Time Off....

Well, I am officially taking a week off from running. My last run was last Thursday morning. I have been ignoring my hip now for about a month thinking that ice would magically heal the problem (bursitis I believe as it mostly hurts after the run on the side to partially back of the hip at the top of the IT band). However, it is not getting better (well it wasn't until I stopped running...it has been feeling a lot better through the weekend!). It seemed to hurt more after a hard workout on the pavement, although it is still generally sore after easy ones as well. The groin issue is still there; it just appears and goes away...really just a bit nagging rather than truly acute. So, I am taking a bit of time off while there is still snow on the ground. Bummer as I had a great MAF block that resulted in some steady efficiency improvement.

I am thinking that these two issues got a bit worse when I switched down to the racing flats and really started after I hit 300 miles on the the Precision 10's. So, I have ordered a pair of Elixir 5's which are still very light (under 10oz), but have a bit more stability to them than the Precisions and certainly the Ronin's.

Time to reset a bit...maybe time to reset expectations and plans for the year as well? We will see.

Thursday - 2-11-2010

More progress today; took another minute off of my MAF 5-mile test. Final two miles were exactly at 9:00min miles, decent progress over last week. Funny, I did not expect much from today since I had two days of fairly hard workouts that left my hip and inner thigh sore. But, felt great overall today and the pace was just faster. I did have an un-interrupted night of sleep last night; I did still get up by about 5:20am to bang out some work. 

Ran the same loop in a total time of 43.45 for a pace of 8:48 for the entire run with an average HR of 144 for the entire run.

Here is the progression again:

Week #1 9:14

Week #2 9:09

Week #3 8:54 / 44:43 

Week #4 8:48 / 43:45 (today)

I will be moving back to the HR-based training from RW that I was following before embarking on this 4-week block. We will see...

Details here....

2-4-2010 - MAF

Crappy run today. Started with an erratic HR for some reason, first mile under 9, 2nd mile around 8:24 and then things went downhill from here. Not a great night of sleep last night and took a day off yesterday. So, the problem is either lack of sleep or a day off...answer should be obvious, but I do seem to run better when I run more.

45:41 for the 5 mile course...9:08 pace

Garmin Connect -Activity Details

Tuesday 2-2-2010 tempo today

Did about a 7 mile tempo today after a 5 mile MAF yesterday and an 11 miler on Sunday. Kept the HR around 160 or under for the most of the run...took about 2 miles to get the HR in range. Through this I noticed that my splits were in the mid-sevens...for entire run. I never slowed even with the long stretch up 104th with a slight headwind. Definite progress over the last few weeks. I did this exact same run about 2 weeks ago but average around 8:20 for the run whereas today I averaged 7:36 overall with a average HR of 156 for the whole run. Thanks Lucho! Now, like Zack; I just need to stay healthy and add distance for the next few weeks.

Mizuno Ronin flats are working out great even on the long run on Sunday. Love the lack of heal and the close to the ground feel. These are definitely keeping the form honest. Strangely enough I am not feeling as beat up after my runs with these things most because I think my form is a lot better in them. I did feel a bit of an IT twinge on the right side which is typical for me in these longer runs. This will improve as I am able to hold form longer and longer into these runs. This is why I am adding mileage slowly this year.

Average MAF pace over the last three weeks:

#1 9:14

#2 9:09

#3 8:54 / 44:43 

Activity Details for Untitled