IT Band update - 12/15

Been a while since posting an update. For the most part, it's just been an 'exercise daily and wait' routine.

A couple weeks ago - probably around the beginning of December (after 3-4 weeks of starting PT), I started feeling like the IT band was releasing, ever so slightly. I'd go to PT, the person would say I'm still very tight - but whereas before when they'd massage it, there'd be negligible give when they apply pressure, now at least it flexes a little bit.

I've also worked my way up to 5 lbs on the leg raises, but I'm going to up that to 5.5 or 6 lbs in the next day or so.

For the most part, its been the same routine of exercises, picking 4-5 per day to work on:
1) leg raises
2) side leg raises
3) hamstring curls on the stability ball
4) bend-over floor touches (concentrates on strengthening the glutius medius)
5) lunging toe touches (works the quads)
6) skater jumps (quads)
7) dips (from an aerobic step)
8) clamshells
9) sideways walk with band
10) plank hold (core muscle)
11) step forward, step back lunges
12) hip flexor stretch

And, every day, 5-10 minutes on the foam roller.

Although I've typically been using the foam roller, I recently started going hardcore and rolling out the IT band on a piece of PVC pipe. The foam roller has some give to it, whereas the PVC doesn't. There's no doubt that the PVC hurts a bit more, but just like starting on the foam roller, it gets better after a couple days. I just feel like the PVC, being a harder surface, gives me a better stretch. The PT had no issue with my using the roller, when I mentioned it to him - because, as he said when it comes to rolling out the IT band 'normally, with PT, we avoid pain - but with the IT band, thats just something you have to suck up and deal with'.

They also recommended starting up running again - and following the couch to 5k program. That program is very popular with people just getting into running, because it follows a run-walk-run method. In this case, it works for rehab purposes because it starts off with only running 60 seconds at a time. So while its good that I'm running again, and I'm excited about it - the unfortunate thing is that I won't really know how things are progressing until I get to the point where I run ~3 miles per day on successive days. That'll bee several weeks away, though, at least.

IT Band PT - 11/20

Just a quick recap of the past couple weeks with regards to PT:

- It turns out that the 3:30 leg raises shouldn't go up and back quite as much as I had been doing them. The motion is 90% vertical.
- Weights for the 3:30 and 10:30 leg raises has gone up to 5 lbs, and I've started doing them on both sides.
- The knee spread exercises are called clamshells.
- New balance exercise: the lean forward toe touch. In this exercise, you bend the knees slightly, and raise one foot off the floor, balancing on one foot. While continuing the balance (and making sure to keep the knee from buckling inwards), lean forward while extending the leg back, touch the floor, and then come back up. Three sets of 15.
- New strength exercise - side walking. In this exercise, an exercise band is looped around the ankles (while standing), and the feet are spread just enough to get some tension on the exercise band. Then, walk sideways 10 steps, being sure to keep control of movement and not letting the band snap your feet back together too quickly. Always keep tension on the band. Once you have gone 10 steps, go back the other direction. Repeat 3x.
- New strength exercise - leg press with exercise band. This is a standard leg press on a leg press machine, but with the exercise band just above the knee. The band is supposed to keep some of the hip muscles engaged, but so far I have not really been able to feel anything during this exercise other than on the quads. Since it requires a leg press machine, I am unable to do this one at home.

For about 1.5-2 weeks, I had been doing all the exercises that can be done at home (3:30 leg raises, 10:30 leg raises, clamshells, dips (up to 6" in height), lean forward toe touches, side walking, quad flexor stretching, and a total of around 10 minutes on the foam roller per side) on a daily basis.

Today's PT session had a few new exercises to begin integrating into a rotation of 5-6 exercises per day:
- Leg extensions: 120 lbs (three sets of 10). This is done on an exercise machine.
- Plank hold: 30 seconds x 2 per side. In this exercise, lie on your side, propped by on your elbow. Lift your hips off the ground to maintain a straight body. Hold for 30 seconds, rest, repeat, and do other side.
- Side toe touches. Similar to the lean forward toe touches, but instead of keeping the planted leg fixed in its starting position, bend at the knee to get downward motion. Two sets of five touches on each side. This exercise works the quads a bit.
- Side lunge squats: Step to the side, squat down on the knee, and back up. Two sets of 10 on each side.
- hamstring curls. This one requires a pilates ball (one of those three foot diameter inflatable balls). Lie on your back, legs raised, and the ball placed under your feet - tallest point of the ball about in line with the ankles. Place arms out to the side for stability, raise butt off floor and pull feet toward you, which rolls the ball towards you. This works the hamstrings (surprisingly well), as well as helps with building control and stability in the hip and core muscles. Two sets of 10.

IT band PT - 11/8/09

Last Thursday was my second PT session for the IT band. It contained the previously mentioned exercises (I wish I knew the real names):

- 10:30 raises w/4 lbs. 3 sets of 15
- 3:30 raises w/4 lbs. 3 sets of 15
- Quad flexor stretch (3 x 30 sec sets)
- Foam roller (5 minutes)

There were also a couple new things. Again, I don't know the real names, but the first one I'll call the heels together knee spread. Lie on your side, with your legs bent - about halfway between totally straight and a full fetal position. With a resistance band looped around the knees, keep the feet together and raise the top knee. Repeat for the other side, 3 sets of 15. I'm not sure whether the muscle worked here is the same muscle as the 3:30 raises - it feels to be in the same general area.

The last new exercise was dips. Standing with the left leg on an aerobic step, dip down and lower the right leg to the ground. The knee should be kept from buckling inward during the dip - so roughly in line with the 2nd toe. Once again, three sets of 15. This one was surprising to me, as my ankle was pretty unstable. Having to balance and stabilize on one ankle while moving around is tough at first. By the end of the third set, my ankle was definately feeling it.

I had a realization over the past couple days. Initially, my thinking was along the lines of 'Hey - so these exercises are supposed to help stabilize my knee, but were talking about 45 iterations of an exercise per day. When I go out and run for an hour and I'm running with a cadence of 90 steps/minute - thats 5400 iterations. How would 45 iterations make any bit of a difference?'
Then I realized that if I'm doing 5400 iterations, and I'm feeling the burn (and in the case of the knee spreads on the right side, feeling sore the next couple days) after 3 sets of 15 of an isolation exercise - then I'm not getting a good workout for that muscle during that run. Plain and simple.

IT Band PT - November 2009

It's been a while since my last post. Thats because things have really slowed down due to the IT band, but here's a quick recap of the past 6-8 weeks:

- I decided to forego the marathon this year. At the time, it was mid-September, and I was still limited to just a few miles. That was six weeks into trying to treat the IT band with rest, and it wasn't helping much - so I didn't see how things would magically get better in the next four.

- I went to the doctor to confirm the diagnosis, and get started on a treatment plan. The doctor was able to isolate and feel the point of irritation/inflammation - which is nice because it was a definitive diagnosis, as opposed to being purely based on symptoms. Also, in feeling the left vs right IT band, she found that the left was definately tighter, although both were generally tight.

- Initial treatment would be going through a course of physical therapy. The doctor said that results can often be seen in 4-6 weeks. There was also the option of an injection at the point of irritation. I'm not sure whether it'd be a cortizone shot or something else - but it was generally agreed upon that the PT course should be tried first. The PT prescription would include a running evaluation in order to determine if there was any imbalance during the running stride, or core strength imbalance that might be a contributing factor.

The first day of PT started out with a massage of the area and general analysis of knee and kneecap operation and movement. The therapist found that my left knee cap does not move laterally inward as much as my right knee cap. Since the knee cap is attached to the IT band, it was another sign that all the connective tissue in that general area is fairly tight.

The first exercise was what I'll refer to as the 10:30 leg raises, where you lay on your back with your left toes pointed to the 10:30 position. With weights on the ankles (3 lbs to start off with), raise and lower the leg vertically about 18". Three sets of 10. I found that it didn't really start to burn at all until mostly through the second set. But at the end of the third set, the muscle was definately fatigued. I believe the purpose of this exercise is to strengthen the muscle that pulls inward on the kneecap.

Next was what I'll refer to as the 3:30 leg raises, where you lay on your unaffected side (in this case, my right side), with the legs stacked and the left toes pointed slightly downwards to the 3:30 position. With weights on the ankles (3 lbs again), raise and lower the leg about 18". However, instead of raising and lowering vertically, raise the leg up and back. Once again, it was at the end of the 3rd set of 10 that I felt the muscle was fatigued. The purpose of this exercise was to strengthen the some of the gluteus muscles that normally don't get isolated during normal activity (and thus it is common for them to be rather weak).

Next was a look at quad flexibility. I've generally been pretty good about stretching my quads, but I found I've been isolating the quad muscle, but not the quad connective tissue that makes up the hip flexor. For this stretch, she had me lay on a table with the left butt cheek hanging off the edge, and just let the left leg hang. Apparently the angle of the lower leg hangs around 70 degrees for most people, and I was closer to 50 degrees. So there is a bit of tightness there. For this stretch, I remained in that position, and with the aid of a loop of rope around the ankle, simply reach for the rope and pull back. Stretch for 30 seconds 3 times.

Lastly, there was the foam roller stretch. I had done my own version of this a few times using a piece of 4" PVC tube (her reaction was one of 'ouch! That must hurt!'), but I quickly found out that I need to do a LOT more of this stretch. When I was doing this on my own, I'd spend maybe a minute rolling it up and down the leg - she had me start with 5 minutes, specifically concentrating on areas that felt sore and tight as the roller moved along. I asked about the idea of using a hand-held roller, but she indicated that for this, you really want to get the body weight to help and get a good stretch. Speaking of body weight, I started off supporting a good portion my weight with my other leg - but I won't be surprised if by the end of things the stretch will be done with the legs stacked and for a longer period of time, like 10-15 minutes.

Since this was just the first PT session, things weren't turned up to 11 in terms of intensity. The therapist said that they introduce exercises gradually so that if there is lingering soreness or a problem, it can be more easily tracked down to a specific action, as opposed to throwing everything out all at once.

All of these exercises were assigned to be done at home, once per day. Actually, there was an additional one assigned - the standing leg crossover ITB stretch. That was to be done for 30 seconds 3 times per day.

1/2 mile (approx) swim - 9/10

I had decided a couple weeks ago that my next long swim training session would concentrate on getting better with breathing from the unfavored side. After having made good progress on the two beat kick and overall form with the total immersion techniques, it was about time I get more comfortable breathing from both sides. Last time I had done any degree of breathing from the other side, I could tell my form was very unbalanced - most noticably because my right leg would make a big splash during a kick.

My initial goal was to do an entire lap breathing from the opposite side. So, thats what I started out doing. A few minutes in, I noticed I was starting to get the hang of it a bit more - the kick from my right leg was less water-disruptive, and although the motions themselves were still herky-jerky, it was a noticable improvement from before. However, I was still only going 5-10 breaths before having to stop for sighting, and in general just catching my breath.

About halfway through, I decided to start bilateral breathing. Since I'm much more comfortable breathing on one side, perhaps that would help normalize things and actually end up bringing overall efficiency up. The problem I had in the past with bilateral breathing was that I didn't have the aerobic capacity to keep it up.

So today's attempt at bilateral breathing was a surprise, initially. I was able to keep up the rhythm for a more extended period of time! I still had to stop every 50 yards or so - but apparently the improvements in form with breathing from the 'bad' side were enough to allow me to do the 50 yds, which is more than I could do before.

As a result, the last 1/4 mile (half the total distance) were basically in 50 yd sections of bilateral breathing. As a bonus, every time I stopped, I found I was tracking pretty straight in the water - no more swimming like a drunken manatee!

I stopped a bit short of the other shore because I had a good 15 minutes or so of dramatically improved form practice, and I didn't want to tire and let it get sloppy. At this point, I'm more concerned with ingraining good form into the muscle memory than I am about building distance or speed.

Total Distance: ~0.5 miles
Total Time: 25:37
Avg HR: 157

5.25 mile run - 9/9

Today I received the Patt Strap in the mail, and was excited to give it a shot. The Patt Strap is a knee compression strap which appears to help a lot of people with IT band issues. For $20, it was worth a shot.

Once again, I got to the 20 minute (or so) mark before feeling the IT band. This was a disappointment, as this was the distance I had gone the other day before feeling irritation without the Patt Strap. So either the strap did nothing for me, or I was not using it in a way that was helping me.

I continued with the run, doing 4 minutes of running with 30 seconds of stretching. The idea from this comes from the Galloway run-walk-run, except I modified it to be a stretch break instead of a walk break.

This seemed to help quite a bit. Although I could still feel the irritation building up to the 4 minute mark when I would stretch things out, it was enough to allow me to finish the 5+ miles.

Total Distance: 5.25 miles
Total Time: 47:12
Avg HR: 159

4.2 miles run - 9/7

Following last week's 6 mile run with the persistant IT band irritation, it has been a week since I've run. At this point, it is obvious that the IT band situation is not going away quickly, so this run was just to see where the irritation would start appearing.

During todays run, I got to about the 20 minute point before starting to feel minor irritation from the IT band. So instead of stopping, which I've done in the past, I decided to take a stretch break to see if it would help. It did, but I found that I could only go a couple more minutes before irritation would set in again. I ended up finishing the run out with 2 sessions of 7 minutes (with stretch breaks). So while it was a disappointment that the stretching didn't have a long lasting effect, at least it helped a bit.

Total Distance: 4.2 miles
Total Time: 38:40
Avg HR: 161

Cranberry Country Olympic Tri - 8/31

I was a bit nervous in the days leading up to my first olympic tri, primarily because I haven't done much in the way of training for the past month due to IT band soreness. This would also be my first competition using my new total immersion swimming style (in which I have generally been poor at sighting and swimming straight), and I haven't done much cycling at all this year.

So, in the end - I decided that the main goal would simply be to see what its like to do a race that is fully 2x the distance of a sprint. Though not too awful concerned about time, I figured I'd end up around 3 hours - about 40 minutes for the swim, an 80-90 minutes for the bike, and the remaining 50-60 minutes for the run.

This particular tri was also the USAT regional championship, which meant there was a good deal of competition. That was another reason why my goal wasn't oriented around finishing within a certain percentile of my age group - because I was probably going to be disappointed if I did.

The swim portion went pretty well for what I was looking to do - maintain form throughout, and not exert myself too much. I had intended to do some bilateral breathing for practice, but I ended up skipping it. I haven't practiced the bilateral breathing enough yet to be proficient, and as it was I knew right away I was going to be relatively slow in this portion of the event.

About 1/4 of the way through, I noticed that someone else was swimming the entire portion backwards. He was off to my side - about 10 feet away - and he was doing a lazy backstroke. Except I can't really call it lazy when I was only barely able to keep up with him when I was doing freestyle.
Around the 2/3 mile mark, I noticed that I was being passed by a few people. During one of my quick breaks for sighting, I looked back and saw the wave of swimmers who started 5 minutes after my wave - they caught up to me!

Exiting the water, I saw only one other person in my wave exiting around the same time. I think we were the last blue cap swimmers out of the water. In the end, though - the primary take-away from the swim is that I have to balance better. I found I still keep my head up too much, so I'll be needing to work on that.

The transition to the bike went much better this time than it did during the Webster Lake Tri. I definately had more energy coming out of the water, which was a good sign. Plus, this didn't require a 1/4 mile barefoot run to T1.

The bike portion was probably the most comfortable portion of the whole event - but I didn't know by how much at the time. The swimming gets boring, and I knew I was going to have IT band issues during the run. The bike route was relatively flat - a few rolling hills. Knowing the distance for the bike was quite a bit longer, and that I'd have 6 miles of running afterwards - I kept at what felt like an even steady effort. At one point, I was watching another rider, and saw that her cadence was much higher than everyone elses. After having done some cadence work with running, it seemed she was much closer to the ideal cadence of 90 that most cyclists try to achieve. From that point on, I decided to be more active in shifting so that I could maintain a similar cadence. I found that this allowed me to have more energy going up the hills, and helped conserve energy overall. This was a good lesson to have learned - but it also highlighted the inefficiencies when the gear shifters are on the front of the frame as opposed to on the handlebars.

Once the bike was finished, I was curious to know how long I could go before feeling the IT band. I had been hoping that it would be around 4 miles - at least as long as I'd been able to run before, plus a bit extra because of the couple days rest. I was also hoping that running 4 minutes followed by walking 30 seconds would really extend the time, and maybe - just maybe I wouldn't have a problem. In reality, it wasn't 4 miles before I felt it, more like 40 yds. Almost right away I could tell that there were going to be problems. For the first 1.5-2 miles, as it started getting more and more uncomfortable, I kept rolling over in my head how to handle it. I thought maybe I should stop all together and prevent further injury. I thought that maybe I could just suffer through it and deal with whatever ramifications that would have. Maybe I should take more walk breaks.

Then, I had a bit of an epiphany. I noticed that when my foot hit the ground, it felt as though my foot wanted to keep moving forward inside my sneaker. In other words, my sneakers were acting like breaks and preventing momentum from carrying me forward. I elongated my stride a bit, and concentrated on landing more on the balls of my feet. Shockingly, the IT band almost nearly stopped complaining! My calves started whining a bit more - but they are muscle, and so they could just deal with it, as far as I was concerned. Not only did it feel better, but I sped up a bit too. I could tell because there was someone who was passing my during my walk breaks, but during the 4 minute runs I was passing him. Once my stride got longer, I passed him and never saw him again.

Unfortunately, that wasn't a cure-all, as the IT band still started complaining again. But the combination of walk breaks, landing on the balls of my feet, and having a stride long enough that my sneakers weren't effectively putting on the breaks was what allowed me to finish.

Total Time: 2:59:12
Avg HR: 163
Swim Time: 36:09
Swim Avg HR: 165
T1: 4:34
Bike Time: 1:21:04
Bike Avg HR: 159
T2: 2:00
Run Time: 54:59
Run Avg HR: 167

IT band rehab - 8/25 & 8/26

Nothing special about these days - just another 3 to 3.2 miles or so for each before feeling the IT band discomfort.

Due to my schedule, I'll be taking a couple of forced days off before the Olympic tri this weekend.

IT band rehab - 8/24

This week I'm in Indiana for work, but fortunately I've been here a couple times before, and am familiar with a short stretch of road behind the hotel that is perfect for what I'm looking to do this week. It is only a mile long, but it is flat (as if there is any elevation change anywhere in this part of the country) and there is little to no traffic.

Total distance for today was 3.2 miles before I started distinctly feeling the IT band becoming sore. It occured to me that the best way for me to gauge improvement on this is not by distance (because pace can change) - but rather time, assuming I'm keeping a consistant cadence. While I haven't been concentrating on cadence - I know I'm around 85-90 per foot per minute. Regardless - when I first started having this issue, I would feeling it after about 5 minutes. After a week or so off, that time extended to around 10-12 minutes. After another week or so off (only a few days ago), that hadn't really changed too much, as I was still around 10-12 minutes. The fact that I'm now well beyond that - at 3.2 miles, with my pace probably around the 8:30 mark - I know I'm in the range of 24 minutes or so, even if I don't know the exact numbers. So it is either sheer coincidence that I'm doubling the time in a span of four days, or the new approach is speeding up recovery.

IT band rehab - 8/23

Today's run seemed like a bit of a set back. After running the full 1.8 miles yesterday with no issues, today I started feeling the IT band around the 1.6 mile mark again.

However, there are a few considerations that give me puase to consider it a full set back. First, yesterdays run was around 10:30 pm, and todays was around 1:30 pm - so there was barely more than 12 hours between the two. This is as opposed to the almost 24 hours usually provided between runs. Second, it followed an hour and a half of mowing the lawn (about 3-4 miles worth of walking) as well as another hour and a half or so of walking the dog (another 3 miles or so). So when considering those factors, the fact that it took until 1.8 miles to feel anything is actually a good thing.

Shoes used today were the ones purchased in 10/08.

IT band rehab - 8/22

Once again, I did the 1.8 mile loop around the neighborhood. Yesterday, I started feeling the IT band around the 1.2 mile mark (sporadic), and by 1.6 miles or so, it was a consistent presence.

Today, I completed the entire loop without any issues whatsoever. The entire 1.8 miles without even feeling a hint of complaining from the IT band. I was tempted to keep going a bit, but decided to hold back.

Tomorrow I'm planning on doing my 3 mile loop, where I'll hopefully be able to see a definate difference in how far I can go before feeling anything.

(shoes used today were the ones purchased in 10/08 with about 280 miles on them.)

IT band rehab - 8/21

After the run last night, I decided to take a different approach to the IT band rehab. Instead of waiting by idly (which is starting to drive me a little batty, as it is frustrating), I'd try running a short distance (1-2 miles) daily - basically going until I felt mild discomfort. There are a couple thoughts behind this - one, soft tissue damage often heals more quickly when used to a degree due to the increased blood flow; two, while it certainly wont improve my fitness level, and may not even keep it at the status quo, it will at least slow down any loss of performance; three, I am curious as to whether the discomfort will come about more quickly after a few days of this.

So I just did a 1.8 mile loop in the neighborhood that includes a good size uphill as well as the subsequent downhill. I started feeling the IT band around 1.25 miles, but it was a little sporadic - I'd feel it for a few steps, and then it'd go away. It wasn't until around 1.6 miles or so that it was constant. The last 0.2 miles were with that little bit of discomfort. Shoes worn were shoes purchased in 2/09, with about 186 miles on them.

So all in all, it came on at right around the same time as yesterday.

IT Band rehab - 8/20

As it has been nearly 3 weeks of resting and hoping the IT band will recover, today I decided to give a shot at a 3 mile run to see how things felt. The other week I had done something similar, and at around 1/2 to 3/4 mile, I started to notice it. By the time I got to 2 miles, it was definately trending in a direction I didn't like. It wasn't painful, but it also wasn't going away. That run was done after about 3-4 days worth of stretching and minor strengthening exercises.

Ever since then, I've been pretty good about stretching the band on a daily basis. The stretching I've been doing has been a combination of the typical IT band stretches (similar to #2 and #3 here), as well as the foam roller stretch here (except I dont have a foam roller - only a 4" piece of PVC). In addition, I've been doing side leg lifts, and Walt Reynolds IT special for stretching and strengthening.

So, with a good solid number of stretching/strengthening days, I figured I'd test the waters.

This time, I started feeling it after about 1.25-1.5 miles - about 10 to 12 minutes. Thats an improvement, but still somewhat disappointing. I was able to finish the 3 miles, experiencing only minor discomfort, by stopping a couple times for a walk break. Interestingly enough, after starting up, the IT band would be sore for a few steps before going away for a couple minutes and then reappearing.

Just for the sake of getting all pieces of data on the table, I ran with my shoes purchased in 10/08 - they have about 280 miles on them.

1.3 mile swim - 8/15

Still taking time off from running due to the IT band irritation (which is resulting in a secondary irritation, as it is incredibly frustrating to be missing this much training time!), I decided I mine as well keep active by a long swim. The other reason for doing a long swim is the upcoming olympic distance triathlon on August 30, where the swim portion is an entire mile.

Previously, the longest swim I had done in one continuous session was a few weeks ago, when I did the 0.8 miles in the lake. Today I returned to the lake, and did a full up and back lap. With a single lap distance of 0.65 miles, the shortest distance was 1.3 miles. However, I am not very good at sighting while swimming, so I tended to veer off course a bit. Quite a bit, actually. I wouldn't be surprised if I added a full tenth of a mile to the overall distance.

The primary goal of this swim was to engrain the two beat kick into muscle memory and get it so that it felt natural, and to get my old kicking style to feel unnatural. In this goal, I was largely successful.

A secondary goal was to start becoming more familiar with breathing from the opposite side. Last time in the lake, I started out with bilateral breathing, but ended up giving up quickly, and did all my breathing from the same side. This time, I went with a slightly different strategy - instead of doing full bilateral breathing, I'd breath for a few strokes on one side, and then switch to the other side. This allowed me to work on breathing from the opposite side without needing the extra aerobic capacity to last three strokes instead of two. It also allowed me to return to my comfortable side to give myself a breather, of sorrts. Finally, I was hoping that my alternating sides, my swimming would be straighter because I'd be more balanced. This result didn't come to fruition because, as it turns out, my mechanics are vastly different on one side than on the other - and that results in not swimming straight.

Finally, the last goal was overall form with the total immersion system. Having more time to become familiar and feel more natural with the highlights - pressing the bouy (which I didn't do to well at this time), keeping the head down (which I did a reasonable job of), and using the roll and catch to generate power (which I did an OK job of).

Lap 1: 25:20 (avg HR 170/end HR 168)
Lap 2: 4:23 (break)
Lap 3: 30:04 (avg HR 169/end HR 177)

Overall, considering it was, by far, the longest continuous swim I've ever done, I felt pretty good at the end. My arms, while tired, were not as fatigued as they've been in the past when swimming - a testament to the fact that I'm cutting through the water more efficiently as well as not using my shoulder muscles to generate as much of the power required to move through the water. My time for a 50 yd distance may actually be slower at the moment, but I'm swimming more efficiently - and at the moment, that is what I care about most.

However, the fact that my arms were fatigued is also an indication that I'm still not as efficient as I should be, and thus I am still needing to generate power from my arms to some degree. While I started feeling more comfortable with the two beat kick - I knew from the beginning that my method to doing so was not going to be as low drag as it should be. Instead of performing the kick and returning the legs to a neutral position (feet together) in preparation for the next kick, I actually kept the feet apart until the opposite kick stroke. The reason for this is that I wanted to make sure I performed the kick with the proper leg at the proper time. While this results in a two-step learning process, I wanted to make sure I had the overall rhythm of the two beat kick, if nothing else.

The other major problem was sighting. The first lap I was zigzaging quite a bit - everytime I looked up, I was off course. I was much better the second time around. But a large part of why I was going off course was because the balance of power generated when breathing from one side is quite different than when breathing from the other. In other words, my mechanics for the opposite side breathing are not nearly as efficient.

IT band rest, cycling balance, and two beat kicking

Ever since the IT band soreness from last Saturday, I've decided that I'm going to take this week completely off from running. The IT band soreness has been on and off for a couple weeks, and at this point (still more than 2 months away from the marathon), I'd rather just take the time now to get it healed rather than push it further.

In the mean time, I think the primary reason for it is the typical 'running on the same side of the road'. When you run against traffic, the left foot often has to stretch farther than the right due to the crown in the road surface. When this occurs foot strike after foot strike for long distances, it stretches the IT band. I also think that secondarily - just plain old overuse is a factor. I have to face it - the past couple months have seen much more mileage than I've ever run before. After running 20 miles on one day, I followed it up with 5 mile run and a 6 mile run after that, followed by the 8 x 1 mile repeat session the following week. So within 8 days, I had done nearly 40 miles. That is far more miles that I've done in such a short period of time before.

After Monday, I have not felt anything in my IT band - even when going up stairs. I suppose that I'm lucky in that things were not so bad to totally debilitate me. However, I have to be careful - because it was that false sense of being healed that I think played a major hand in continuing to train when I maybe should have taken time off a couple weeks ago.

In the mean time, I've been doing the IT band stretches and strengthening exercises.

As for the bicycle, I've actually continued to work on balance on the rollers. I'm not yet at the point where I'd feel comfortable with the clipless pedals, as I'm still working on balance. But in an attempt to hasten the balance skill development, I've been doing something a little unorthodox - trying to maintain balance while peddling slowly. When peddling quickly, the rotation of the tires creates enough centrifugal force to keep the bike upright relatively easily. But I want to develop balance above and beyond that - so by peddling slowly, I'm trying to further enhance my balance.

Finally, for swimming - I've really started concentrating on developing a two beat kick. It took a couple sessions in the endless pool to get a hang for the rhythm - I've been using the old rhythm for so many years that switching felt like trying to throw a ball with your weak arm. Just didn't feel coordinated at all.

Towards the end of the first session, there were a few moments when I felt the kick coming together.. and WOW - what a difference. It was fleeting, but I definately felt like I was surging forward in the water when I kicked. I'm not a naturally strong kicker, as my ankles are not very flexible - so I believe much of that power I was feeling was simply the legs (and all their weight and momentum) helping to snap the roll that much more quickly during the stroke. I've since done a couple more sessions in the endless pool to tighten up the form, and while more work still needs to be done - it has improved quite a bit already.

So thats the story with this week. This weekend is scheduled to be a 10 x 1 mile repeat workout. I'm not sure whether that will happen - I may just do a shorter run (5-6 miles) and see how the IT band feels, and punt on the speed work until the following weekend. Or, I may start with the repeats and go until I start feeling even minor discomfort, and call it a day. Or, I might do something real short like 3 miles on Friday night, and if all goes well, see how many repeats I can do on Saturday.

23 mile run - 8/1

When I ran the 20 miles a few weeks ago, I did so in the middle of the day. As it turned out, that day was one of the few sunny (but still humid, of course) days this year. I ended up not drinking enough fluids, and around mile 16, I had to walk for about 10 minutes to allow some nausea to subside. During that last 3.5-4 miles, I had to stop and walk quite a few times - the lactic acid and muscle soreness/tightness that built up during that 10 minute walk really hindered my ability to run continuously throughout those last few miles.

This time around, I finally got smart and decided to get up early and get the run over with during the cooler part of the day. So at 5 am, I woke up, and I was out of the house by 5:20. The weather was showing to be in the 60's - and although it was humid, it was FAR more comfortable. This time I also did a little bit more preparation - I had my fuel belt filled with gatorade, I had recently found little pill containers (similar to the containers here - minus the tube) that held just enough gatorade mix for 8 oz (the size of the Fuel Belt flasks) - so I was able to bring additional easily-dispensable mix, and I had gone out the night before to stash bottles of water along the route. I also brought a Clif Builders bar with me - if the Accelerade is a good long run supplement because of the protein, I figured this would be a good way to accomplish much the same thing.

The other major difference in this run was that I returned to the run-walk-run strategy - except this time instead of running for 1 mile and walking for 1 minute (as I did with the 13 and 15 mile runs previously), I ran for 4 minutes and walked for 30 seconds. This is closer to the ratios given by Galloway when looking for a 8-9 min/mile pace during a marathon. I reverted to the run-walk-run mostly because the outside of my left knee was still exhibiting soreness after a couple miles during my runs over the past week. I've since determined that it is likely an overuse injury on the IT band - but fortunately somewhat mild. I had been taking it easy during the week because I wanted to give that a chance to heal as much as possible - and I figured that if I took the walk breaks I could minimize pain and extend the run.

For the most part, it worked. I started feeling the IT band around mile 4-5 or so, but it was very minor discomfort so I was able to continue running. It started getting more aggravating over the next couple miles, but at mile 8 I took what ended up being a 5 minute break to refill my flasks at the first water stop. That break was enough to keep the aggravation away for a few miles, and allow me to continue to the second refill spot at mile 15 where I took another break to refill the flasks. After that break, I was able to continue for another 4 miles where the IT band just became too painful to continue on without concern of doing real damage. I ended up walking a large portion of those last 4 miles, as I was only able to run for a few minutes at a time, in between 5-7 minute walk breaks. I had thought about calling for a pick up - but since I was able to walk with no issue - I really wanted to get the 23 miles in under my own power.

The bummer about the whole thing is that everything else - hips, knees, muscles, energy levels, etc - all felt absolutely fine. In fact, had it not been for the IT band, I probably would have looked to run the last 6 miles or so continuously at an increased pace.

Throughout the rest of the day, I iced the IT band a few times, did some stretching and strengthening exercises (to try and speed recovery and prevent it from happening again), and before bed took some Advil to help get the inflammation down.

At this point, the most important thing is getting it healed up. I'll likely skip any running this week and continue with icing, stretching and strengthening. If I really need to, I can adjust my training schedule to skip the next long run and/or the next mile repeat session - as the mile repeats a couple weeks ago are when I really started feeling the IT band become aggravated more. I'd rather not skip either of those types of workouts - but if I need to, thats what I'll have to do.

Total Distance: 23.07 miles
Total Time: 4:18:16
Avg HR: 143

Mile by mile breakdown (time/avg HR)
(mile marks are +/- 200 yds of true mile marks - I lost my printout at around mile 5 and had to go by memory of landmarks)
Mile 1: 9:42/129
Mile 2: 9:40/140
Mile 3: 8:58/144
Mile 4: 9:53/146
Mile 5: 9:44/146
Mile 6: 9:28/150
Mile 7: 9:29/147
Mile 8: 10:27/149
Break: 5:05
Mile 9: 9:43/144
Mile 10: 9:45/149
Mile 11: 9:30/151
Mile 12: 9:36/149
Mile 13: 9:17/150
Mile 14: 10:36/153
Mile 15: 9:00/154
Break: 6:02
Mile 16: 10:08/150
Mile 17: 10:20/153
Mile 18: 9:13/153
Mile 19: 9:27/153
Mile 20: 17:19/133 (walk)
Mile 21: 13:13/136 (walk)
Mile 22: 16:48/129 (walk)
Mile 23: 15:33/132 (walk)

The main thing that I noticed was that throughout the entire running portion (excluding those last 4 miles where I had to walk a lot) - the pace was amazingly consistent around 9:45 min/mile. There were some variances due to terrain or my hitting the lap button within a couple hundred yards of the true mile spot. The 4 minutes of running with 30 seconds of walking really seemed to help with keeping a consistant pace as well as keeping the HR in check - often times below 150.

Also - the trend continues where I am generally able to run fairly comfortably through the distance of my last long run (in this case 20 miles). The IT band issue and its effects being excluded - my level of exertion through 20 miles (as dictated by HR) was kept well in check without sacrificing pace. Running during the early morning and out of the direct mid-day sun helped with that, I'm sure.

45 minutes - 7/30

Today I did another slow and easy run. I wanted to make sure I would be as ready as possible for the 23 miles coming up this weekend, especially with the left knee soreness.

Total Time: 42:12
Total Distance: 4.3 miles
Avg HR: 143

I started out purposely slower than I normally do - normally I'd start out at a comfortable feeling pace, which would put me at about 8:30 for the first mile. However, today I did the first mile in 9:30, as I actually had the discipline to keep from going to fast out of the gate. As much as I know starting slow is better, I often start out faster than I should.

I felt like it made a difference (well, duh!) - as I was able to very comfortably keep a 9:30-10 min/mile pace throughout the entire run, which kept the average HR low. By contrast, the last run a couple days ago saw an average HR of 153, and an average time of only 20 seconds/mile faster.

So, below is the breakdown of the mile times and average HR for that mile:
Mile 1: 9:22/129
Mile 2: 9:53/145
Mile 3: 10:12/146
Mile 4: 10:11/148
Mile 4-4.3: 2:32/149

Also, the soreness in my left knee didn't appear until around mile 3.5 - and it was definately less intense. If before it was a 6/10 on the annoyance scale (maybe a 3/10 on the pain scale), today it was maybe a 3/10 on the annoyance scale. The other difference was that once I was done, it was gone - whereas the other day, it took a couple hours after the run for the soreness to go away.

45 Minute run (5 miles) - 7/28

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm trying to keep things easy this week. So instead of doing a tempo run today, or even a trail run - I just did my normal 5.25 mile loop at an easy pace.

I still am feeling some soreness in my left knee. I initially thought it was maybe where the hamstring connects to the lower leg, but it actually feels slightly off from that. The only thing I could tell for certain was that I felt it most when lifting my foot off the ground.

The good news is that the soreness in my right knee is gone.

Total Distance: 5.25 miles
Total Time: 49:51
Avg HR: 153

Once again, the hot and humid weather took their toll on performance. As tempted as I was to maintain a 9 min/mile pace, I forced myself to follow the lower HR and let the time be what it would be.

7 mile run - 7/26

Being an 'off' week in the training program, this weekends run was not a long one, nor a speed work session. It was simply a 7 mile run. The plan calls for doing a magic mile timing, but it was very hot and humid (even at 6:30pm after the sun was lower on the horizon), so I didn't bother with that. After the past couple weeks (20 miles, followed by a couple tempo runs, followed by 8 mile repeats, followed by a 5k race), I figure that making this coming week an easy one will be a good idea. There are a couple places that are still experiencing some very mild soreness in certain situations (outside of my left knee, and below my right kneecap), so I don't want to further stress them before the 23 miler next weekend.

So today's run was just a steady 7 miles. With the heat and humidity, I went slow to try and keep the HR as close to 150 as I could - but after about 4 miles, it started creeping up into the high 150's.

Total Distance: 7 miles
Total Time: 1:10:07
Avg HR: 152

Mile 1 - 9:21; Avg HR 136
Mile 2 - 9:49; Avg HR 151
Mile 3 - 9:38; Avg HR 152
Mile 4 - 10:40; Avg HR 155
Mile 5 - 10:42; Avg HR 159
Mile 6-7 - 19:51; Avg HR 155

Open water swimming (~0.8 miles) - 7/25

One of the things I wanted to do this year was go for a good length swim in the lake that my parents live on. It is about 2/3 of a mile from one end to the other (the long direction) so it is big enough to give a good swim workout, but small enough to keep a large number of power boats off the water. My initial thought was to swim directly from one end to the other, straight through the middle - but in the morning when I was planning things out, I decided that I'd swim closer to the shore. Going in a counter clockwise direction, the distance is about 1.5 miles to make an entire loop. I figured that might be a bit far, so I made a note of where the 1 mile mark was, and decided that would be where I'd swim to.

My big purpose for this swim was to see how my new stroke, using body roll to provide power for the pull, would translate to effort over an extended period of time. Having spent a few sessions in the endless pool over the past week, I decided that the new mechanics were sound enough that I could give a shot to an elongated swim session. That is not to say that all the mechanics are perfect - there is still a good deal more I could do to minimize the disturbance of water as I swim - but I need to start somewhere.

I started out with bilateral breathing - but once again found that I couldn't maintain it very well. I decided that in the grand scheme of things, the purpose of my swim today was less about the breathing and more about other mechanics, so breathing got punted. I really dont like putting it off as much as I have been - but I have to be careful that I dont try to bite off more than I can deal with when it comes to a new swim stroke.

The biggest thing to report is that in the first 10 minutes, I found I was rolling enough onto my right side (during left arm recovery) that my left eye was coming up out of the water. This was the first time I noticed that happening, and I think that is a good sign that I'm finally getting comfortable and balanced with the roll onto the 'unfavored' side. It may have partially been due to turning my head a bit farther than my torso - but either way it bodes well for future integration with bilateral breathing.

Overall, it was a good swim. It turned out to be a tad short of a mile, because I cut across to the other side of the lake a bit earlier than intended - due to some shallow rocky sections. I avoided those because I didn't want the boat that my dad was in (trailing behind me with a life preserver, just in case) to strike the rocks. When I got to the designated finishing spot, I decided to call it a day. It was already significantly farther than I have ever swum in a single uninterrupted session before, and truthfully it was getting a little boring - just seeing pale green for 30 minutes. The good news, though, is that my arms didn't necessarily feel all to tired.

Total Time: 26:44 (missed about 3 minutes in the beginning because I forgot to start the stopwatch)
Total Distance: ~0.8 miles
Avg HR: 166

I don't believe its necessarily any faster than my previous swim stroke (about 16 minutes for half mile in the Webster Tri) - but it has much more potential. Speed can be increased by increasing the roll frequency, which can be done once the mechanics become more sound and second nature.

Being the first time, I just wanted to establish a baseline. I am going to be looking to repeating this swim (perhaps the entire way around, which would be > 1 mile) at some point in the next few weeks in preparation for the Cranberry Country Olympic Tri on August 30.

Camp Harborview Harborthon 5k - 7/23

A friend of mine (a fellow Rush fanatic - one of the only people I've ever met and known who equals my level of fan-dom) lives in Quincy, and his wife works at Camp Harborview. It is an island in Boston harbor, and the camp gives at-risk kids a chance to attend summer camp. As a fund raiser, they held their first 5k race on the island today.

After taking a ferry ride to the island and getting registered, the race was off. For the first time, I was able to start off in the first 1/4 of the race participants, based on expected performance. This says less about my blazing pace, and says more about the fact that the race was limited in participants, had no race-day registration, and wasn't hugely promoted.

Either way, I decided to go at a HR of around 180 during the race. I knew from the Sons of Italy race that I could sustain that level of exertion for the entire distance. I didn't want to get much above that, because I've never trained for any real length of time with a HR above 180 - so going full tilt like that for 3 miles might be pushing it.

The measuring of the mile markers seemed fairly accurate in this race, which was nice. I noticed in the course description that it was a certified distance. In looking back at the Sons of Italy race, there was no such claim, and I recall that the first mile seemed short, and that the total distance was longer than the advertised 5 miles. So it seems like a certified designation might actually be reliable. For the first mile, I clocked in at 6:50 with a HR of 178. The second mile was the toughest - as I was not running on such readily available energy as the first mile, and it was before my system felt like it was getting into a groove. Not having run for 4 days may have contributed a little bit to that. Either way, the second mile clocked in at 7:04 with a HR of 181 (avg HR of 179 for the mile). For the third mile, either I forgot to hit the lap button as I passed the 3 mile sign, or there was no sign. So the only time I have is that last 1.1 miles, which came in at 8:55 with a HR of 172 (avg 181).

Total Distance: 3.1 miles
Total Time: 22:22
Avg HR: 176

So - the chains keep moving. The last two races before this were seeing a 7:30-7:40 min/mile pace, and now the times are starting to get below 7:20 min/mile - at least for short distances like 5k.

Oh, and that whole thing about running a race with limited field and no race day registration? Usually I'm in the back half of the pack for my age group. Today I finished 42 out of 460 or so participants, and 10 out of 68 in my age group. I think I'm learning what running smarter really means :)

Swimming form work

Yesterday I skipped the 45 minute run, as I've had some lingering soreness in the tendon below my right knee cap. It's gotten noticably better each day, but knowing I have a 5k race on Thursday, and that I did two tempo runs last week plus the mile repeat workout on Sunday - I decided I'd take the day off, rest up and get recovered.

So the past couple days I've gone to the endless pool to work on my swimming form. Initially, I'm just interested in making the changes (keeping head down for balance, waiting a little bit longer before starting the pull, rolling to generate pull power) feel more natural.

After a couple days, I feel like I've made some good progress, although I still have a ways to go. I've found that my breathing from the left side is getting slightly easier, and that I almost don't have to think about my pull timing. I do still have to remember to keep my head down sometimes, though - and the timing of my roll with the pull is still a little off sometimes.

8 x 1 mile repeats - 7/19

Today's workout was 8 x 1 mile repeats. This is the first set of repeats since the 4 x 1 mile repeats one month ago. There was supposed to be a workout of 6 x 1 mile repeats in there somewhere, but somehow when I put the training plan onto a calendar, that week got missed. Fortunately, the 5 mile run on July 4 somewhat made up for that.

Once again, I did the 1.05 mile loop around the house for these repeats. With the first 1/2 mile being gradual down hill, and the last 1/4 mile being decent uphill, it provides a nice combination of easing into the repeat and ending with a hard effort. This was followed by about 5 minutes of rest in between.

One of the things that confused me last time was this rest period, because Galloway mentions that you get the same benefits regardless of how much rest you take. Today it finally dawned on me why that is - these mile repeats get your body warmed up and fatigued (especially after the first few) during the first portion of the repeat (what that portion is - I'm not sure. Maybe 1/2, maybe 3/4). It is that last bit where all the benefits come from, because only then are you forcing your body to do something that it doesn't have all the necessary resources (oxygen, glycogen, etc) readily available. So a major part of the mile repeats is simply to become fatigued before the actual 'workout'. Although Galloway doesn't specifically mention it, I've read from another source (unverified) that this period of time should be limited in length for maximum benefit. Thus, taking the 5 minutes in between repeats is not hindering any gains to be had from the effort.

(time, avg hr, end hr)

Warm up mile - 8:38
Rest 1 - 5:00, XX, 94
Repeat 1 - 7:20, 160, 172
Rest 2 - 5:00, XX, 106
Repeat 2 - 7:46, 159, 172
Rest 3 - 5:00, XX, 108
Repeat 3 - 7:40, 161, 173
Rest 4 - 5:00, XX, 110
Repeat 4 - 7:50, 161, 173
Rest 5 - ??, XX, 110
Repeat 5 - 7:48, 163, 172
Rest 6 - 5:00, XX, 112
Repeat 6 - 7:50, 164, 174
Rest 7 - 5:00, XX, 110
Repeat 7 - 8:00, 163, 172
Rest 8 - 5:00, XX, 105
Repeat 8 - 8:03, 163, 172

The average results from today (each repeat in about 7:50) is not much different from a month ago, however today it was MUCH hotter. In fact, the plan indicates that if the temperature is above 85 (which it was), to abandon the speed session and wait for a cooler time. I knew I was going to lose a LOT of fluids during this workout, so I made sure to drink plenty of Gatorade during each rest session. The fact I was able to keep pace, I think, is a good indication. Also, during the 4 x 1 mile repeat workout, I was gassed after the 4th repeat. This time, I was not. However, upon a second look, my HR was lower today (low 170's) than it was the first time (high 170's). Given the extra heat today, I think that is fine.

Confirmation on swimming stroke - 7/18

Today I was able to get to the real pool and test out the ideas I had for mechanics earlier in the week that would hopefully result in a lower stroke per length count.

Last weekend, using my normal freestyle stroke, I was pretty consistently around 23-24 strokes per length. With some adjustments to my mechanics, I was able to get to 19-20 strokes per length today. In fact, when I was really trying, I believe I actually got down to 16 or so a couple times - but in those cases I was using my shoulders for extra propulsion. It was not an effort that I could sustain for any length of time. However, it is good to know where my boundaries are.

There was actually quite a bit that I had to keep in mind, which sometimes made it hard to keep track of strokes. I'd be swimming along and realize that I wasn't balanced properly, or that my roll was especially sloppy on one side, or that once in a while I'd start my pull a little early.

In other words, while I've had a peek into the type of form I need to work on, the motions and timing are not second nature yet. That is my focus for the near future - to become more accustomed to all that these new mechanics introduce.

As happy as I was with having confirmation that I'm now at least on the right track, it definately took some effort. The stamina I had with my old stroke has not transferred, so I often did 50 yds or 100 yds and then took a minute or so break. However, the idea with Total Immersion is that form is most important - endurance and speed will come in time.

So, here is a list of things that I need to work on in order to tighten up this new form:
1) More consistent roll. I found that I often rolled better onto my left side than onto my right (due to breathing).
2) Bilateral breathing. I didn't touch this at all today, but I need to get working on it sooner rather than later.
3) Head position to swim downhill and achieve better floating balance. I tend to look ahead a bit more than I should. This keeps the spine from being straight, and ends up dipping my hips and ultimately my legs into the water. That is not balanced, and that is bad because it creates a lot of drag. By submerging my head, I definately noticed that my legs were more prone to being more horizontal.
4) Kick. I should try and achieve a two beat kick, where my left foot kicks when my right arm goes into the water, and vice versa.

6 mile tempo run - 7/16

Today I revisited the 6 mile loop around the house. The last time I did this loop was on June 11, shortly after recovering from my back sprain. That day, I did the 6 miles in about 49 minutes, which gave me an 8:10 min/mile pace.

I was looking to do a marathon pace today to see if it would be any easier for me to maintain an 8 min/mile pace for longer than 5 miles. On the other hand, I knew I had mile repeats coming up this weekend, so I didn't want my HR getting too much into the zone of 170 bpm.

The main difference between todays run and the one from 6/11 was that today I did't stop, whereas last time I had to take a couple walk breaks.

The first mile today was done in 8:00 with an avg HR of 140, which is expected as it is a warm up mile. The second mile was done in 7:49 with an average HR of 166. At the time, I was still feeling pretty strong and just tried to concentrate on maintaining cadence, as I was finding that to be a pretty good way of maintaining speed. The third mile was done in 7:47, with the avg HR creeping up to 168. The fourth mile wasn't actually a mile, because I screwed up on my landmarks. It turned out to be more like 1.27 miles, and the time was 10:25 (giving me a pace of 8:13 for that mile, which had some grade to it) with a HR of 171. The next portion was 0.76 miles in 6:26, for a pace of 8:25 and a HR of 172 - a little disappointing since it included some downhill. The last mile was 8:23 with a HR of 174 - however this included some uphill.

Total Time: 48:52
Total Distance: 6 miles
Avg HR: 165

So the maintaining 8 min/miles for 6 miles still eludes me, but this weekend will be the first time I'll be doing any real speed work beyond the 5 mile distance - so I'm hoping that will translate to some improvement.

Actually, today was a pretty humid day, and I know I lost a lot of water. I also didn't bring any with me, as it was going to be a run < 1 hour in length. While in the past the hour time was a threshold of whether to bring water or not (because anything in the 45 minute range was usually a slower run) - I may be at the point where, in order to maintain peak performance for that distance, I need to bring some fluids with me.

45 minute run - 7/14

Considering the soreness I was feeling on Sunday after the 20 miler, I'm actually pretty surprised I was able to put in anything more than a slow recovery run today. Most of the soreness in my knee and hips were gone by the following afternoon, and throughout today the only time I felt tightness was if I had been sitting for some time. But then I'd take 10 steps and things would loosen up and feel normal.

So in following the plan, I did about 45 minutes today, with a couple miles at an increased pace. I started off with two miles of warm up at about 8:30 min/miles. During this time, the soreness in my left knee that I felt on Sunday and early in the day on Monday returned. I briefly questioned whether I should just keep a slow pace throughout - but ended up deciding that it was just mild soreness and not in any way painful, so I wouldn't let it interfere.

The next two miles I ran at an average of a 7:35 min/mile pace. The main difference this time was how I ran it. I noticed during the 20 miles that I was able to start specifically using the glutes to help move the legs rearward after being planted down. Today, I tried to continue isolating those muscle movements, and trying to derive some propulsion from those muscles.

What I noticed in the end was that my average HR for those two miles was 167 and 171 respectively. This is a significant drop of 7-10 bpm as compared to the same pace I ran during the Sons of Italy 5 miler the other week. The improvement could have been due to conditioning - as I'm not a sports physiologist, it could be that the idea of garnering propulsion power from my ass is a crock.

Following those two miles, I slowed down a bit and ran the last 1.25 miles about an 8:20 min/mile pace.

Total Time: 43:08
Total Distance: 5.25
Avg HR: 160

One thing is definately true though - these 5.25 mile loops at ~8 min/mile pace average are definately getting easier. It was only a week ago that I did the same loop at 5 sec/mile faster, but with an average HR of 166, whereas today it was 160.

Swimming 'Eureka!'? 7/13

As I've mentioned in a couple posts over the past couple weeks, I've been trying to fix my swim technique - as I've determined that there is more to my being slow in the water than simply lack of muscle power.

In trying to analyze my technique, I've been on a bit of a roller coaster in terms of results. Initially, I started by doing the catch up drill, which really brought to light what it feels like to roll from side to side during the freestyle stroke. Prior to toying around with that drill, rolling more than I had always rolled seemed excessive. However, I was definately able to sense that there was less resistance - especially when the endless pool speed was cranked up pretty high. Then came a series of drills from the DVD that just concentrated on balance and honing the skills to roll from side to side.

So this past weekend, I went to the pool (the real one) to try some of this new stuff out. I was going to concentrate on really reaching far ahead with my hand as soon as it entered the water (to try and elongate the stroke), and I was also going to concentrate on making sure I rolled from one side to the other more.

Unfortunately, things did not go so well. I found that I became winded pretty quickly, and ended up reverting to my old style for the rest of the workout. It was partially due to frustration that I ended up leaving a bit earlier than I was hoping - I didn't even bother to tally up distance because it just didn't matter. One thing I did do before I left, though, was to count the number of strokes per length. In the 25 yd pool, my right hand entered the water between 11.5-12 times - equating to 23-24 strokes per length.

Later that day I went to the local book store and picked up a book on Total Immersion swimming. In reading various forums and such, it seemed like it was a pretty highly regarded method of swimming that primarily centered around the idea of lowering the strokes per length count. I spent a few hours Saturday afternoon reading it.

There were three main concepts that it presented that stuck out - one was the idea of 'pressing your bouy', another was what is referred to as Front Quadrant Swimming, and the last was the idea of using the body roll to generate the power to swim forward as opposed to the shoulders.

The bouy concept was brought up as a way to help convince complete non swimmers that they will not sink, but it also discussed how you can 'push' on it to make yourself feel like you are swimming downhill. This was an immediate attraction to me - as I've always felt my legs, due to my poor kick, were being more of a drag liability than a help. Basically, any kicking I've ever done was simply to try and keep them as horizontal as possible. However, if I could 'swim downhill' and raise my legs - then maybe I could reduce some drag in my form.

As for Front Quadrant Swimming - the basic concept here is that one of your arms should always be forward of your head. The reason for this is that a longer body induces less drag (think of throwing a football vs throwing a softball) - so if you are able to keep one of your arms outstretched in front of you at virtually all times, the 6' human body suddenly becomes more like 7'.

Finally, the use of the rolling action to generate power. Any time I've wanted to swim faster, I've had to really pull, which quickly wears out my shoulder muscles. Part of my old thinking was 'Well, if I want to get better, I'll just have to strengthen those muscles'. Yes, that can be partially true, but I had to face it - the shoulder muscles in a human body are just not nearly as adapt at inducing movement like the other muscles we humans have that actually are - like virtually all of them from the hips and below. The majority of mass in our bodies is tied up in muscles that are dedicated to movement - and now I'm trying to take these puny muscles near the top of the body and ask them to move me through a fluid that is nearly 800x more dense than air?

Today, I felt like it finally started to dawn on me. After some simulated swim strokes in the air, I found that I had been starting my catch immediately after getting my hand in the water - which was oftentimes just before my other arm finished its stroke. The way the timing of my arms worked, I was doing a poor job of making my body longer.

So I went to the endless pool for a brief trial of keeping my extended arm out just a little bit longer - consciously trying to keep from starting the pull until my recovering arm was at least past my head. This also had another effect - by doing so, the timing of the roll coincided with the beginning of the pull, which resulted in the roll providing propulsion. This critical timing was lacking when I was at the pool over the weekend and got frustrated - I was still generating much of my propulsion from my shoulders.

It is hard to say for sure whether this will do anything dramatic to lower my strokes per length - as I need a real pool to check that. However, it really felt like a couple pretty major things 'clicked' that can improve my swimming.

20 mile run - 7/12

It is kinda strange to think that the run in week 13 of a 29 week training program would already have one doing 20 miles. But, that is what the Galloway time goal schedule dictates. Just for the hell of it, I cross checked the 20 mile long run with the beginner schedule on coolrunning.com, and it occurs at week 11 of the 20 week program. Looking at the competitive schedule (the other end of the spectrum), it occurs at week 7 of the 20 week program.

So, it seems that there is some degree of precedence for getting the miles in rather early, so the latter portions of the training plan can focus a little more on speed work. It makes sense - get the conditioning in and the aerobic capacity before working on pushing back the lactate threshold.

Yesterday I went to Marathon Sports to pick up a Fuel Belt. Typically, I've brought a 24 oz water bottle (or two) with me on runs that require extra hydration. That suffices for 'shorter' long runs (15 miles or fewer), but I did find on my 17 mile run the other week that it just got kinda tiring having to hold the damn things for 3 hours. A few weeks ago I was talking to a friend of mine and he mentioned that he picked up a Fuel Belt and he really liked it. So I decided to join the bandwagon.

While I was at the register, the clerk asked me how my training was going. I told him it was going well, but the logistics around staying hydrated for a run that long can be a pain - and that I can only go around a loop around the house (where I can easily have additional fluids ready to go) so many times before it just becomes boring. He then gave me a couple packets of a new (to me) mix for a sports drink - Accelerade. I told him I use the Gatorade Endurance, and he said that many people like the Accelerade because it has more complex sugars (fructose), whereas the Gatorade still only has simple sugars (sucrose and dextrose). Ok, I'll give it a shot.

I started off todays run thinking pretty positively - the 17 mile run the other week was a tad smoother than I expected, so I was bouyed by the results of that run. Today would just be a matter of tacking on 3 additional miles - no major biggie. So I packed up the fuel belt with 24 oz of Gatorade and 24 oz of Accelerade - figuring I'd start with the Gatorade, go to the Accelerade, and then when I stop for water, I'd have to switch back to the Gatorade. But it would be enough to try out the new mix. I planned on two stops for water - one at ~8 miles, and one (same place) at about ~12 miles - on the return trip. It was a sunny day, so I'd be sweating more than I had in other long runs when it had been overcast. I debated stopping only at 12 miles, but decided that an extra water stop would not hurt.

No point in going through a mile by mile recap - but one of the first major things I noticed was that I was pretty easily able to keep a HR < 150. Many times on these longer runs, I find I can keep that HR for 30-40 minutes, but then it starts to creep up. In fact, sometimes today it got to the low 140's, and even into the high 130's (usually on downhill sections). That was good news.

The HR started to creep up a bit around mile 13-14 - as that portion has a long gradual uphill. I used cadence and slowing down to keep the HR in check, though - even though I could tell that by this point, I was definately doing > 10:30 min/mile pace. However, the plan says that these runs cannot be too slow - so thats ok with me.

Around mile 16 or so, I started to get a bit of an upset stomach. I wasn't sure of the exact cause, but thought of a few potential reasons:
- Accelerade has protein in it, which my system isn't necessarily used to. Perhaps that was causing an issue - even though I drank the accelerade between miles 8-12.
- Dehydration. The upset stomach came after a particularly long stretch on a road where there was little to no shade, and it was 12:30 by this time, so the sun was getting stronger. However, my mouth was definately not parched, and that is one way I can tell when I'm getting dehydrated.
- Mild (very mild) heat stroke. Same reasons as listed above for dehydration.
- My body just not reacting well to this degree of exertion - by this time, I had been out over 3 hrs - the longest period of time yet.
- Low electrolytes. Kind of a slim possibility - but I kinda messed up the portioning out of the Gatorade powder and everything was a bit weaker than I normally make it (which is already slightly weaker than the product calls for).

In any case, I figured I'd stop and walk for a bit to see what happened. I ended up walking for 10 minutes before I started to feel better and could jog again.

I kept plodding along until I got to around mile 17-18, when things really started to get brutal. Nothing was particularly painful or anything like that (and my upset stomach had largely passed) - but my hips and knees started to really tighten up. I ended up having to take a few walk breaks in that final 2.5 miles or so.

In the end, this was a pretty ass kicking run. I initially thought that it was mostly due to the increased mileage - but as time has passed and I've started to recover, I think I've come to the conclusion that I failed to drink enough liquids. I was out just around 3 hours and 45 minutes, and drank a total of 96 oz of liquid. When I determined my sweat rate last year, I found I lost about 30 oz/hr - and that was with a temperature of about 75 degrees, no direct sun, and 65% humidity. Today there was a lot of direct sun, and the temperature got up to about 80. So, even going with the 30 oz/hr estimate (realistically it was probably higher on a day like today), being out for nearly 4 hours means 120 oz of water minimum. So being at 96 oz total came up a bit short. Not dangerously short - but when you are talking about a distance like 20 miles, every little bit counts. Especially when you are talking about being short of fluids that aid in removal of metabolites from your muscles.

This run also resulted in a bit of knee soreness that I've never really experienced before. Fortunately it has gotten noticably better in the past 8-9 hours since the run, so I'm confident that no major lasting damage has been done. The soreness is mostly on the outside of my knee - seemingly in the area of the lateral ligament. My right knee has an ever so slight degree of soreness in it. It feels like it may be the type of soreness that can take a couple days to get back to 90%.

Total Distance: 19.77 miles
Total Time: 3:42:18 (includes walk breaks and about 6 minutes lost when refilling water bottles)
Avg HR: 149

On the plus side, I was looking through some old entries from last year, and I came across one where I noted that my hips were tightening up around mile 6.
Even as recently as my 15 mile run around a month ago, I noted that my hips started tightening up around mile 11, or after an hour and fifty minutes.
Considering that things didn't start to tighten up until around mile 16 today, which was around the 3 hr mark - thats pretty much all the proof I need that these long slow runs which build up endurance are definately worthwhile.

40 minute run - 7/9

After the 5 mile race last Saturday, and the pace run on Tuesday - I just wanted todays run to be an easy one. Both of those other runs had a sustained HR of around 170 bpm or higher, and this weekends 20 mile run will be quite a workout as well.

So I just did a 4.3 mile loop, trying to keep my HR below 150. I wanted to see what kind of pace would result at this point in my training.

Total Distance: 4.3 miles
Total Time: 40:52
Avg HR: 147

40 minute run (5 miles) - 7/7

Last week I found I've been misinterpreting some of the goals for the runs that occur during the week in the Galloway program. I've been thinking that Tuesday and Thursdays runs are mostly just to get running time in. However, when reading the fine print, I found that Tuesday is supposed to be a cadence/pace/acceleration glider drill day (if recovered from weekend run), and Thursday is to be a hill workout.

Fortunately, I happen to have been doing some hill workouts and speed workouts anyway. I thought I was going a little above and beyond, but it turns out that is not the case.

So, in trying to come back to following the plan a little more closely, today was a day for pacing. The idea is to do 1-3 miles at goal pace, with walk breaks as they'd be taken during the race. To be honest, I'm starting to gravitate away from walk breaks recently. I dont know whether I'll return to them - but part of the reason I'm getting away from them is that the description of the run-walk-run ratio, as described at jeffgalloway.com, is confusing.

Total Distance: 5.25 miles
Total Time: 42:44
Avg HR: 166

This was not the fastest I've done this loop, but when compared to other times I've done this loop at ~8 min/miles, it was definately the least uncomfortable. My goal HR was between 166-172, which would correspond to a threshold pace at 88-92% my max HR. However, I didn't realize until afterwards that when I came up with that range, I was using the wrong formula for HR - so I really should have been aiming for a HR of 172-176. To be honest, though - considering I did the 5 mile race on Saturday at an average of 178, and that was only a couple days ago, I'm just as happy to not have today be a day for mid-high 170's in the HR.

Swimming drills - 7/6

The other day, a friend lent me a DVD on how to swim faster freestyle, and it included some drills to help improve technique when swimming. Since I've determined my technique pretty much sucks, I've been trying to get as much information on how to improve it as possible.

After watching the video, I determined that just about everything with my swimming technique sucks, and needs to be revamped. Drills more basic than the catch up drill need to be worked on. So today I started with the very basic stuff in the DVD.

The first portion to cover is the core - forget the arms, hands and extremities for now. So at first, I just set the pool speed to about as low as it can go (because my kicking sucks), and just floated along on my belly, experimenting with hip position and so forth to see what would result in the least about of drag. Example.

Next, it was a drill to help get accustomed to being on your side in the water. This was simply staying on one side with one arm extended, and using only a kick for propulsion. Example.

Finally, I looked at doing a drill where you spend some time on one side, followed by switching to the other side. This more closely starts to resemble the rolling motion that you are looking for when swimming freestyle. Example.

Similarly to when I started working on bilateral breathing a couple weeks ago, I found that at first when doing these drills, they were tough - especially when it came time to get a breath. More than once I had to interrupt the drill(s) because I got water in my mouth and not air. However I did manage some improvement - at least enough to be noticable, but far from being proficient.

I suppose that is why drills are to be repeated a lot.

Swimming - catch up drill

The past couple weeks, I've been doing a lot more to re-examine my swimming. Originally, my thought was that if I am slow at swimming, I can try to improve in the same way I do for running - some speed/interval work and some longer and slower swims. My thought was that it would increase muscle strength and endurance, which would make me a better swimmer.

However, upon further investigation into how certain people are fast swimmers, it started to become obvious there was another major factor to consider - resistance. With running (and biking), you only overcome air resistance, which is pretty minimal compared to water. When swimming, there needs to be a lot more focus on technique and cutting through the water than simply being able to power through it. By improving stroke technique, the number of strokes to swim a certain distance is lowered, making for a more efficient swimmer.

So, now I had an idea on why I suck at swimming so much - but I still needed to find out how I could get better. It is great to know I have to lower my stroke count, but unless I would be able to learn how to do that effectively, all it would likely do is slow me down.

Enter facebook. I had noticed a few weeks ago that a girl I went to high school with posted an update saying she was participating in a Masters Swimming program. So I figured 'what the hell' and emailed her out of the blue to see if she knew of any drills to help improve stroke technique. She responded back saying the catch up drill is a good one.

So I visited the endless pool to try this drill out, just to get a feel for what it would do. The results were very interesting. First of all, by really only having one arm able to pull at a time, your arms find ways to maximize stroke length - like by reaching farther ahead at the beginning of the stroke, and by continuing the pull after the hand passes the hips. In my typical freestyle stroke, my pull would go from about 6-8" ahead of my head to about my hips - maybe a 2.5-3 foot stroke length. When doing this drill, I'd guess that about another foot of length is added.

And the extra 30-40% stroke length is just one factor. By reaching far ahead at the beginning of the stroke, I found my body would roll much more onto its side than before. By rolling onto the side, the body slices through water much more easily, as opposed to swimming on the belly. Essentially, when I was swimming before, I was doing the equivalent of trying to push a sail through the water. By the time I'd lift my head up out of the water to breath, the fact that I was a 'belly swimmer' ended up resulting in a huge degree of drag being created by my upper torso when moving through the water.

I didn't do any time or HR monitoring for this swim session, since the point was just to get familiar with the drill and to experiment around with what it's results were.

Sons of Italy 5 M Race - Lawrence, MA - 7/4/09

Earlier this week my friend (who I did the Webster Lake Tri with) told me he was considering doing the Sons of Italy 5M run in Lawrence, MA this weekend. In looking at my training program, this weekend was to be a 6 mile run with a magic mile. I took some creative liberties with the idea of a magic mile and said 'yeah sure I'm supposed to do some speed work this weekend - so a 5 miler would be good'. The main reason I wanted to do it though was that I've managed to do a sub-40 minute 5 mile route twice - once last fall and once this spring. I was almost able to extend this to 6 miles a little over a month ago, but fell short by about 10 sec/mile and ended with an 8:10 pace. So I wanted to see what difference the increased cadence, the 4 x 1 mile repeat speed work session a few weeks ago, as well as the fact I was able to do 7:20 min/miles during the Webster Lake Tri a couple weeks ago.

A few days ago, we started looking at the course layout, and found that it was going to potentially be a challenge. The course route itself crossed several major looking streets, and without closing the roads off, we weren't sure how this was going to pan out. In addition, certain portions of the route went through neighborhoods where it looks like we could definately get mixed up. I actually wasn't too awful concerned - I am not normally in a position where I can't just follow the crowd, and I assumed there would be volunteer direction as well as police on traffic duty to manage the cars. How my friend is quite a bit faster than I am - and depending on the size of the race field, it was a very real possibility that he would be running a good portion of the race without someone in visual distance ahead of him. We ended up getting to the venue about an hour early, so we decided to drive the course to see where hills, intersections, etc were. It turned out to be a good thing - because the course was different than was published on the website.

So after a preview of the course, we did some warming up. I find that I am starting to get to the point where a warm up is potentially a good and beneficial thing. In longer races like a half marathon, there is plenty of time to warm up - but this is not necessarily the case in shorter runs. I find that as your ability increases, so does the need for warm ups for shorter runs. Not that I'm looking to place high in my age group (I still suck) - but when you pay to enter a race you can just as easily do at home for free - you mine as well see what you are capable of.

My time for the supposed first mile of the race was the first sub 7 minute mile I've done since high school - 6:48. However, upon mapping out the course when I got home, I believe the first mile was actually another maybe 1/10 of a mile farther along - so its likely that the first mile was more like 7:15 or 7:20 or so. So while that sounds great, that told me I had overdone it and gone out too fast. My body and legs also told me that as well. And my HR monitor - as it was registering the high 170's and low 180's. I wasn't sure I'd be able to sustain that level of intensity. However I was in race mode - and I have a hard time convincing myself to slow down - so whatever intensity I was doing was going to be the intensity I'd keep until I just couldn't do it anymore.

The second mile clocked in at 15:07 - averaging about 7:33 min/mile. At this point my HR was 182, and I didn't know how in hell I was going to finish unless I slowed way down. Maybe later, but not now. For now, I still had the willpower to keep going.

At mile 3, my time was 22:39 - still keeping the 7:30-7:35 min/mile pace. My HR was 181, but averaged 179 throughout the previous mile. Once again - maybe I'd slow down later, but not yet.

At mile 4, the time was 30:27 - I had slowed down about 15 seconds in that last mile, but was still well under 8 min/mile. HR was 180, with an average of 179.

At the time, I thought the course was exactly 5 miles, so when my last mile clocked in at 8:26, I thought I had slowed way down. However, it turned out to be 1.15 miles, and when you account for that extra .15 miles, the pace for the last mile was 7:20. I believe the main reason for that was the last little push I was able to give towards the end.

So, final results:
Total Distance: 5.15 miles
Total Time: 38:54
Avg HR: 178

Notable things from this race:
- Based on my best estimate of mile markers, it looks like I was able to maintain a pace between 7:20-7:40 throughout the race. This is good news - as I was looking to see if I could maintain 7:30 for an entire 5 miles.
- During the last stretch, my HR topped out in the high 180's - at least 187. It was also during this stretch that I felt like my lungs were trying to suck in more air than was possible through my mouth. I dont specifically recall feeling this any time recently - the only other time it may have happened was the Holyoke St Patricks day race. In either case, it occured to me that this may be my HRmax. I'll be looking to update my HR training zones internal link soon to reflect some additional information that I've gathered since last fall on HR training zones, etc. The short version is that I have a feeling that at around 190, I have reached my VO2max.
- I gave this race about as much as I could give for 5 miles - possibly even more than the St Patricks Day race - which I rated a 9/10 on the intensity scale. I'd put this one at a 9.5/10. The only reason I dont give it a 10/10 is because I may have been able to continue for a little bit longer, and I'm hesitant to say that I'm incapable of trying just a little bit harder.

50 minute run (MM) - 7/3

I was actually supposed to do a 40 minute run yesterday, but life schedules got in the way, and I had to put it off until today. Normally I'd prefer to do my runs in the evening, but I'm doing a 5 mile race with a friend tomorrow morning, so I opted to get this run in during the morning to maximize recovery time before the race tomorrow.

In looking at the running plan, this weekend was to be a 6 mile run with a Magic Mile. Since I'm going to be doing a lot of speedwork in tomorrow's 5 mile run, I didn't want to be doing a magic mile when recovering from a 5 mile race. So I opted to switch the two - I'd do a magic mile today (but only 5 miles total). It might impact my race tomorrow a bit because I'll have done several minutes at a high HR today - but I'm ok with that, because it has been a while since I've done a magic mile, and I wanted to see how my pace may have changed with the higher cadence.

Nearly right away, I could tell it was going to be a little tough. First, the sun was out - which has not been common this year at all. Sounds minor, but when you're body is used to cooler weather and then the sun is out, I start to sweat instantly. Second, this was only about 45 minutes after waking up - and it didn't dawn on my until after I started that I did a poor job of rehydrating after a good long sleep the night before - let alone have a whole days worth of meals to stock up on energy stores like I normally do before most of my training runs.

Total Distance: 5.25 miles
First 2 miles time: 16:52
First 2 miles avg HR: 151
Magic Mile time: 7:25
Magic Mile avg HR: 176
Last 2.25 miles time: 26:45
Last 2.25 miles avg HR: 152

Compared to the last magic mile on April 4:
- The first two miles were slightly faster for the same HR.
- The magic mile itself was essentially exactly the same, which is a little bit of a disappoint when just looking at the straight numbers comparison, because it indicates no improvement has been made. However, I think the fact that I started off dehydrated and low on energy is a major factor. The reason I am able to believe this is because for the Webster Lake Tri - I was able to maintain basically the same pace (7.5 min/miles) for just about 3 miles. The magic miles are supposed to be an all out effort - so either I didn't go all out (even though my HR got as high as 181 or so), or I did go all out and there just didn't happen to be much gas in the tank.
- The last portion was significantly slower than before - but this time I was pretty liberal with walk breaks and trying to keep my HR in the low 150's so that I wouldn't be fatigued for tomorrow's race. Even running slowly would get my HR into the mid 150's - as once I spend significant time in the anaerobic HR zones (160's and higher), it takes a long time for my body to switch back to aerobic.

40 minute run - 6/30

The past couple days I've continued to be a little bit sore from Sunday's 17 mile run. Nothing major, but enough to know I had done something that was pushing the limits a bit.

So, since I was still obviously recovering from the other day, I decided that today's run should be on the easier side - no cadence, hills or race pace drills. The Galloway plan normally has these drills on Tuesdays, but indicates to do them only if recovered from the weekend run. I figure I've pretty much got the cadence down (just have to get more efficient at it), and on Thursdays I typically do either hills or some sort of speed work - so I believe I still have the bases covered.

Total Time: 40:15
Total Distance: ~4 miles (trail running, based on estimate of 10 min/mile)
Avg HR: 146

17 mile run - 6/28

This weekends run was 17 miles - an increase of 2 miles from the other weeks 15 miler. For that run I had done my normal 6 mile loop twice and then a 3 mile course - but this time I wanted to avoid doing a double loop. The mental grind of jogging for 2-3 hours is eased a bit on a new course.

The other thing I wanted to do on this run was continue working on cadence, with a goal of 90 footstrokes per foot per minute. Finally, I wanted to try out running continuously. For the 13 mile and 15 mile long runs over the past couple months, I had taken walk breaks - and for the 15 miler I had taken one every mile. I felt like the breaks helped improve stamina, as I started to tighten up around mile 11 - whereas previously (last fall) I'd start to tighten up around mile 8-9, or about an hour and twenty minutes. So for this run I wanted to experiment around with how things would go running continuously and with higher cadence.

The route I took was a simple out and back route, passing by a McDonalds about halfway through, which would give me an opportunity to refill my water bottles. The other option would have been to drive to the mid point and stash water somewhere, but I didn't feel like that would have been the best choice.

Total Time: 2:54:43
Total Distance: 16.88 miles
Avg HR: 154

There were two times I stopped running - one was a 2 minute break at 1:35:20 to refill the water bottles, and another was 1 minute walk at about 2:20.

Compared to the 15 mile run, I was about 1 min/mile faster, but at a cost of 6 bpm. The higher cadence still results in a 3-4 bpm increase in HR for me. However, I think that increase is worth it. There were multiple times, especially on the way back when I was more fatigued, that I'd find myself feeling the ascent of a small hill, and then realize that I let my cadence slip a bit, and I believe my stride length went up slightly. Those times, when I increased cadence back up to 90, my legs felt more perked up.

Also, I noticed that for a while after the 2 minute water refill break, I felt stronger for a while. It's hard to say whether it was the mental aspect of knowing I had passed the half way point, or whether it was the 2 minutes of 'rest', or possibly that my body had finally absorbed what may have been excess water during mile 7-8 (there were a couple times around there where my stomach felt every so slightly upset after taking a swig of gatorade). It could have also been that I was maintaining cadence so I was running more efficiently. Hard to say.

By the time I got to around mile 13 or so, my hips started to tighten up a bit. Once again, keeping a higher cadence helped with this somewhat. I think maybe it is because the higher cadence and shorter strides results in more blood flow but less metabolism byproducts, so the body is able to flush them away more effectively.

One of the takeaways from this run is that I may have to experiment with walk breaks - when to take them and for how long. It seems to me (based on the 15 mile run) that taking one every mile for 30 seconds is not necessarily the most effective method for me.

EDIT: On Monday, I was still a bit sore - I'd say around 5 on a scale of 10. Nothing debilitating, but definately there. It was the kind of soreness that would go away pretty quickly once I got moving.
By Tuesday, I'd say the soreness was down to a 2.5-3 out of 10.

I'd say that I was a little more sore a little longer this time, vs the 15 mile run. However, I noticed after the 15 mile run that my knee hurt a little bit when weight was put on it and the knee was at a certain angle - generally only noticed when bending down to pick something up, or once in a while when climbing a stair. After a couple days, that went away. However, I never felt any such knee pain after this run. I am unsure whether the higher cadence (and lower degree of impact per foot stroke) had more to do with it, or just the fact that the 15 miler came after about 5-6 weeks of no significant distance, whereas the 17 miler came 2 weeks after the 15 miles.

2700 yards (swimming) - 6/27

Today I went to the pool to test out bilateral breathing, as well as to get a good long swim in. Up till this point, swimming has been somewhat of an afterthought, with little structure to any sort of training. Part of this is because I've been focusing more on the run - but part of it is also because it just takes me time to formulate even a loose training plan to follow.

I've spent some good time in the endless pool, and have come to the conclusion that it is useful in very focused applications. First, it keeps the arms moving, so at the very least it is better than not swimming at all. Second, it is good for form and mechanics practice. However, there is a big difference between simply overcoming a counter current vs having to actually propel yourself. For this reason, I think I'm going to have to supplement endless pool swimming with the real thing on a more frequent basis.

However, that more frequent basis may not be until the winter - when my running training concentration will have subsided and I can begin to focus on swimming and cycling. In the mean time, however, I can start to piece together what works for me as a swimming training plan.

When I started out today, the bilateral swimming was working ok. Unfortunately, it didn't take more then about 150 yds for me to start getting out of breath - the extra half stroke was becoming a bit too long for my current level of conditioning. Unsure whether I'd be better off just sucking it up, or reverting to my old breathing - and not really having the time to fully think it through, I decided to continue using my old breathing method. My reasoning was that if I don't have the aerobic capacity for bilateral breathing, maybe I should work on aerobic capacity first.

Time HR (avg) distance
00:00:50 50 yds
0:01:39 135 100 yds
0:06:24 153 350 yds
0:03:36 154 200 yds
0:15:31 160 800 yds
0:00:44 136 end 50 yds
0:00:44 164 end 50 yds
0:00:46 160 end 50 yds
0:00:46 169 end 50 yds
0:07:51 158 400 yds
0:00:45 121 end 50 yds
0:00:50 163 end 50 yds
0:00:47 154 end 50 yds
0:00:48 166 end 50 yds
0:08:04 147 400 yds

After the 800 yd portion, I needed to vary up the routine a bit, so I did a few 50 yd sprints. For these, the HR information is more valuable showing what it was at the end of the period. After 4 x 50yd sprints and some rest, I did another 400 yds continuous. This routine of 50 yd sprints followed by 400 yds continuous at a slower pace was repeated twice.

Total distance was 2700 yds, which is about 1.5 miles. It is the longest distance swimming session I've had since high school, by quite a margin - so I'm rather happy about that.