Another week, a full month, and my first cycle back following a schedule from Howard in the books, and I’m pretty pleased with it. I think I made some good progress and am poised to continue that trend. Over the past couple weeks, my left shin pain has finally disappeared, which is a terrific feeling considering how long I suffered with it. It bothered me for quite a while after starting back, but I figured it was just scar tissue that I would have to work through and it appears that was indeed the case. My knee pain in the same leg is also gone now. It actually went away even before the shin did, so my left leg is finally more than just decorative – ha, ha. The only ache/pain I have at the moment is my right achilles/foot. I’m pretty sure it’s a case of retrocalcaneal bursitis and is something I’ve been dealing with off and on for years. As long as I treat it, I can generally keep it from causing any major problems, but I sure would like to find a way to make it go away completely and not have to work on it constantly. I’m hoping I’ve got some things in place that will accomplish just that, but only time will tell. My goal is to strengthen up my hips and glutes to stabilize my mid-section then work on strengthening my feet/ankles to take care of that end of things. Between the two, I should get everything where it needs to be and be able to stay pain free. That’s the idea at least.
Anyway, as for the specifics of this past week, Monday was a nice loop on the Hanging Rock Battlefield Trail, something that has become a traditional recovery run as of late. Tuesday was 8X1 min on/off on the Roanoke College Track. It wasn’t fast by any means, but it was definitely quick for me for the time being. Wed was another recovery run followed by some 5 min intervals in the hills on Thursday. Friday was a distance run at a relaxed pace, Saturday a recovery day, and Sunday a trip to the train bed (New River Trail) in Hiwassee for a long run that included an up-tempo section from 70-90 min (actually 69-90, sorry Andrew – lol). I really enjoyed getting back to the train bed and rolling out some miles. In my opinion, there are few places better. It’s mostly flat, shaded, and a soft surface, all alongside the New River. I honestly feel like the runs I did out there years ago are what helped me drop my times like I did, so I hope to start making semi-regular trips there again. Maybe it will help me get my mojo back – ha, ha.
I’ll conclude with a couple comments and leave it at that. First of all I would like to thank Andrew Parkins for coming out just about every day and helping get me through these workouts. It’s always easier to have a good training partner, and it not only makes the runs more fun but I think benefits all involved as well. I know I would have definitely slacked off several times this week if it wasn’t for having someone right there with me. My other comment is a big congrats to Chris Solinsky (not that I know him or anything) on lowering the American 10k record by 14 seconds and becoming the first American under 27 min. Running 26:59 for 10k is mind boggling, but I can take a couple things from it. First of all, he had no expectations coming in to that race, especially in terms of setting an American record. He just stuck his nose in there and went for it and look where it got him. Shows that you just have to trust your training and not be afraid to mix it up and/or go with a pace you might think is too aggressive. Second, he made a comment after the race about how his group had taken a page out of Dathan Ritzenhein’s book and done a lot of strength training the past several months and he felt like that was what got him where he is now. That makes me think my training right now is spot on because that’s exactly what Howard has me doing. Good stuff!
Got my schedule for May yesterday and it looks solid. Looking forward to another good month and more progress towards getting fit again. Hope everyone has a great week!
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