Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Hamstring Treatment - Speed work

Went out to speed work tonight. After a week on the Cruise to Run, including a bunch of very encouraging runs, I was hoping for big things here. While there has been progress, it isn't quite where I'd like it to be. We did 800 m. (4 lap) runs, with a 1 lap (200 m.) break in between. Here are my splits:

3:32
3:40
3:40
3:45
3:46

Two weeks ago, I was doing 400 m. runs at between 1:48 and 1:51 per segment -- which if you just double would put me at 3:36 and 3:42 -- so no real improvement other than the fact that I went twice as far. And I couldn't see myself doing a 6th loop.

If I'd been able to keep the pace for a kilometre, I'd be doing roughly 4:35 per kilometre -- which compares to between 4:00 and 4:21 (x 7 repeats) at the track back on August 16, 2011. I could feel that my right leg simply wasn't as strong and couldn't push me as far or fast as my left leg. So, while I've made headway, I have a long way to go.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Hamstring Treatment Day 62: 6 Miles on the Treadmill

The marathon training plan put out by John Ferguson, the legend, called for 6 easy miles today. The weather wasn't particularly hospitable and running coach Brian was away today, so I just pumped these miles out on the treadmill. Because I've calculated the actual distance factor compared to what the treadmill reports (1.131 miles actually travelled for every mile reported), I had to do 5.3 miles "reported" to get 6 miles actual. I knocked it off in 55 minutes, which isn't terrible for an "easy" run.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Hamstring Treatment Day 61: First Speed Work Session at Thompson Arena - 5 miles

Eventually, once I figure I'm back up to 100% of my pre-hamstring injury speed, I'll stop prefixing these posts with "Hamstring Treatment".

Tonight was the first speed work session at the indoor 200 m. track at Thompson Arena in London. We did 7 repeats of 400 m. (with a 200 m. jog break) followed by 2 repeats of 200 m. each. Add 2 miles total for warm up and cool down, and we ran a total of about 5 miles.

Again, I learned that I simply don't have the speed I had in early November. My typical 400 paces were at 1:50. Here were my splits for the 400 m. "speed" laps:
2:00
1:50
1:48
1:50
1:49
1:51
1:50
0:52 (200 m.)
0:53 (200 m.)

Looking at what I was able to do on June 14, 2011 at our _first_ speed work session in the summer, Johnny had us doing 600 m. repeats and my average time was 2:21. So, if they had just been 400 m. repeats, I should have been in the 1:35 time frame. And looking at my Parloff Relay times of July 15, 2011, I was around 1:30 for 400 m. So I have a long way to go to get the muscle back up the that sort of time (and that was at the _start_ of speed work last summer)!

On the plus side, though, I didn't feel at any time that I was going to re-injure the hamstring.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Hamstring Treatment Day 59: 13.4 miles in London

Its a new week, so a new round of punishment! We did a route in London that took us through city streets and then up Adelaide Street to Sunningdale, and back down Richmond to the the University and back downtown again. That was 11.9 miles, and then I added another 1.5 miles after that -- 13.4 miles total. There were _lots_ of hills up to and on Sunningdale road, so it was a good precursor to Boston.

Here are my kilometre splits:
5:50
5:32
5:43
5:40
5:32
5:32
5:39
5:36
5:48
5:23
5:49
5:26
5:41
5:40
5:49
6:00
5:49
6:14
5:59
6:19
6:16


The good news is, though, that my hamstring felt much stronger than a week ago. It actually felt like it was contributing on the uphill segments of the run.

My average pace was 5:47 per kilometre -- 9:18 per mile -- which was about the same as last week. But this was a longer and definitely hillier run, so definite progress.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Hamstring Treatment Day 58: 30 miles this week, 1 mile on the treadmill today...

I tried to get a mile or two at "marathon pace" -- which to get a 3:20 marathon would be 7:38 per mile. I couldn't even come close. There is no doubt that the muscle is going to require a lot of work to build up my speed again. I managed to get a mile in at about a 10 minutes/mile pace -- pretty pathetic, really.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Hamstring Recovery: 8 weeks as of today! 7 miles on the treadmill.

... and I'm really starting to feel that its not going to be an issue much longer. I did 7 miles on the treadmill tonight -- 4 at a 5.5 MPH speed, and then ramped it up to 6 MPH for the last 3 miles. And for the last quarter mile or so I had it up to 6.5. Total time on the dreadmill was just a few seconds over 74 minutes.

So I'm feeling stronger every day. And today I also ran through the valley from our home to the office (just a few hundred metres, mind you), but by the top of the hill on the other side, I was still feeling pretty good.

So that makes 29 miles this week.

Hamstring Recovery - Day 55 - 5 Miles from Clandeboye...

Here are my kilometre splits:

6:14
5:44
5:34
5:39
6:03
6:20
6:19
6:07

The average pace was right on 6 minutes per kilometre. The challenge was the wind -- definitely heading right into our face when we turned around after doing 4 km. But we finished it and, despite the slow plodding pace, the beer still tasted good at the end!

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Hamstring Treatment Day 54: 5 miles in London...

Tonight was the first night of "speed work" for the marathon training clinic. While we didn't do speed work, per se, we did all go out for anywhere from a 4 to 5 mile run. Here are my kilometre splits:
5:19
4:59
5:21
5:07
5:23
5:22
5:19
5:35
5:21 (220 m.)

The average pace for the 8.2 kilometres was 5:18, or 8:32 per mile. I could feel my hamstring -- and I was still having more trouble on the uphill sections than the flat and downhill sections, but I felt stronger than any run previously since the injury, so it was a good day.

After the run, I went out and played hockey and the hamstring was fine.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Hamstring Treatment Day 52: 12 miles on the trails in London...

There must have been 40+ runners who showed up for the Sunday morning run. We were to do anywhere from 12 to 16 miles. Jed and Brian each did about 16, but I thought it best to take it easy, considering the longest run I'd done since my hamstring injury was just 6 miles on the treadmill. Here are my kilometre splits:
6:09
5:43
5:44
5:42
5:29
5:28
5:28
5:31
5:44
5:24
5:32
5:39
5:43
6:05
5:58
6:04
5:57
6:07
6:14
6:07 pace (321 m.)

The average pace for 19.32 km (12 miles) was 5:47 per kilometre, or 9:18 per mile. Not great, but it was all I could do. I found that even the slightest incline caused me issues -- it was like my right leg (with the hamstring injury) had zero strength in going up hills.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Hamstring Treatment Day 51: 4 miles on treadmill...

4 miles on treadmill today. The first 2 were at 6 MHP, then I took a rest at 5.5 MPH, but then ramped it back up to 6 MPH for the last mile.

Friday, January 6, 2012

Hamstring Treatment Day 50: 6 miles on treadmill...

I pumped out 6 miles on the treadmill today. The weather was nice, but the roads were slushy and muddy, so I chose the indoor route. The treadmill works well. I get to watch videos of horse trials ("Eventing") while I run, and the time goes buy surprisingly quickly. I did the first 2 miles at a 6.0 "mph" pace, but slowed it down to 5.5. After about a half mile, though, I bumped it back up to 5.7 which was comfortable. I did the 6 miles in just under 63 minutes.

That makes 16.2 miles so far this week -- so just 4 miles tomorrow and I'm at 20 for the week and the point at which coach Brian says I can start working on increasing my speed.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Hamstring Treatment Day 48: 4 miles outside with Brian...

I did a short run with Coach Brian today. Just from his place down Denfield Road past William Street and then back again. Total distance is 4 miles (6.44 km) -- so 10 miles on the week. Our average pace was 5:39 per kilometre, with the following splits:
6:23
5:37
5:23
5:36
5:25
5:32
5:34 pace (440 m.)

It was a bit tough running when we couldn't run on pavement due to traffic since we were ultimately running in the slush. So I'm reasonably happy with a 5:39 pace overall. And if you take out the first and last splits, the pace was just a hair over 5:30/km (8:51 per mile). Still a long way from the 4:44/k (7:38/mile) that I need to target for my Boston goal, though.

The hamstring was a bit tight through the run, and both hips were mildly sore. But the ligaments behind my right knee were the most sore during the run. I'm getting Physiotherapist Craig out Saturday morning to have a look.

Monday, January 2, 2012

Hamstring Treatment - Day 46: 5 miles on the treadmill at a half-decent pace...

I did 5 miles on the treadmill today since it was a blizzard outside. I worked on lengthening my stride, and in doing so I was able to comfortably move up to 6 MPH (10 minutes per mile). Still a long way to go to get to the 7 minutes 45 seconds per mile that I'll need to do for 26.2 miles in Boston, but it is a good start. While I could still _feel_ my hamstring, it didn't feel in distress at all during the run. I knocked it off in 51 minutes flat, which is not bad.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Hamstring Treatment - Day 45 - 1.2 miles!

I went to do a five mile run today, but the weather outside was quite miserable. So, back to the treadmill. I got a mile into it and the power went off -- so in an instant I was in pitch blackness, and the treadmill stopped within about 1.5 strides. The power came back on in about 10 seconds, so I started running again -- but then 2 minutes later, the power went off again. I'm starting to get good at those sudden pitch-black stops! We'll try again tomorrow.