Thursday, 3/5

10 miles / 65:13 - Too fast. I'm thrilled to be running again here and there but I need to remember that 7:00-7:30 pace is far more likely to keep me healthy.

11/14-16

Wednesday:

44 lengths / half mi swim took a hair over 20 minutes.

Thursday:

75 minutes on the bike at Breakaway computraining. Warmed up 18 minutes then cycled through four long threshold segments. The threshold test I did about a year ago has my threshold at 265 watts which felt very tough tonight. No pain in the injured leg during or after the ride, which was the best news of the night!

1/11-1/13

Sunday: Off

Monday: Off

Tuesday: I swam 88 lengths of the 20y pool for a total of exactly 1 mile. Almost all of it was freestyle. I took a few easy backstroke lengths to get the heart rate under control. The first 20 lengths felt pretty rough and I thought it was going to be a short workout but I felt better as things went on and I really got my breathing down which was the most difficult part for me. I'll probably time myself next time just to get a sense of how long I'm working for... I must have been doing something right because I had these infamous calf cramps upon getting out of the pool!

1/10

First pool workout... I alternated using a kickboard and practicing getting long and breathing with laps of freestyle for half an hour. Very quickly lost track of how many laps. It was good to do something aerobic!

Also did about half an hour of yoga looking to lengthen my hamstrings, hips and lower back.

It's not running but it's not nothing. Knee remains swollen.

Boring update

No activity to report.

I got a few x-rays which came up with nothing. The doctor found swelling and some kind of lump behind my lower patella. Referred to orthopedics and PT, which confuses me because how can PT guess at how to treat it without information from ortho?

I also signed up at Cedardale, a gym about a quarter-mile from work. I have no excuse not to be in the pool there 3-4 x per week.

12/24 - 1/6

Wednesday: 4.5 mi... warmed up. Began a workout of repeat 200s with a modest goal of 34s and came up lame on the 5th one. About 1/4 mi into the cooldown home a shooting pain rocked my knee joint and I ended up hobbling / walking for a couple miles before finally flagging someone down and using their phone to call Lauren and get a ride. Not good...

Thursday 12/25 - Thursday 1/1 off - the pain behind my knee gradually subsided but serious muscular tightness throughout the left leg remained.

Friday 1/2 easy 3.3 mi jog on trails. Legs felt like Gumby out there but it was good to move!

Saturday 1/3 easy 7 mi very slow on trails before the storm. Felt okay.

Sunday 1/4 easy 5 mi again very slow, this time on roads by night. Left calf, quad, hamstring all rigged up pretty badly in the last mile.

Monday 1/5 easy 2.9 mi very easy. Leg spazzed out again and I had to walk the last half mile back home.

Some history... in 2007 I had stress a stress fracture in my L proximal fibula.  It was hard to diagnose and didn't come up on x-ray or MRI until about a year later when I was scanned for something unrelated and my orthopedist found a lot of calcification a couple inches below the knee and asked me when I'd broken my leg. Another x-ray later showed stress fracture in my R proximal fibula. SO, I've had symmetrical stress fractures in this location. A blood test around that time showed my calcium was low and I started supplementing.

The symptoms I'm having are comparable to 8 years ago. Bouts of severe pain that come on suddenly after a few miles of running. Meanwhile a general feeling of instability/weakness and randomize muscle tension all around the weakened area... I'm skeptical of spending the time and money to do all the scans with predictably unclear outcomes... Game plan per moment is to get in the pool and to stay off my feet whenever possible. I can walk okay but going downstairs is a horror show. I'm hopeful I can find a sports medicine doctor through my new HMO at Lahey. Unfortunately I'll need to stay within the Lahey network. The recent dietary changes I've made probably necessitate blood work, at least.

Ugh!

Sunday - Tuesday, 12/21-23

Sunday

15 mi / 6:29 pace in Westford.

Monday

10 mi* / 74 minutes on technical trails in Andover and North Andover.

Tuesday

10 mi / 63 minutes on the treadmill. Last few around 540 pace. 9 mins planks, pushups, lunges, squats, and ab variations.

Saturday, 12/20 BU Mini Meet #1

3++ miles up with Jose Ortiz and Ben Pare indoors around the track. While jogging I saw Pat Rich, Chris Mahoney, and a few other guys who I expected to see during the race. Jose, Ben and I all entered the 3000m with a seed time of 9:05 basically guaranteeing that we'd have the opportunity to work together during the race if practical.

I was more nervous to race today than usual. I hadn't run an indoor track race since 2008 and any time I had raced at BU it was high pressure and the competition was intense, usually at meets like Valentine's Invite or the Terrier Classic. I was eager to get started and I felt kind of awkward and lethargic each time I went to do a stride or practice some drills which I haven't done enough of in practice. The old routine is returning, but it's not familiar yet.

Eventually the organizers came out and gave us our heats. I was in the second heat where seed times ranged from 8:55 to 9:25. There were at least 21 people in the heat and I was #10 so I figured at least 9 runners would be mixing it up early on, and probably more. The gun fired and finally we were off. I let the runners go off the line so I could safely fall in toe and wait for the madness as the runners 12-21 fell in after the first turn. Thankfully they weren't vying for lane 1 and I had a clean start in about 4th-6th place through the first lap. We were a tad slower than I would have expected, even through 400 which tends to be a second or two quick. By the kilometer which read 3:01, I felt the pace lagging ever so slightly and Ben, whose shoulder I had been riding, and I moved together into the lead positions.

 I had spent the first kilometer in lane 2 and I felt like putting some work in so I went to the lead and clicked off a bunch of 35s, bringing us through the mile in 4:46-7. At 2000m in 5:55-6, Ben resumed the lead and I didn't fight him for it. I tried to stay connected with him which got me to about 2400m before he put his head down and charged away for the eventual win. Losing contact with Ben, I tried to stay composed and push for home but there wasn't a lot there. I haven't done any work below race pace and now I was trying to run laps faster than I have in practice while fatigued, and it just wasn't going to happen. The 67-68s 400m speed-strength combo isn't there right now. With about 300 to go I got passed by Craig McMahon who clearly had that extra gear! I finished 3rd in 8:56, so about 3:00 for the final kilometer. Ben ran about 8:46-7 and Jose ran about 9:05. CMS guys Pat Rich ran 8:52-3 in the fast heat and Chris Mahoney finished just behind Jose in a close kick. Some of the masters guys had entertaining battles and I was pumped for Dave Dunham who ducked in well under 10:00. After the 3k heats I ran 5 miles steady around Fenway and back up Comm Ave to make it a solid 10.5+ on the day.

I'm glad to have race #1 out of the way. Every race after this will be a little more familiar and hopefully less stressful. Whirlaway has a team entering the 4xMile next weekend which should be really fun. I love team relays and especially ones on the track.

Friday, 12/19

Easy 6 miles including strides after work. 16 day stay-cation and enjoying the holidays begins now! BU Mini Meet #1 tomorrow

Thursday, 12/18

8.5 mi / 6:40 pace - with Matt Germain around 8pm. It was nice to have the company out there. Energy was very good.

Beforehand I did 90 push ups, 100 ab variations, and 30 chin-ups.