Monday: 35-minute swim. It's not running but it's definitely aerobic. Standard core session. Added 3x7 chin ups. Definitely seeing improvements in strength.
Tuesday: 20-minute swim. A little tired and sore from yesterday. Practiced turning. Foot is feeling ready for a test drive, except the roads are so messed up with ice from previous storms and a new layer of snow that I might do it inside. Thinking 2 miles if all goes to plan.
Wednesday: Tested out the *ankle! Jogged about 3 miles with a few pick ups. Pain is jumping around. Nowhere specific. No swelling. I'm perplexed. It might be time to visit the doctor after all.
Thursday: Visited my friend Sharon at her compu-training center in North Andover. She wanted to show me how compu-training is designed. I didn't realize that would mean I would get to do a 20 minute threshold test, followed by some 1-minute and 2-minute pickups, but that is exactly what she had in mind!
I warmed up for about 5-7 minutes before going straight into the 20-minute test. Sharon warned me to start a little conservatively for the first 5 minutes since I didn't want to spike the lactate in my system and then suffer a slow death for the remaining 15. I locked into a pretty good rhythm after a minute or two of adjusting my cadence and slowly watched my average watts/minute increase from about 230 up to 267. I rode a flat course, and worked my speed up to 23.1 mph at the finish. My watts/kg was 3.68 and I saw a max HR of 193. I felt my inner hamstring, quad and calf muscles laboring which is a helpful reminder that running alone will not lead to well-balanced muscle groups. After the 20 minute test, the software establishes appropriate resistance for interval work. I rode a few minutes easy and went into 5x1 minute on, 30s off. The ons were at 110% of LT, so my watts were around 300 for the on efforts. By the 2-minute pickups my calves were absolutely rocked, and the medial side was cramping. This could be a product of muscle imbalance or possibly having not done any real impact-related exercise in about 10 days (excluding yesterday's experiment). So, I shut it down and cooled down for several minutes and called it a day.
I'm thinking I will try to make compu-training a weekly workout, possibly replacing my secondary running workout in the week. The intensity is definitely there, and I think it could lead to improvement in the stability and strength of the medial side of my legs. We'll see. Ankle was a non-issue. Run tomorrow!
Friday: 7 miles / 48 minutes - Sweet! I can run! Progressed from 7:35 down to 6:20 for the last couple. Felt so good to go for a real run. Standard core session after; 3 sets of: (1" left, right, double arm planks, 25 push ups, 40 sit ups) and lots of foam rolling!
Saturday: 3 miles / 20 minutes easy running in the morning. Another 15 minutes running in the snow with my parents' dog, Enya, in the snowstorm out in Marlborough, NH.
Sunday: 3 miles on the treadmill at night. Stomach has been upset all weekend so the goal was to just stretch the legs. After: 3 sets of: 15 x 25 lb curls, 12 x 85 lb lat pull-downs, 12 x 50 lb shoulder press, 50 lb triceps extensions.
Nice! See you at Sidehiller then :) You need to give Nick Wheeler a run for his money!
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