Saturday, January 24, 2009

Making Progress

I went out for a short run this afternoon to see how the hamstring would hold up, and it was largely successful.  Three and a half miles in the trails w/ some moderately hilly terrain.  

The hamstring was certainly stiff in the beginning and I could feel it here and there, but during the 2nd half of the run it seemed OK.  I varied the pace some to see how it would respond, but made sure I didn't go any faster than 6:20 - again it held up fine.  

On the downside, it would seem that my running economy/efficiency was down as the 1.5 miles I ran at 6:30 pace required more effort than I'm used to.  Perhaps my form was slightly altered due to the stiffness in the hamstring.  I'm sure that will come around in time.  

Also, I'm starting to believe that the initial issue came about at least partially due to poor hydration.  When it feels tight, it feels almost like a muscle that has cramped before and then has the propensity to easily cramp again afterwards.  Additionally, a few other muscles have hinted at cramping over the past couple of days.  I wonder if my hydration was down (probably due to the morning coffee - evening pints and repeat!)  which is causing the muscles to cramp up more easily.  Anyway, I'll be sure to hydrate properly over the next week to see if that helps.

Other than that - I can't complain.  Being able to go out for a run only 4-days after what looked like disaster is definitely encouraging.  Hopefully it feels OK tomorrow.

Training:

Sat, 1/24:  3.5 miles @ 6:56 pace  

2 comments:

Ewen said...

It could be hydration Mike. I've had niggly calves on some days, and I put it down to sweating so much in this hot weather (losing salt). It feels like the calves could cramp at any time. On a cooler day, no such problem.

Thanks for your suggestions. I see the hills/sprints as a 'light' session, but I'll monitor that. I want to start with 3 x 10 second hills (for leg strength), and maybe stay with the 4 or 5 x 200m.

The down week could be good - just run easy miles with no workouts or races. For the long intervals, I'm just doing what Geoff sets, which is 3 x 1000 at the moment, but we've been using different parts of the XC course. That looks like increasing to 5 x 1000.

bricey said...

nice to see that you took it 'easy' while testing your hamstring - 6:56 pace!! risky strategy but gald to read that all went well.

dehydration after pints!!! hmmmm ...sounds good