The last time I made a training update was the week of the Hendricks County Half… so somewhere around 6 weeks ago. I ran well at that race and was feeling good about the remainder of the IMM cycle.
The day after the race I set out for a 10 mile recovery run and noticed that my Achilles was feeling little off. I had some Achilles issues in Feb ’14 so I was very aware of what that feeling represented. The course on Saturday was rolling and I ran hard so combine that with the mileage I had been putting in the previous 6 weeks my calves were ripe for tightness which was now manifesting itself in the form of Achilles soreness. Finished the run and thought…well lets see what I can do with this Achilles. I was close enough to IMM that I didn’t want to set it down and figured I could manage through.
The next week (Sept 15 – 21) , I continued running my normal schedule and just tried to monitor the Achilles. One day it would be great and one day it would be sore. Lots of ice, calf stretches and strengthening. The general theme of the week was that it was not getting any better.
So after 61 straight days of running, I decided to take the weekend off. Fine…no big deal. Let’s see what some rest does. 51 miles for the week.
It helped. I started running again for the week of Sept 22-28. Week started out nicely. Did my workout and mid-week long run in no problem but the Achilles was continuing to fester. Figured I better get this addressed. I called Melody, who worked my Achilles in February, and set up an appt. She does an awesome job and put me through some serious ART/trigger point work…so much so that I was resigned to a giant bucket of ice for a couple of day trying to imagine the inflammation and flushing the crap out. Another day off this week and reduced volume for the weekend. 63 miles for the week.
Sept 29 – Oct 5 – Returned to normalish training. 6 runs. Took a day off during the week due to work blahness and month end. Went and saw Pearl Jam in St. Louis!! Hello! Great show. Great show. Had a nice long run in Monroe County on Sunday. Strong hills. Felt good. 21 miles total. Finished the week with 72 miles.
Oct 6 – 12 – Completely normal training. Achilles felt good. About 80 miles total for the week and my last 20+ long run. Did 22 on Saturday with a pickup over the last 6 miles. The way the week prior and this week fell with the long run I hit 101 miles in a 7 day period for the first time ever. 100 miles.
On Sunday, took another day off as Lindsey and I spectated the Chicago Marathon. Great day of watching people race left me feeling ready to go for IMM. Pretty sure it gave Lindsey some serious envy and desire to get back out there…but the whole thing with having a baby in January will delay that a little. I have no doubt she’ll be flying come IMM 2015…I’m trying to build her up to believe see can go sub 3…which she totally can.
Oct 13 – 19 – Technically the first taper week. Volume is coming back down now. Good week. Solid 10 mile cut down run on Wednesday. Moving from 7:56 to 6:05 over the course of the miles. I really enjoy the cut down run. We were then in Bloomington for the entire weekend as Lindsey had all of her family in town seeing her Grandma so I naturally took advantage and ran with Scott two times.
Friday – 19 miles total. 4 with Lindsey and then 15 with Scott with a 40 minute steady/tempo workout. Not gonna lie I was very happy to have the 40 minutes come to an end. I was feeling tired coming into the workout + the hills left him gapping me by 15 secs at the end. Solid hill work.
We followed that up with a Sunday long run on the hills. 17 miles through rollers and the Monroe County countryside. Scott’s getting ready for The North Face 50 mile championship in San Fran the 1st week of December and just came off a 2nd place at the Barkley’s Fall Classic…insane. Seriously Google the race. Hardcore. So he took it easy on me Sunday. It was a nice long run. I’m excited to see him race in December. He’s looking in great form and will do Indiana well in California. 75 total miles for the week.
Current week the taper is really starting to kick in. Reduced volume. Probably land around 50-55 miles for the week. I had a short workout on Thursday. 6×800 at the cross country course. Hit about 2:45 per repeat. I was happy with the effort on the grass. Pretty much all easy running from here out. Probably run with Lindsey on Saturday and then do 12-13 on Sunday.
My legs are starting to feel better but can still feel that fatigue. Come next week…I’ll be ready. That’s why you taper, right? Feeling good about the race and ready to show Indy what’s up.
Maybe next week I’ll blog about the cycle in general and my goals for the race. We’ll see how motivated I am.
Are you ready for Indy Monumental?