Great Run, time to fix the knee
Saturday's run: Long Run of 19.7 miles at 8:38 pace
40 miles this week. Marathon is 11 weeks from today!
Again, I'd like to wax rhapsodic about the K-Stars Running Club.
The plan for the weekend was to run a 7 mile General Aerobic and an 18 mile Long Run. The thing about an 18 mile run is that one doesn't typically show up at 9am with the group assembled and say "I'm going 18 miles today" and find that a handful of others will spontaneously decide to join. First: that's a long run, so one needs to be prepared for it (water, fuel). Second, it'll take a long time, so one needs to wrap their day around it. Third, you'd get
back so late that everyone else will be gone from brunch.
So to get this done, I emailed the club alias and arranged with Grethe and Owen to start early and go 18 miles, and to be met by Rachel along the way. I announced the plan back to the alias, and got a late Friday night email from Chris. Saturday morning, while stretching, I saw Galen approach (quite a nice surprise: as he doesn't like to get up so early and didn't indicate on Thursday that he was even considering the long run Saturday).
So six of us headed out together along a route that Galen directed, one that provided a stunning panoramic view at the peak in Fort Funston. It involved a loop around Lake Merced, ascent into Fort Funston, and the usual Golden Gate Park / Great Highway.
It was just fantastic to have all that many people to talk with along the way, laughing about this and that, taking in advice from Owen (who wrote and published Running for Fitness), and Grethe (who has run 15 marathons). Also, I was pleased to try an Energy Gel that was easy to consume and didn't taste so awful.
The only downside, if you could call it that, is that Galen's route wound up being close to 20 miles instead of the intended 18.
Well, the other downside is that my knee is definitely in trouble. For about half the run, I was aware of the inflamation of the plica, and the feeling of the ligament sliding against that inflamaiton. For some minutes, there was actual pain involved. It has reached the point where I need to rest it (in addition to ice and ibuprofen).
• • •
The question now is: how much rest do I give it. Pfitzinger and Douglas have little to say about injuries, other than to not come back too soon from them, and that if you take time out for them, you can hop back on to your schedule so long as your off-time isn't so great (specifically, more than 10 days). Here was my plan for the next week, including today:
Wednesday, I'm thinking I'll do a 3-6 mile Recovery run, just to see if things are getting better. From there, I'll have to decide about Friday through Sunday. I'm disinclined to skip the Lactate Threshold Run, but I might have to. I'm less inclined to do the long run, since I basically already hit the 20 mile mark thanks to Galen's route yesterday (seriously: I'm looking at this as a benefit: had it only been 18, I'd feel like I needed to take that step up).
I'll just have to see how this week goes.
40 miles this week. Marathon is 11 weeks from today!
Again, I'd like to wax rhapsodic about the K-Stars Running Club.
The plan for the weekend was to run a 7 mile General Aerobic and an 18 mile Long Run. The thing about an 18 mile run is that one doesn't typically show up at 9am with the group assembled and say "I'm going 18 miles today" and find that a handful of others will spontaneously decide to join. First: that's a long run, so one needs to be prepared for it (water, fuel). Second, it'll take a long time, so one needs to wrap their day around it. Third, you'd get
back so late that everyone else will be gone from brunch.So to get this done, I emailed the club alias and arranged with Grethe and Owen to start early and go 18 miles, and to be met by Rachel along the way. I announced the plan back to the alias, and got a late Friday night email from Chris. Saturday morning, while stretching, I saw Galen approach (quite a nice surprise: as he doesn't like to get up so early and didn't indicate on Thursday that he was even considering the long run Saturday).
So six of us headed out together along a route that Galen directed, one that provided a stunning panoramic view at the peak in Fort Funston. It involved a loop around Lake Merced, ascent into Fort Funston, and the usual Golden Gate Park / Great Highway.
It was just fantastic to have all that many people to talk with along the way, laughing about this and that, taking in advice from Owen (who wrote and published Running for Fitness), and Grethe (who has run 15 marathons). Also, I was pleased to try an Energy Gel that was easy to consume and didn't taste so awful.
The only downside, if you could call it that, is that Galen's route wound up being close to 20 miles instead of the intended 18.
Well, the other downside is that my knee is definitely in trouble. For about half the run, I was aware of the inflamation of the plica, and the feeling of the ligament sliding against that inflamaiton. For some minutes, there was actual pain involved. It has reached the point where I need to rest it (in addition to ice and ibuprofen).
• • •
The question now is: how much rest do I give it. Pfitzinger and Douglas have little to say about injuries, other than to not come back too soon from them, and that if you take time out for them, you can hop back on to your schedule so long as your off-time isn't so great (specifically, more than 10 days). Here was my plan for the next week, including today:
- Sunday: 7 miles General Aerobic plus Strides
- Monday: Rest (softball game)
- Tuesday: 6 miles Recovery plus Strides
- Wednesday: 12 miles General Aerobic
- Thursday: Rest
- Friday: 11 miles including 6 miles Lactate Threshold
- Saturday: 5 miles Recovery
- Sunday: 20 miles Long Run
Wednesday, I'm thinking I'll do a 3-6 mile Recovery run, just to see if things are getting better. From there, I'll have to decide about Friday through Sunday. I'm disinclined to skip the Lactate Threshold Run, but I might have to. I'm less inclined to do the long run, since I basically already hit the 20 mile mark thanks to Galen's route yesterday (seriously: I'm looking at this as a benefit: had it only been 18, I'd feel like I needed to take that step up).
I'll just have to see how this week goes.
posted by Brent at
11:58 AM
1 Comments:
Again, sorry to hear about the knee... at least you know what you're up against. I'd encourage you not to get down on yourself -- just take the time off that you need, and take it a bit easier going forward. You'll do great!
By
Anonymous, at 11:25 AM
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