Celebrate the small victories. That is my plan. On Monday I was able to run 18M with Kim. Heel cups worked to alleviate the pressure on my heel bursa and I felt pretty good. Not 100% but truly much better that after any other long run since this bursa has been aggravated. However, none of these long run are anywhere near the paces I hope to be running at this point in my training. Just being able to run 18M is a victory at any pace. I will celebrate that. I have been trying to figure out if I trust the STRYD Pod for weeks now. Today I turned it off and let it quietly collect data while I allowed the actual GPS on my super expensive GPS watch collect my distance and pace data ... the exact reason I bought the super expensive watch for. When I got home, I took off my shoes and realized my pod was gone. My heart sunk. Oh no! After weeks of wondering if this thing was worth it's weight in anything.... I was sad it was gone. I pulled up my STYRD app to see when it stopped recording while I ran those 18M at the beach 45 minutes away from my house... and it was all there. Hopeful, I headed out to my truck to find it sitting on the floorboard. Another small victory! I immediately knew that I would miss using the pod in the treadmill because that was the one place I felt like it has value for me. Immediately I removed it completely from my shoe and decided it will live out its life as my treadmill odometer and we both will be very happy this way. I met Dave on Tuesdays for hills. Today was the Spring Climb repeat workout. But I was worried about my heel. I wore my heel cups in my Saucony Endorphin Pros because that is what I used on Monday and I felt good, Oh no... do not try to climb a super steep hill with heel cups in your shoes. My feet were falling out of my shoes. Completely out the back. I contemplated just stopping half way up and pulling those cups out but it was only .1M and I was half way up... As soon as I hit lap to turn back, my feet settled back into my shoes and I all was well... until I started heading down hill and realized my toes were not jammed so far into the toe box that my big toe pretty much blew up before I hit the halfway point. Ugh. This workout is 5 x 2 up and downs... 10 repeats but we only take a short rest after running two complete cycles. I chose to just continue on until the first break and then I would fix my heel cup issue. Once I removed them, I felt better. Running felt good. Still not 100% but I didn't feel like I was being held back from pushing myself. At the end of the 4th set, an older gentleman was walking along the bottom of the hill. Dave just flew into the finish and I was trying my best to run fast on the descent. The man made a joke by holding out his cane across his body as if to brace himself from the impending imaginary collision. When I stopped I said to him.... "Two to go! When I'm done I may need that cane more than you do"... He laughed and then provided a complement saying "You two are in good shape." As we headed up the hill, I commended to Dave about how kind this man was to complement us on being fit when he is out walking with a cane. Many people who struggle don't have the capacity to be supportive to others who are doing things they can't do themselves. Many can. But many just can't. As I finished my 10th repeat, I went to find my heel cups that I had tossed along grass on the shoulder.... I found them neatly stacked side by side on top of a rock near where I tossed them. This man had also organized my things for me. Again I commented to Dave about this stranger to use was such a wonderful human being. We need more people like him in this world. I hope we see him again! In addition to feeling inspired to be a better person through the kindness of a stranger, I also learned that one of climbs was my fastest yet! I can't complain about my heel or my toes when I am still manage to get faster at this really hard workout. More small victories. I can focus on what is wrong... or what is going well. I have the choice.
One thing I am struggling with, besides the bursa, is fitting in all my strength training. I prefer to do 3 session per week but I aim to do them on the same day as hard workouts. This means Tuesday, Thursdays, and Saturday/Sunday depending on which day I run harder. But Tuesdays are long day for me. Often I don't get home until 8:30 pm or later... The last thing I want to do is lift weights for an hour and then get to bed late than I aim to while aimed up with adrenaline. I have been opting to skip it. I thought about trying to lift Wednesday morning instead... I tried it this week and I could tell that my legs were still tired by Thursday's speed day. I may just need to settle on two hard strength sessions per week and one extra when time allows. It didn't really matter that my leg were tired. I met Dave for our interval work and after a 2 mile warm up we were devastated to find that all the bathrooms were locked. There are three sets and all of them locked for the first time in forever since I have been training here. If we had more time to seek out alternatives we would have gone somewhere else but we just both decided it was easier if we both head back home (me to mind, he to his) so that he could beat traffic and just run solo as much as possible from his house before work. He is tight on time in Thursdays. This was a big disappointment. I hope next week they are open. I decided that my legs were tired from strength training and my bursa was not feeling awesome so rather than do speed work solo, I took a rest day and ran an easy 6 with Sid. Because I essentially rested yesterday, I felt great when I met Alanna. She had a triathlon on Saturday so we kept it short. It was a beautiful day and it was nice to not rush. At this point, I was hopeful that I would get my 20M LR in this weekend. I was trying to take it easy and it felt like it was working. I wore heel cups in my shoes at work. I was careful to not irritate the bursa when I could avoid it. I chose my shoes carefully. I got a pair of Brooks Ghost that helped off-load pressure on my achilles. I felt good by Saturday. I decided to run 5 before work and I just felt like running was easy again. It was nice to see a sub-8 minute last mile that didn't feel like I was racing. But this workout was cleary "too much too soon" for my bursa. By Sunday morning, everything was back to being just a little too sore for my comfort level. I could run. I know this. I most likely would be fine... but why push it. I struggled with this but I made the decision to rest completely so that maybe tomorrow I can get my 20 done.
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Shannon McGinn, JD, MS, MA, EDS, NBC-HWC, ATR-BC, LPAT.
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