A visit my doctor back home on Monday confirmed what I suspected. Bacterial bronchitis, a pretty bad case. The doc gave me an in-office nebulizer treatment, where you put a mask and breathe this gas that makes you cough up all that crap in your lungs. Then he gave me an inhaler (which I think I used once, because I was afraid of benefiting from the steroids) and some antibiotics. It took a couple days of nice easy jogging, but I finally feel back to normal and I'm looking forward to getting back into real training this week.
Here's my log:
Monday- 8mi jog back in Derry, NH on some muddy, muddy trails. Ran a measured 8 without the watch- but it was laughingly slow.
Tuesday- Measured road 8 through some of Derry's hillier backroads. No watch again, but felt considerably better today. Going up the hills triggered some wet hacking, but, as my doctor pointed out happily, it was a "productive cough" which mean I was spitting up neon green crap from my lungs. Too much info?
Wednesday- 1PM- Back in Boston, ran the 8mi river loop solo, felt like I had progressed by leaps and bounds overnight. The beautiful weather probably helped! 7PM- 4mi river loop solo again, beautiful weather again, felt great, again!
Thursday- 8mi easy up Comm Ave to the BC Res, ran two laps (5k), ran back, added on 5min indoors. Afterward, did a strength circuit- pushups, a bunch of core, some body-weight squats (normal and one-legged), lunges, some back exercises, etc. The actual amount of exercise was so paltry that the soreness I suffered over the next two days was more embarrassing than anything.
Friday- 10am- 9mi out and back with Eric on Comm Ave. Joke as you will, but my ass and quads were DESTROYED from those circuits! 5PM- 4mi barefoot shakeout on the infield of the outdoor track, chilly and windy but not so bad. Did some drills and light strides after to try to work some range of motion back into my protesting butt and legs.
Saturday- 11AM- 9mi easy, some warming up with the guys doing a workout, some on the river with Peter.
Sunday 6PM- Total downpour in Boston! I went to the St. Patrick's Day Parade with two teammates and got soaked and miserable. James, Eric, and I decided to run inside at FitRec with the civilians. We had to choose our poison- Eric ran the whole time on the dreadmill, I ran on the 1/7th of a mile indoor track for 63' min, and James did half n' half. No one particularly enjoyed themselves :)
Totals:
67 Miles
9 runs
2 Strength/Core Circuits
1 Set of Drils
Onto Outdoor track!
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lies, i loved every second of it
ReplyDeletehow long would you recommend holding your peak mileage from base? ex: you run 75 miles a week during base and your peak race is in 2-2.5 months, stay around 70 until 2 weeks out from your peak race?
ReplyDeleteand would you keep your mileage at 70 the whole time, or can down weeks be necessary (cut down to 50-55 one week or something)?
and what are your thoughts on long runs? i saw a thread on letsrun that was similar to me, that is the long run is usually only 15, maybe 16-17% of my total mileage. that is, it is the longest individual run but not the most miles on the day due to doubles.
ReplyDeleteJJ-
ReplyDeleteI don't think your volume should peak when you're doing your base conditioning. If you work up to 75 in the summer, you should be running about that during the season. "Peak" volume shouldn't matter too much, anyway- most of your weeks should be around there. If I was running 75 miles a week in the summer, I would run about the same or even slightly more in the season. Down weeks happen naturally- when you're tuckered out, you jog 5mi instead of doing 10, or you take a day off, or you take two days real light instead of easy doubles, etc.
This summer I "peaked" at 97mi (but had, I think 8 weeks over 90). This cross-country season I ran about 90 most weeks, but when workouts or school or whatever caught up to me, I'd take a day or two really light and the mileage would obviously be lower. My point is that there's no reason to drastically change what you're doing. In XC, you're training for a 3-6mi race if you're a guy. You're not going to see a drastic change in energy levels by "tapering." In fact, deviating from your body's routine might just throw everything out of whack.
Regarding long runs, I think it's hilarious that people insist you should put ONE FOURTH of your entire mileage for the week in one day, regardless of your event! For marathoners, yeah, sure- but that's because the long run is often combined with a workout for marathoners. I think 15% is about all you need, unless you're a marathoner. Bill Squires, the GBTC coach (Rodgers, Hodge, Fleming, Meyer, Beardsley, etc) told some teammates of mine that unless you're training for a race longer than 10mi, doing runs over 14 miles is optional. It's more important that you establish consistent volume and get in good workouts specific to the needs of your event. My long run is usually only about 13-14 miles, even when my mileage is near 100.