and I"m going to try a Lee experiment in speed: no miles slower than 9:30, most miles faster than 9:15, gradually working into the 8:30-8:00 range as long as no further hurties. Why? No reason. Just everyone I know runs faster than I do and if I'm not racking miles I may as well do something.
Yah, a lot of people counsel 'go slow' or 'take it easy', but running is a high impact activity, so taking it easy isn't always taking it easy. High mileage, no matter how slow, involves more repetitive stress than lower mileage. Meanwhile, faster paces involve more force on each step/impact. So it's a trade-off. I'm pretty sure for my ITB issue (which seems cured now, knock on wood), the scale tilts towards faster paces, less repetition, but I wouldn't assume that for your ankle. You'll have to continue experimenting and find out what sort of 'active recovery' works best. But it's great to hear you're able to run again. Don't blow it like me and get overly exuberant and want all of your previous running fitness back all at once. I'm still trying to get back to where I was last July.
I have not been adding, but it seems to me like your mileage has been creeping up generally, yes?
Yes, I've been good this time around at holding the over-exuberance at bay, and have been building up slowly, both in terms of general distance and in terms of barefoot distance (I froze my toe calluses off in my frostnip mishap, so I'm having to build them back up again). Although yesterday I did get a little frost nip again (
v. infra).
The idea is to stabilize at about 6-7 miles per run, 3 x per week, and then begin adding a mile every few weeks to the third run of the week, and see where that takes me. Once the weather is nice and/or there's less ice and slush around, I'll begin adding in more tempo runs or intervals/fartleks. I'm also continuing the experiment of micro runs, usually just .3 or .4 miles a crack, and it seems like the consistency is helping, even though the extra mileage is negligible.
On the barefoot front, I've given myself a clean bill of health after my last run. I should be good up to six miles the next time conditions are favorable. My calluses haven't completely reformed yet, but they're coming along, so I don't anticipate any problems there.
1. So when anyone asks about how much I"m running now, I'll let them know I'm experiencing "multimodal aerobic fitness"
That's one nice thing about studying linguistics/semiotics--it's easy to translate almost anything into exacting if obtuse jargon.
2. I'm always on time, unless I'm late, which happens frequently. If I'm early, I'll find something else to do first.
One draw of academia; unless it's a grant proposal, late is normal. Ergo, I am normal. What were we talking about?
Thanks for acting as foil for my explorations in fora chronotopes!
3. Don't you dare get me started on fire sports. Seriously, I think many of my ancestors must have died just after their last words of "hey guys, watch this"
Sorry to hear of your ancestors' wacky demises in blazes of glory. At least they reproduced
before performing their ill-advised fiery feats.
Usually those reckless types don't make it past their teens.
But yah, I think we best leave any attempt to incorporate fire into our multimodal workout routines to RP. He's the most surreal amongst us, so if anyone can pull it off, I think it would be him.
My next appointment is Wednesday so hopefully my foot will feel a bit better by then.
Great to hear the doc and therapist may have this thing figured out. The worst thing is not knowing. It's so frustrating. Once you identify the problem, then it's just a matter of slowly fixing it over time. I hope this is your solution.
P.S., I surpassed 3000 messages before you got to 4000. But I still can't seem to puncture your overall lead of about a thousand.
Anyway,
Monday afternoon.
Chest and upper arm strength-training.
Did about 3/4 of my routine. The last few weeks I've only been making it through about half of my st routines, so that's progress. Hopefully my viral syndrome is gone for good, and I can start pushing things a bit again. I also got 3/4 of a pump, which was nice. I'm still pampering my somewhat sore left shoulder, so no parallel dips or bench pull-overs, and I've been holding off on doing my max bench as well. Maybe next week.
After the run I did a micro-run around the block, bare. I had thought it was still around 30 F but I guess the temps had already begun to drop around mid-afternoon as we pick up the tail end of the Arctic spike that the Winterpagans went through last weekend. I looked it up afterwards and it was about 20 F / -7 C and 4 F / -16 C windchill when I went out, and I was running in pure slush most of the way. The last hundred yards were kind of painful and when I got inside the garage I realized I had incurred a little frost nip again. Not nearly as severe as two months ago--the toes were still red, not white--but today the tips of several toes are a bit painful and sensitive. Dumb. I guess I need to restrict myself to dry or mostly dry surfaces for the rest of this winter. I think my tolerances are at least 5-10 degrees F less (warmer) than they were before late-December's frost nip.