DOMS: Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) is something I've become familiar with over the years. It hasn't been something I've had to deal with lately though. Sure, I haven't been super consistent over November and December due to various reasons but I still averaged about 100 miles each month. You'd think that would be enough to at least remind the legs to stay vigilant. I took 6 whole days off between Dec 29 and Jan 3rd and I guess that was enough. Now my legs are feeling a bit sore in that DOMS kind of way... not enough to impact movement... I'm just a bit surprised and don't completely understand the mechanisms that result in DOMS.
STREAKS: It's January 10th and I'm on a 7 day running streak. Personally, I've avoided running streaks because I don't think they fit my personality. For one, I can get obsessive and foresee myself hobbling around on a niggle and causing damage just to keep a streak alive. Also, rest days are good and part of training. I've worked my way from 3 to 4 to 5 to 6 and sometimes even 7 days a week of training but I can tell when I'm starting to feel worn down and will normally take a day off during the week when I need it. This has been successful for me so far in terms of building performance and staying healthy so I don't want to change something that's working.
However, coming into the New Year, I feel like in this case a streak is in order to balance the inconsistency and to build my base back better. I'm not setting any hard goals for the streak but looking back through my training, it appears my longest (unintentional) streak was 20 days in May of 2021 so beating that would be a good target. Just need to be smart about it and if the DOMS continues or gets worse I may need to reevaluate.
GOING LONG: Yesterday, I knocked out a 10 miler. My first double digit run since November 14th and only my 4th since my October 10th marathon. It's amazing the impact a marathon can have on the body... it's no wonder I swore them off back in 2011... luckily I'm a glutton for punishment so I'm back at it now. I'm hoping that the more training I put in, the better adapted I'll be, and the quicker I'll recover, otherwise I'll swear off the marathon again!
But back to yesterday... 10 miles on the treadmill at 8 minute pace. I started a 9 minute pace... bumped it up a bit, hit a rhythm for a few miles, bumped it up to 8.7 mph (6:53 pace) for 2.5 miles... then slowed back down to 9 minute pace. I wore a heartrate monitor for the first time in a long time and it was helpful. My watch HR has been really off lately. It frequently shows HRs in the 150's even when I'm going at a low effort. I was starting to believe the data so it was nice to have a sanity check. Yesterdays data was a lot more palatable.... low 130s for the warm up. into the mid 150s for the 6:53 work then back down under 140 with the cooldown.
Most importantly, the run felt great! I didn't start the day with the intention to run 10 miles... my daily mileage for the previous days was 4, 5.5, 6, 5, 5 so I was targeting 8 miles but I wound up feeling so good that I just kept going. It's the best run I've had in months. The 6:53 pace work was only going to be for a mile but it was so easy that I pushed it out to 2.5 miles. Then once I dropped the pace back to 9:00 pace it felt so easy I could have gone forever. I had the music going and was jamming and singing along. I should have started on Prednisone a couple weeks ago I guess but I always try to avoid it when possible.
RECOUNT: I used the 6 day break between last year and this year, and the New Year to make a clean break and finally shift how I count my weeks. I used to start my weeks on Sunday and end on Saturday. I kind of liked this because I'd start the week with the long run and it kept me from adding miles to my long run purely for the purpose of meeting arbitrary mileage numbers. However, my apps (Strava, NRC) count it from Monday-->Sunday so it's slightly more convenient to realign so that I can automatically track my weekly mileage. At the end of the day it makes no real difference but I'm a numbers guy and like to hit my metrics even if its kind of silly.
Week one is in the books for 2022. 35.5 miles. First time over 30 since the injury so not a bad way to start the new year. Will probably target in the 40 mpw range for the next couple weeks and go from there. Hopefully can be back to around 60 mpw by March just in time for the weather to allow running to be fun again.
OTHER THOUGHTS: After a bit of a down period I'm finally feeling revigorated. This past 7 days of running has been great. My hip is completely healed and I really have no niggles to speak of right now. The treadmill is no longer my enemy and I'm finding my rhythm. Sunday has been one of my best runs in a long time. I hit that flow state and though I ran for 10 miles I could have ran for more if I didn't run out of time. I just can't stop raving about how great I'm feeling. It's only been a week so I'm trying to keep things in perspective but if I can keep this up for the next couple months it should be a killer spring!
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