The weekend is here

Today was my last day of training in Newport Beach before we head to San Fran tomorrow. I woke up at 5:30 per my usual routine this week and attempted what I hoped would be a pain-free run. Close enough. It took me a while to get going, but I settled into about a 7:30 mile pace for the first couple miles with minimal discomfort. I wore warm-up pants on the entire run to make sure my legs stayed warm. About three miles in I decided to extend my run and added a couple faster miles in on Back Bay Road, probably around 6:50 pace based on mile markers. The entire run was 6 miles, 42 minutes, and felt good when I got home.

I wanted to test myself a little more, so I did a couple speed drills (high knees, butt kicks, etc.) and four strides at 5k race pace. It was a bit of a risk, but I figured I still had 72 hours to recover if I overdid it. I was pleased to find out that running in full strides caused me no discomfort whatsoever. So basically, if I run hard on Sunday, I should be fine, but if I attempt to job, its a crapshoot. After the strides I drove over to Karen's house for another ice bath, which felt great.

My knee was a little sore during work today, but nothing rest won't cure. After work I headed to the pool for a quick swim. I wanted to do something to sharpen up my stroke, so I warmed up for about 300 meters (which include drills). I went into 8 x 50, averaging about 37 seconds per 50, which is 2-3 seconds faster than a few weeks ago. I did a couple 100's after for about 1000 yards on the day, then went home and iced.

The race is right around the corner, the car is packed up, and Heather and I are driving up at 6 a.m. tomorrow. I'm getting very excited. Perhaps the best part is I really don't know what to expect, especially on the swim. I may blog before the race, but if not, I'll post a detailed report in a few days.

Workouts in between ice baths

I'm trying to get my internal clock set for Sunday, so hopefully I'll get some form of workout in each of the next 3 or 4 days. I decided to take the day off from running to rest my knee, but didn't deter me from waking up at 5:30 and heading straight to the pool for a swim in the rain. I warmed up for about 400 meters, doing some easy laps and drills. Then I went straight into a one mile swim (no rest) which took about 27-28 minutes. I didn't push myself too hard and wasn't overly fatigued at the end, which is obviously encouraging. I probably could have gone a minute faster, but I just wanted an easy race simulation, although I definitely didn't simulate the 55 degree water. Totaled 2000 yards for this pool session. Hopefully I'll get one more in before Sunday.

After the swim I headed straight to Karen and Damien's house to use their ice bath. I hopped in from the waste down for about 14 minutes, then hurried home and headed off to work.

My knee was sore most of the day, and I can't seem to get it completely comfortable at work. I wanted to get another bike workout in before Friday, partly just to make sure I can still ride a bike. After work, I hurried home and hopped on the bike for a quick 20 miles, averaging about 22 mph. I didn't push it too hard, and the whole ride felt pretty easy with no stress on my knees. Perhaps even better, by the time I hopped off the bike, my leg muscles had loosened up enough to allow me to run without discomfort. So hopefully, regardless of how I feel on Sunday, adrenaline, combined with a good bike leg, should allow me to roll on the run.

After the bike ride, I hurried over to Karen's for another ice bath with the iCool. I love the ice bath, and it continued to work wonders. Karen and Damien are so nice about letting me stop by and use it. Here's a free plug to my 7 official followers and 20+ unofficial followers. Go check out www.ozperformance.com.

Taper Time

This knee thing is still there, but hey at least it means I have to force myself to taper. I went to the track after work today, not sure what to expect. As has been the case throughout the past week, my right knee still wasn't cooperating. I kept the warm-ups on and decided to go at whatever pace was comfortable (somewhere between 8-9 minute pace). Fortunately, Karen was in the same boat, still in recovery mode from the Boston Marathon. We ran about 7 loops around the grass perimeter of Corona del Mar High School, then I went off on my own for another two miles on the Eastbluff grass loop. I ended up jogging 55 minutes, about 7 miles, with about 95% of it on grass. As my knee loosened up, I also settled in at around a 7 minute mile pace, which was slightly encouraging.

I have been icing on and off for the past three hours and Karen and Damien are letting me use their ice bath over the next two days before I leave for San Francisco. Hopefully between the treatment and rest I should nip this thing before Sunday. Regardless, I should be able to compete well enough on adrenaline.

Rocky Tribute

If you're a runner, no visit to Philadelphia is complete without a visit to the Art Museum. I set off on a mid-morning run in the rain down Locust Walk, past Franklin Field, up the river, and over to the Museum. Then I took the steps up two-at-a-time, Rocky style, to the top. My knee was a little shaky during the run, but I was happy to get through it with minimal pain. Total run was five miles round trip. Only 20 miles for this week but at least its close enough to my race to be a taper, and I can run.

After the run, the girls and I headed over to the gym, where I quickly beat them in two games of Horse. Then I headed down to the pool again. Today's workout was 200 warm-up, then 200, 300, 400, 300, 200, with about 20 seconds recovery in between each. My average 100 was down around 1:33 for the workout, which is an improvement over my previous longer workouts. The 400 in particular was about 6:12, at about 80% effort. I swam a few easy laps afterwards, mostly drills and recovery time. Then, I closed with a few sprints, both 50's and 25's. The entire workout was 2000 meters.

After the workout we went to Parc in Center City and I ate way too much food. However, I did have the best blueberry pancakes ever, and still have a food coma. We walked a mile back to Rachel's house to walk it off. Tomorrow is an off day. Up at 5:00 am to fly home.

I can finally run again!

I flew in to Philly on a redeye Thursday night to visit Rachel at Penn. She was very excited to see me, but upset because I haven't blogged as much recently. Reason being, the knee issues I've been blogging about. I visited a physio-therapist before my flight who did a number on my leg, but fortunately it was feeling a little better on Friday. I decided it would still be best to take another day off of running so Rachel and I headed to the Penn gym to use the pool.

Yesterdays pool workout was: 200 yard warm-up/drills etc. Then 10 x 100 yards @1:25-1:30 with 15 seconds rest. I had originally planned to do eight, but that was too easy to I extended it to ten. I followed this with a coupled 200's in 2:58 and 3:05. Then Rachel and I did 100 yards of pool golf. I got down to 31, 12 strokes for the length of the pool in 19 seconds. Rachel did about 40. Then I swam 2 50's all-out in about 33-35 seconds to close the workout. Total distance for the day was 1800 yards in the pool. Afterwards, we headed over to the Penn Relays to watch Yale run.

This morning I woke up and met Luke and Pat for a Yale reunion run down the river, and past the Art Museum (Rocky steps). I was thrilled simply to be able to move again, and settled for a very easy 6+ miles in about 50 minutes. We saw Anne and Rachel running the opposite direction as we headed back; they were probably going as fast as us at the time. Great day so far, happy to be running again. Now off to breakfast and watch Usain Bolt at day 3 of the Penn Relays.

This knee thing

This is getting annoying. I've been icing my knee around the clock and just can't seem to get it better. I took yesterday completely off and woke up early this morning to test it out. I walk jogged to the park to try and run on grass, but couldn't go more than 30 seconds without unrelenting pain. I walk-jogged home and threw some ice on it right away. I'm hoping to do something tonight, at the very least a swim, but may need another 1-2 days off.

This doesn't hurt for any activity other than running. I did lots of sprint drills and lateral drills to loosen up and felt nothing, until I started running in a straight line. Hopefully 1-2 more days of rest does the trick.

Transition work/800 repeats

I woke up at 5:30 this morning to join in a transition workout courtesy of Julie Swail. My bike was already loaded in the car, tires inflated so just rolled out of bed and headed off to her gated community in Irvine. We had a bunch of last minute cancellations so it was just Julie, her friend Christina, and me. The workout went something like this: 400 yard swim, 1.5 mile bike, 1200 meter run. The entire circuit takes about 13-14 minutes, but the real value comes from the transition work. I needed practice getting in my bike shoes when they are already clipped in, and also need practice getting my running shoes on quickly.

I actually only swam 300-350 because the girls were much faster in the pool. However, my swim today was as fast as its ever been. I guess the competition helped. As expected, my biggest problem was getting in my bike shoes. A couple times, Julie and I hopped on our bikes at the same time and she'd gap me by 10-15 seconds. I can un-clip on the bike well and hop off, but getting in my running shoes is equally pathetic. The first two intervals I finished way behind, but on the last two I was close enough to catch up on the run. We took about 5 minutes recovery to re-set our gear before starting the next interval. I was absolutely gassed at the end, but hurried home to shower and head to work.

After work, I headed to the track for the usual Tuesday night workout. Despite the wind and rain we had a great turnout today and the storm clouds had cleared by the time we got going. Today's workout was a repeat of last week, 6 x 800 meters. I was drained from this morning, and my right knee was hurting on the warm-up, so I stayed in my trainers and tried to keep the first few repeats slow, letting my body control the speed. By the 3rd interval I had loosened up and was running my usual pace. On the 5th I changed into racing flats to get a couple quicker reps in. My splits today were 2:29, 2:25, 2:21, 2:22, 2:18, 2:13, with a 3 minute (400 meter) recovery in between each interval.

I cooled down two miles on the grass and headed straight over to Spa Gregories to cash in one of the free massages I won at the Spirit Run last month (see first post). I'm doing much better now, but am still really sore from all the recent work. I'm going to have to force myself to start tapering.