Easy runs, day off, short workout

Monday I managed a painful 3.5 miles.  Tuesday was less pain but still there, 4 miles.  Really weird, the faster I go and the longer I go the better it usually feels.

Wednesday I took the day off just to see if that would help at all.  Not really, it hurt all day.

Thursday I went up to the track.  Warmed up 1.7 miles.  The first couple of laps the pain was crazy, but then it settled down.

I wanted to do some 1000 meter repeats at about 5:20 pace.  Went 3:15,3:20,3:15.  Didn't feel hard, but I didn't feel like I could go much faster and I was more out of breath than I should have.  I did only take 200 meter jog rests in 55-60 seconds and I had trainers on, so I guess that's a plus.

After a few minutes of walking around I did 400 meters to see if I could still run 5:00 pace.  managed 70 seconds and it didn't feel super hard.  So maybe I just need to do a bunch of 400's and slowly increase the distance as I get in better shape.

1.6 cooldown at 6:00 pace felt easy. 

Feel like I'm not fit, but also feel like I should be more out of shape with the lack of training the last 5 weeks.

Going to see the doctor again next week for the 4th time.  Not sure if there is some sort of injury that the bite caused, or if its just the bite.  Pain changes places from heel to upper calf.

I tried a few things today.  Heel walks are pain free, so I would say that rules out bone issues.  Heel walks hurt more, but aren't terrible.  Definetly going downhill feels better, and going uphill my shin muscles start to hurt because I'm over compensating for something else.  Again running downhill less pain means probably not bone.  I think whatever bite me much have inflamed some soft tissue in there.  I still have 7 more days of the doxy, hopefully that helps. 

I'm gonna have to find some local 5-k's to run to start getting fit again.  Nothing like racing to get fit.  Just a hard thing to do after racing at the level I was at in February and March. 

The only other thing i can think of is I know right about when all this happened I was snowshoeing and I remember hitting the inside of my leg a few times with the metal on the snowshoe and maybe that hurt something.  Don't know.

Day off followed by long run

Got ready yesterday, went out door, took about 5 steps and walked home in pain.  Leg is good sometimes, sometimes not.

Sunday I had plans to meet up with Knickerbocker for a tour of the park loop road.  Since Nov. I've gotten a handful of 15-16 milers in, but this was going to be longer and I was unsure about leg after yesterday.

Leg wasn't terrible, and once I got through a handful of miles it got really good.  Weird.  Not super fast, but with the last 4 weeks mostly wasted, I was pretty happy with the run.  19.1 miles, just over 2:06.  Some good elevation gains. 

Bite mark finally looks like it's starting to heal.  Leg still hurts at times, but it's definitely not a running injury if I can do what I did yesterday.

Should have my new training plan done this week.  Gonna skip the US masters 10-k champs this weekend with the shit training I've had the last 4 weeks.  Very sad, since it's the only us masters champs race in new england this year.  But there is no point to go down and run a minute slower than I could have a month ago.

Might do a local 5-k this weekend to start racing myself back into shape.

Easy run

3.5 miles. 

Wow, fitness has gone to shit.  Taking 72 hours off from everything didn't help with pain.  Leg felt same if not better once I started running. 

So from this moment I'm going to run every day.  Bite wound does not seem to want to heal,  even with antibiotics.   Definitely not running injury.  Almost no pain running at about 1-2% downhill.  Running slightly up hurts, steep uphill or down feels good. 

This is getting kind of stupid.  All I managed to do the last 24 days is get in piss poor shape and now I'm gonna miss a bunch of competitive races I wanted to run.  I'm pissed.

Days off

Went to doctor again, then orthopedic office.  Everyone agrees it's some sort of bite, so another 14 days of doxycycline. 

Plus some anti inflammation meds.

Leg goes back and forth.  Sometimes it hurts, sometimes it doesn't, different things hurt, weird.  One thing that stays the same is going up stairs bothers it.

Going down is fine. 

Going to just leg rest for a few days and not even chance running to aggravate it.

Easy short day, then semi workout

Managed 3 miles in the rain on Monday.  Wanted to run longer but leg was super painful every step.

Tuesday I headed to track.  Warmed up then set off to complete some mile repeats at about 5:20 pace.

It was pretty windy, and I left the racing flats at home.  Getting going was the hard part, after first few steps pain wasn't too bad.  Pretty much spot on with intervals, 5:18, 5:20, 5:21 with 2 minutes jog rests.  They didn't feel as easy as they should, but other than a few longer races I haven't gotten much for hood runs or workouts in about 3 weeks now. 

Fitness is sliding rapidly now.  I got away with it for a few weeks, but today showed me I've got to get healthy and get another base phase in.  Sucks.  Seeing doctor again tomorrow,  who knows what's wrong with leg.

Medium long

Headed out and stuck to loop road for first 9 miles.  Cut through blackwoods, back into town from Otter Creek.  15.56 miles total.  About 6:12 pace.

Hilly run.  Leg got better as I went.  Was way over dressed.  Running pants and three layers up top slowed me down. 

Leg was almost pain free by end.  So far it feels pretty good through rest of night.  See how it feels tomorrow.

Right about where pain radiates is a bite.  Looks like a lot of spider bites I've seen.  I wonder if a spider found me when I was in DC.  All the pain started a few days after getting back.  It's definitely not running related.  I'm on day 4 of doxycycline so maybe that's helping.

Last few days

Lets see,  Did a workout I guess on Thursday.  Not really because my leg hurt so bad, but I warmed up and was pretty much 6k from my house, so I figured I'd run back.  Broke it up into 2x3-k.  Pretty lame ass workout, but I managed to run 5:20ish pace mostly on one leg.  Took a minute rest between.  This is a grade F workout.  Not champion material.

Friday after working my overnight shift, I went to court.  A 5 minute hearing never happened and I waited until 2:30 in the afternoon before getting released to go home.  Got home and went to sleep by about 4pm.  Got a few hours of sleep before going back to work.  If I really wrote what I wanted to say I'd get in trouble so TIAIS.

Today my leg hurt all day, even though I didn't run yesterday.  Bullshit.  I went out as it was getting dark since I slept most of the day trying to catch for yesterdays lack of.  Tried running slower to see if that would help.  Nope,  Hurt the whole way.  No better or worse after a day off.  Got better the faster and longer I ran, but I only did a piss poor run of 4ish miles.  

Now the legs feels great after it hurt all day.  What the F.

Well since it seems like the only good workouts I can get the last few weeks are on weekends at the races, I'm gonna do a hard run tomorrow.  I'm either going to run the entire loop road as hard as I can from my house which is about 20 miles, or I'll do one of my hardest workouts.

At this point racing US 10-k champs and Seas Dogs 5-k is probably out, so I'm going to either fix my leg tomorrow or break the damn thing.  Either way I expect a lt of pain.  And I'm going out with no advil or anything in my system.  Let it hurt, break, twst off, something is going to bend one way or the other.

Couple more easy runs

6.5 miles Tuesday.  Cruising.  5th mile in 5:30, felt easy.

Wednesday was a not much sleep day after spending most of the day at court after an overnight.  Went out as it was getting dark.  5.5 miles, 4th mile in about 5:14, easy.

Leg is about the same.  Sometimes it feels better, sometimes it hurts.  Running it actually feels pretty good.  Laying around it hurts. 

Thursday I'm planning on my first workout in over two weeks.  Think a bookend consisting of
1.5 miles at goal 10-k pace(5:12-5:18 pace), 3 minutes rest
3-5x1000 at just faster than 10-k pace, 90 seconds rest.
1.5 miles at goal 10-k pace, 3 minutes rest
1-2x400 Hard, 3 minutes rest.

This should give me a good indicator of where I'm at a few weeks out from the US 10-k masters champs.  Kind of wasted the last couple of weeks messing around with this leg thing.  Not sure I'll be in shape to break 33 minutes and maybe get in top 3-5, but I'll get in some good workouts the next 10 days and see what I can do.

I think this weekend instead of a 10-k pace workout I'll work on some 3-kish pace stuff. 
Probably 5x1000.   The 15-k and 10-miler I recently ran served well for tempo runs.

Easy run

7.5 miles, some roads, some trails.  Miles ranged from 6:13 to 6:37.  Leg hurt every step, but normal.  Windy coming back.

Hopefully I can just deal with leg until it decides to stop hurting.  Not wasting any more days off on it since it doesn't seem to help at all.

Another week of pain

Tuesday I ended up biking.  Leg just hurt too much.

Wednesday I biked again but did 25 minutes in middle as hard as I could go.

Thursday the lef wasn't getting any better, so I ran 4+ miles.  Wasn't any worse, during or after.

Friday I did 7.5 miles after seeing doctor and getting some tests done.

Saturday 5 miles.

Sunday I headed to 10 mile race.  Warmed up 2.1 miles.  Hurt walking around, not to run.

Race went off and I had decided to run race easy, but test leg first mile.

Nice group through mile, 5:26.  Leg felt really good.  Did a pickup and leg felt amazing.  Slowed up and let group catch back up.  At mile 2 I picked it up again.  After a quarter mile I decided to just keep going.  5:11 mile. 

Ran steady through mile 7.  Hills I went up easy and only time my leg hurt.

Last mile is fast,  cruised in.

Once walking around after leg hurt.  Cooldown, 1.9 miles, leg was fine.  Weird.

Some rough days

Weds. I got in 4.5 miles easy.  My leg had been hurting since the 7.5 mile snowshoe run I'd done last week, but I really felt it during this run.

Thursday I did a ride on bike trainer thinking that might give my leg some rest, but it hurt biking, uh oh.  I'd actually gotten ready to run, went outside, took a couple of steps and stopped.

Friday it hurt walking around so I took day off and drove to my buddy Bunkers place in liberty for the night.

Saturday morning I got up around 3:30 to make it to Freeport to meet the team carpooling group.  Most of the trip I switched ice packs and took an unhealthy amount of advil, aleve, and Tylenol.

Once at the race the leg still hurt walking around.  I was here for the team, so I warmed up 2 miles.  Hurt every step, but was manageable.  Time for 15k.

I put long socks on hoping it would help the leg.  I should have kept the half tights, winter hat and long sleeve off because even though I was cold at start I was way too hot by mile 1.

Race went ok.  Went out too slow, slacked in middle of race and kind of gave up at end, but I ran ok.  51:57 gun time.  3rd master.

Somehow my leg didn't seem to hurt during race and I managed a 2 mile cooldown too.

By the time I got back to Maine the leg wasn't good.  Multiple ice packs, advil. 

Sunday, I managed 2.15 miles.  Hurt like heck every step.  Not good.

Monday, 4.4 miles, hurt less every step.  Hopefully tomorrow I can run a bit longer with less pain.