week of injury crosstraining + what big sur’s postponement means to me

Life is just so weird right now. I’m sure that musing is nothing new on the scope of the Internet, but I can’t not assure everyone that I am not immune to the goings-on of this month. Among the uncertainty and oddity I’ve ebbed between hopeful and hopeless. My leg still hurts far too much to run, though with some PT moves I started to use a few days ago, I’m noticing a bit of improvement. Still, however, I feel scrunched and locked up. The outdoors, in a sweaty workout sense, are out of my reach.

Big Sur was officially postponed this week, the new date and procedures still undecided. In a way, I’m relieved because it offers more time for me to regain my health and train conservatively sans pressure to perform to what my body is able to do in a shortened period. The bigger question, though, is whether I want to run a marathon in the fall. Such means training within the brutal Florida summer, and I don’t know if my systems can handle that much volume in such stifling conditions. If Big Sur gives us the option of deferring to next year, J and I both agreed that is likely how we’ll make up for the lost race. I’ve made a mental point to try and zone train properly when I return to full running form, or leastwise with much more mindfulness to effort and heart rate.

I guess I’m both sad and happy, but the negative response is aimed more at J and how hard he’s trained so far with nothing concrete to show for it. We’re playing with setting up a local fun run, maybe a 10 miler or half marathon or so, for those with cancelled longer-distance races who want to get in the fresh air and have some fun at one of the local parks (with social distancing enacted, of course). I lately have itched to run again, but my body is clearly not ready. Tough times we face, but we’ll get through them, right?

Monday, 3/9: 80 min cycling

The purpose of this workout was, as several of my cycling sessions are, to establish good cadence habits and familiarize myself with heart rate zones and the correlating perceived efforts. I find that I can talk okay in most HR zones on the bike, except 5 (VO2 Max) – my muscular engagement begins to dwindle more quickly than my breath. Not sure if this points to an ineffective workout of if that’s just where my RPE is most notable, but something I’ve noticed.

I’ve yet to hit 90 RPM on my trainer, but I wonder if that relates more to the difficulty of wheeling stationary or if I simply haven’t mastered the cadence. Either way, I’m happy with the result of this workout – 82 average, mostly hovering between 84 and 87.

After an easy 10 minute warmup, I biked 60 minutes aiming towards 80+ RPM and maintaining zone 3. I crept into zone 4 by the end since keeping a high turnover proved quite challenging after 30 minutes or so. During the hour, I threw in 6 x 1 minutes at a harder gear to freshen my legs. Cooled down for 10 minutes to reach 80 total.

Tuesday, 3/10: 2,500y swim (48:56) + 80 min cycling

If you read last week’s training post, you’ll see that on this day I received an official diagnosis on my knee: pes anserine bursitis. Doc was shockingly not as morbid about my future regarding the marathon as I thought he’d be. Monday night I discovered that all the shorter distances during Big Sur weekend were sold out, which internally caused me to relent to not running at all during our trip. I’m still wary of marathon training given my lack of success with it this past month, but my doctor’s words gave me a bit of hope that a moderately good finishing time may not be out of the question.

Swam before sunrise today. The yacht basin looked so peaceful under distance hazy city lamps. Reminded me why I love running early so much: the slowly blooming light, the serenity of a world not yet awake.

Swim:

• 200y easy pull warmup
• 4 x 50 moderate, breath every 2-4-6-8 strokes
• 3 x (25-50-75-100-150-100-75-50-25)
• 150y easy pull cooldown

Cycling:

• 10 min easy warmup
• 45 minute zone 3/85+ RPM
• 15 min high zone 4
• 10 min easy cooldown

Wednesday, 3/11: 90 min cycling intervals + 50 min Pilates + 30 min cycling

Another instance where I felt far from motivated to hit the weight room, so I formulated a solid core session with some leg-focused moves mixed in. I’m not supposed to introduce heavy workloads to my leg for a few days, so I modified some moves I typically insert into strength sessions for the resistance band. Still burned. Still satisfying. My knee pain is so much improved, I even did some jump squats with only mild discomfort! Didn’t dip too low and didn’t jump too high, but I haven’t performed pain-free plyometrics in over a month. This was monumental! Chatted with J for a half hour while I spun on Pittor for some light cadence work.

Cycling #1

• 10 min easy warmup
• 30 min zone 3/90+ RPM with 4 x 2 min zone 4 sprinkled in
• 5 x 5 min 60-70 RPM, harder gear (maintain effort in zone 3)
• 10 min easy cooldown

Cycling #2:

• 30 min zone 2 @ 90+ RPM

Pilates:

• 3 x 20 banded leg drops
• 3 x 20 expanding tabletops
• :90 head-up forearm plank * to help neck strength while cycling
• 3 x 20 mermaid leg lifts
• 3 x 20 plie squat pulses
• :90 head-up forearm plank
• 3 x 25 banded lateral leg lifts
• 3 x 20 single-arm banded row
• :90 head-up forearm plank
• 3 x 20 scapular expansions
• 3 x 20 band deadlift
• 20 bodyweight jump squats + :60 head-up forearm plank
• 3 x 20 band single-leg deadlift
• 3 x 20 plank hip drops
• 20 bodyweight jump squats + :60 head-up forearm plank
• :60 banded bent over row burnout
• 15 min cooldown stretch

Thursday, 3/12: 60 min elliptical intervals + 3,000y swim (1:03:55)

I’d avoided the elliptical for a spell to give my leg more space to heal, but felt well enough to try it after my appointment. I’d say it went well! I kept the tempo pretty mellow during the intervals. Wrapped up the day with a post-work swim that refreshed my body, but it got HOT out. Summer is upon us, it seems.

Elliptical:

• 10 min hands free warmup
• 4 x 8 min light tempo (level 5-6)/3 min hands free recovery
• 6 min hands free cooldown

Swim:

• 200y pull warmup
• 4 x 100y with breathwork
• 800y steady
• 600y steady
• 400y steady
• 200y steady
• 2 x 100y steady
• 200y cooldown

Friday, 3/13: 3,000y swim (1:00:40) + 40 min Pilates

We heard the news about Big Sur’s postponement this day. I think I’m using the virus uncertainty as an excuse to avoid the gym and heavy lifting, as once again I opted for a sweaty Pilates session after lunch. I’m earning much satisfaction from these bodyweight and resistance band sessions. I’m sore after each one!

Swim:

• 200y easy freestyle
• 300 pull with breathwork
• 4 x 100 strong (1:55, 1:55, 1:52, 1:54)
• 6 x 50 fast (:52-:54)
• 2 x 200 pull (4:16, 4:14)
• 6 x 50 fast (:53-:54)
• 4 x 100 strong (1:57, 1:54, 1:55, 1:54)
• 2 x 200 pull (4:13, 4:15)
• 4 x 50 fast (:53-:56)
• 100y easy freestyle

Pilates:

• 20 jump squats
• 3 x 20 inclined banded glute bridge
• 3 x 20/leg banded donkey kicks
• 3 x 15 split squats
• 20 jump squats
• 3 x 15 knee pushups
• 3 x 20 bird dogs
• 3 x 20 band pull-downs
• 20 jump squats
• 3 x 30 banded bicycle kicks
• 3 x 20 band step-outs
• 3 x 25 hydrants
• 20 jump squats
• 3 x 30 eccentric calf raises
• :60 plank

Saturday, 3/15: 135 min cycling + 2,300y swim (45:14)

Out of bed and onto Pittor after discovering a HUGE, dying roach in our kitchen. J thankfully took care of it once he awakened because I was not about to get near it. Soon after breakfast, I put some bread to rise and went for a swim, which would up being the perfect duration to let the dough hang and become super poofy. Best loaf I’ve EVER concocted.

Cycling:

• 5 min warmup
• 30 min 80-85 RPM/zone 3
• 2 x 5 min 90+ RPM/3 min 60-70 RPM
• 10 min 80-85 RPM/zone 3
• 4 x 7 min zone 4/3 min easy
• 13 min 80-85 RPM/zone 3
• 2 x 5 min 90+ RPM/3 min 60-70 RPM
• 5 min cooldown

Swim:

• 200y easy
• 100y pull
• 4 x 25y push
• 400y steady (7:56)
• 4 x 150y, first and last 25y hard, the rest steady
• 300y steady
• 2 x 200y steady
• 200y easy

This turned out to be my final swim for the discernible future – the city closed all of the pools Sunday afternoon.

Sunday, 3/16: 90 min elliptical intervals

I wasn’t very into this workout mentally, but finished anyhow. During work that morning we learned of our lobby closure and operating procedures, and the rest of the day I felt kind of hollow and strange. My evening yoga class helped coax me out of the funk, though: I taught seven regulars and I even improvised part of the flow successfully when I realized I was way under my allotted time. Creating a sacred space in nature with some wonderful humans helped up my mood significantly.

• 10 min warmup
• 20 min zone 3/level 4
• 10 x 2 min lvl 7-8/2 min easy
• 15 min zone 3
• 5 min cooldown

Total training hours: 14.55