The Weekend

Oh how I love the weekends, but unfortunately this weekend is cut short with work and an injury not to mention the hour we lose from daylight savings time. Looking back at my training this week, if you take out the running, the week was very solid. Last Sunday I ran 16 miles and woke up Monday morning in pain. It was so bad that I couldn't walk without a limp. None the less instead of doing the obvious thing, I headed to the track Tuesday night for speed work. I made it three laps into the warm-up and said to myself, what am I doing? I pulled the plug on the workout and decided to give my foot another couple days off. The past two weeks I've been going to Physical Therapy and can't understand why my Achilles is not getting better. Thursday I decided to give my foot another go. I figured that if you don't count the little track run Tuesday night I actually took almost 4 days off. I ran about 45 minutes, but still the same. My foot didn't feel any worse, but it also didn't feel any better. It was time for me to ask my coach for help.

So here is my next plan to get this thing feeling better. Mark said, "Don't run for the next three days, get your therapy done on it, then do a short 20-30 minute run to test it out. If it feels good, then run about 1:20 on the 11th (if it is still feeling fine) but run it very slowly. Then if you still feel good the next day do your speed session that was on Tuesday, but only if it feels okay.
If you take three days off of running and it still doesn't come around, then start with some pool running for as long as it takes to be able to transition out onto the roads. This will take you far. Remember that Dina Caster won a medal in the marathon off of basically pool running."

This really gave me a peace of mind coming from Mark. I'm always worried that I'm going to lose fitness by skipping one or two workouts...but I really have to stop thinking that way. So the plan is to try a 20-30 minute run Monday or Tuesday and go from there!

I also start new therapy this Tuesday. We're going to try iontophoresis with dexamethasone sodium phosphate in my Achilles area and will see if that helps speed things up. We're still going keep doing the ultrasound to that area too. As you can see, there's a lot going on!

In other news, my swimming is starting to come around again. The past couple of weeks I've been doing some heavy lifting in the gym and I've been lucky to crack 1:30 / 100 yard splits lately. But Friday was a different story. For part of my main set I had to do 8x100's. I went pretty hard, but my splits were surprising. 1:20, 1:17, 1:15, 1:15, 1:16, 1:17, 1:16, 1:13. Yes that's right, a 1:13!!! I'd have to look, but that might be a PR for me. Yeah, yeah, yeah.....I know that that's still really slow in "swimming" standards, but when I was working hard to swim 1:25's a couple of months ago, knocking off another 12 seconds is a big deal don't you think?

The other bit of exciting news, is it's actually warm here in Pittsburgh! Now when I say warm, I mean above freezing! We have different definitions of "warm" here in the North East. :) Yesterday it was in the 40's and may have even reached the 50's. So Saturday morning began super early and I met two of my friends in North Park for a long morning ride. It was raining when I started, but after 20 minutes the rain broke, and the sky was dry the rest of the day. I only had a 4 hour ride, but by the time the ride was over, I had in over 4 1/2 hours! Best part was I felt good the entire morning. I was worried that by all of this trainer riding, that it would not translate into good riding outside, but boy was I wrong. Matt and I actually time-trialed the last 10 miles....or what felt like 10 miles.

So in summary, it's Sunday morning, and I can't run. I have to stick to Mark's plan and take another couple days off. Having injuries in the past, I have learned that "rest" is the ultimate healer. Let's cross our fingers and hope that another couple of days off will do just what the doctor ordered!

So this afternoon, I have to drive to Washington DC for a dinner meeting tonight and a work meeting tomorrow. I'm actually a little nervous about it. I have to give a presentation, granted it's only like 5 minutes...but it's in-front of 40 or so industry executives and at least 15 NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) executives and branch chiefs. Mark Twain said it best, "There are two types of speakers: those that are nervous and those that are liars". I'm sure it won't be too bad. Wish me luck!