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August 16, 2006
Making progress
Today was a perfectly good day. Nothing too exciting, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I swam in the morning, as usual, and my arms were aching even from the beginning. I think they are hurting from resting my arms on the stationary bike when I read. I just can't catch a break! But other than that relatively minor complaint, my swim was fine. I did more of an endurance workout which ends up taking less time than some of the faster stuff because it's mostly continuous. All those 20 second breaks add up!
I saw Barb at lunchtime today. I had the wrong appointment time written down on my calendar, but luckily she was able to squeeze me in. I didn't have time for electric stim but she did her usual manual therapy. She said everything feels much better. The only place I feel anything now is in my upper hamstring, and that's mostly tightness. I am going back on Friday and we are going to evaluate whether I can add in some *jogging*!! I won't get my hopes up, though.
I biked and lifted tonight but I didn't last long because I was hungry. On that note, I am off to eat dinner. But I will also paste this quote from Laura O'Neill's NYRR training diary, because it is almost exactly how I feel right now: "After countless hours on the stationary bike and in the pool, I relish the thought of starting to run again in the next few weeks. I miss the freedom I feel as I set out on a trail for a run and leave the frustrations of the day behind. I miss chattering non-stop with Kate for a ninety-minute run, somehow never running out of things to tell each other. I know the first few weeks will be challenging, but I think all runners derive some satisfaction from pushing themselves. I can't wait for the nausea that sets in after a tempo run. I look forward to finishing a hard session on the track and beginning my cool-down with heavy legs, but with the irreplaceable satisfaction of having tested my limits."
Posted by becky at August 16, 2006 8:48 PM
Comments
Deena Kastor 's Journal
Summer 2006 Entry (Posted August 11, 2006)
Following a leisurely post Flora London Marathon break, I was excited to speed up my legs and hit the track. I ordered new spikes and wrote out lofty goals of setting personal bests in the 5000 and 10,000 meters. My weekly mileage dropped from 130 miles during marathon training to 80-90 miles. In lowering my mileage I was hoping to sharpen my speed but this never happened. My mile repeats were slower than when I am marathon training; this was very discouraging. Every morning I was sore from the previous day's work despite training for over a month. My husband, Andrew, assured me that when I got overseas to join my Running USA teammates things would start to click.
At our training base in Lueven, Belgium, I got in a couple of awkward feeling track workouts. My first weekend abroad, most of my teammates and I were running a 3000-meter race in Lucerne, Switzerland. We took a train there and the weather conditions were great. In the race I just barely broke 9 minutes, but the worst of it was how much it beat me up. The following morning I was so stiff and sore that I couldn’t even run. What was happening to me?
It didn’t take too much brooding for Coach Mahon and me to call my season off. Things just weren’t clicking. I flew to Rome to watch some of my training partners compete and to meet Andrew, who was coming from the States. From there, Andrew and I decided to make the best of a bad situation and vacation in Italy; this is a luxury that time rarely affords us. We toured Rome, Florence and biked through the Chianti region of Tuscany. We indulged in great food, fantastic wines and met so many fun people. Finally, we made our way back to the training camp in Lueven, where we relaxed with teammates for our final week overseas....
Posted by: corrado giambalvo at August 17, 2006 10:21 AM