So about yesterday’s long run. It did not go as I had hoped. After Friday’s speed work I was a little concerned about how my legs would feel on their 2:45 run but then as I got started my legs were feeling pretty good. I was hitting consistent paces on my mile splits. I was taking my Gu Roctane gels right on schedule. It was a nice sunny day. What more could you ask for? Around 6 miles in I started to feel some fatigue but I was able to keep on going with minimal change in pace. 9 miles in (and one hour left to go) and the fatigue was really starting to set in. My quads were tightening up. I was determined to push through as I’d felt this before when I raced the Goofy in 2008. I wanted to know I could do it! Running became more of a shuffle. Then finally with 20 minutes left to go I started to get some pain in my knee, right about the spot where my knee issues from earlier this year were. I walked for another 10 minutes and called it a day, then went home and foam rolled my sore and tight legs a good long time.
Truthfully the recovery, both mental and physical, from this injury has been tough. I lost a lot of time this year, unable to train while my knee was so swollen. Even now, months after the injury, I feel aches and pain in my knee from time to time. A lot of the time the pain presents when the temperatures in Calgary fluctuate. I never know whether to worry about the pain or whether these things are normal. I’m coming to the conclusion that my knee will never be quite the same again.
I have several thoughts on why my long run went so wrong.
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Ideally I should have run on Thursday. Since I couldn’t run on Thursday I should have tried to run earlier on Friday.
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I should have foam rolled after my Friday speed session. Bad Leana.
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Now that the weather has cooled down I’ve been drinking water on my long runs. Honestly I ran out of Gatorade just after Ironman and I haven’t replaced it. I should be taking in more electrolytes on my run even though the weather has cooled off.
On Sunday I had 5 x 4:00 minute hill repeats to do. I felt good walking up and down the stairs at home so I figured I was good to try my run. Those 4:00 minute hill repeats are long! I was happy that I was able to find a hill long enough to get a full 4:00 minutes in. The run went pretty well! Here I am, at the bottom of the hill with one repeat left to go.
And this is what happy looks like after I finished all of my hill repeats!
So how did week one of the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge go?
And this is what happy looks like after I finished all of my hill repeats!
So how did week one of the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge go?-
Running: 27.5 miles = 27.5 points
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Spinning: 1 hour 25 min = 8.5 points
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Stretching/core: 40 min = 2.0 points
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Fruits/veggies/FB participation = 5.0 points
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TOTAL = 43 points
Injuries are tough to deal with mentally. Hopefully your knee just needed some rest and it’ll be back to normal for your next run.
Here’s hoping that with some rest, your knee feels back to normal. My PT prescribed me lots of silly little exercises to do to strengthen the glute and hip, as well as to stretch the IT band/quad/hammy. They are definitely working and I’m having no pain with return back to activities… however, I do worry that my performance will never come close to where it was in the past, but I’m hoping if I can continue the exercises, it won’t be an issue.
The mental aspect of an injury is almost as bad and the physical limitations. Hopefully the rest was all you needed. 4:00 hill repeats?!? That is amazing! I have a love hate relationship with hills. Great first week!
I hope your knee feels better! I guess it couldn’t be that bad if you still got out there for hill repeats. I don’t think I’ve ever done timed hills, just distance … and they definitely weren’t that long. Great job!
I follow Laurie’s blog and saw your comment about training for Goofy too…so naturally I had to check out your blog!
Injuries are so tough to come back from. Glad you have an idea what went wrong! Hope this next week is even better!
I hope your knee gets feeling better soon. I hope surely it’s not a forever thing! I am still fairly new to running, only a year in, I hurt my hip towards the beginning, it took me 7 weeks to be able to walk with out a limp. Lots of stretches and my Chiro and his ART machine saved the day. I haven’t had an issue since. Hopefully it stays that way.
Im hoping you get recovery soon and are pain free! Great job on HBBC Week 1!
You are off to a great start with HBBC! Hope you knee feels better soon and I’m sorry your long run didn’t go better than it did.
wow how smart you are to actually break down what went wrong and thus you can learn from it rather than wallow in a bad run!