Last week, I said that I was looking for consistency. This isn’t exactly what I meant. Monday started off well and I even felt pretty good going into my quality workout on Tuesday, but then things began to unravel. During my 3rd of 5 1200 m intervals, I started to feel that distinct pulling on top of my kneecap that signifies the onset of a bout of runner’s knee. Otherwise, I felt great, though. I was killing the intervals. I finished the 3rd interval, walked for a minute and the pain went away. So, I jumped right into the 4th interval. The pain came back. I finished the interval and walked for a minute. The pain more or less went away. I flew into the 5th interval. That one hurt pretty bad, but I finished and walked for a minute.
“All that’s left if 7 easy miles,” I told myself but easy was not a good word. Even easy pace was killing my knee and I hobbled the 1.5 miles back home. I tried some cross training the rest of the week and things didn’t get any worse, but they didn’t get much better either. Thus, I’m officially injured and resting. I’m just hoping it all gets better before the Ragnar Relay. Here’s how the week went:
Monday AM: 6 miles at 8:00 pace with 4 strides + full body strength
Monday PM: 4 miles at 8:12 pace
Tuesday AM: 2 miles warmup + 5×1200 m at 6:45 pace + 1.5 miles cool down
Wednesday AM: full body strength
Friday AM: 9 miles stationary bike
Saturday AM: 30 miles stationary bike
Sunday AM: 3 miles at pathetic, painful pace
Total: 22 miles running, 39 miles cycling
Ouch!
I am impressed by you though Brian. All too often I read about people who are in agony yet feel that they are obligated to run. It’s refreshing to read about someone who is sane and realistic!
Get better!
wow. i’m almost jealous that you have a sane head on your shoulders. …almost 😉 sorry to hear about your knee but hope the rest helps! are you going to re-adjust your marathon training plan? shorter the # of weeks of “quality training” and take a few extra easy? hopefully this week will be successful prevention and you won’t need to think that far ahead!