8.30.2014

San Diego trip - No running

I spent four days this week standing ALL day on concrete floors at the San Diego Convention Center and my feet were literally mush by the end. Every single step hurt and there was no was going to run while they felt that way! Ended up taking 90% of the week off!

Sunday, August 24th
20 minutes of drills and weights. Went down to the hotel gym to run, but my feet were so sore I opted for a short weights session and that's it.

Monday - Thursday, August 25th - 28th
Nothing!! Thought I got in over 20,000 steps every day since last Friday so it doesn't count as rest. ;)

Friday, August 29th
20' rowing + 30' lower body weights.

Saturday, August 30th
20' rowing + 20' stair stepper + 75' Nike Training Club class at 24 Hour Fitness.

8.21.2014

Week 11- 12M running, 150' x-training

I leave for San Diego this week!! This week and next week will be really rough when it comes to fitting in workouts. I leave on Thursday for a conference that I'll be volunteering at, and our hours begin at 6AM and end at 9:30PM with no "long breaks" (no leaving the building). That means sleep will be minimal and if I want to fit in cross training it will have to be even more minimal. My first priority while I'm gone will be the 20 minute runs; after that, I'll do whatever I feel I can get in without compromising health.

Sunday, August 17th
20' run on the treadmill. Started at 8:27 pace and finished at 7:40 pace (bumped the pace by .2 every 4 minutes). Felt pretty good; still really loose and much more fluid than I have been lately. My foot is aching a bit on the outside where those shooting pains were.
30' rowing + 10' elliptical. Stopped the elliptical because my foot was hurting on it.

Monday, August 18th
20' run in the neighborhood. Another good one in terms of motivation and energy. I ran the hilly neighborhood loop and finished the run nice and tired. Same aches, nothing new.
30' rowing.
Ladder lower body weights. 12 reps - 8 reps - 6 reps - 4 reps - 3 reps - etc until I could not do more. I started with the weight slightly heavier than I've been doing for the higher rep sessions and bumped it up every time until it got too heavy.

Tuesday, August 19th
Impromptu rest day. Feel like I'm getting sick (sore throat, feverish) so no workout in the morning. Had my appointment with the Correct Exercise Specialist in the afternoon and she told me not to workout after seeing her.

Wednesday, August 20th
20' run in the neighborhood. Stride was a little choppy and some additional aches that weren't there earlier this week, but that could in part be due to rolling out of bed and starting right away. I usually spend more time "waking up" first. Back of my heels, side of my foot, my right ankle were the pain aches. Energy was still good though.
30' rowing.
3 x 8 upper body weights.

Thursday, August 21st
20' run on the treadmill. Started at 8:20 pace and worked down to 7:53 pace (I forgot that I have been changing the pace by .2 every four minutes and I only changed it by .1). Heels were fine today and ankle didn't hurt while I ran, only in my drills prior to running. 
30' rowing. No time for weights this morning as I had to log in for work at 7 due to travel this afternoon. After 10 minutes easy, I alternated 30 seconds all out rowing with 60 seconds easy rowing.

Friday, August 22nd
20' run on the treadmill. Got in 2.5 miles on the nose and cut down every 1/2 mile. Started at 8:20 pace and finished at 7:30 pace.

Saturday, August 23rd
20' run on the treadmill. Exactly the same as yesterday - 2.5 miles with the same pace changes.

8.12.2014

Week 10- 16M running, 130' x-training

Still keeping all runs at 20 minutes or less. I'm seeing a corrective exercise specialist that wants me to do some rowing, so I will be adding cross training and weights this week.

Sunday, August 10th
5' core, 20' easy run, 60" plank. No soreness whatsoever from yesterday. Still same aches, but I am now confident enough to run through the shocks in my foot.

Monday, August 11th
5' core, 20' easy run, 60" plank. Feeling super drained and tired. Shins seem to be easing up a little, but my quad is aching pretty bad.
90' session with corrective exercise specialist. Very helpful. I believe this is going to help a lot in clearing out my current injuries and preventing future ones. I learned a ton and think it's going to help my quad out as well.

Tuesday, August 12th
20' easy run. Still feeling empty on the run. It's like running through quicksand and running into a brick wall at the same time. :) Everything feels significantly better pain wise, though - so I think whatever she did yesterday made a difference.

Wednesday, August 13th
30' rowing, 100 reps of 4 lower body exercises, 20' elliptical trainer. Six sets of 15 plus one set of 10: Leg press, hamstring curl, calves, leg extension. Nothing to hard on the rower because I was focusing on using the right muscles; kept my HR above 160 on the elliptical. 
3' core, 20' run on the grass track. Left shin and the outside of both feet were today's main aches. Everything else was very minimal!!

Thursday, August 14th
30' rowing, 30 reps of 5 upper body exercises, 20' elliptical trainer. Three sets of 10 with 2 minute rest between each set so I could do heavier weight: Chest row, tricep pushdown, side shoulder raise, assisted pull ups, bicep curl. Kept HR at 160 or higher on the elliptical again. The inside of my left leg is really hurting still.
10' run. This was supposed to be 20 minutes but my stomach was killing me. Felt like a thousand knives stabbing me! Oh well... Kept the daily run streak going. Back at it tomorrow.

Friday, August 15th
20' run, 30' rowing, 100 reps of 4 lower body exercises. Ran first thing on the treadmill to cut down the risk of stomach problems. :) Averaged 8:09 pace but it felt really relaxed and easy. I started at 8:30 something and every four minutes bumped the pace by .2. The last four minutes were 7:40 pace. Left foot is kind of aching where I was having those shocks last week. No problems rowing. Did the same leg weights as on Wednesday but 4 sets of 20.

Saturday, August 16th
20' easy run + 23 reps of upper body weights. I stayed in our neighborhood and had a really great run. I felt really good energy wise and my legs felt nice and loose. I even ran down our steep hill so that I could come back up it. I was pretty tired by the end of the 20 minutes, but it was good none the less. Weights were great as well. I did 3 sets of 8 chest row, lat pull down, tricep push down, bicep curl, deltoid fly.

8.07.2014

Week 9- 13M running, no cardio x-training

Weird week.

I got sharp, shock-like pain in the side of my foot about 20 minutes into my first run of the week. It happened twice within about 30 seconds, and even though nothing else was really bothering me, I had no choice but to stop. Those split second shooting pains were strong enough that I couldn't convince myself to run through them.

The next day I made it through my entire 15 minute warm up with no problems, including a one minute surge at my tempo pace (6:44). I took a quick stretch break, started the tempo portion of my run, and in less than 60 seconds I had two more of those shooting pains again so I shut it down. As I walked to the trainer's room, it happened again.

The trainer said it's probably a nerve that's being aggravated by an inflamed base to my fifth metatarsal. He said running on it could add more trauma to what's already there and said the shooting nerve pain is the first indicator of a Jones Fracture.

That being said. I'm laying low another week. Max of 20 minutes easy per day. Nothing on my toes - no surges, hills, or strides. No pavement. Stopping if I get any shooting pains.

I don't mind cross training, but I have a really really sore hip flexor/ groin on the left side right now and I can't get in to see the doc until Monday, so that rules out quite a few options.

Sunday - Rest day
Monday - ~21 minutes on the trail (shooting pains started after about 20 minutes)
Tuesday - ~16 minutes on the treadmill (got in a 15' warm up and 1' of the tempo before getting the shooting pains)
Wednesday - 20 minutes on the grass track (dull ache, but no shooting pains; left hip hurt at the end)
Thursday - Rest day
Friday - ~15 minutes in the neighborhood (same shooting foot pain stopped me early)
Saturday - 15 minute warm up, 2 strides, 5k fun run in De Leon, 4 minute cool down (no shooting pains during the race - final time of 21:10 which is about 6:50 pace)