Update 1/12/12

The last few weeks have been interesting, most important is the run.

During the holidays I hurt my right hamstring during some track intervals (12/28). Things started off slow, I've been doing these for quite a while and know what I'm capable of, I appeared to struggle to hold the disired pace (<6:30) and developed a little pain in the back of my right leg.

Now this has happened before, I was running hard and expected to have some pain but this one stayed with me. When I got to the 5th rep I decided I was too tired to complete it so I just ran it out at an easier pace and completed the milage for the day. Afterwards I had the nagging pain that wouldn't go away.

I tried to run thursday with the option of bagging the run and I did. I walked about half a mile and then ran a half mile then quit. I took friday off from running.

Saturday I ran about 30 minutes and have been doing so up until last sunday (1/8) where I did 6 miles. It was feeling OK but not 100%. Monday and tuesday were 4 miles, yesterday was 6 miles and it's feeling much better. I started stretching it last sunday and putting a heating pad on it while watching TV. The reason I didn't start stretching it earlier is because I believed part of the muscle was damaged or torn, I did not want to stretch a torn muscle and tear it some more. Sunday I felt that it was time to start lengthing the muscle again so I started stretching.

Today I feel pretty good and plan to continue running easy for another week.

On the bike I've been fairly strong, not as good as before the Christmas holiday but still good, I've met all of my goal on the workouts except for last saturday where I rode outside and it was too cold for me. I came home, put the bike on the trainer and couldn't really get any motivation to finish the workout. On another note, The compact crank on that bike (with 650's) doesn't have enough gear to do zone 4 intervals with a slight tailwind and with the cadence I like to pedal at. It will not be a good choice for me to train or race with on the road.

I was able to get out on the road last tuesday too, it was a little warmer and dry. I rode the P2 for the right gearing since it has a standard crank on it.

Swimming has been going very well, it appears with my drop in run volume I'm much stronger for swimming and have been really strong in the pool. I've been consistantly bringing in 100's in 1:20 and 200's well under 2:50 so I'm pretty happy with the training.

I'm swimming a meet at EMU this weekend. I've signed up for the 1000, 500, 200 and 100 free but I really want a good 1000 and 500 time.