« Hot Hot Hot! | Main | A Deal Too Good to Pass Up »
March 31, 2006
Feet Frustrations
Yeah, so my feet don't feel too good. They were hurting last night and I knew it wasn't good. This morning it was worse (as would be expected - the mornings are never good). So I'm bummed. But I'm not giving up just yet. I gave some thought to my training plan last night and again this morning while I was swimming (which doesn't lend well to keeping track of how many laps you've swam - trust me) and I've determined that a new approach might help me some.
My old approach was to run 3 days a week, a long run on Sunday (that I wanted to build up to 90 minutes and eventually longer through the summer), a short run after biking on Tuesday and a medium run (where I eventually wanted to add in some harder stuff) on Thursday. This apparently was too much. I don't know if it was the distance or the frequency of runs so I've decided cutting down on both might work.
I have to admit, I wanted to build up my long run in hopes of running a fall marathon. I didn't want to "race" a fall marathon, I just wanted to "run" one, because a couple of my friends and O wanted to do one in Ohio in October. I thought if I could build up my long run throughout the summer and just run 2 other times/week (in addition to all the swimming/biking) that would be good enough to get me through a fall marathon in 3:30 or 3:40. This might not be in the cards though. My feet just don't want to cooperate. Part of me wonders if I'll ever be able to run a marathon again, but then again I'm hoping my PF doesn't last for another 10 years, and I (hopefully) have a long life to live (and run marathons).
Regardless, I've determined that my new approach should involve only 2 runs/week, one after biking and one other shorter run that involves a little more intensity. Truth be told, all but one of the triathlons that I want to do this summer are sprint distances and therefore I don't need 12 mile runs to finish a 5K. What would probably serve me better is to be able to run 6:30 pace more comfortably. So that's my new goal - be able to run after getting off the bike, and be able to run a little faster. Running longer will have to wait. I hope my feet are agreeable to all this!
I know they won't be agreeable to this now though - they are quite upset with me as things stand today. So I definitely won't do my Sunday run and perhaps not Tuesday and will wait and see how they feel Thursday. Ugh. So many people tell me that they struggled with PF for years and then one day it just went away. That's REALLY hard to believe right now, but I'm trying to have faith that it will happen - one of these days! :)
The good news is, I swam a big PR this morning during my 600 yd time trial! I haven't done a time trial for a while, and definitely haven't done one since the botched time trial that I previously wrote about. I think I might have missed a time trial when I had the flu, but per my training log, my last time trial effort was February 10, when I swam 9:51.
This morning I warmed up with 400 yd easy, 200 yd kick easy, 200 yd easy and then launched into my 600 yds hard. I finished in 9:23! I was excited for a 28 second improvement, although I'm really not sure if that's significant. That could be equivalent to running 2 seconds faster over 5K for all I know, but improvement is improvement and I'll take it!
My swim workout looked like this:
400 yd easy, 200 yd kick easy, 200 yd easy
600 yd TT (9:23)
100 yd easy
5x100 yd on 2 (I was swimming them in 1:28-1:30 which is pretty good for me)
200 yd kick easy, 300 yd easy
That's 2500 yds total, 1100 yd hard and I was breathing pretty hard, let me tell you! I was thinking to myself when I was swimming that one good thing about triathlon training is that if one of the sports is going badly (aka running), you can easily be encouraged by another of the sports (aka swimming) and feel okay about things. Compare this to when you are a runner (as I have been for much of my life) and when things are going badly, there is no where else to turn. I'm trying to think positively!
So that's my morning. I love having days off work It's so nice outside too. I have to be good and work on homework this afternoon, but I'm picking up O after he's done at work (he walked to work this morning - that's how beautiful it is!) and we are going to check out some road/triathlon bikes. The cycling store in town is having this big sale and O encouraged me to look at getting a better bike. I'm very torn about whether we should spend so much money on a bike that I might not use that much. But on days when my feet are really hurting (such as today) I think to myself that I may be using this bike a lot more than I think! It would have to be a REALLY good deal. I guess we shall see!
Hope everyone has a great Friday!
Posted by beth at March 31, 2006 9:09 AM
Comments
Boooo feet!!! I'm sorry to hear that.
And I too bought my bike post toe surgery during a running lay-off. Buying the bike made me feel better :) and I get SO MUCH use out of it years later just commuting/running errands. (Though granted you do live somewhere more rural than me). I think you should totally get one. Even if your PF clears up right now it'll still be a good toy!!!
Posted by: Audrey at March 31, 2006 10:10 AM
I don't want to backseat coach or anything, or give unsolicited advice, but I was kind of surprised at how quickly you got up to doing those eight-mile runs. As you know, P has been recovering from PF and he finally started running again in August. Granted his case was probably worse than yours, and he's purposely building up slowly, but he _still_ hasn't hit eight miles. Plus, the intensity of your runs hasn't been all that easy. I'm glad that you've been making progress, and I wouldn't be surprised if your plan to back off a little both in intensity and volume helped your feet feel better.
Congratulations on the 600m PR!
And it sounds like a bike is just what you need to cure any frustration :-) If you decide you can't afford it, maybe we should start a "Buy Beth A Bike" Fund.
Posted by: Alison at March 31, 2006 12:19 PM
I like that - "Buy Beth A Bike" fund. Better yet - how about "Send Beth To Hawaii" fund!? Now that sounds even better! :)
Perhaps I did build too quickly. I thought I was doing well by only adding on 5 minutes/week but PF seems to be a whole different animal than most running injuries. Live and learn I guess!
Posted by: Beth at March 31, 2006 1:36 PM