Training Summary: 3/1 - 3/7

Mon - 3 miles
Tue - 2 miles
Wed - 4 miles
Thu - 1 mile
Fri - 4.5 miles
Sat - 5 miles
Sun - .5 mile
Total: 20 miles

Another week where about all I can say is it was better than nothing. Beyond that, I’ll make two comments. One, I may have learned something this week that will pay off big time down the road, and I am making progress. However, that said, I won’t continue along these lines too much longer before taking some more time off.

On to the specifics. Monday, I met up with Andy on the Roanoke College track as I was starting my run and ran most of the rest of the way with him. I felt good for about 2 miles then started to feel my knee thereafter. By close to 3 miles it was starting to hurt pretty bad, so I got myself back as quickly as I could and called it a day. Tuesday was similar, but the pain came on sooner and by 8 min I was ready to quit. However, as I headed back, I noticed if I focused on changing my footstrike such that I landed more mid-to-forefoot then toed off (almost rolling to the inside), the pain went away. I was actually able to run another mile virtually pain free using this technique before I stopped, not wanting to push my luck. Wednesday was a good day. My knee was actually fine throughout, but I had a little pain in my shin (site of the stress fracture). Thursday was similar to Tuesday, but this time I couldn’t get the knee pain to a point I was comfortable with so I just shut it down after a mile. In complete contrast, Friday was one of the best runs I’ve had since starting back. I was pretty much pain free the entire time and wanted to do more. Saturday wasn’t quite as good as Friday, but it was a decent day as well. Sunday must have been time for another bad day, because it was similar to Tuesday and Thursday. Based on that, I just decided to bag it after half a mile and walk back, as much out of frustration as anything else.

So that brings me to today, where I’m feeling fine and planning on attempting a run this evening. I seem to have hit a pattern of a good day or two followed by a bad one. Since I’m making progress, I’m willing to play that game for at least a while longer in hopes that the good days will start to far outnumber the bad ones and then the bad ones will disappear altogether. However, if I continue to have one or two good runs followed by one or two bad ones, I’ll take some more time off. I don’t want to drag on for weeks not making much progress because of rotating good runs with poor to non-existent efforts.

This should be a very telling week. If the things I’m doing currently are going to work, I should see significant improvement over the next several days. Otherwise, I’ll know I need to wait a while longer to let things settle down. Either way I’ll have an answer. Here’s hoping for the best.