Monday: rest. Went to physio and had some intense needlework done on tibialis anterior. It's pretty much locked up - and this is causing the tendonitis and the peg-leg running style. Feel better in the knowledge that something can be done about this...
Tuesday: 9.6km easy 4:38 pace HR 158 Ca 85 20° 93% WSW11/15. The good news is that the leg felt a little easier today. The bad news is that the HR is still bad. I felt almost 100% this morning before heading out - didn't feel too too bad and it never got like it was a real struggle, but at times getting oxygen was a little difficult - which is crazy because 10 days ago I was going 35 sec/km quicker for the same HR. After cooling down I have started to feel a little light headed and a bit spaced out. There's definitely something in my system that's causing things to go a little haywire when the body is a bit stressed. Will go see a GP and order some blood tests just to be sure ... it's time for my bi-yearly anyway.
Tuesday pm: Blood drawn into massive syringe and placed in vials to go to lab. Intervals is more fun, but alas, not today.
Wednesday: Went for hour bike ride to KP and back ; average HR (94) was good and felt OK going up Poole Ave where the HR peaked at 144 - usually in the high 130's so not too bad. Tyres were a bit flat ( metaphorically and physically ) which may also count for a bit extra. Maybe rode a fraction slower than in the past - Sas has a cold and was feeling a little under the weather too, and we were being cautious as it was raining.
Thursday: 18.3km @ 4:19 HR 161 10° 96% E4/9. Ran Mends St to UWA with a loop of the park, down Malcolm and back to Mends St. with Sas and E. Finally some good news ... the HR today was still high but I felt very comfortable for the whole run. Best I've felt for a couple of weeks. I never felt the effort was that great and was extremely conversational (annoyingly so, probably) the whole way. Breathing never got tough, I could feel the leg, but as a minor niggle, and I felt it was making a contribution rather than being a dead weight. I was loving being out on such a beautiful morning and we were really cracking along - conditions don't get much better than this! On another note, Sas pointed out that when overtrained the HR recovery graph on downhills etc. isn't as deep but the peaks are around the same as the normal state which results in elevated average HR. My graphs have been almost exactly parallel, only 20 beats higher which is further evidence for the virus theory. Today the average was only 10-12 higher than I would normally expect. Today I can be positive without it being a sham :-)
Friday: 12k @ 4:45 HR 148 Ca85 15° 75% ESE13/24. Ran the Maylands loop with Sandgroper ; lovely morning for it. Not a bad run, but not a great one either. Felt the Tib Ant more today than yesterday and felt a little depleted and heavy legged. God forbid it was the disgusting Mocha 'Up and go' that made me feel so good (yet a little nauseous) yesterday - I'll have to try again on Saturday's LR. HR was fine at first with an avg 140 for the first 4k but up to 150 for the second and 155 for the third with a slight increase in speed. Nutrition yesterday wasn't the best with a late high protein meal after Kim's 3k TT at Coker Park. Massage later with KD. Below is a HR graph comparing with the same run on Feb 4.
Update: got my test results back ; the iron markers (except transferrin) have dropped a bit since last April:
Serum Iron: 12 µmol/L (19)
Transferrin: 34 µmol/L (30)
Saturation: 18% (32%)
Ferritin: 44µg/L (53)
Maybe it's time to start taking a supplement...
Saturday: 30.45km @ 4:39 HR 154 Ca 86 20° 59% SE19/24. Ran from Zamia to City Beach via the Causeway and a loop in King's Park (map) with Sandgroper, Biscuitman, Sas (and E for the first 10). Felt pretty good on this one although it took a while to warm into it and get my leg to settle down. Felt a little nauseous for the first 10k or so but soon felt better. I felt I ran pretty strongly and definitely an improvement. The pace was pretty good and we kept it going well up some decent hills. HR was still high but I guess the good thing is that I felt stronger and didn't really fatigue even at the end. Not where I want to be just yet but better than a week ago! I'm confident of doing a decent tempo on Monday - it'll be interesting to see how that turns out. Finished up with some refueling and a bit of a wade in the surf which was great for the legs, follwed by a good brekkie at the Mediterraneo cafe with the gang - Kim brought the Zoe the Bernese Mountain Dog along as well which was fun for all :-)
Gratuitous picture:
Sunday: 8.31km recovery @4:58 HR 148 Ca 84 24° 66% N9/19. Easy loop from E.Perth to Causeway including a loop of (the north side of) Heirisson Island. Warm and humid, had tendonitis pain for the whole thing which made a nice short loop seem to take forever. Funny thing, as I write this I can barely feel it at all. Nice coffee afterwards though made up for it.
In summary, a fairly average 79km week but the Thursday and Saturday effort provided a bit of encouragement. Still having issues with the TA but it's up and down and apart from that the legs actually feel pretty good and my energy levels are pretty good. I think I tend to have worse runs HR-wise when the leg is painfull. Both Sas and Sandgroper are also going through their own trials which hopefully we can all bust out of next week.
3 comments:
Hope all is well!
Sugar, great news re the needling, have had acupuncture before on the calf and it was great. All the best re the blood test and that you are back on track quickly.
Hope you are on the mend now.
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