30 runs in 30 days - who's with us? (Page 134)

#649- 10.7 mi in AM, 90 min ride in PM

#650- 4 mi, 4k swim after

Tuesday - #373 - 2 miles with a bit of speedwork

Looking at doing the Grand Rapids Half Marathon on Sunday, October 19. I know that is plenty of time to get ready. My weekly mileage is way down from where it was in December through about April, and I'm probably only hitting about 20 mpw right now. Obviously I will need to bring that back up. I've still got a couple of sprint tris left, and I really want to nail the last one on August 24 (it's my favorite race every year in Ludington, MI).

Do you guys have a recommended strategy on this? Should I wait to start sneaking in longer runs until after August 24? Or should I start building up a little bit right now?

Anyone have a favorite half marathon training plan?

Day 987, 2 miles.

I am having some serious IT band issues with my right leg now. It has been creeping up on me for about 3-4 weeks and I knew I should have backed off either the mileage and/or the speed but did neither and am now paying the price. This is my 3rd day in a row of 2 miles, when I run it feels good after the first 1/4 mile or so but let me stop for a minute and then it is tight and sore until I get moving again. I had a deep tissue massage yesterday that helped a bit and have been rolling and stretching along with ice and heat. I am going for so ultrasonic and electro muscle stimulant treatment on it later today. I have to get this worked out soon or I will not be running the Hallucination 100 on the 5th of next month. I will be really disappointed if I can not make it because I have been really strong in my running lately and felt real good about the upcoming race. My fingers are crossed that some aggressive treatment will keep me on the road and get fully recovered by next month. I have another massage scheduled for Monday and if this ultrasonic electro stuff makes it feel better I will get a few more rounds of that too.

I had a similar dilemma. I'm running the NYC marathon and want to perform well, but I also want to do well in my IM.

I compromised a bit and ran more than would have been ideal. Running is my strength and I probably would have been better off with less mileage and had more energy and time to focus on my weaknesses. I'm more prepared to roll into a short marathon program, but I probably would have been able to have more intense bike sessions, and could have fit in another swim session per week, and possibly had a better IM overall.

I still feel that I made the right decision though, for me. For you, I think the its even more clear, from what I recall, you usually struggle on the run compared to swim/bike. I would start building the run now, and use the sprint tri week taper as a recovery week from the run training.

As far as a plan. I think a 10 mile long run is sufficient for a HM, and you have time to build to 30 - 35 mpw provided you stay healthy. I would do the long run, a tempo/threshold run, and a day of speedwork with maybe 800 or 1200 m repeats, I like mile repeats, but I think with warm up, recovery, and cool down the workout would be too long for your plan, its probably better to get an extra repeat in using a smaller interval. The other days would be recovery/easy days.

#651 - 6.2 mi run, 3 k swim later

#652 - 4 mi run after 100 km ride at IM effort. Last longish session of IM training.

I have faith it will get worked out. At least now I know you are human! Its probably a bit of acute inflammation from your race effort. If you get worried, figure out some cross training to work in, and rest up as much as possible. A bit of cross training really puts off any loss in fitness.

Rich - thanks for the thoughts on the half marathon. I'm taking them pretty much to heart. I'll start bumping up distance this week, probably with an easy 6 miler on Sunday, and move on up from there.

Wednesday - #374 - 3.1 miles after a 13.5 mile bike

Day 988, another 2 miles. Cross training other than some swimming is really not an option right now, rest is the best thing I can do for it. It is extremely painful to walk and yes to run as well. It loosens up a bit after about a 1/4 mile still but it lets me know it is still there. When I am done running it is an ice bath and then the heating pad for an hour or so. I continue to roll it out several times a day and am slowly making progress. This is by far the closest I have come to not running since I started the streak. I am hoping by the middle of next week I am at least running 5-10 miles a day. I have more treatment for it later today and another massage set up for Monday.

Thursday - #375 - 3 miles tempo after doing 1.5K in the pool

Easy run coming up tonight before a small local triathlon tomorrow.

Good luck on your race today.

Day 889 was yesterday and I managed 6.2 miles, the longest I have ran in 4 days. I have to love my doctor who is also an endurance athlete, I was getting treatment for my leg Thursday and asked him if he thought I could get a 30 mile trail run in Saturday. He had me do a few things and said if I felt up to it to go for it. He said he will have me ready for the starting line of my upcoming 100 miler on the 5th of September. He said it is just an overuse issue that has been coming on for probably the last 6 months and with the therapy I am getting it'll be back to 100% in a couple of ore weeks so hammer away one last time if I want to. I guess I will give the trail a shot this afternoon after work, what is the worst that will happen, I have to walk out of the woods. My leg is 75% better than it was Tuesday when I started therapy and treatment on it.

So within a few days of "extremely painful to walk," to considering a 30 mile trail run. Again, you are back in the "non-human" category.

#653- 2 mi after 3.5 k swim

#654- 6.2 mi after 3.5 k swim

#655- 2 mi after 1 hour ride

#656- 8 mi progression in afternoon. 3.5 k swim in am. Next week is full taper mode. Even with last weeks drop in volume I felt strong on the run.

Friday - #376 - 2 miles
Saturday - #377 - 3.1 miles in a tri
Sunday - #378 - 2 miles

The race wasn't great. It was a fairly strange setup. First, it's a 4PM race so I am never very confident on how to fuel up for it. Small race, with only 200 people total, so they broke it into 3 starting waves by race number. 75 in the first, 75 in the second, and 50 in the third with 7 minutes between each wave start. I was in the third group. It was pretty much a super sprint, as the swim was only probably 200 yards or so. I would've rather been in the first group because there were some good triathletes there that I think I would've pushed harder to stay on. I came out of the water 2nd out of my group (I probably would have been first but I never saw this kid pass me), and then I left him behind in transition. From there, I was passing people from the 2nd group right away and kept checking them off all the way through the 9.25 mile ride. Unfortunately, I had no clue how fast the fastest group must've been going, so it wasn't a good gauge for me. My legs felt real drained as it was, and then there was a pretty darn strong headwind for a good portion of the ride. My time and speed were just awful for me. I went out on the run and kept pace with someone from the group in front of me, and it was honestly a weird change for me. I was actually passing lots of people on the run from the previous groups, which I am not used to at all. Based on how I do in the swim and the bike which puts me out near the front of the race at T2, I rarely, if ever, pass anyone in the run. Usually I am getting passed instead. I guess there was good motivation because I was picking people up ahead and going after them, but my run still wasn't great. There were a bunch of rollers and the hamstring was just knocking me down on the uphills. I would get 25-50 yards ahead of this girl whenever we were on flat land and then she'd come charging back up to me on the hills. Frustrating.

Anyway, I finished second in my AG (haven't seen the overall yet), but I wasn't at all happy with it. Had I done anything like I would have expected on the bike, I would've won my AG. I was probably 2 minutes slower than I should have been on the bike even with the wind conditions. Very frustrating.

2 weeks till my favorite race, though, so time to lock in on that.

Rich enjoy the taper.

Brad nice job on your race.

Saturday was day 990 and I attempted the 30 mile trail run. I managed 18 miles of it before I figure I would call it a day and that was a good idea, in the 18 miles I had just over 3000 foot elevation gain.

Yesterday day 991, 2 very painful miles again and the leg feeling horrible.

I have a massage scheduled for 1:30 this afternoon so I will run after that, hopefully it'll get loosened up a bit. My plan is to get therapy on the leg at least 3 times a week for the next two anyways, not real long run until a week from this Friday if I am feel great then. I would like at least one more 20 miler mostly on trails before the race.

Monday - #379 - 6 miles

Okay, time to start that build up for the half marathon in October. That was a rough 6 miles last night. I only slept 3-4 hours the night before, and it was pretty darn warm and humid, but I think my biggest problem was that my hip flexors are *incredibly* tight right now. I went for a massage in the later afternoon, and she was surprised at how tight they were. Spent an hour rolling out later at home. Going to have to increase the amount of stretching and rolling out I am doing if I really want to survive this buildup.

run #82

Been keeping busy with my son. Only has 2 rounds of chemo left, but he is in the ICU again with his second e coli infection.

Nice race Brad.

Hope you can get well soon Ron. Looking forward to seeing what you think of that race. Would like to do that for my first 100.

Sorry to hear your son is in the ICU again. I hope he is out of there and resting comfortably at home soon!

Tuesday - #380 - 4 miles of speed work

So sorry to hear about your kiddo, I hope he recovers quickly after his last round of chemo.

#657- 2 mi
#658- 4 mi run after 3 k swim
#659- 3.1 mi after 1 h ride

Wednesday - #381 - 2 miles

I had the best of intentions yesterday, and *nothing* worked out. I had a plan on finishing work right at 5PM so I could get out on the bike for a 15 mile hard ride by 5:15 or 5:30 and then go for an easy 2 mile run. First, nasty comes up at work, and I don't wrap up until 5:45. Then I go out to start my Wrangler, and it won't turn over at all, even though the battery is fine. I mess with it for a while before calling for a ride. Right as my ride is about to arrive, I have one of those "why didn't I think of this before" moments and start messing with the wires to the starter motor a little bit. I hop back in and it starts right up, no problem. Of course my ride pulls in right at this moment, so I feel bad for wasting someone else's time. I head home and start to get ready to ride, but get caught up on my phone on a couple of emails that me off about the work situation.

At this point, I'm already flustered. I grab my bike and load myself on to it without doing my normal checks on the bike. I roll out of the driveway and very quickly notice I have a flat tire in back, so I head back in. I try to pump it up to see if it is just a problem with the valve extender or if it is actually a blown tube. I can't get any air into it, so I decide I am going to change it. I just got brand new aero wheels and race tires over a month ago, and the race tires are so tight on the wheel that I am afraid I am going to damage the wheel myself, so I decide to run it down to the LBS to have them change it for me. Sure enough, once I get there, they find a small hole in the tube, and they start to put the tire back on. They get it all the way on and are trying to load it on the bike when the tube blows...and it turns out the actual tire rips as well! These are $70 race tires! So they offer to warranty the tire back in so I don't have to pay for it. Anyway, they are about to close down, and the mechanic working on it wants a different guy to do it since he doesn't have much experience with wheels/tires like this, so i have to leave it there for the night. I then run a couple of errands and finally get back home about 8:45PM, having not yet worked out at all. Obviously I've lost my bike workout, so I head out for a quick run at 9PM just so I can hurry back and finally get my dinner in.

Frustrating day. I just wanted to work out to burn off stress and be done before about 6:30PM so I could relax for the evening. I guess that just wasn't in the cards.

Thursday - #382 - 2 miles, then 1 more walking. Cut it a little short when my leg started to hurt. Masseuse told me on Monday that I have some inflammation going on in a certain spot, so I am taking it a little cautiously right now.

Sorry to hear about your rough day, sometimes things just aren't meant to be. At least you got it done in the end and the streak continues!

In Mont-Tremblant and getting ready for race day, getting "taper aches" and feeling a bit sluggish, but in know the fitness is there and I won't let my body trick me!

#660 - 3.1 mi
#661- 2 mi after 30 min ows

Will do a quick bike tomorrow as a final check, short run, then take it easy, maybe nap a bit in the afternoon.

Day 997 and an early morning 3 miles before work. Still nursing this leg issue but it is getting better. I hope to back to 100% in less than two weeks. I have just been doing 2 miles per day until today with only 3 miles. If this continues though I will stop the streak to get my leg better because I really do not like running these low miles just to keep the streak alive while trying to get my leg better.

Friday - #383 - 4 miles
Saturday - #384 - 2 miles
Sunday - #385 - just shy of 5 miles

Doing some research, I'm thinking I may have hamstring origin tendinopathy, but nothing certain yet. Trying to do more icing to reduce the slight inflammation that is apparently there now. Wondering if this is eventually going to take me out of the streak. MIght be about time to set up a meeting with the sports medicine doctor.