Weekly Log: October 24 to 30

Trying to catch up on the blog quickly!

Last week of the season not racing so wanted to get in a quality training week. Knee had other plans however as the damage had been done and I was just trying to make it through decent training without causing further injury.

Monday: 8 Miles- Charlestown, RI

Easy run at Ninigret, second half with Dad and Brady. My knee felt really bad on this one, just not enjoyable at all. I felt pretty good too but just can't enjoy that when there's a glaring issue with the body. This was definitely a wake up call- thinking it was nothing the prior day but this was a clear sign that I needed to figure it out ASAP. This is one of the huge downsides of the sport of running- feeling great one day and getting in quality work, the next day you're in a ton of pain and unsure if you need to shut things down. It was disappointing because I feel like I'm cautious about doing too hard of workouts and try to roll out and stretch enough to prevent things from getting tight, but sometimes you can just get injured anyway. I think the mistake I made on Saturday was waiting too long to eat after a tough, depleted effort and not rolling out/stretching after. Muscles too tight and body too depleted so it's extra strain on muscles which ended up hurting my knee. 

Fortunately, I had a little bit of experience with this. It's definitely a lot easier to get through injuries when you know what works. I had similar knee pain last November to January that I had to take some time off for. While that wouldn't work this time around, I had some strengthening exercises from last time I could use to try to get things better. It's a really slow process especially with the knee as it's not simply a tight muscle (can't just massage/roll) but does seem to work. It's definitely smart to take some time off to reduce pain but it's a risk as you're not training as hard and it's doesn't always work. A lot of times I feel easy running is better for injuries than time off. It's pretty disappointing to take some time off to help injuries only to come back and be in the same amount of pain. So the plan for this week was to run through the pain/soreness. I needed this to be a quality training week at least volume wise and my half marathon would definitely suffer if I took a few days off. That being said, you can't just ignore pain so workouts would be fit in where I felt comfortable and not straining.

Tuesday: 11 Miles- Charlestown, RI

Burlingame loop, out to Buckeye brook road then back with some roads and overlap. This was not an enjoyable run. I got into a bad habit of starting runs really late as I didn't have in-person work yet and this week and next had some stupidly warm days that made running late absolutely miserable. Close to 70s at the finish. Stopped at the vin gormley bridge and just felt terrible. I normally don't go into the water this late in the year but I was quite overheated. Knee also felt bad enough that it takes all the fun out of running- but very slight improvement each day so proceeding forward.

Wednesday: 12 Miles- Charlestown, RI

Road loop from the campground doing some campground roads, klondike-ross hill loop and then finishing with east-west beach. Another crappy run in the heat and knee discomfort. Also starting to feel flat/heavy from too many easy days.

Thursday: 12 Miles- Westerly, RI

9 Miles at 1PM

Tried a first workout. Wanted to go 8,6,4 minute tempos with half recoveries steady (6:30ish pace) for a good long-ish block. Knee wasn't especially bad on warm up and surprisingly didn't feel worse running hard. But my body felt like crap after too many easy days. 5:30s for maybe 6 minutes or so then just couldn't maintain pace at all fading to the 5:50s. Had to take a full rest too because I just felt exhausted. Wanted to switch it up after to still get some aerobic work in- thought I'd still do the 6 and 4 minutes but targeting 6:00 pace which should be manageable. Tried again- 6:03 pace for 4 minutes feeling horrendous. Just gave up and jogged home on empty. But glad the knee isn't completely awful.

3 miles at 6PM

Double to make up for missed mileage. Did some hard strides which felt weird in the dark and knee did not feel good- faster pace/higher cadence feels worse (more bending of the knee).

Friday: 10 Miles- Richmond, RI

Carolina road/trail loop. Knee discomfort there but not terrible. Decent weather. Such a nice place to run.

Saturday: 10 Miles- Foster, RI

3 miles of walking in morning at Grills trail race. Race seems pretty fun, cool trail community vibe. 

Next leg of NST with Andrew again. Similar to last week 80% roads. This time the trails were pretty lousy- just washed up dirt roads that were tougher with the leaf cover. Finished at Killingly Pond, the only part of the trail in CT. A really nice pond. Went in the water at the end which was quite cold.

Start at Foster Town Hall (not on trail but easy parking on weekend)

Finish at Killingly Pond

Sunday: 16 Miles- Charlestown, RI

Well, time to attempt a solid long run. Starting from Ninigret, went 6 miles out to Charlestown beach. Knee achy and uncomfortable but not painful. Goal was 12-10-8 minute tempos with half rest (similar to last week). Didn't actually split these so I don't know the paces. Maybe 5:30s-5:40s. Felt hard but not terrible. Knee didn't especially bad on the first one. Rest felt fine and then second one was hard starting uphill. Felt a lot flatter. Knee starting to strain a bit and hurt so I decided to stop after the 10 minutes. Second rep felt hard, especially as I put in a gel-water practice towards the end. I took a minute break. I was hoping to get in the third rep after a rest but the knee felt quite irritated just running easy back to the car. I got in a good stretch and it was feeling a lot better, so I finished it out. Felt pretty gassed and my knee did not feel at all, so not sure if it was worth it. It's a fine line between gaining fitness and getting injured so it's hard to know where to stop. I wanted to be done back at the car at 15, but needed 16 to get 80 so I finished it out, uncomfortably. 18 definitely wasn't happening, however. Difficulty: 4/5.

Weekly Mileage: 80 Miles

Weekly Highlight: Getting in 80 miles and a little bit of work despite the knee injury. In this case, something is definitely better than nothing (I was happy with the volume, but not happy with the workouts).

Weekly Lowlight: Irritated knee just making running not enjoyable.