Ni!

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

No Run :: 1:00:00 bike

Did a (short) run to test the legs, didn't last very long. Very sore to the point it's affecting my stride. Like I don't have one it hurts so bad. Stuck to the bike, and will try to fit in a short run later today depending on how the legs feel.

Run Two | Weather | Supplemental | Nutrition | Sleep | Injury

9 comments:

UMaine Cooperative Extension said...

Maybe a few days of no running is in order? Could these test runs be delaying or impeding the healing process? Just a thought.

Eric said...

It is good to get blood flowing, but the pounding of what I thought was reduced mileage yesterday probably made today worse. A day on the bike yesterday and a run today would have been smarter.

The run this morning was just over a quarter mile, so no harm done. I should be back to normal for tomorrow.

In the future I'll need to be careful with hills. They are fun, and I got in two great workouts, but, like anything, too much too soon is counterproductive.

Thanks for the comment!

MB said...

my 2 cents from following your blog Eric is the similarity to a roller coaster ride, many ups and downs.

maybe I am missing the middle or what you would dare to call the "slow" road. it seems there are many runs that you think are slow when in reality they are fast. maybe it shows better with your HR, which I beleive is quite low so you are probably right.

maybe the bouncing in and out of injury; or these written as more than what they really are?

UMaine Cooperative Extension said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
UMaine Cooperative Extension said...

I hope you get through this and are back tomorrow.

The combination of speed and hills (in the context of too much, too soon) is often the culprit of my un-doings.

Eric said...

My maxHR is around 178-180, so an 'easy' day would be 70-75% of that (130-135), moderate is 80-85% (145-153), and hard is 85-90% (154-162). I don't normally follow a specific HR 'plan', these levels are what has kind of risen out of the logs.

Just in the last couple of weeks I've (tried) to follow a pattern, suggested by the Mystery Coach in a comment of a moderate longer run, shorter hard run, and an easy run. The cycle repeats twice in a seven day period and is followed by a 'test' run of a set distance and speed to monitor recovery and progress.

Problem is I came across some interesting terrain and couldn't hold myself back hammering through the trees.

Am I being overly dramatic with the descriptions, or is it the daily blogging of every little detail that is making this seem like a rollercoaster? Not everyone can run for weeks on end without a day or two off. Some can, some can't, some should, and some shouldn't. I don't look at issues like these as injuries. More as extended recoveries. Kevin Beck has a great marathon training plan with hard workouts that are followed by a couple of days on the bike. Ed Eyestone took one day off a week. Recovery is a very individual thing and can be achieved in different ways, and recovery is key to progress.

It hasn't been lost on me that consistently applied stress is the third rail in this concept, and too much 'recovery' is useless unless there is 'stress' to recover from. That's why lifting TVs ten weeks before a goal race is not recommended.

However, in this case, with my legs this sore, I think I'm truly recovering from some significant good stress that I have previously missed out on here in the flatlands. Thanks for the comments.

MB said...

it's probably the daily blogging. we seem to report on all the little things that crop up so as not to missing any clues if something serious does come out of it-I think you know that first hand

Andrew said...

We all follow an HR plan we just don't acknowledge it.

I have the same roller coaster effect. And I think you're right, it's the daily report that highlights the 'severe' ups and downs we experience. Ask me about my run a few hours later and I'll tone it down.

Plus, all those aches and pains? Gone? No, just background noise now that I'm used to it. We're obviously having too much fun.

Mike said...

I like Andrew's comment about us heart rate training whether we want to or not. When you mention possibly overdoing it on the hills you bring up the one problem I've found with consistently "moderate" paces. Pushing too hard in one direction by running "off the cuff" one day will put the hurt on eventually. Maybe not tomorrow, but probably the day after. Good old D.O.M.S.. It also flies in the face of 3,000 Runner's World stories warning about not running the easy days easy enough and not running the hard days hard enough. All that comes later though.

I would imagine you're probably smarter for cross-training when the legs are hurting, even though it pains me to admit it.