CM Diary - June 18, 2007

Entry 8: June 18, 2007

French wasn't my best subject in school and I'm finding that listening to my body is like learning another foreign language. The first 2 weeks of my 18-week training program are "in the books." Over these past 2 weeks I learned a valuable lesson trying to understand my body's "language."

Monday 6/4:
Plan: 5 Easy
Actual: 1.5 @ 13:00. My Achilles was still sore from the Relay. I jogged 1.5 miles with my 7-year-old daughter. I really enjoy the times when we go running together. With my injury, it was all I felt like doing.

Tuesday 6/5:
Plan: 3.7. Speed work with PR Training group at 7 PM.
Warm-up, 400, 800, 800, 400, 4x100, Cool-down.
Actual: 3.7. My Achilles felt fine and I was able to do the intervals in 1:47, 3:43, 3:42 and 1:43, which was much faster than I expected. The 100s were for form and not speed.

Wednesday 6/6:
Plan: 6 Easy
Actual: 6 @ 10:03. No problems with my Achilles.

Thursday 6/7:
Plan: 5 Tempo
Actual: 6.2. I got up at 5:30 AM, but my Achilles was really sore. I went 1.2 miles - much of it walking - before I stopped. Thursday evening my legs felt better and I was able to do my 5 @ 9:07. I don't understand how my body can change so drastically in just 12 hours.

Friday 6/8:
Plan: Strength training
Actual: I chose to rest today instead. I've been struggling with a lack of motivation to do my strength training lately.

Saturday 6/9:
Plan: 12 Long Run
Actual: 0. My son had a birthday sleepover Friday night so I didn't get to bed until 5 AM. I pushed my long run to Sunday.

Sunday 6/10:
Plan: Rest
Actual: 13.1 @ 11:39. My Achilles started to ache at 5 and I had to walk a little the last mile but I was pleased that I was able to do what I did.

Total mileage for week 18: Plan: 32, Actual 30.5

Monday 6/11:
Plan: 5 Easy but moving my long run to Sunday dictated a mandatory rest day
Actual: 2.4. My wife and kids went out for an evening bike ride and my son raced back to tell me that they were going to the ice cream shop and to meet them there with money. I could have driven the car, but I decided to lace up the shoes and run the .66-mile direct-but-somewhat-dangerous route to the shop at near race pace. I jogged back the 1.75-mile indirect-but-safer route with the family biking next to me - that was fun. Everything felt fine and the ice cream tasted better knowing the calories were burning off.

Tuesday 6/12:
Plan: 4.2. Speed work with PR Training group at 5:30 AM .
Warm-up, 8x400, 2x100, Cool-down.
Actual: 3.75. My Achilles was sore again but I was able to do the first 5 intervals in 1:50, 1:52, 1:48, 1:47 and 1:48 . Between each interval I massaged my Achilles. It felt fine on intervals 6-8, which I ran in 1:43, 1:42 and 1:43 . The 100s were for form but I was able to run them each a second faster than last week. Again it was very strange how my body struggled one minute but was fine just a little bit later.

Wednesday 6/13:
Plan: Cross-training
Actual: 4.4 @ 10:13 . I chose to run over lunch instead of cross-train to compensate for the miles I didn't run on Monday.

Thursday 6/14:
Plan: 5 Tempo
Actual: 5 @ 9:20 . I ran 5 miles with my tri-athlete co-worker Mark in 86-degree heat. It's always a tempo run when I train with him. My legs felt fine but I could feel the effects of the heat and dehydration by the end of the run.

Friday 6/15:
Plan: Strength training
Actual: 4 @ 10:08 . I ran again instead of doing strength training due to a lack of motivation. I perceive strength training as boring. I believe running both Wednesday and Friday was a mistake that came back to bite me Saturday.

Saturday 6/16:
Plan: 10 Long Run
Actual: 8.25 @ 11:17 . My son got up at 5:30 AM to ride his bike with me during my long run. It was awesome to have him come along. I wanted to do the same 13.1 I did the previous Saturday to a) see if I could do better without the Achilles pain and b) help him appreciate how long a half-marathon is. At 5 miles my ITB started to hurt. Miles 5 to 8 were on a dirt and gravel road that was a bit uneven. That didn't help my ITB pain. Coming off the trail there is a large-diameter gravel drive at a fairly steep incline. I must have caught a rock just right (or should I say wrong) and my ITB really started to hurt. In fact, it hurt so bad that I had to do something for the first time in my 6 months of running... I had to call for my wife to come pick me up. (Hint: never let a 13-year-old make that call... my wife thought I was keeled over almost dying). I felt a mixture of concern for my knee, disappointment that I didn't complete the distance (what if that happens October 7) and a tinge of feeling like a failure in front of my son. I suspect it was a good life-lesson for him to see that sometimes the more courageous thing to do is to hang it up for a day instead of pushing on and making a situation worse.

Sunday 6/17:
Plan: Rest
Actual: Rest

Total mileage for week 17: Plan: 24 (step back), Actual 27.8

I didn't step back my mileage this week because I perceived I needed to "catch up" after being down in mileage due to the Achilles injury. In retrospect, that was a mistake. Too many miles, too many days, too soon after an injury.

All in all not a disastrous two weeks but definitely not the best. I'm going to try this next week to better understand the language of my body and make smarter choices.

I hope your training is going well. Until next week...

One step at a time,
Dave