A Runners log : Patience and Consistency

tunguska

aero2k wrote: »

Ah, we knew to pick a log where we'd get a good welcome.

Going back to some of the earlier banter, tunguska probably knows this but Alberto Salazar survived a heart attack in 2007 aged 48. He also had a serious drop in performance which Tim Noakes discusses in depth in "Lore of Running" in his chapter on overtraining. There's a lot of good stuff in that chapter.

I did know that aero. After Boston his times went backwards and he lost himself big time. I mean at the 1984 olympics, where the gold medal was his by divine right, he stuggled home in 15th place. Even Pete pfztinger beat him!! That mustve been humiliating for him. If you look at the clip on youtube of the 1984 olympic marathon of him finishing he just looks embaressed. He tried everything to find answers for his dip in performance but nothing worked. But eventually he did find an answer and it was bizzare: Prozac. Apparently a doctor friend of his had the same problem, was a great runner one day and literally the next he was shot to hell. He discovered that prozac restored hormonal balance in the body, hormones that had been knocked out of whack by extreme overtraining. By this satge though Zalazar was 40 years old and his career gone. Sad stuff.

Seres

Saturday 9th Oct

Stretching & Nothing else

Sunday 10th Oct


was told by my physio could do 4 miles today so selected the 4 mile terry fox run in Ballina , im sure thats not what she had in mind but i was dying to do a race !
Did it in 26:03 : 6.20/6.44/6.23/6.19

Not too bad i suppose , was expecting worse , could have pushed myself more but stuck on the side of caution , checked my time last year , 3 sec faster this year , same female placement and came after the very same person too , overall
could feel the back and hamstring at me during race , did loads of stretching and icing , so not too bad today ( monday )
hope can start doin a bit of speed soon , short slow runs are driving me a bit daft

tunguska

Seres wrote: »

Saturday 9th Oct

Stretching & Nothing else

Sunday 10th Oct


was told by my physio could do 4 miles today so selected the 4 mile terry fox run in Ballina , im sure thats not what she had in mind but i was dying to do a race !
Did it in 26:03 : 6.20/6.44/6.23/6.19

Not too bad i suppose , was expecting worse , could have pushed myself more but stuck on the side of caution , checked my time last year , 3 sec faster this year , same female placement and came after the very same person too , overall
could feel the back and hamstring at me during race , did loads of stretching and icing , so not too bad today ( monday )
hope can start doin a bit of speed soon , short slow runs are driving me a bit daft

Great stuff Sarah, thats a great comeback performance you knocked out there. Probably did the wise thing and just went for it instead of a big dramatic build up for weeks before hand.

Seres

tunguska wrote: »

Great stuff Sarah, thats a great comeback performance you knocked out there. Probably did the wise thing and just went for it instead of a big dramatic build up for weeks before hand.

thanks , paid a bit the followin day but feck it , really want to get back training properly , see now they are havin pacers for waterford half , really want to do it .
How you managing the taper , you behaving ?, no crazyassed sessions from now till race day i hope ?!

Monday 11th Oct

Pilates : could feel yesterdays race on the hamstring and lower back !

tunguska

Seres wrote: »

thanks , paid a bit the followin day but feck it , really want to get back training properly , see now they are havin pacers for waterford half , really want to do it .
How you managing the taper , you behaving ?, no crazyassed sessions from now till race day i hope ?!

Monday 11th Oct

Pilates : could feel yesterdays race on the hamstring and lower back !

Theres a fierce amount of pilates being performed on this log. You must have a core of iron at this stage, contorting yourself this way and that. Although I'll admit I know feck all about it, so I could be mixing up pilates with the hokey pokey.........

Anyway Im not gonna lie to you seres, the taper hasnt been completely devoid of unusual and mad experimental behaviour. Sunday being the case in point, made sure to kill off any extra energy I mightve been carrying around. But it should be smooth sailing from here til the 25th........

Is the waterford half John Treacy's race? I'd do it just in the hopes of stalking meeting the great man himself.

Seres

tunguska wrote: »

Theres a fierce amount of pilates being performed on this log. You must have a core of iron at this stage, contorting yourself this way and that. Although I'll admit I know feck all about it, so I could be mixing up pilates with the hokey pokey.........

Anyway Im not gonna lie to you seres, the taper hasnt been completely devoid of unusual and mad experimental behaviour. Sunday being the case in point, made sure to kill off any extra energy I mightve been carrying around. But it should be smooth sailing from here til the 25th........

Is the waterford half John Treacy's race? I'd do it just in the hopes of stalking meeting the great man himself.

thats what it advertises on all the pamphlets although my core still seems to be flab central , my prison sentence for bad training habits is a 12 week pilates course , every monday evening .
No its not the John treacy HM , not a great time of the year to have it , if the weather is nice it should be really enjoyable ( as HMs get ??!) , need to try and do it , feel ive had no closure on my summer training they have pacers too , not for speed demons like you though !


Tuesday 12th Oct

4km jog & Stretching

shotgunmcos

Seres wrote: »

thats what it advertises on all the pamphlets although my core still seems to be flab central , my prison sentence for bad training habits is a 12 week pilates course ,

Hey that'll do the trick and after a couple of weeks it won't feel like a prison sentence. I used to do Pilates and now do Yoga but always feel brill after either

If you are running the Waterford I reckon I'll pb easily pacing off you

Seres

shotgunmcos wrote: »

Hey that'll do the trick and after a couple of weeks it won't feel like a prison sentence. I used to do Pilates and now do Yoga but always feel brill after either

If you are running the Waterford I reckon I'll pb easily pacing off you

hey shotgunmcos , ya the pilates isnt that bad , its just that i like to do everything fast and pilates is sloooow and controlled , you doin the half ?
dont be bankin on me to pull ya over sub three , injured of late so progress is in the reverse at moment , think there will be pacers for sub 90 and up , sure that time will be no prob to you anyway


Wednesday 13th

5km Run @ lunch , lower back bothering me less but Hamstring is still tightening up during run , god i wish this blood thing would just pass , sorry excuse the outburst

Seres

Thursday 14th Oct

6km run in 30 min : nothing really till 2.5km , feel ok since , no after affects

Seres

Friday 15th Oct

Rest day

Saturday 16th Oct

4 miles 32 mins & stretching

hamstring was quite tight from early on , which also was the case for the piriformis stretching afterwards , thought id be well back to normal by now , very disheartening , progress very slow , dont know if im getting out of the running anything i want at the moment , runs consists of controlling the pace and analysis to a pulp the progression of the pain for the duration of the run , actually felt more stressed after the above session than before , will go back to physio next week and based on what she says may take 10 days or so off , running free

tunguska

Seres wrote: »

Friday 15th Oct

Rest day

Saturday 16th Oct

4 miles 32 mins & stretching

hamstring was quite tight from early on , which also was the case for the piriformis stretching afterwards , thought id be well back to normal by now , very disheartening , progress very slow , dont know if im getting out of the running anything i want at the moment , runs consists of controlling the pace and analysis to a pulp the progression of the pain for the duration of the run , actually felt more stressed after the above session than before , will go back to physio next week and based on what she says may take 10 days or so off , running free

Have you had yourself checked for fallen arches? Be worth asking your phsyio to look at it for you. Its a simple visual test that can be done very quickly.

Seres

tunguska wrote: »

Have you had yourself checked for fallen arches? Be worth asking your phsyio to look at it for you. Its a simple visual test that can be done very quickly.

whats that ?

monday 18th

pilates and 2km run : not goin to comment on pain journey durin run , pointless !

Seres

tuesday 19th oct

swim : 1250m

wedneday 20th oct

2 mile run : no improvement

Seres

Wednesday night 20th Oct

1100m swim ; 40 FC & 4 BS

Seres

Thursday

5.5km run & stretching ; Back to physio today hoping she'll help dort the problem

Seres

havent posted in a while the old weekend didnt go the best , finding it hard to have any consistency to my training without a program and having to decide what i will do on the day rather than any plan because of my lower back complaint
so anyway

Friday & Saturday : nothing , did go and see the physio and she reckons things have improved alot even though i feel at a standstill for the last few weeks , she said it will be slow to recover , 'take from now till after xmas as a recovery period 'she said , well ive signed up for the fields of athenry , will be well pi$$ed off if i cant do this , dont expect the preformance to be that hot but i do expect to take part , its been nearly two months already since this has started .

Sunday : 4 miles 32 min , stretching

Monday : nothing , sunday run was a bit too much , back was bothering me a bit , think its slightly inflamed again

Tuesday : 30min slow and 1500m in pool , stretching and core work

think i overdid it tuesday with core (not that i did much at at really! ) so will do a very short run or skip it and do a swim depending on how i feel later

Seres

wednesday 27th oct

4km run on threadmill , stretching and a bit of core : swim was not an option today afterall , i hate to admit it but i think running on the threadmill is better than the road at the moment , think it must be the hardness and the unevenness that make the back pain worse

aero2k

Hi Seres,

Sorry to hear you're still in the wars. Just keep your log title in mind!

Also, there is plenty of inspiration to be gained from all the DCM stories on here; many others managed to overcome illness and injury to achieve their dreams. It's only a matter of time for you, though I know it's not easy being patient....

Seres

aero2k wrote: »

Hi Seres,

Sorry to hear you're still in the wars. Just keep your log title in mind!

Also, there is plenty of inspiration to be gained from all the DCM stories on here; many others managed to overcome illness and injury to achieve their dreams. It's only a matter of time for you, though I know it's not easy being patient....

god that title is really coming back to haunt me , didnt think my patience would be tested this much !

tunguska

Dublin marathon next year?? Just thought Id open a can of worms.........

RacoonQueen

Seres wrote: »

wednesday 27th oct

4km run on threadmill , stretching and a bit of core : swim was not an option today afterall , i hate to admit it but i think running on the threadmill is better than the road at the moment , think it must be the hardness and the unevenness that make the back pain worse

Sorry to hear it's still not going to plan for you Seres. What are your thoughts on Waterford half now? Is it out?

Seres

tunguska wrote: »

Dublin marathon next year?? Just thought Id open a can of worms.........

will make my decision on that once ive read all the dcm 2010 race reports , think there are some still missing tunguska !

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Sorry to hear it's still not going to plan for you Seres. What are your thoughts on Waterford half now? Is it out?

ya, sure is RQ , all and any plans are well and truely out the window , kinda just a waiting game now

today : 1250m swim & stretching

tunguska

Sorry to hear the woes still continue. Must be a pisser reading all the race reports from DCM(One in particular posted at 20:23 last night, was a gripping and wildly entertaining tale:)).
Are you still on for Athenry?

Seres

tunguska wrote: »

Sorry to hear the woes still continue. Must be a pisser reading all the race reports from DCM(One in particular posted at 20:23 last night, was a gripping and wildly entertaining tale:)).
Are you still on for Athenry?

thought i was been a real smart a$$ with that post last night , little did i know that you had already posted the report

with regards athenry : have signed up alright , dont know how my form will be , the recovery time for this injury seems to be open ended , there is also the dilemma of gettin away for stephens day , have around 8 weeks to work on that

did it last year with feck all training , planned on smashin it for 2010 , not too lightly now though !

if i can implement a bit more self control with the running( cause what im doin doesnt seem to be enough :mad:) i will probably recover alot quicker

you in ?

tunguska

Seres wrote: »

with regards athenry : have signed up alright , there is also the dilemma of gettin away for stephens day , have around 8 weeks to work on that

Maybe you could pretend that Santa has been mixed up in an unfortunate and bizarre accident involving a combined harvester, and you have to go to his aid for approximatedly 39mins.........just throwing it out there.

Seres wrote: »

you in ?

Oh Im in, Im in like.............ok I cant think of anything smart to say, but yes Im in. Scores need to be settled and rights need to be wronged. Gotta get me a fields of athenry hat aswell.

Seres

tunguska wrote: »

Maybe you could pretend that Santa has been mixed up in an unfortunate and bizarre accident involving a combined harvester, and you have to go to his aid for approximatedly 39mins.........just throwing it out there. .

thanks but that excuse would fail miserably , why ?;

their country kids and know that a combined harvested wouldnt be in use in the depths of winter unless i was willing to say that santa's accident came about because some mean sole spiked his coco and he ended up wanting to go for a joy ride and injured himself , also its the 26th of december were talking about and the kids dont care if santa has had a near death experience or not just as long as his up for the job on 24th Dec 2011
The 39 mins would def be the most unbelievable part of that story !

Seres

Saturday 30th Oct

30 min run : yipee the ugly pain didnt raise its beastly head for the first time today , granted i went super slow but that doesnt matter , progress

had a little chat to myself the other night bout the running and treating this injury , sumarried it went somethin like this ' you have to go REALLY easy or you wont recover sometime soon ' so i cant get too excited and go all gung ho so will try another easy run morro

tunguska

Seres wrote: »

Saturday 30th Oct

30 min run : yipee the ugly pain didnt raise its beastly head for the first time today , granted i went super slow but that doesnt matter , progress

had a little chat to myself the other night bout the running and treating this injury , sumarried it went somethin like this ' you have to go REALLY easy or you wont recover sometime soon ' so i cant get too excited and go all gung ho so will try another easy run morro

Now you're talkin'. Great stuff Seres. Had the same experience when I was injured, went for a run one day and the pain had gone. The stretching and the exercises really do the job, you just dont notice it, its a cumulative effect.
On a more serious note: Are you dressing up for Halloween?

Seres

31st Oct

4 mile run : 36.26mins , very slow but thankfully no problems today either , was worried how today would go on the back of yesterday but took it easy and is def improving , just gotta take care not to get excited and go mad !

RacoonQueen

Exactly, don't worry about pace. Just maintain as much fitness and endurance as you can so that when you're back in action you don't have too much work to do to get back to where you where.

Krusty_Clown

That's it Seres. Nice and handy, and build back up slowly. Too many of us have learned the hard way at this stage.

Seres

thanks KC and RQ , appreciate the advice and support

jb-ski

hi S,

good to read you're finally on the mend.

take it easy,
J

Seres

thanks jb ski , well done on the marathon , were you pleased ?

jb-ski

Seres wrote: »

thanks jb ski , well done on the marathon , were you pleased ?

thanks S,

i'm happy enough with my time, but missed the sub 3 20 by less than 2 minutes, so i'm still asking myself, could i have?, should i have? etc.

next up is Art O'Neill for Fun:eek:...

And then back to P&D for Connemara.

i believe you're considering this yourself.......;)

Seres

jb-ski wrote: »

thanks S,

i'm happy enough with my time, but missed the sub 3 20 by less than 2 minutes, so i'm still asking myself, could i have?, should i have? etc.

next up is Art O'Neill for Fun:eek:...

And then back to P&D for Connemara.

i believe you're considering this yourself.......;)

thats a pity, thats a good time though , there is always next year , any aches and pains since ? , ya dont know bout the Art o Neill for fun business , thats what i said bout Gael Force !

ya have been thinkin bout the half since last year , did gael force over around those parts , really gorgeous but suppose to be really tough , might be out of the country so might not get the chance in 2011 , if your round these parts and need a running/cycling partner send me a text .

Monday 1st Nov

Pilates : havent had it for two weeks , core is defo improving , had a bit of a pain today in pain but the pilates seemed to wipe that out ???!

Seres

tuesday 2nd nov

3.5miles on the machine : felt ok , wanted to let it rip but forced myself to hold back , did let loose though for a few small intervals and it felt ok , that was nice for a change

stretching and core : feel a bit niggly now but hopefully will be grand morro ,will force myself to the pool morro , aim is for the fields the end of dec so want to take it nice and handy

Seres

wednesday 3rd Nov

Swim : 1km & stretching

Not very enjoyable ,had the option of two lanes on arrival , the one with all makes, shapes and strokes or the other lane with aquaboy , i opted for the lane with aquaboy , the guy was animal in the water , was lapping me like no bodies business and that was me goin full tilt so as not too let the side down
anyway quit to the steam room and shower after bustin myself for 40 lenghts , nearly passed out with the heat in the steam room and the cold in the showers , enough for one day ! might of been easier to go for jog in the driven wind and rain .

Seres

thursday 4th Nov

4 mile run & stretching and a bit of core work :for the first time ever i was lookin forward to a run on a threadmill , started off nice and handy , picked it up a bit to bout 7.5min/mil pace for bout km to see how it was , felt fine and increased to 7min/mil pace for another 1.5km , felt ok , slowed off then just not to overdo it , nice to get a bit of pace goin again , hopeful in a week will be back to normal and maybe put a bit of structure to my training , will keep it at every second day for running at the moment as that seems to be working , really mad to get going , still eyeing up the waterford half a bit , think closing date is the 4th December ?!

RubyK

Seres wrote: »

still eyeing up the waterford half a bit , think closing date is the 4th December ?!

They will be taking entries on the day, €30. Best of luck, you seem to have turned the corner with the injury

Seres

RubyK wrote: »

They will be taking entries on the day, €30. Best of luck, you seem to have turned the corner with the injury

thanks rubyk , ya definitely since last sat things seemed to have turned around , , was startin to get a bit disheartened, so excited now ! , rearing to go now but have to still take it easy , mad for a race where i just totally knock myself out :pac:

jfh

great to hear you finally shaking off the injury, 5 weeks to go till waterford!

Seres

saturday 6th Nov

4 mile in 32.30 :thankfully felt ok , trying to up the pace slowly , def improvement , did same run this time last week alot slower , think im a bit obsessed with my core at the moment, while im running , feel my style is not from extremely sloppy to really stiff .

Seres

sunday 7th nov

4 miles in 32min : up and out by nine , think i got the best part of the day , cold , crisp , fresh and bright , nothin better than getting out for an early morning run at the weekend ,especially sunday, in these conditions , met bout 2 cars for the half an hour felt a bit niggly towards the end , morro running free should sort that out , will do core work later , just to give things a break , will up to 5 miles every second day next week , will also increase reps nos for the core work , hopefully will get in 4 days next week , maybe 5 the following week all goin to plan with a bit of speed too

Seres

god these logs make you feel so guilt if you miss a day , didnt post since sunday and i was pushed back to page 4

Monday 8th Nov

stretching and a small bit of core , no pilates , replaced with a really exciting meeting , unfortunately will miss next monday too for the same reason :mad:

Tuesday 9th Nov

Decided to just try and do a small bit of speed today in the gym

8km : 2.5km warm up , 5*2min burst : 3@ 7min/mil pace & 2 @ 6.40pace , took 1 & 1.5min breaks , just not to overdo it , warm down

think my running style is gone a bit arse ways , so obsessed with left S1 joint and left glute that im gone really fridged , the pain seems to have pushed over a bit to just below my hip bone , will see what happens , maybe it will just go a way , no core work , didnt want to overdo it after my massive speed session !

Seres

Wednesday 10th Nov

4miles on threadmill & Core and Stretching : had planned a swim but felt i was ok to go for a run , had planned very easy 3 miles but varied the speed , ran @ 8min/mil for some , then up to 7.5min/mil , then 7min/mil and a bit at 6.40min/mil , dont know how long i spent at each pace , just was deciding what to do as i went along , hopefully can start a program with some proper speed work and long runs soon enough , will help put structure on my training , think might do a bit of 10km specific training for moment as its not too fast and dosent require high weekly mileage .

Seres

12th Nov 2010

did really get a chance today to post yesterdays session , nothin too serio though

2 miles & Stretch Core and 500m swim : legs were tired yesterday and front of hip at me so decided to call a halt at 2 miles , rushed down to pool to get caught up talking , left me with only 10mins for 20 lenghts , bloodly lifeguard decided to take down the lane while i was swimin in it , think she would have had a bit of manners and taken down the two other lanes that had not one in them first .:mad:

Seres

saturday 13th Nov

4.5 miles , increased the pace fro bout 10min , lost alot of fitness , hadnt planned doin this , had planned easy run , will start wearin garmin again , had stopped for a while to stop checkin my pace , bit of niggle above hip continuing , cycle morro , pilates mon and if niggle still there tues will go back to physio ,

Seres

Tuesday 16th Nov


Bit of a moan so dont read if your not in the mood
things havent been goin that well running wise at the moment ,pushed myself a bit to much last week with running three day in a row and trying to put a bit of speed in two of the four sessions of the week , felt pain coming back on sat night so decided to rest sun and mon in the hope that all would be well
Went to gym ye.sterday ,could kind of feel the pain but did a small bit of speed in a 6km threadmill run anyway , was so pi$$ed at pain gettin worse that i ignored it and continued on despite , stupid , stupid self ! your body will react and it did , so worse today , back to physio friday , was too ticked off to posted yesterday ev (would have just been a litany of curses anyway ) , read thru my log to make myself feel better about the progress i have made with the injury but didnt really help .
Think im just goin to hope that its right for the new year and thats, it no more expectation for 2010.

dna_leri

Seres wrote: »

Tuesday 16th Nov


Bit of a moan so dont read if your not in the mood
things havent been goin that well running wise at the moment ,pushed myself a bit to much last week with running three day in a row and trying to put a bit of speed in two of the four sessions of the week , felt pain coming back on sat night so decided to rest sun and mon in the hope that all would be well
Went to gym ye.sterday ,could kind of feel the pain but did a small bit of speed in a 6km threadmill run anyway , was so pi$$ed at pain gettin worse that i ignored it and continued on despite , stupid , stupid self ! your body will react and it did , so worse today , back to physio friday , was too ticked off to posted yesterday ev (would have just been a litany of curses anyway ) , read thru my log to make myself feel better about the progress i have made with the injury but didnt really help .
Think im just goin to hope that its right for the new year and thats, it no more expectation for 2010.

Its hard to give anyone advise when dealing with an injury - so I won't. From your main forum question, no-one else seems to know better either.

In my case I started with 4 weeks of easy running before I started any faster work, then 4 weeks of "general prep" to transition from that to "race training".

It can help to focus on a long term goal. In my case I set a 12 week and a 12 month goal. At this point the 12 week one is in sight but the 12 month one (which I kept to myself) is still impossible.