DNF pt. 2

DNF? I did a workout this morning and ended up cutting it short. The planned workout was 5x1 mile with 1 minute rest at tempo effort. After a two mile warmup, I jumped into the first repeat (which I was aiming to be around a controlled 5:40) and kept things under control while managing not to peek at the pace. There were a few icy bridges which broke up my rhythm slightly. As I finished I looked down in shock at my first split: 6:11... "oops, i guess that really was like an extended warmup. the next one will be all business". I waited for a minute and took off with a little more oomph for the second mile. I looked down about a minute in and I was at 5:40 pace "uh oh, lets open it up a little". I attempted to pick it up to no avail and my second mile was right around 5:40. At this point, I was doing my best to ignore pace and convince myself the effort was where it needed to be. As I started the next interval, I thought maybe I will finally be warm. After a minute, I attempted to pick it up again and then acid start flowing through my legs similar to the intensity of a western wave or a wayward flame. At this point, I pulled the plug and settled into 7 minute pace. After one final flicker of motivation where I contemplated picking it back up, I let my pride sink from my head through the rest of my defeated frame. After a couple minutes of thinking about retrying the workout, I settled to go at it again the following week.

The reason behind the DNF is that my legs are just fried. Last Thursday and Friday I did 19 miles, then followed that up with a time trial on Saturday (3 miles in 15:46) and topped it off with a 40 mile bike ride on Monday where my body shut down mid ride. I knew I would be hurting from the combo, but I purposely made this a down week and am just realizing I need a few more easy miles to clear out my system.

Silver Lining: I just got in 8 great days of training.

DNF pt. 1

As I was logging in, I noticed the last post was in May! I thought to myself "really, nothing since May?". That would make it 3/4 of a year since I had any blogworthy running. What has happended since May? A lot of the same injury. At the end of April, I began having issues with my hamstring which then moved to my calf and then a mixture of the two. After a few months of varying degrees of injury, I finally went to see a chirpractor. He quickly diagnosed a sciatica, which conveniently explained how both my hamstring and calf bothered me (basically the sciatic nerve was jacked and it was telling my muscles "to stop working...now!" and "good work haha"). I went to see the chiropractor for a few months and left about 85% healed. During this time, I purchased a bike and resigned myself to possibly turning to biking full time if I was not able to race in the spring. I kept running easy (plus strengthening and increasing range of motion) after I finished up with the chiropractor and surprisingly started to feel better. At this point and time I would say I am between 90-95% healthy.