It really took more than 2 months to feel normal after my injury but I believe I am truly back. The only lasting effects as of now are some numbness along the top off my right thigh and a lump of firmer tissue (? scar tissue) in the same location, right over my quad.
Functionally, I don’t have any pain while running anymore. I am absolutely more grateful every single time I go out for a run without pain or limitation.
And for whatever reason, I have been feeling really GOOD. The last time I’ve run sub-9-minute miles and felt truly comfortable was definitely pre-kids. (AKA: A LONG TIME AGO). I haven’t done speedwork in nearly 3 months but have seen my easy/moderate pace pick up. I will say that some of this IS temperature related – it is SO MUCH EASIER to run when it isn’t steamy hot out!
Weekly Workouts:
Well, this was the best weather week we’ve had that I can remember. WOW.
M: New Year’s Day run in Miami Beach! IN 55 DEGREE WEATHER. 7 mi @ 8:54/mi.
T: 7 mi @ 9:20/mi ave w 4 x 20s strides. COOL weather again. 30 min 2023 Countdown Lower Body (Jess Sims)
W: 7 mi with running group, 9:00/mi pace. Gorgeous weather.
R: 7 mi with 4 x 20s strides, average 8:42/mi. COOL weather AGAIN felt amazing. 30 min 2023 Countdown Upper Body (Rad Lopez)
F: Peloton ride – 50 min total. All Emma Lovewell classes — 30 min 2023 Countdown Ride / 15 min 2010s / 5 min cooldown, ~13.6 mi total
S: 14 mi long run at easy-to-moderate pace. Super happy that this turned out to be a steady ~8:45 (for comparison, I raced a half marathon in 2/2023 at ~8:58/mi pace with high effort). I was wearing AlphaFlys (just felt like breaking them out and seeing how they felt!) which probably helped me along, but our gorgeous weather was gone (was 71F/83% humidity – which is amazing here in July but not really in January).
I did take one ~2 min break around mile 7 for water/gel (I took gels without water and without stopping at miles 3.5 and 10.5. I use Gu Liquid Endurance so they’re doable sans fluid).
The last mile felt a little bit hard but otherwise I felt really good during + after! I wanted to make Sunday a full rest day so got in 30 min full body strength (Callie / 2023 Countdown Series) at around 5 pm.
S: Will be yoga / barre chill stretchy stuff for recovery
Total: 42 mi run / 13 mi cycle / 90 min strength (3 workouts) <– yay for 3 strength workouts, that part is so much harder for me than the miles!
Note: I am on strava and Peloton as theSHUbox !
10 Comments
I think it goes to show that – even though you didn’t get to race this time – you can feel confident that you gained a ton of fitness during your last training cycle. It’s not hot, you’re more rested than you were during peak training, and you are very fit. It’s rewarding/a relief to see it finally come together (at least that’s true when it happens for me!). That’s pretty much what happened for me when I did that hilly run in Mt. Dora a few weeks ago. I was recovered from Chicago but not training super hard and I just felt really *good*.
yes!! Something great about actually being rested and not in the throes of training actually feels REALLY good. I guess the one sort-of silver lining to my injury. Let’s hope i get to the starting line of a race soon! Planning to do A1A in mid Feb!
Whoa you’re getting so fast!! As you know I ran a few runs around that pace recently, but only 3 miles and it was definitely a more “workout”/challenging pace for me! I cannot imagine even running 14 miles right now and especially not at that pace!! So awesome.
My first week of 2024 workouts = 0. Hahaha. (Ok unless you count hiking up a volcano, I guess). Debating working out today but it’s our first full day home and I’m mostly tired and have tons of stuff I want/need to do before back to work tomorrow. Thinking maybe just a good outdoor walk today and then hit the ground running tomorrow for a new year’s routine? (which is hopefully going to include MORNING workouts instead of my usual evenings…. send me luck and good vibes and any tips.) Though it’s supposed to be cold and snow a bunch this week which is not likely to help me out. 😩.
I’m so excited for you to try morning workouts! I am invested in this !!!!!
I’m so glad you are feeling pretty much back to normal! What a relief. And I am glad you had some cooler weather for a change. I hope you get another bout of cooler weather. It makes such a huge difference in how hard runs feel!
I actually had a pretty good week of workouts for a change. I left work a bit early on Thursday to do a 3/12/30 workout which is something Elisabeth has been doing. It’s 30 minutes in a treadmill at a 12% incline at 3mph. I hate hate hate running on a treadmill so this is more tolerable for me. I am going to try to do this once/week. Hopefully work stays manageable so I can leave 30 min early one day/week. And then I did Caroline Girvan workouts. I had early meetings on Friday – normally I would workout in the morning on Friday since it’s a WFH day but I was proud of myself for doing it at the end of the work day. I can get in a mind set about when workouts should happen but am trying to be more flexible about that.
We got home from holiday and realised we had Covid, so our plans were disrupted. (MIL opted to cancel their trip, very understandably). But I have a low-stakes streak goal of logging a Strava activity every day in 2024, and luckily live on a golf course (which is wholly wasted on us) so we’ve been able to head out for some short little walks for fresh air.
Looking forward to heading back to yoga this week.
Do you think that lump might be residual hematoma? I wonder what would happen if you massaged it… if it might get smaller over time.
You are super fast! I ran *one* mile at sub-9 min pace last month, and am shooting for running around 10 miles per week. I just don’t know if I can do more without risking injury. Still trying to do some sort of workout most days though!
The cool weather is a game changer, I’m so jealous! 🙂
do you take gel every 3.5 miles? the coach suggests 300-400 kcal per hour, I don’t know how I can do that as I take one gel every 3-4 miles too. What do you do before/during run to get the fuel?
I do one gel every 3.5 mi so that’s about 200 kcal/hr
If I were racing would do more
I do like half a bagel with jam before nothing crazy , regular mornings I do 2 graham cracker sheets a la Meaghan featherstun!
So happy to hear you feel fully recovered and ready for the next training cycle. Great paces!!