FIRST THREE BACK

Alright, so I took those two full weeks off, and now have come back and ran three times in the last week. Did it work? Let's explore...

So just based on the raw numbers, you'd think I didn't improve all that much. My heart rate is still entirely too high for my pace. My watch is still giving me long recovery period suggestions and saying my effort is basically maxing out. So in that sense, I haven't improved at all. The question then becomes, did I not solve the root problem and thus didn't get any better; OR, am I just out of shape now? I am definitely leaning toward the out of shape answer.

While my watch stats are coming out similar, I can tell you with certainty, my body feels LIGHT YEARS different when I am out there running. When I was struggling before, each run felt like a monumental effort. My legs were heavy and had no spring. My energy levels were zapped. The last two miles of six mile runs were torture. Afterward, my legs would feel sore and weak for days. Just walking up the stairs burned. I don't remember my cardio being the main hurdle, although I'm sure it wasn't great. My body just felt like garbage.

Compare that to after the break. My body feels fine! It feels like it would during normal times. The runs are no longer a monumental effort that leaves me drained. The main problem these first few runs back seems to be my cardio. It is labored. The 10:30 pace feels harder than it should, not because of my legs not having spring, but because I'm breathing way too hard for the effort. Basically, I haven't had a good cardio effort since Zena. I was slogging around due to my legs. I then took two weeks off. I basically didn't have a decent cardio workout for six weeks. So now that I'm back, I'm just frankly out of shape.

The biggest thing leading me to this conclusion is the way my body feels after a run. It feels fine. It feels normal again. My muscles aren't dead. My legs don't burn with any effort the next day. Miles five and six yesterday felt no more difficult than the previous miles. I finished the run and still had a spring in my step. I'm not sore today. So while my watch is telling me not much has changed, I know a lot has changed. I'm not going to rush back into anything, just in case I'm still finishing up some healing of some sort, but I think I'm in shape to run again. I'm not going to push it, just two four mile runs during the week, and then one longer run on the weekend.

Also, I am ignoring the old 80/20 method (aka "run slower to get faster") for now. I believe deeply in that once you are in shape. But if you're out of shape... it'll take six months pussy footing around with your heart rate to even get partially back to where you were. When I first started running, it was simple. Three times a week, three miles. Fast as I could go. When you are running low mileage, it works. I think that'll get me into shape a lot quicker. Once I am somewhat back to my normal shape, where a 10:30 pace is an easier effort, I can go back to that motto. For now, I need to push my cardio a bit in low mileage to get my speed back. It wasn't that long ago I was in pretty decent shape. I'm thinking it should come back with some sustained effort.

So that's the update! I definitely feel much better and my struggles now seem to be a result of poor cardio due to the time off. I'll keep monitoring things as I go though!

SHAMROCK SHOULD HAVE BEEN TODAY...

Well, thanks to the novel coronavirus COVID-19, the Shamrock Run was cancelled. And while a global pandemic is not cool, the fact the race was cancelled was kind of a relief. I was going to go jog the 8k and basically reset my recovery period. Instead, I am a week into a two week abstinence period without the need to reset the clock! So in another week, I will try to get back out there.

I will say that I'm feeling much better! The time off is definitely helping to improve things. My muscles have loosened up, my back feels normal again, I can go up stairs without my calves burning... it's great! I think another week will only help to improve that. I did go on a walk today, my first real exercise in a week, and it felt really good. Only two miles, I didn't want to overdo it, but my body seemed to react really well. Now, if I'm sore or something tomorrow, bad news. But getting a little blood pumping around can only help aid the recovery process, right?

So anyways, that's the update! Hoping the virus will clear in time for the Pittsburgh Half but we'll see. This country only really got serious about things on a federal level Friday and it's going to get worse before it gets better. So we'll see where we are in a few weeks! Hopefully we can avoid an Italy type situation.

SHUTTING IT DOWN 2020 STYLE

Last time I ran the 8k!

So, I officially changed my Shamrock Entry from the 15k to the 8k. I probably should have done the 5k, but that started at 8:00am, while the 8k starts at 10:20... anyways, 8k it is! I actually ran the 8k back in 2017 with Brandon when I was first getting treated for my psoriatic arthritis. I was very out of shape and hadn't ran five miles consecutively in a long time, but I was able to jog the whole thing at a 10:21 pace. Anyways, this time around I don't figure to be much faster, but I should still be able to set a PR. Silver lining!

Basically my run this weekend, six miles like the previous two weekends, did not go better than they had been. My watch said 3.5 days of recovery, which was not an improvement. My legs felt worn down toward the end of the run. My heart rate was once again way too high for the pace I was running. Same shit, different day. Nothing has fundamentally changed since the symptoms started. My plan to run "lightly" has not resulted in me getting better. I've only been running twice a week, ten miles total... but I guess that's too much. My calves are SORE today. From a six mile run at 10:30! The hell!

I've determined, even if it sounds ridiculous, I caused some major damage in my muscles with my Miami/Zena back to back combo. Basically my legs are were they are at after a marathon. If I try to run through it, things don't get better. I need to take time off and allow them to heal. I keep re-damaging them on these short, light jogs. Which is just ridiculous. I mean, come on. But my body has spoken. I don't know if my disease or my medication makes me heal slower than the average person, but whatever it is, I have to listen to my body, ridiculous as it may sound.

It's just very frustrating. I believe I was in 1:44 half marathon shape before Miami. I had done the best I had done in a long time at staying trained through the winter. I felt strong. The hope was to continue to get faster this late winter and spring so I could start my marathon training ahead of where I was last year. I had no idea a hilly 15k race would completely fuck my shit up. But whatever, it did. And I think I'm going to have to take two weeks off to allow my body to catch back up.

Ugh. So annoying! I am going to be running the Pittsburgh Half in early May and I was hoping to get a sub 1:45 there. That's not happening. I'll be lucky to get under two hours at this rate. This break is really going to put me behind the 8-ball. I've essentially been spinning my wheels for a month, and now I'm going to take two weeks off. You can't do jack shit for six weeks and not lose a bunch of fitness. So yeah.

Anyways the plan is to run the 8k on Sunday and then shut it down for two weeks. Gah.

HIT BY A TRUCK

So, I have not felt great for the last three weeks. Zena seemed to really fuck me up. I don't know if it was actually Zena, or something else is going on, but my training in February was completely derailed. I am still not feeling back to normal and Shamrock is next weekend. I am almost certainly staring a new Shamrock PW in the face there and I don't know if it would be even smart to actually race it at this point.

What happened? Well, I gave it my all at Zena, one week after Miami. Now, my legs were still a little tired from Miami, but seemingly not bad at all. Zena just completely destroyed my body though. I had Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness from it, peaking on the Tuesday after the race. I was legitimately limping around due to the way my muscles were feeling. My lower back specifically was really fucked up and in a lot of pain. I am not sure if it was from the pounding on the downhills of Zena or what, but it was pretty bad.

How I feel.

Eventually the soreness faded but my lower back remained in pain and overall I was just really tight. I did some stretching and took some hot baths, which would relieve things temporarily, but eventually I'd go back to feeling crummy. When I'd go for a run, my legs would have no "pop." It feels a lot like the month after the marathon. I might feel great otherwise, but there is no spring in my step. Runs that should be easy are hard. We're talking about half marathon heart rate levels for a four mile run at 10:30/mile.

I also got a cold after Zena (or COVID-19?)... I'm wondering if it was just an opportunistic thing with my body broken down from the race. That's been slowly getting better but I have been a little stuffed up since the race. Overall my body just kind of feels like it got hit by a truck and it really doesn't make sense. A 15k shouldn't do that to me. Even one a week after a hard half marathon effort. I dunno. It's just really annoying.

Things are slowly getting better. A six mile run the week after Zena was super hard and my watch said I overextended myself and I would need a full 4 days to recover (this was at like 10:30 pace, mind you). The same run the next weekend was again overextending myself but this time it only said I needed three days of recovery. So things are slowly getting better. But here we are three weeks removed and I still feel like 50% fucked up.

So that's been really frustrating. Should I have just stopped running for two weeks and did some intensive stretching and cross training? Probably. My strategy of sitting around and then running twice a week isn't really working. I think in the end I just pushed my body too hard. I was still recovering from the Miami Half, even if I felt pretty decent, then I went and pounded out some terrain I was not properly trained for. It sent me into a tail spin I have not fully recovered from.

The good news is I don't think it has anything to do with my psoriatic arthritis. Unlike my "breakdown" in 2016, my knees feel great! My back hurting is due to tight/knotted muscles, not inflammation in the joint. I think if I did some yoga and pool jogging I'd be back at 100% within two weeks. However, that isn't going to happen. So the question is, while my improvement is slow, how long until I am back to normal? What do I do about Shamrock next week? If I try hard, how far does it set me back? Is it even worth it?

I think I'm going to go run six miles miles, just like the last two weekends. Hopefully my "recovery time" is less than the 3 days it said last weekend. And then do I just take a week off before Shamrock? Do I switch to the 5k and just fun run it to protect my recovery? I don't know.