Thursday, January 22, 2009

Injury Update

I went to the CMT today and got the best possible news - there's no real injury - no tear, pull or strain.  In fact, she couldn't determine that anything was damaged at all.  I went through a series of tests and stretches and there was no pain anywhere.

However, there was considerable tightness in one of the hamstring muscles on the right leg (as it turns out I have similar tightness in the same muscle on the left side) and she worked on loosening them up.

What appears to have happened was the exertion of that high turnover 200m triggered a muscle cramp, which then went into spasm and simply locked up.  So essentially the muscle forced me to stop before an actual injury occurred.  (so glad my muscles have more brains than I do!)

Being that I have similar tightness on the left side, it could just as easily have been the left leg that had the problem, so I'll need to be careful.  Another tidbit - the next day (Wednesday) my left quad was really stiff, and as it turns out it too was a casualty of that sprint.  There's a good sized knot in the left quad which she worked on as well, and hopefully w/ some rolling that can be improved.  

The good news here is that in a couple of days, I should be able to resume running, and if all goes well I hope to be back into workouts by Wednesday of next week.  Of course I'll need to be careful on anything faster that 30-second/200m pace - and under no circumstances will I be attempting the 25-26 second 200m stuff.  It's really not necessary for 800m training anyway.  I was hoping to crank one out to determine where I might be in regards to running the 400m in the summer which was not particularly smart w/ a race coming up.  The speed training had been going so well I was thinking if I could run a 26-flat 200m now, that I might be able to get it down to 25 or so by the spring, which would translate to a 54-flat quarter, yada yada yada - dumb move.  

If I can't run by Saturday I'll be heading to the gym to x-train on the bike or elliptical  After that I'll play it by ear but I'm really hoping to start back up again very very soon!

Training:  

Wed, 1/21:  Off (scheduled)

Thurs, 1/22:  Off (unscheduled)  Appointment w/ CMT:  hamstrings, quads.

 

4 comments:

Ewen said...

That's good news Mike. A workout by Wednesday is more than I expected.

Re your comment on the previous post... the secret for me will be bringing the speed/long intervals along while keeping the mileage ticking over. Being an endurance-type 3k runner I notice a drop-off in condition if my average miles drop too low. In fact I'd probably run better with a few more miles (av 100k a week instead of 80), but work makes that difficult.

What I found interesting about Shaheed's 5k training were the four 10 milers per week and only one track session. Not sure if that's typical or if he'd have slightly different weeks for mile racing.

Mike said...

I'll probably ease back slowly in regards to pace - first workout might be a tempo run, then a long interval session, and faster reps only of the other two don't cause any problems.

I've had some flare ups in he quads before, and tempo pace doesn't bother them even when they're not close to 100%. Typically as long as I'm not close to sprinting they're OK. The hamstring issue is new to me however, so I'm not sure how it's going to respond.

I don't know that much about Shaheed aside from his times. He hasn't done the 5k much until last two years, so maybe he's added more endurance training for the 5k?

Do you think the quality of the mileage would make a difference? For example, run closer to tempo pace twice a week along w/ one long run and one interval session? (as opposed to several slower runs w/ one interval session)

Ewen said...

His training may have changed, and you can't say much from a two-week schedule. In this 2006 interview he ran periodised training, with mileage followed by speed.

In the Running Times interview his 10 mile runs were at 6.40-6.50 pace, so not dawdling, but not that fast for a bloke who can run 5:23 pace for 5k.

He has natural speed, so maybe he doesn't have to stay in touch with that. The 20 x 200 in 32-35 with 30 secs rest was more of a speed-endurance session than a speed session.

Mike said...

Thanks for the article. The most impressive thing I read in there were the long interval sessions. Mile repeats at 5-minute pace w/ just 3-minutes in between - eventually working up to 6 or 7 reps.

I haven't had a period yet where the primary focus is the long intervals, but that will change during the build up to the summer season.

It seems Shaheed approaches the 800m from more of a 800m/1500m angle than a 400m/800m. A guy like Jim Sorensen goes the other route - I guess it just depends on your individual strengths and weaknesses. (Sorensen now holds the outdoor WR in the 800m and 1500m in the 40-44 division: 1:50.3, and 3:44)

I guess this is what makes middle distance so interesting to me. That whole combination of speed, strength, power, and endurance. You can't be just a speed guy or just an endurance athlete - that won't get it done. You have to figure out the best way to train your own body working every running system in some combination that maximizes your strengths while improving your weaknesses. It's really a lot of fun!