A week of recovery

Last Sunday I fought the root and the root won, forcing me into a layoff from running on Monday and Tuesday. The thigh was very sore and I was limping on Monday and Tuesday, much less so on Wednesday. On Tuesday morning I went to the gym and divided an hour between the bike and X-trainer (perhaps aka an elliptical trainer). I much prefer the X-trainer to the bike. Getting the heart rate up to a respectable level on the bike causes a sort of burning in the butt. Not the most pleasant of sensations. However I will persist with it in measured doses to see if my butt becomes conditioned to the stress that biking places on it. The other painful thing was that I couldn't get the little personalized TV on the bike to work. Apparently the volume button is a poor substitute for the power button.

On Wednesday evening I went to the track to make my first attempt at running. It went alright. I kept my ambitions very low and just toddled around at whatever pace felt tolerable. I ended up chalking up 11 km, so it wasn't too bad. I think it was good for the leg too as I was much less sore on Thursday.

Thursday. Last day of work before a week's break for New Year holidays. I resolved to give the leg(s) another day of rest from running, but hit the gym again in the afternoon prior to our office break-up party (pizza, sushi, and beer; what more could you ask for? What's that? Yakitori you say? Yes, there was some of that too). The biggest achievement in the gym was that I worked out which button made the TV work. Yaay. But alas, if only there were something worth watching. I did 20 minutes on the bike, 25 minutes on the X-trainer, and about 12 minutes ( 2.3 km) on the treadmill. I know I said no running, but I couldn't help myself.

Friday. Home on holiday I started off by sleeping about 12 hours. Lounged around with the family for an hour or two and then finally headed out for a run. The program I had made up last Saturday night (the night before the fall) scheduled 14 km with 3 x 1600 m intervals. Now, this schedule was put together to try and give my knee a better chance of recovery by cutting some days of running, mainly the shorter runs, to have three key running workouts per week: a long run on Sunday, a longish upper aerobic (race pace) run on Wednesday night, and long intervals or a tempo run on Fridays. The other days would be spent in rest or at the gym. I don't know if it will work or not but it is worth a try. Anyway, I ran to my nearest park that has a running course and being not too hampered by the leg launched into the 3 x 1600s with 500 m jog recovery. It was a bit taxing running hard after such a break, but I kept the level of effort within reasonable limits and was pleased with the times of 6:07, 6:04, and 6:07.

Saturday (today). Well, after that reasonably hard run yesterday, it was always going to be tough heading out today for a long run. But head out for a long run I did. I left home at 7:15 am. It was a bright, fine morning, but very cool or cold, depending on your standards. I guess it  was about 2 or 3 degrees. I ran to Tamagawa (Tama river) and turned left until the pedometer registered 15 km, just short of Gas Bashi, for those that know it. It had been very comfortable and I'd been motoring along at a bit better that 5 minutes per km most of the time. As soon as I turned around I discovered why it had been so easy; I had a tailwind! Which is what I now had to run back into. A stiff, bitingly cold  headwind. The next 8 km back to where I could turn out of the wind were some of the hardest kilometers I've ever run. My legs were stiff and yapping with little and not so little pains.  I was struggling to keep a pace above 5:20/km.  It was hard work, but I slogged away and eventually turned right and had a reasonably straightforward, if somewhat fatigued, 7-km run home. Taking out a few stops (toilet, drink), I managed 30.75 km (according to the footpod) in 2 hours 39 min. 30 sec. It was a very tough run actually, being a slightly faster pace than a lot of my long runs and the longest I've run since the marathon five weeks ago. But with Tokyo only 49 days away, it was a run I had to do.