Weekly Training Update: T-12
Week of October 26th-November 1st:
Total Mileage: 54.43
Total Time: 5:57
Average Pace: 6:37
Overview: Another slightly disappointing lower mileage week but good intensity with a workout and 10 mile race. Been feeling pretty flat all week, woke up on Monday with an enlarged and sore lymph node under my armpit. Doctor checked it out and said to keep an eye on it, later noticed a softball size patch of about ten bites on my back which I think is related. At the Ragnar trail race our tent was full of spiders and after cleaning it out two live scorpions were found!!! Also dealing with some shin splint pain from increase in mileage, time to change the shoes.
Monday: Off
Tuesday: 13.24 in 1:30
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: 15.18 double (7 afternoon and 10 evening)
Afternoon workout: 2mi warmup followed by 10 x 200m hill repeats with jog recovery down.
Friday: 5.02 in 35' excruciating shin splints. Hot and Cold shower at night. Graston/massage treatment, Normatec boots and Cryospa.
Saturday: 3.42 in 22' w/drills shins feeling a little better.
Sunday: Texas 10 Katy, first place and new course record in 53:35.
5:30AM: Woke up and had a small bowl of Stoked Oats oatmeal and laid back down till about 6:20.
7:00AM: 2mi+ warmup with drills and strides. One caffeinated Hammer gel 15' before start.
7:35AM Race: Rain finally stopped just for the race, got off to a good start and opened up a gap immediatly, knew from then it was going to be a solo run. Goal was to stay right around or just under goal marathon pace of 2:20. At mile 7 I put in a bit faster surge as I was starting to lap people. Final two miles were spent dodging runners that had their music turned up too loud- very dangerous. Cruised in feeling good and cooled down with a third lap. Overall goal accomplished with a 5:17 average (course was a little long). Have some work to do if I'm going to hold 5:20/mi for 26.2 but I think its possible come January 17th.
Here is an interesting snap shot from my logbook last year. It was a couple weeks prior in the Houston Marathon training but almost identical including shin issues and feeling flat. My first 10 mile race was more competitive and run in 52 flat. I would say I'm in better mileage conditioning shape now and with less racing this build-up will hopefully have better quality with less recovery time than racing requires.
General Health/Diet: Monitoring swollen lymph node and spider/scorpion bites. General bloodwork all checked out okay, will increase iron supplement. Lower back and SI joint were quite sore after the race, standing around in the cold and rain after didn't help but it is very common for IT bands to flare up or to develop other little 'niggles' from running on hard wet surfaces. The Cryospa session in the afternoon definitely helped but I also have some core and stability work to add to my weekly routine. Not too worried about shin splints as it's common with mileage and intensity buildup (both introduced in last two weeks) expect it to go away with some new shoes and foot strengthening drills.
Tip of the Week:
Hate to be negative but I have to start off with a pet peeve. TURN DOWN THE MUSIC. I love music, I don't always run with it but I know how much it can help me get through times I need motivation. During the race (and this applies to a majority of out-and-return or loop courses I've done) the lead bike was yelling like crazy for people to get out of the way, a lot of people never heard her and after getting pushed to the side would move back in my way causing me and the cyclist to run dangerously close to traffic or running into the back of people. Not to mention it's just plain inconsiderate. If you can't hear someone yelling at you from three feet behind your head your music is way too loud, take one side out and/or turn it down.
The Most Important Exercise:
Alright, something positive and useful. Below is 9 second video that will show you, in my opinion, the most important injury prevention exercise runners can do. If you have ANY injuries/issue below the waist (running related, c'mon now), form imbalances, heel whips, knee caving in, pains, or if you are completely healthy, do this exercise to strengthen the gluteus medius.
Before Run: I do this before every single run, just standing around waiting for the GPS to lock-on I do a ~5 straight leg extensions 45 degrees out (not straight back, not straight to the side, in the middle). You don't want to tire your glute-med out before the run as you will need it, so just do about five per side to get the muscle activated. Every single run. No band needed.
Post-run/Gym: As an actual strength workout you can add the elastic band just like the video and add more repetitions. Start with 10 per side each session for a week, then add a set. You can do this twice a week along with other strength exercises like core. I will show some more exercises in a later post.
Inspirations:
Obviously with New York Marathon happening today there was some pretty awesome runs happening, congrats everyone who ran! But check this out...
One of our Team Trail Racing Over Texas members, Patrick Sweeney, ran the Chicago Marathon then ran the ~900 miles to New York (in 20 days!) and ran sub-3 hours today!!! Earlier this year (Jan-May) he ran across the USA and added on going up the East Coast. WOW!!!
My long-time friend, Jeremy Deere, finally broke his curse of the marathon with a 2:34 and had also just joined the masters club. Congrats Deere! In April we ran the Paris Marathon as a fun destination run, even still he had suffered (one of a few) poor marathon experiences. Here we are still goofing off before his food poisoning really kicked in!
Polar Groups:
If you have a Polar watch they just launched PolarFlow groups last week and I am leading up the "crazy" groups of Marathon Training, Trail Running, and Ultra Running so please join those if you use Polar (or go buy a Polar watch, I recomend the V800).
Thanks:
Love meeting so many people that mention they are following this training blog, means a lot to me so thanks for reading. Feel free to say hi if you see me out running, at an event or even leave as message here. Lots going on via my other social media channels so check those out. Thanks and keep up the good training! -Cal
