Good Days and Bad Days
I've been injury free for years. Nothing. Nada. I actually attribute it to my fairly large running base (which seems to be increasing with age).
Then, exactly one month ago, I went water skiing - first time in over 20 years. Yeah, sure, no problem. I'm light, and the boat seemed powerful. I put on a slalom (which was a little on the small side for me), hoped in, and gave the sign... Um, it didn't pop me out of the water. Actually, it was more like a long slow drag that ended in a face plant with the full length of the ski catching the water and attempting to separate my right leg from my torso. Not good. The boat came back around, and I grabbed the rope. I now knew what to expect, and after a long slow drag, the boat got up to speed and I was off for a tour of the lake. Along the way I could feel my right leg, or should I say butt. Later that night I could feel it - it was either my glut or my ham string. And not in one of those "it will be better tomorrow" kind of ways.
Now, I'm a reasonably intelligent guy. But, I'm also an athlete of sorts. So in the case of an injury, the athlete mentality takes over and says "Rest? Time off? I don't have time for recovery! Ice it three times a day,eat ibuprofen like candy, and it will be gone in no time. Six, maybe seven months tops!"
So, for the past month I've been training through it. There have been good days and bad days. For the first two weeks, running sucked. Maybe 1 to 2 minutes per mile over my normal LSD/Recovery pace. Intervals and speed work were out of the question. For the past two weeks, my LSD/Recovery pace has pretty much returned to normal, but the power and speed are still gone. I tried some 800 intervals last week. I was completely missing my power, missing my normal 800 time by 15 to 20 seconds (30 to 40 seconds per mile). I could feel the lack of top end power. However, I know that will come back.
The frustrating part is the good days and the bad days. Last Wednesday and Thursday I had decent middle distance runs during the week. On Friday I went out for a Tempo run and nailed it perfectly - I had that floating feeling of endless speed, and never felt like I was pushing. I took Saturday off and went long today. Today was a bad day. Never quite got into the flow or pace. Sure I was able to maintain a decent LSD pace, but it was forced and a LSD pace should not be forced. Good days and bad days.
Sheila and I have the City of Lakes Classic 25k next Sunday, and I have the Twin Cities Marathon 3 weeks after that. The intelligent person would rest and recover... I think I'll press on and hope for the best. Maybe I'll get lucky and have good days for each race. I can always recover this Winter when I back the weekly mileage down into the 50's ;-)
See you out there.
Then, exactly one month ago, I went water skiing - first time in over 20 years. Yeah, sure, no problem. I'm light, and the boat seemed powerful. I put on a slalom (which was a little on the small side for me), hoped in, and gave the sign... Um, it didn't pop me out of the water. Actually, it was more like a long slow drag that ended in a face plant with the full length of the ski catching the water and attempting to separate my right leg from my torso. Not good. The boat came back around, and I grabbed the rope. I now knew what to expect, and after a long slow drag, the boat got up to speed and I was off for a tour of the lake. Along the way I could feel my right leg, or should I say butt. Later that night I could feel it - it was either my glut or my ham string. And not in one of those "it will be better tomorrow" kind of ways.
Now, I'm a reasonably intelligent guy. But, I'm also an athlete of sorts. So in the case of an injury, the athlete mentality takes over and says "Rest? Time off? I don't have time for recovery! Ice it three times a day,eat ibuprofen like candy, and it will be gone in no time. Six, maybe seven months tops!"
So, for the past month I've been training through it. There have been good days and bad days. For the first two weeks, running sucked. Maybe 1 to 2 minutes per mile over my normal LSD/Recovery pace. Intervals and speed work were out of the question. For the past two weeks, my LSD/Recovery pace has pretty much returned to normal, but the power and speed are still gone. I tried some 800 intervals last week. I was completely missing my power, missing my normal 800 time by 15 to 20 seconds (30 to 40 seconds per mile). I could feel the lack of top end power. However, I know that will come back.
The frustrating part is the good days and the bad days. Last Wednesday and Thursday I had decent middle distance runs during the week. On Friday I went out for a Tempo run and nailed it perfectly - I had that floating feeling of endless speed, and never felt like I was pushing. I took Saturday off and went long today. Today was a bad day. Never quite got into the flow or pace. Sure I was able to maintain a decent LSD pace, but it was forced and a LSD pace should not be forced. Good days and bad days.
Sheila and I have the City of Lakes Classic 25k next Sunday, and I have the Twin Cities Marathon 3 weeks after that. The intelligent person would rest and recover... I think I'll press on and hope for the best. Maybe I'll get lucky and have good days for each race. I can always recover this Winter when I back the weekly mileage down into the 50's ;-)
See you out there.
posted by Doug Johnston @ 2:44 PM
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