Training hiccup
Really good ride on Sunday but for a variety of reasons was
unable to get in any run workouts at all on Sunday/Monday. So I went into my LT
run workout on Tuesday evening pretty optimistic that I'd have a great run. The
workout was scheduled as 10mi with 3x 2mi @ LT targeting 6:10-6:15/mi as usual.
The warmup was fine and the first interval was hard but good and I came in at a
6:03 pace – in other words, about what I expected. In the last half-mile of the
interval my ankle muscle on right leg felt oddly worked-over. I
started the next interval and after 30 seconds I see on my watch I'm averaging
6:30 pace. I just couldn't get up to speed. Really, really strange. I pulled
the plug and then resumed running and decided to settle in at an easy ~6:50-ish
which is my usual EP / warmup / cooldown pace. Again, I just couldn't get up to
speed. My cadence was amazingly low and I couldn't get my legs to turn over any
faster. I tried to focus on form, focus on cadence, just try to run fast,
whatever. Nothing. I started to feel some muscle tightness in groin and hamstrings
that I had never felt before while running and my form had very obviously deteriorated
badly. Decided to get to 6 miles for the run and watched my pace inexplicably decline
from 7:00 to 7:12 over the course of just under 2 miles. Really strange. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/695484063
Today I decided to get out there and
see if I could get a redemption workout. I made it out the driveway before I
felt that odd tightness in my groin muscle. I have never strained that muscle before
or had that feeling so I pulled the plug and have decided to do zero running
until next week. If there is one thing I have learned in a few years of
structured training it's that your speed and fitness doesn't evaporate
overnight and so I have no problem doing this.
My one internal debate is if I
should do a bunch of biking or if I really should "stand down"
completely. If it were some injury I've had before I'd feel confident getting
on the bike but in this case I actually think the right call may be to do zero
biking until Monday then see how I feel trying to run on Monday. If I don't
feel ok running on Monday then I can definitively say that biking wasn't a culprit
in the recovery and I can get on the bike and see if I feel better or worse
trying to run on Wednesday or Thursday. If by then things are not better then
time to see the doc...
Comments
Matt - I have no idea what;s going on with your run; I;d suspect it;s somehow related to the efforts you;ve made to perfect your form, and something has been working more than it;s used to.
As to biking, If it were me, I;d get on the trainer for an easy warm up and see how things felt. The lack of weight bearing and loading on the legs usually means that cycling works OK in a situation like this. If the pain starts up after a minute or two, you can just hop of the bike and still be @ home, right?
I did literally zero workouts from Tuesday Feb 10 through Sunday Feb 15, then on Monday I could hardly feel any discomfort so went for a run. After about a mile I could feel it was not 100% so I stopped. I also at that point made an appointment with the doctor for Thursday and mentally decided I'd do a bunch of running this week assuming the injury didn't get totally out of hand – in part for fitness but mostly to ensure it is symptomatic when I go see the doctor…there's nothing more annoying than not being able to replicate the discomfort when you get there, and I figured a lot of times running is allowed "as tolerated" so this might be one of those times anyway.
When I woke up the next day it didn't feel worse so yesterday I decided to run 6mi (in the evening, on the treadmill, due to weather). The discomfort came on within a few minutes but was easily tolerable and didn't get materially worse during the course of the run and I was able to maintain my pace and felt my form was not deteriorated. That said, but the end of the run I had new muscle soreness in random place, likely due to compensatory effects.
Today I woke up and could certainly feel the soreness, but it wasn't brutal or anything like that. So, only about 18 hours after the evening run, I went outdoors on a beautiful sunny mid-20's day and ran another 6 miles at a moderate pace (some GPS issues but the average was probably in the 6:40's). The discomfort was pretty much immediate this time, but again totally tolerable, I didn't feel it was impacting my form, and my speed was not impacted either. After 4 miles I got a brutal quad pain (right leg) the likes of which I hadn't experienced since racing Steelhead back in August but I'll chalk that up to either compensatory issues or the fact that I seem to get that pain every so often.
Doc is tomorrow so I'll see what she says and keep you posted.
Posted to medical forum as well (http://members.endurancenation.us/Forums/tabid/57/aft/17975/Default.aspx).