An attempt to track the ups and downs and ins and outs of a boys attempt at, at best, becoming a semi-elite (thats at best) long distance runner

Monday, June 15, 2009

past 7 days

Mon am 10miles easy

Tue am 10miles easy

Wed am 6miles easy (treadmill 4X8mph 1X10mph, 1X8mph)

Pm 2mile warmup, 10 X 500 (w/ 300 rest), 2mile cooldown with 5X100 strides
1:40, 1:36, 1:38, 1:38, 1:38, 1:38, 1:38, 1:38, 1:39, 1:36
First track workout in just over 3 years

Thu am 10 miles easy

Pm 10 miles easy

Fri noon 6 miles easy

Sat am 3miles warmup, 10k (Georgetown, Lawyers have heart), 3mile cooldown

Sun am 16miles long

Monday, September 11, 2006

iten - high altitude training

in iten, nr Eldoret, at high altitude north of the rift valley in kenya.

training at high altitude is fun i suppose... you reach your lactate limit more quickly, and little hills takes their tole on your lungs very quickly. i've been running here for 8 days and doing mostly doubles.

starting to get more confident and find kenyan fellas to tag along with. going for early run tomorrow followed by my first track workout. eating very well. have far too much spare time on my hands outside of running, and this entire trip only makes sense when i am running. and you can't run all day unfortunately.

there's about 500 (so they tell me - i only see 200 at max out on the dirt red trails and dusty red roads) elite kenyan guys out running every morning just after 6, and a bunch run again at 10 on the trails or the track and some again in the afternoon. and there are no fun runners here. just guys trying to be professional or making a living. long distance runners just out doing their job. and doing it either really slowly first thing in the morning in hats and rain jackets and full tights - when it's warm enough for me to be in shorts and t-shirt - or at the track doing intervals like 10X1000 in 2:51's 2:52's... about 150 of the fastest people i've ever seen all doing intervals at the same time on the same dusty dirt track. tomorrow i'm going to join in.

Monday, August 28, 2006

kenya in 4 days

tue am - 55miles BIKE
tue pm - 4miles RUN
wed am - 6miles RUN ; PT Barb
thu am - 8miles RUN
thu pm - 40mile BIKE
fri am - PT Barb; 4mile RUN
sat am - 11mile RUN
sat pm - 35mile BIKE
sun - OFF

mon am - 10mile RUN

shin still tight and needs taking care of. icing and the like. PT Barb working on it seemed to help, and at least I can run every day on it now, even if I have to hold back my mileage. everything else feels fine, i'm just lacking on any decent level of fitness. leave for kenya in 4 days. a month of running on soft trails and spending as much time resting and swimming and weights work and stretching and running... i should hopefully come back all fit and super healthy... i hope my shin fixes itself completely during the change of scenery.

Monday, August 21, 2006

kenya in 10 days

Fri pm - 30mile BIKE
Sat am - 13mile RUN
Sat pm - 40mile BIKE
Sun noon - 90mile BIKE
Mon am - 6mile RUN / 16mile BIKE

taking it easy now through leaving for kenya so that my shin is properly healed and i can run more when i'm there. shin still doesn't feel 100% good. annoying really. i wish I had a mri machine at home or the ability to do a CT scan once a week to work out what exactly is wrong with it on the inside. seeing PT Barb on wednesday and friday this week to get as much work done before I leave.

Thursday, August 17, 2006

kenya back on...

tue pm - 20mile BIKE
wed noon - 6mile RUN
wed pm - 3mile RUN; CORE
thu am - 8mile RUN

kenya is back on. getting immunisations today. need to get visa. shin still a little tight when running and not 100% but not painful... just wierd. may give pt barb a call today for some work.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

tired

Mon pm - 20mile BIKE
Tue am - 55mile BIKE (hill repeats Great falls MD)

tired. after a while no amount of food can keep my energy up. i guess i just have to have a day off at some point, or get in a solid 10 hours sleep. feel tired. just like training used to make me feel 5 months ago.

Monday, August 14, 2006

almost back to normal training

Fri pm - 10mile BIKE
Sat am - 18mile RUN
Sun pm - 100mile BIKE
Mon am - 9mile RUN ; 25mile BIKE

feeling pretty damn good. right shin was a little tight (got me very worried) after the 18miles on saturday. needed ice and hurt a bit walking afterwards. felt fine after a good 3 hour sit down. also felt fine during the bike ride sunday. left calf hurt a bit of Sunday’s bike ride, and right knee a little (need to push right heal out a touch so my knee is better aligned- changed the position of the click in clipless pedal attachment on the bottom of my bike shoes as it appeared to have moved completely over to one side). throat hurts - all around the front and tight at the back. i presume from keeping my head up looking out at the road when riding in the drops. hurt when i woke up and it better not be sinus or cold related cause if it is it's gonna be a huge cold cause it's my entire neck (i can feel it pretty bad when i drink water). ho hum.

seem to be dropping weight a little too quickly. i can feel myself getting quite thin again. probably due to no peanut butter in the house. or no wheat thins. or toast. might need to start eating more to compensate.

schedule needs to be created so i'm in shape for new york in 12 weeks time. long bike ride tomorrow, but fast-ish workout wednesday morning, easy run with garth thursday morning, friday off running, saturday long run, sunday 100+miles on bike possibly out along skyline drive up the big hills out there. potentially...

Thursday, August 10, 2006

left clavicle fixed

doc report...

left clavicle looked almost perfect in the xrays (if i don't say so myself). all one piece, pretty much nice and fixed.

and the doc said i looks like I've bruised my ulnar nerve - probably around/under the shoulder during the impact. back in 3 weeks to check it again, and ecg if necessary if it's still a problem then. but should fix itself given time.

timeline
Broke Collarbone
+4days - resumed training on indoor trainer
+10days - 70miles outdoors on bike
+18days - total weekly bike mileage outdoors = 181miles
+19days - resumed running 6miles run
+21days - 12mile run

thursday am - 12mile RUN

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

run.ning.

tue pm - 30mile BIKE
wed am - 6mile RUN
wed noon - 4mile RUN

try for 12 tomorrow am, before doctors to get xray and talk nerves (is the problem with median, radial, or ulnar nerve?)... where the bus stops, nobody knows.

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

run. yep. 6 mile run. 2weeks5days after breaking my collarbone i can run again. glorius.

Fri am - 50mile BIKE
Fri pm - 30Mile BIKE
Sat am - 105mile BIKE
Sun pm - 10mile BIKE
Mon am - 55mile BIKE
Mon pm - 25mile BIKE + 6mile RUN
Tue am - 45mile BIKE

will keep the running to a 6 to 8 mile distance for the first few days just to get used to it all again. Might try for a swim Friday morning... we'll see.

Friday, August 04, 2006

2006 - year of injury

turned out i took wed and thur off training too and ended up eating too much and getting a bit depressed about not being about to exercise properly. tried to run on wedneday night but barely made it through a 2 mile run. just hurts to much to run (shoulder/collarbone). but i guess it's only been 2 weeks so it might be a bit soon.

nice long ride this morning (52miles) with hill repeats out by great falls md. 5X the hill but was probably not pushing myself hard enough because i found it a bit too easy. once done out there came back into dc, crossed into virginia on chain bridge, then went north on georgetown pike and into work on spring hill rd. need to find better ways to get to work without hitting lots of traffic.

i wish i could be running right now... sucks not to be able to. boo to injuries.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

day off

tuesday pm - 20mile BIKE

biked home in the hot hot weather. left hand still feels a little strange (lost a bit of strength in the fingers and hand). still a bit sore from being in the saddle for 70miles sat 80miles sun 60miles mon 50miles tue... slept in this morning and taking an entire day off today.

wish i could be out running. although, even after not running for over two weeks, my shin still feels a little wierd. stupid shin.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

more of the same

monday pm - 40mile BIKE
tuesday am - 30mile BIKE

left arm feels better. loads of movement and hardly any pain... although strangeness in the left hand this morning. lacking a bit of strength in left hands fingers. hopefully it's related to just a lot of riding and the elbow pain and not related to problems or complications around the shoulder. it would suck to have problems with my left hand, being left handed and all. oh, and 100 degrees today. there's never enough water. and the ike weighs so much more with two full water bottles.

Monday, July 31, 2006

a complete and utter lack of patience

saturday am - 10mile BIKE
saturday pm - 60mile BIKE
sunday - 80mile BIKE
monday am - 17mile BIKE

out on my own on Macarthur and river rd, looped up to Poolesville through the peach orchards. temperature in the mid to high 90's so it felt pretty damn hot. went through a lot of liquid. found out that i like eating cliff bars on the bike and not so much with the power bars.

tried to run sunday night but didn't make it more than 2 blocks. the weight of the arm and the thumping motion of running (even when running reasonably smoothly) is obviously a bit much for it now. might give it another go towards the end of the week.

i feel so much better for having gone out and just risked it and gotten in some solid exercise.

Friday, July 28, 2006

urg

depression from lack of exercise kicked in about two days ago and i'm losing my patience with it. but, according to some site on tinternet... this is how my bone is healing in picture form...

Activity, movement, and use: In contrast to the early stages, in the later stages of healing patients' activity is necessary and decisive. Bone fractures are again a good example. Movement, use, and putting weight on the bone stimulate the reconstruction of bone and the realignment of bone layers parallel to the lines of force, ensuring optimal adaptation to the mechanical loads to which it is normally exposed.
unless something significantly chances between now and later this afternoon, i'm going to go for a ride outside. damn the consequences. sitting inside being glum doesn't heal broken bones.

Thursday, July 27, 2006

like a small child then

didn't do indoor trainer last night. went to bed, brushed teeth under the covers, at 7:30pm. Didn't wake up until past 8am. Twelve and a half hours of uninterrupted sleep. I think my body is trying to get me to rest. All this sleep better be making my collar bone heal faster. In two weeks and one day I get he second set of x-rays and I've decided I want the doctor to use the word Miraculous when he describes my recovery. "Miraculous".

oh, and floyd? say it isn't true. please. test sample b better come back negative otherwise this 29-and-a-small-bit-year-olds dreams have just been shattered.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

training on indoor trainer

watched the entire Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom while doing the following cycling workout last night. Shoulder and collarbone felt fine. Hurts more to take a t-shirt off than it does to do 2 solid hours on an indoor trainer. Broke the collarbone exactly 7 days ago.

30min warm up


hard easy
5 5
4 4
3 3
2 2
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
4 4
3 3
2 2
1 1


12min cooldown


120min total

not pretty

okay, so my hairy chestiness aside (sorry - just look away - it's probably best), at least here's a journal type entry showing the haematoma washing through my left shoulder.

According to Wikipedia (if it's on tinternet = FACT - big F big A big C big T capital FACT)

from Bone Healing
"After a fracture, the first thing that forms is a haematoma, similar to that seen elsewhere in the body. This is a clot of blood originating from the lacerated blood vessels in the bone and the periosteum.

Necrotic bone is then resorbed by osteoclasts, and the haematoma by macrophages. As the haematoma is resorbed, granulation tissue develops from the periosteum and endosteum. When this has completed, pluripotent cells migrate into the granulation tissue. These cells become chondrocytes and later osteocytes, that produce cartilage and bone respectively. The structure surrounding the fracture site is now slightly harder, this is a provisional callus. The area can be called a proper callus as time goes on, and more and more woven bone is made by the osteoblasts. This woven bone is initially remodelled into lamellar bone. With time, the bone is remodelled over the next few months, and the callus becomes smaller, as the trabeculae are formed along lines of stress."

Two days after - swelling on shoulder almost hides entire distal third and ac joint on my left.
6 days after - swelling still present but haematoma on and below damaged area
it's not smart, clever, or pretty.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

good news...

from cyclingnews.com - after a collarbone break, when the bone has healed, "...your left shoulder will be a little narrower than your right for the rest of your life. This is actually good for bike racers provided that you regain full mobility. A narrower profile reduces wind resistance. "

paha. good news then. maybe i should break the right one to make me even more aerodynamic.