Training Recap #11 as of Apr 21, 2019

Training recap #11 covers two weeks from April 8 to April 21, 2019. During the previous training session #10, I only ran 18 miles on 6 days with an injury preventing me from running the planned 40 miles.

Training Period #11 Goals

The goals are simple. Professionally diagnose my injury, prepare a recovery plan, and continue with non-running activities, including core, strength, flexibility, until I can resume running.

Week 1: More Boot

• On Monday, April 8, I had an X-ray at Orthopedic and Neurosurgery Specialists in Greenwich, CT, which – as is usually the case with stress reactions – was negative.
• The MRI was scheduled for Saturday, April 13, and in the meantime, I continued wearing the Aircast boot.
• In lieu of running, I cross-trained on my Sole spin bike for an aggregate 2 hours on 3 days, including covering 50K in 70 minutes on Sunday.
• I also crushed 3 strength and core training sessions (each about 2 hours) during the week.

Week 2: Unexpected Good News

• On Monday morning, I received a call I wasn’t expecting: the MRI was negative. Yay! I do not have a stress reaction, and there is nothing abnormal in the MRI. Unfortunately, I don’t know the root cause of the metatarsal pain.
• On Tuesday, the boot was put back in the closet, and I resumed running.
• For the week, I ran 21 miles on 6 days, including a 5 mile “longish” run on Easter Sunday, followed by 20 minutes on the spin bike.
• On Wednesday and Friday, I ran aerobic threshold workouts, meaning that I ran a pace I could sustain for about 30 minutes. Each of the days, I ran 3 miles on Waveny trails and averaged 7:30 pace. Each was a progression run, with Wednesday’s splits being 8:11, 7:13, 7:06, and Friday’s splits being 8:03, 7:17, 7:23.
• I completed 4 strength and core training sessions, and am starting to see gains in strength, mobility and flexibility when I run.

Back to Running

• Started training session #11 expecting to wear a boot and not run, and completed the session having run 21 miles the 2nd week. Better than the other way around!
• Looking forward to training session #12, and running with confidence that I don’t have a stress reaction.