Week of Redemption

In the spirit of Easter, I thought I'd share an injury update and how I've recovered from it. Few are the training cycles during which one doesn't encounter some sort of injury. During the build-up to Philly, I was able to avoid serious injury, although I was battling a sore plantar for a couple weeks. This time around, I have not been as fortunate. As I warned in my last post, I had aggravated a mild injury (tibialis anterior tenosynovitis for you medical jockeys) during the New Bedford half and it was throbbing by the time I got home. I had raced against my better judgment and now I was paying for the PR!

During the following week, I laid a big goose egg in the running department. As you can see from the graph, I haven't done this in over a year.

3/17-23
Mon: 30 min. core work; irritated tendon
Tue: 45 min. stationary bike (14 miles); good workout and no pain.
Thu: 45 min. elliptical; tendon still inflamed.
Sat & Sun: rested.
Total: 0 miles

This injury is a familiar foe, as it popped up just before New Bedford last year. Anyone else ever experienced injury deja vu? Fortunately for me, the tendon stopped protesting by the beginning of this week, just in time for me to get one more quality week in before tapering. Rationally, this rest week was probably a good thing, but I had to convince the irrational demons in my head that my fitness would still be there. Here's a quick summary of the most recent week:

3/24-30
Mon: 1 hr elliptical, 30 min. core work; great workout and no pain
Tue: 11.2 miles, including 2x4x800 @ 5:32/mile, best interval workout in a long time
Wed: 30 min. elliptical, 30 min. core work
Thu: 10.5 miles @ 7:37; energizing trail run, no problems with the tendon
Fri: off
Sat: 6 miles, including 5 @ 6:03; solid tempo effort
Sun: 22.7 miles @ 6:45, didn't plan on doing a 22 miler at marathon pace, but that's what happened. More below.
Total: 50.4 miles

Now you understand why I titled this blog entry "Week of Redemption." After not running for more than a week, I came back with a vengeance and had 3 really solid workouts. I cranked out my best interval workout in 3 months and then followed that with a solid tempo effort at the weekly Fresh Pond 5 Miler. I'd be lying to you if I said I planned on doing 6:03 miles, but after the 1st 2.5 mile loop, I found the pace comfortable and decided to pick it up slightly. Hard to believe I missed my PR by 23 seconds on a tempo run. However, this was only a preview of what was to come on Sunday. I think my log entry will suffice:

Crewed Dead Runner's Society run

Beautiful day for a long run. Lots of other marathoner's doing their long runs. Ran in a well organized pack with BAA guys (Josh, Mike, Pat, Chris, and John). Felt comfortable for the 1st 6 miles. Had to concentrate a little harder from mile 6-10 to keep up, then hit a nice 2nd wind from Natick to the Wellesley downhill. Still holding pace pretty well over the 1st hill after the firehouse, but really cracking on Heartbreak. Only later did I realize it was because the guys were dropping the hammer (some 6:15s i think) over the hills, while I was probably just holding pace. It was nice with all the well-stocked aid cars! Can't believe I was only seconds off Philly marathon pace. Probably should add about 10 minutes for water stops, but still a ridiculously fast run. Didn't feel completely thrashed after the run, but tomorrow will be a light day. Is this a sign of things to come?

Splits:
7:11, 6:59, 6:43, 6:48, 6:54, 6:40, 6:45, 6:41, 6:33, 6:46, 6:54, 6:40, 6:41, 6:52, 6:50, 6:38, 6:42, 6:47, 6:29, 6:15, 6:16, 6:25, 6:44 pace for .7mi

Alright, time to taper, folks!