A slow road to recovery

Perkina3

As many of you know I have been hit and miss on this forum for quite a while. Last year was mental busy for me and I decided to try my hand at aiming for a triathlon and half iron man but pretty quickly after I started training a long standing shoulder injury suddenly got a lot worse. The Physio's diagnosis was between 9 months and a year to get fully fit with a functional shoulder with the potential of surgery if things don't improve sufficiently by the summer.

He then went on to say... No running... No training at all.. which lasted for 4 months. I snook a few runs in to keep me sane but nothing to write about. I am now allowed to slowly try and run but not long distances lest the impact set my shoulder back. In short I have a number of muscular problems including a torn rotator cuff and a couple skeletal problems which are exaserbating everything. I also had a neck injury so I am working my way back to fitness.

So my posts from now on will be short.

Monday - 24 km cycle in 40 mins
Wednesday - 4 miles (No time)

Both sessions completed at about 60% so felt refreshed after.

Perkina3

Couple weeks of intermittent training. Geting what I could in though i managed 3 sessions a week.

Got an easier week this week so a good opportunity to hit my target of 5 sessions a week so here goes

Monday. 3.6 miles. C. 25 mins... This was harder than expected but a sharp start to the week... Plan is if off earlier tomorrow to hit maybe a 5/6 miler at a slower pace.

I will sign up to the DCM race series next month at some point.

Perkina3

Tuesday: Nothing.. Work got me and I was hanging out so I sacked it off.

Wednesday: Another unexpectedly long day in work but wasn't going to sack off training a second day. I did however swap my sessions slightly... I moved one of my slower short runs to today and effectively the LSR has moved to the end of the week. It's only going to be six miles this week but the aim is for 18 - 20 miles this week to start. This run... Was ok... Slow and steady... Really plodded along at a comfortable pace. Just happy to be back training tbh and I am enjoying it....even if it was horrendously wet tonight.

Perkina3

Thursday: Yesterday was a bad day for work lol...finished at 0100 this morning and had another long enough course day today finishing up in work at 1900.

Because when dinner is done here I didn't get out till 2145 having let my food settle and let me tell you I was NOT up for it today. Another slow and steady 3.6 miles to get my legs back into the game.... Longer run tomorrow before a rest day Saturday. Heres hoping tomorrow is more enjoyable (Weather wasn't even that bad either lol)

Perkina3

Weekend plans did not go how I wished as I picked up what I thought was a headcold...

I have tried to **** it the last 48 hours but it is threatening to get worse so I am caught in a dilemma as to whether I train tonight or not.. If anyone is reading tis in the next few mins could I have some advice as to waht you guys normally though as I am aware that my training is VERY stop start atm

Perkina3

Well went for a run...I bimbled... or at least I thought I did... 3.6 miles (I am going to verify this tomorrow) in 27 minutes which would make it about 8 min miles or so.....

Wasn't tired... freshest I have been in quite a while! Enjoyed it but will prob pay tomorrow.

Calvin Johnson

Good stuff Perkina - keep it up

Perkina3

Cheers man

Tuesday: Didn't complete a run but did 45 mins of rehab exercises which had been given. Fuking hurt! Was good though..

Wednesday: Completed this run at a faster pass than Monday but again I am just running with how my body feels. Next one will be slower agani though. 3.6 mins at 26 mins (Again not measured the distance yet and given my lack of running the 3.6 miles might be slightly out).... Again felt fresh enough.. However, was noticeable I had upped the pace as it was not as easy as the previous run.

3 days training this week out of 3 so happy enough. The sessions are short but keeping as close to what the physio wants as possible so will be a slow process. Still enjoying it though so happy with that at least!

Perkina3

Excuse the month long absence but soon after that last post my laptop died a temporary but painful death. I have since managed to fix it but am looking for a new one by saving up the pennies...

Training in the last month was slow... Nothing I could build up into a rhythm as I was working through the last few days at my job location before moving. I kept ticking over though with a couple of maintenance sessions a week at least.

Home now for a few days and training has taken a turn for the better thank god. More settled as I have more time and work which I can plan around as a result of not working silly hours each day.

Sunday: Taking from the last time I ran a marathon I will have either this or SAT as an LSR day. So I started straight back into it running 59 minutes... Route was meant to take an hour so was content with that and the pace. Total distance covered was - 10km... Slightly disappointing as I had hoped to run slightly quicker than this. Time wise I am looking 9.36 a mile for the LSR when I was hoping for more like 9 mins. In my defence though I had played some american football the day before and I was massively hurting from that.

Monday: Rest -

Tuesday: 40 mins - 7 km (c. 4.4 miles) - Even sorer than Sunday. I had a good 10/15 minute stretching session which went very well. Ran it in something like 37 minutes so better than sunday from the looks of it lol despite how sore I was.

Wednesday: 45 mins planned - 44 mins actual. - 8.5 km (5.3 miles)
Again another mid range session to get the legs back used to it again... Not quite down to 5 min km pace but can feel the difference in my legs and looking at the times while trying to maintain a steady pace there is a noticeable difference and improvement as my legs and body start to get used to running distance again.

On a side note... A couple of niggles I was familiar with have raised their ugly heads as standard so lots of stretching required now...Not the younger whippersnapper I once was as I hit my late 20's

It is good to be back though and I am targeting a minimum of a 3.30 DCM 14.

Perkina3

Thursday: 39 mins - 7.7km - 4.8miles. I had been aiming for 8.30 to 8.45 a mile and I went quicker than that suprisingly. I felt good for the first 25 mins or so but the heavy night I had last night began to take its toll and the last part of the run became a wee bit of a struggle. One thing I can say is that my pace was consistent as it was 19.40 on the outward leg and 19.30 on the way back which I was content with. All in all good week so far.

Perkina3

Howdy all...

Right quick update on the last few days.... It has been hectic so training time has been at a premium....

Friday: Kinda scheduled/unscheduled rest day.

Sat/Sun: Written off as down in Tipperary and then travelling the following day for the majority of the day!

Monday: Written off started new job.

Tuesday: Back to it with a short sharp 30 min core and stability session which left me in clip by the end of it.

Wednesday: Shorter than last weeks runs but wanted to try out a mile and a half test I have to do. Did that in 10.03 (Not great as kinda started of slow but was going faster than usual so decided to put the foot down.) At my pace I was going I would have done it in 9.40 which is slow but not bad considering I have not run faster paced runs in months and months. I then did another 3.6km on slow time averaging c. 5.05 a km which was decent enough.

Total time for 6km was 28 mins so pretty pleased. Another core/stability session (Kinda like crossfit) tomorrow and another run though I haven't decided how long yet... Prob 4/5 miles if I can fit it in round work

Perkina3

Thursday 3 April - I went to atouch rugby session and managed to get a dead leg which pretty much lasted until Tuesday of this week! Or at least until I could run!!

Tuesday 8 April - 5 miles at @ 11 kph.... Dead leg still there a little bit so this was a struggle actually... limped through it but wanted to keep a few miles going through the leg

Wednesday 9 April - 4 Miles @ 11 kph.... Dead leg still there... But good to get another 4 miles through...

Thursday and Friday - Rest... Thursday planned... Friday...Not so much...

Saturday 12 April - With the intent to run 6 - 8 miles tomorrow I kept this pretty short.... Couldn't keep the pace massively steady though....

Mile 1: 8.20
Mile 2: 8.36
Mile 3: 8.27
Mile 4: 8.02

Felt easy enough though so happy with that.

Will post again tomorrow after my first LSR.... Going to luk for a short race for the next couple weeks...

Perkina3

Ok... Sunday 13th:

Slow 4 miles as time was tight and I still wanted to get something in.. Was ok but with me running 6 miles on Monday I didn't want it to be too fast... I can't remember the time but was averaging 8.30 to 8.45 a mile

Monday 14th:

6.25 miles... Longest run to date since I started back haha... Was grand actually... Kept it steady enough but not able to keep track of the pace but it was faster than an LSR probably should be but given that it is still not massively longer than waht my other runs are this was to be expected. Ran 53.44 which is in keeping with what I have identified as my default pace of 11km an hour.

Tuesday to Friday..... Yeah Tues was meant to be a break as was Friday but my car and a couple of other things contrived to leave me very busy and no time to run wednesday/So I have written off last week.

Saturday:

Another 4 miles...Going slight harder but trying to work on pacing,... with the aim to get between 8.10 - 8.20

Splits.... 8.20, 8.15, 8.11, 8.12 so was content wit that...

Monday: 4.5 miles @ 36.14....

I need to check the mileage on that as I don't believe I was running that fast... I was supposedly running a loop of 1.2km which I did 6 times... Was ok and was just settling in for a longer run as I finished this... Bit achy because of the stop start training but things should get better as my life settles back into a steady rhythm....

*Also I was running a Tuesday to Monday week but have corrected this so that I am running a Monday to Sunday week:

To summarise:
Week 1: 18 miles (Target 20 miles)
Week 2: 10 miles (Target 20 miles)
Week 3: Target 22 - 24 miles (4.5 miles to date)

Perkina3

Tuesday 22nd April:

2 sessions today: 1 hr cross fit this morning.... A mix of shuttle sprints and core, lower and upper body exercises.... Was a really good session and was hanging out by the end

2nd session: 4.5 mile run (Again need to confirm this route and distance as am sceptical)

Run time was almost identical to yesterday which is what I think is a good sign... was 3 seconds in the difference and that was it so happy with that.... Legs were heavy after the first session this morning but will be trying to get the body used to two sessions a day on some days....

Am unsure of whether to do a core session or not tomorrow morning... suppose will play it by what my body says.

9 miles this week to date.....

Perkina3

So again as expected my posts are quite spaced out....

Where do I start... Training still a wee bit disrupted but getting 4 runs a week in at least so that is not a bad start...

Friday 25th: 4 mile in 34.43 seconds.... it was kept relatively steady... though was good to get out.

Sat: Rest - Had a guest over so spent the day entertaining lol

Sunday 27th: LSR - 7 miles - 11kph. Yep was quite happy with this. I was tired after it but at this pace I was able to keep it going pretty steadily. I did complete it on the treadmill as my knee was a lil ropey and wanted to keep a consistent pace throughout.... Not a bad start to the LSRs.

Target 22 - 24 - Actual 20

Monday 28th - Considered going for a run but given the course I had on I gave it a miss.

Tuesday 29th - I am looking to go and start Crossfit over the coming weeks to assist with strength and conditioning... I had hoped to start yesterday but needed to go through a few sessions 1 on 1 to ensure I can do everything so yesterday was info only

Wednesday 30th - relatively strenuous day in work. With my ongoing shoulder problem I have to take it easy some days when it gets bad... 3 miles into this 4 mile run I started to get quite a bad pain in my shoulder so for the sake of a mile I called it a day. It was a slow recovery run I would have done on Tuesday if I had been able to.

Aim is to complete 5 miles tomorrow

All in all... I am slightly behind schedule but only slightly so I am content at present and I am making sure I get the LSRs in.

Perkina3

Without going to too much detail I have been keeping the training up though it has been difficult to get any kind of routine in....

I have managed to maintain the mileage at 18 miles per week...

This week whilst **** in terms of consistency saw me get my first real LSR in at 8 miles and it went alright... Hips were in clip on Saturday from it but settled down after a 4 miler... On the plus side got 3 trips to the gym in and have started to work my core.

Plan for this week is 20 - 22 depending on how the training goes... Plan is for 2 rest days though I have yet to make 5 days running since I started training for various training.... I am going to piggy back onto a programme at some point this week

Perkina3

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: Well just come back in from what was meant to be a 4 mile before I am out to host some people for the night... Managed to get about a mile or so into it when I somehow bloody rolled my ankle... After hobbling around for 5/6 mins I put another half mile very slowly through it to make sure I hadn't done any lasting damage before calling it.... base of my ankle and across the top of my foot are quite painful so will be keeping the weight off it as much as is possible tonight and will look to go out for a few miles tomorrow and make up the 2.5 miles I missed on this run....

Perkina3

Wednesday: 4 X 800m intervals in 3.13 ,3.08, 3.08,3.09 with 400m brisk walk in between.....

This session went well... I didn't expect to be able to maintain a steady pace but at the same time I didn't do my usual break neck pace.... I was looking to try get between 3.10 - 3.30 but timings were a lot tighter than that thankfully.... Did some gym work as well for this session

Thursday: Unscheduled rest day as a result of work commitments

Friday; Was exhausted because of the busy nature of the week I had had and because I was training blokes in PST which involved fighting in a red man suit for long period (Think I broke/dislocated my finger during this )....2 mile run SLLOOOW

Saturday: 5 mile run at 8.45 a mile (Threadmill) Knees feeling the pace atm so am using treadmill a bit more atm

Sunday: Planned for 9 miles but body was feeling the pace of the week so reduced this to 5 miles...
I did weights today to start working on the core.... Deadlift, squats and military presses.... using strong lifts 5 x 5 technique...All are compound exercises so hoping this will give some stability to my core....

I am looking at another 5 miler tomorrow and then taking a rest day tuesday or wednesday

Perkina3

On a slightly seperate note... Having done a bit of research on marathon programmes I am torn between 2 or 3 of them and which is the best... can anyone provide me with some pointers??

Perkina3

Right well decided on a programme from Run keeper for a 3.30 marathon so I left it pretty steady last week completing 20 miles...

First run this week was a 5 mile easy.... Did that as part of daily PT and it was pretty straight forward... biggest thing to write home about was that because it was a bit XC my quads are bloody steaming lol...

Second 5m tomorrow again easy.... Though it has 2 x 20 sec intervals at 95% with 2 min rest in between... Don't be fooled by the easiness of these first couple of sessions... having scanned through it.... it gets a lot harder.... Lets see how well I cope with keeping up with it... I forsee a couple of problems for 2 weeks worth of trainin in the 18 week programme but I will deal with them as I get it

Perkina3

To fill you in on the lastmonth..... First 2 weeks of the month were steady going with 20 miles each week (Work commitments meant no more than this)

Re entered the marathon programme in week 6 last week tweeking the LSR in such a way that it will help me bridge the gap of the ones I missed due to work.

10M LSR - 82 mins...Decent going but knee started to lock out near the end of it
7m @ 8.27 per mile.... Was not bad actually... expected to be stiffer after starting straight back with LSR
5m@ 8.45 per mile - nice and slow this one... Legs were tired and heavy though.

Meant to be 2 mile warm up and 1 mile cool down with 4 1.5m intervals at about 11 mins pace. but I tweaked it to 1.5m warm up and 1.5m cool down with 8x800 intervals... I was supposed to be targeting 3.40 per interval per the timetable but when I did them I achieved the following
3.22, 3.13, 3.18, 3.17, 3.15, 3.16, 3.16, 3.22 which was not bad considering this was my first interval session and neither was working at full capacity so was pleased.

4m slow - missed session due to personal circumstances

Week 7
Monday 28th
5m @ 8.21 per mile..... legs were heavy for this one but freshened up near the end.

Tuesday 29th..... 9 miles in 76 min so about 8.25 amile..... I split this 4 miles outside and 5 miles on the treadmill to protect my knees a little bit... was ok until mile 8 and 9 where I started to lag quite badly.

Wednesday 30th.... Rest day

Perkina3

FFS... I just noticed... I had posted a note for training last week...

Basically... Long and short is... hit all 5 sessions last week... Total training equalled 33 miles though I had to cut my LSR slightly short. Planned mileage was 38 and included 2 good interval session ( 8 x 800m and 3 x 1.5m all at 7.00 mile pace or less) on tuesday and thursday respectively. I am not struggling with the pacing wise at moment it is the longer mileage where my knees are starting to give me some gip.

This week.

26 Aug - 16 x 400's plan - I did an interval session which did not strictly follow this format.... I did about 14 x 400's under a different form and session....Warm up was where I dropped some distance and only did 1.5m....Goood cheeky session though

27 Aug - 5 miles - easy - Good session this.... Legs a bit heavy after the intervals yesterday but was fine...

28 Aug - 2M W/UP - 3 x 2m @7.15 - 7.30 and 1M C/D...... Now... this is the first session in a month which I have had to pull out of completely due to picking up a niggle... (Missed 2/3 earlier in the month due to work). Played football early today and tweaked the groin...Went to do the warm and it didn;t feel right so after a few stretches I went to see if I could get it done and the answer was a resounding no... Figure missing one session and resting whatever I have tweaked before doing 7m and 14m respectively is the better shout in this case.

I know I have been hit and miss on this but ahve been following a programme and posting when I can... A question though... given that this was an interval session I am wondering whether to try and catch it up in the future??