Thursday, August 20, 2009

back to the grind

yo hip flexors, what gives? you practically had a whole week off and you're gonna start aching? not cool.

the nausea seems to have (finally) passed for the most part and i also finished off that round of antibiotics. so i'm drug-free again, for one day so far anyway.

the ol' legs and i had two very easy and short runs monday and tuesday where i logged more miles than all of last week, not that it was that hard to beat. tuesday's run was much better than monday's; i guess my body forgot how to run and needed another day to refresh it's memory.

monday (8/17) pm run: 6.1 miles, 57:44 (avg pace 9:27), avg hr (154), 89*
tuesday (8/18) pm run: 5.25 miles, 45:14 (avg pace 8:36), avg hr (165), 87*

wednesday brought forth another quality workout - more 1000m repeats. it (surprisingly) went well. i guess i assumed i'd still feel off from having drugs in my system or the nausea would come back.

my garmin learning curve is off to a slow start and apparently i don't know how to work the lap button. i hit it after the first 1000 and it made kind of a beep noise (kinda more like a beep-fail tone though) and did not show my split. i dunno if i didn't hit it hard enough or if you have to caress it a special way or something, but nevertheless i didn't get my 1000m splits. no biggie, i told myself, i'll just run strong and aim for the pace to show 6:30 (a 4:02/1000m).

i thought i could calculate my splits from the handy garmin-graph on my computer but couldn't get that to work either. whatever. i held ~6:30 pace for all six repeats - a little over 6:30 in the first two, under in the middle three, and on pace/a little over in the sixth. my goal was 4:03/1000 so apparently i did a decent job of pacing and maintaining for each of the repeats. would've been nice to have actual splits but i can deal.

wednesday (8/19) pm run: 10 miles incl. 6x1000, 1:19:00 (avg pace 7:54), avg hr (168), 85*

feel free to leave hip/hip flexor stretches/exercises as mine are sore and i don't know why (for the record, they were achy before yesterday's interval run).

also, check out this awesome piece, "why i run" by morgan of caution: redhead running!

24 comments:

  1. D.mn, You are very fast!
    Great workouts.

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  2. Another great workout. Looks like you're feeling much better.

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  3. awesome job! So glad you are feeling better. As for the hip-flexors, mine have been the bane of my existance since high school (wasn't running just swimming). I find that lying on my back with one foot on the ground and the other foot resting on the first leg's knee to help. Depending on how flexible you are you may want to push the stretching knee down or pull the oppositte leg in (damn am I confusing or what). It's also a glute stretch but it does seem to help my flexors.

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  4. Getting back into it this week, nice job. One question, what is the number at the end of your workout summary, the one in the 80's with an * by it? I'm probably missing something painfully obvious.

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  5. Great job on the speed! Woo hoo!

    On the flexors -- I don't know if it would help but you could try leaning on a tennis ball to work them out. That usually works for me.

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  6. Damn these birthing hips!!! :)

    Look at you rocking those sprints!

    Thanks for the shout out! ;)

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  7. Your two easy runs are great in my book any day of the week!

    Glad the nausea is gone. That feeling is awful.

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  8. Can I just say - that's some gorgeous, beautiful running! YAY for being back, strong, and fast!

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  9. Ha, I had a lap button failure today during my bike intervals!

    But great job getting those 1000m reps done. I could never figure out my pace running intervals that weren't a multiple of 400. Next time I'll be sure to wear my new Garmin like you :-)

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  10. Great run!! Get off the meds and look what happens!! I stretch my hip flexors before and after every run.

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  11. That Garmin might take a bit to figure out. I never even tried to figure out really technical stuff on mine. I just wanted to be able to run anywhere and know how far and how long it took.

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  12. Nice work.
    I usually hit stop after each interval, and then start a new lap. At the end, I look under history and get the paces/times for each lap. Welcome back! Hope the hip flexor behaves:) Ana-Maria

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  13. yayy nice job on the SPEEDY intervals!! i usually set up my garmin for a workout for my intervals... that way i am not worrying about lapping, etc. just easier for me :)

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  14. Glad to hear you were able to get back to it! Looks like you're feeling better!

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  15. Nice work. Check out some yoga stretched for HIPS. They are great. I'm sure of the proper names for them, but here's one I like:

    Sit on the ground and cross your legs Indian-style, except put one leg on top of the other, like "yoga" style. You want your legs to be stacked and parallel to your body. Say your right leg is on top - take your right elbow, put it in the arch of your right foot, and twist your back to you are kinda looking behind you. You should feel this in your right hip, or top hip.
    Another one is to stay in that seated position, but stretch your arms out in front of you on the ground.

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  16. Well, since we're all giving you advice on your hips, here's mine:

    Find a cool, stretchy belt and loop it around you foot. Lie on your back and loop the belt around you foot. Lift your let and relax it completely and try to pull it over your other let until you can feel the stretch(I think a yoga belt is what you're supposed to use). Anyway, this is great for your IT band too. I always feel better the next day after this stretch on both legs.

    By the way, thanks for being such a cool blogger. I'm always happy to read your comments!

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  17. 1000m REPEATS!! Are you serious?
    Here I was thinkning my 400m repeats leading up to 800s were awesome, ya right! Your a machine!!
    Fast Times, your awesome.

    keep it up.!

    rockon`

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  18. Glad you are feeling better and finished with the antibiotics. I hate taking medicine. Hope you have a great weekend.

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  19. A garmin, huh? I'm soo jealous. I've been wanting one since I started training. Maybe Santa will bring me one LOL. Oh, and kudos on the pace!!

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  20. A friend of mine had a severe hip flexor injury last year (he was on crutches for several months) and he relies on the routine in this video before each and every run. Hope it helps!

    http://www.runnersworld.com/video/1,8052,s6-6-0-2,00.html?bcpid=2884340001&bclid=1352465354&bctid=1138334523

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  21. OH, my goodness, sorry about your hip flexors! You are still amazing, and I love looking at your workouts, because they are always so consistent!
    Ha, and it took me like 2 weeks to learn how to "reset" my timer on my Garmin after a run, so no worries..you'll learn :)

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  22. Oh no...hip flexors! My favourite is to do a kneeling forward lunge. That way you don't have to worry about balance as much and you can really lean forward into the lunge for a stretch.

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  23. I can't work any of the buttons either after intervals. Must be the hypoxia.

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  24. I think hip-flexors are the only types of injuries that I have not had as a runner. But it sounds like it could really be bothersome when running.

    I'm sure there are other features on my Timex watch that I am not currently utilizing. The Garmin looks way too complicated for me to use, so I'd be in the same boat that you're currently in..

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