Training Update

9/11 - Did Leg weights (Squats, bulgarians, deadlifts after leg curl and extension warm ups as well as core).  Then I took to the bike and pounded through 16.48miles in 52 minutes.  Legs felt fine throughout, and glad to see my fitness is maintaining if not improving (my speeds and wattage is increasing with decreasing perceived effort)

9/12 - Long bike ride - 28 miles in just under an hour and a half.  My speed was 0.5mph faster on average than the previous day.  Legs felt smoked afterwords, probably a build up from the leg work out yesterday - esp. glutes/hams

9/13 - Back workout (pull-ups, rows, plus biceps and core) followed by a 1 hour 20.50mile ride on the stationary bike.  A full 1 mph faster on average than on 9/12.

9/14, 9/15 - Took 2 rest days, legs were feeling a bit tired after a week of 105.35 miles, albeit on the bike. I continued to do my leg exercises (stretches, stair lifts) with minimal discomfort.  Was feeling good enough to run by 9/15 but thought better of it.  I am planning on 1 more week of strict bike, and look to do a short run on the weekend followed by a mix of run/bike the following week assuming my achilles twinge is gone.  From there I will slowly ramp up the running.

9/16 - Started with Chest, Shoulders and Triceps, followed by a 16.2 mile ride in 48:33 (20.05mph).  Felt good.  By the end of the day my abs were stiff as I had added a bit of weight to my leg lifts and decline curls.

9/17 - Long ride this morning of 30.64 miles in 1:33:02 (19.76mph) which was faster than my previous long rides with little change on perceived effort.  A sign I am getting stronger.

Last night I also finished Relentless Forward Progress (which I will review at some point this week).

I also breezed through Brendan Brazier's Thrive, which I picked up from the library (I was disappointed after much build up, will also review),

and next up are What I talk about when I talk about Running, also from the Library,

and Killian Jornet's book (very excited to read this).

I have also been watching a ton of Sage Canaday's videos and reading his blog, which you can find here. (sagecanaday.com)

Mentally Tough - Cod Liver Oil Workouts

Today, I rode the stationary for 1 hour 25 minutes, resulting in a 26ish mile ride.  During these rides, I have mainly been listening to podcasts, my favorites being Rich Roll and Talk Ultra.  Regardless,  I still find these rides difficult mentally and particularly boring.  I would much rather put in a 2 hour run, with nothing but the sounds of traffic and nature to get me through it.  As I have shared, I expect to be on that stupid bike for another 2-3 weeks at least and so I have taken the view point that these are part of the process of mentally toughening myself up for the 7-8 hours that I will be running during the 50-miler I am planning on debuting in Spring 2014.

I used to have a track/cross country coach back in the day that summarized these as "Cod Liver Oil workouts".  He gave me this expression one fine November afternoon back in the day.  Ok, so it was far from fine.  It was one of those days where there was a cold drizzle, in between bouts of rain, that soaked your clothes (this was before moisture wicking, though gortex was available, but was expensive) on a typically southern Ontario November day of somewhere between 5 and 10 degrees Celsius.  It was the kind of cold that you could feel constantly, that was almost numbing, and for a few hours afterwords, you had difficulty getting warm.  No amount of warm drinks, sweats and blankets would help on the drive home.

On this particular workout, he had us doing hill repeats.  As if the cold wasn't enough, we were included to run up a 10-20% hill about 600-800m in length.  Over and Over.  The only plus was this was on a sidewalk rather than grass, so our feet remained soaked, not drenched/water logged.  About a third of the way through, upon reaching the top, the coach shouted something about a "Cod Liver Oil Workout".  On the next repeat I asked him what this meant.  He explained that when he was a little boy, everyday in the fall and winter, his mother made him take his cod liver oil, that it tasted disgusting.  His point was that even though it tasted bad, it was meant to make you stronger, just like the hill repeats in the cold rain.

This is the view point that I am taking with these stupid stationary bike rides while I am injured.  Suck it up, because looking back, everything will seem glorious when compared to these darn workouts.

Lesson Learned

Well, the run yesterday was evidently a poor idea, even though it felt fine for much of it, if not great.  Today the feeling is back, not pain per say, but some soreness.  Back to rest and no running, probably at least 2 if not 4 weeks now, with my stretching and strengthening exercises.  Bummer.

Today's workout was a push upper body (chest, shoulders, triceps) along with some core work.  That was followed by a 40 minute stationary bike ride pushing me through a little over 12.5 miles.  All in all felt fine.  Stretched, strengthening exercises and ice afterwords.

Diet and nutrition is on track, with my continued gradually leaning up to get me ready for next spring. Energy levels remain high.  I will get into this a bit more as we go, but I moved to a 100% plant-based diet about 2 months ago, with the 4-6 months before that being probably 80-90% plant based.  Haven't looked back.  I am not a fan of the Vegan label, but people ask, and certainly I am on that trajectory.

Happy Trails.

Easy 5 miler

Beautiful day today,  start of fall is evident but 20ish degrees and sunny and the trail was calling.   I think my running shoes were whispering to me.   So I gave in.   I took an easy 5 miles with an average 8:40pace which is slower than my typical sub 7:50 pace,  depending on the run type.   I headed down the trail across the road which takes me down through so me switchbacks to the lake.   I did an out an back which had me huffing up the switchbacks on the return.   I then took the last mile through some soft single track.   Great to get out,  could feel my leg at times, but not really pain or aching. Icing my leg now,  but felt great to be out on the trail.

Tendonitis Improving

Returned from physio today, following a full treatment including acupuncture.  Physio was impressed with my rapid healing, gave me some additional strengthening exercises.  I am optimistic that I will be able to run in 7-10 days, as long as I continue on the same trajectory.  Early morning today was a pull workout (back, traps, biceps) with some core work, then an 18 mile stationary bike ride that took ~55mins.  Felt a small amount of fatigue in my quads at the beginning of the ride, but things went better after that.  Legs were likely recovering from the 28.40 mile ride yesterday that took 90 mins, plus the leg weights day from Wednesday.  Nevertheless, I feel like I am maintaining my fitness, but itching to get off the bike and onto a run.

Picked up a couple of books from Amazon, namely Relentless Forward Progress, as well as Kilian Jornet's book, Run or Die.

I will do a review once I have finished them both, but excited to get into them.  Also, I was looking at Stridebox - figured it could help keep me motivated through the pending cold months.

That's it for today.  Happy trails.

3 Ways to Avoid a Running Injury

Training update:
Achilles continues to heal well, virtually no pain/sensation this morning with first steps.  Headed to the gym to do a leg workout - Squats, Bulgarian Squats and Straight Legged Deadlifts followed by a 60ish minute ride on the stationary bike for ~19 miles.  Legs felt fine through the squats, with a little bit of sensation in my achilles.  Treatment continues with heat, stretching and ice as well as a follow-up physio/acupuncture treatment on Friday.  Plan is another week off of running, pending that appointment and hopefully back the week following.  If Friday goes well, I will start to get excited.


3 Ways to Avoid a Running Injury
These are all from personal experience as I have thought long and hard over what I have done to aggravate my leg, with no prior history of this type of injury.

1) Increase your mileage too quickly:  Apparently a no-brainer, but in my case I went from 50ish miles to 80 in virtually a week with Week 3 at the sustained mileage being when issues started up.  Probably a better increase would have been 10ish% which would be 5-10 miles per week.

2) Too much hill work, too quickly:  At the same time I increased my hill running to incorporate 800-1000m of vertical climb daily from a typical 200-300m vertical climb.  Plus I through in some hill repeats for good measure.  While this type of work is generally less strenuous than speed work, the incline of the hills likely caused additional stress/stretching of my calf/achilles.  Yes, I win the prize for intelligence.

3) Change your stride/shoes: Probably a better approach would be to phase each of these in over a 4-6 week cycle.  My life is about extremes, so why should running be different.  I changed shoes to a very lightweight and comfortable pair that had a drop of 4mm instead of my usual 8mm.  While this has improved my efficiency and mechanics, in addition to the drills and focussed approach I was taking, it also stressed my calves.  Which strained my achilles.

Hopefully the average runner can learn from my stupidity.  Though I will likely repeat this again, I am certainly more aware of the smaller causation type relationships to my training approach.  I will try to do better.  I will try to do better.  I will try to do better....

Cycling - Blech

Woke up today prepared to do my normal Monday push workout (Chest, Shoulders, Triceps, Core) because of the holiday yesterday, followed by a 45 minute cycle, but had to change plans when the opening shift at the gym was a no-show.   I left to go to a different gym and therefore only had time for a 40 minute cycle.

I chose a hill workout today, and banged through 13.3 miles in 42 minutes.  Legs felt fine throughout and had my HR north of 150 for a little while at the end of the workout.  Still can't get used to a saddle, can't wait to get back on the road (how many times can I say this?).

Rehab is still going fine, swelling is significantly decreased, and will plan on one more physio/acupuncture treatment, which should take me through the weekend and hopefully I can do a bit of easy running next week or the week following.

The point of today's post is, how do people ride the stationary bike for so long?  Mentally I find it very tough, even to get through 40 minutes.  There is a built in TV in the usual gym I go to, but I find that bland (especially at 4:30am).  I have taken to listening to podcasts (Talk Ultra is currently on good rotation (http://www.marathontalk.com/archive/talk_ultra.php).  I find this helps, but doesn't compare to my usual blissed out joy when I am outside running a 10 or 20 miler.  I hope that this helps me battle through the tough parts in the mid-late stages of an ultra distance race, but beyond that I don't see a purpose.

Any tips people have with getting through indoor workouts? I know it is a bit early for this, but winter is around the corner, and while I prefer to keep things outside, inevitably there will be a day that requires a treadmill session that I absolutely dread.

Rehab Update

Cycled for 45 mins yesterday clocking ~15 miles, at a fairly decent clip.  Didn't have my heart rate monitor on but the pace felt like a Zone 2 effort as I was pumping out 103+ revs/min with ~150 watt output.  Achilles felt fine after words.

Today I can feel it a little bit more than over the past few days.  Still continuing with heat, stretching and ice 3 times a day.  Walked around a bit with the family this morning before the rain came, and felt fine.  Plan for this week is 4-5 cycling sessions with 3 at 45ish mins and one at 75ish mins.  I will also try to get another physio/acupuncture treatment in this week, but it is pretty expensive.  I am hopeful that I will be back on the road in another 1-2 weeks.  I am trying to maintain my fitness that I had begun to build up.  Still a long way from where I want to be, but no real planned races until a 50k in April and a 50mi in May as part of the Ontario Ultra Series (http://www.ouser.org/index.html) which will be my first official foray into ultra distance races.  I am itching to get out and get on some trails to build up my trail experience, which has been severely lacking, more out of access than desire (closest trails of any decent length are 15-30 mins away from our house).

Nutrition is still going well.  I transitioned to 100%ish plant based diet about six weeks ago and I have had good positive effects (I will share more detail on this as we go).  Suffice it to say that I feel more energy, long runs had been great and I am slimming out a bit which is just great for the spring racing season.

Happy trails, stay tuned for more.

Injured - Achilles Tendonitis

Following a few great weeks of running post vacation, I am sitting out with a bum achilles. Last week I ran a couple of days, longest was about 8 miles, but in pain for much of it. I have been cycling at the gym two days a week, but Friday decided to visit a physio and get this thing checked out. Nothing was working, not foam rolling, self massage, stretching or any other witchcraft.

 The Physiotherapist confirmed achilles tendonitis on my right achilles with some fairly substantial medial swelling. Cause was a very tight and knotty calf muscle. She treated me with a combination of sonar, ultrasound, laser and acupuncture. The acupuncture involved some rapid insertion on my calf to work out the knot (effectively popping the balloon so to speak) then leaving the needles in place all over my calf and foot. Worked very well, and the twinge was mostly gone.

 The plan now is for heat, stretching and ice three times a day. It is day three and I am noticing improvement. Basically no running in the short term, though I will try to keep my fitness up with cycling on the stationary. I will likely take another physio treatment next week to continue the healing process. I am hopeful I can return to moderate running in 1-2 weeks so that I can continue to build my endurance base.

 Emotionally I am itching to get out there. Prior to the injury was running 70-80 miles a week, pacing was great and I was feeling strong most days. The base was coming along for next spring's ultra season (my first) and I was hopeful for a fall tune-up at a 10 mile + distance. In all likelihood I will have to forego this and focus instead on continuing to build my base as well as get some experience doing more trail running.

 I will share more here as we go through it. I plan on at least weekly or greater updates including diet, my background, some learnings, and just sharing my renewed love of the sport and push to ultra distance events.

Off to do my daily physio.