natives restless, I fear. I've talked to a few of the generally old, larger, female people that inhabit the pool, and they are fairly nice. I think lukewarm is a good description. Now that I think about it, it sounds like I am talking about a herd of elephants. The pool at the Y is being overrun by a pachydermal matriarchy!!
Anyway, the whole facility is nice, the machines are new, and with the exception of the pool, the place is practically empty in the morning. And the pee in the pool is mine, so no worries about that urine smell. I own it.
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